Review: Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

Author: Jodi Meadows

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Page Count: 374 pages, Hardcover

Date Published: January 31st 2012

New soul

Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

No soul

Even Ana's own mother thinks she's a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she'll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

Heart

Sam believes Ana's new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana's enemies--human and creature alike--let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else's life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

Jodi Meadows expertly weaves soul-deep romance, fantasy, and danger into an extraordinary tale of new life.

My Thoughts: Really enjoyed it!

Incarnate is the first in Jodi Meadows' new series, NEW SOUL. It's a fantastic utopian read with a strong message of not letting others bring you down, even if you're different. I had high expectations for this book, and although it didn't quite meet the mile high bar I had set, I really loved this book!

Incarnate was one of my most highly anticipated books of the year. I loved the cover, the description sounded fabulous, and it really seemed like a unique book that I'd enjoy.You could say that my expectations were... Unfairly high, but I waited a long time to finally find this book, (in another city I might add). Keeping that in mind, I'll try and make this fair. :P Let's start with this crazy world it's set in. There are one million souls, reincarnated over and over again. No one else is born, just these people. Every single soul has memories of their previous lives. How crazy is that? Insane, I think. To keep being reborn, over and over again. To remember how you died, and then to know that it'll happen again and once you've been reborn, you'll have multiple memories of your own death. Wow. Jodi Meadows, you are messing with my brain! I don't necessarily believe in reincarnation, but I don't not believe in it. It's always been a huge topic of interest for me, so this book was really interesting. Range seems like a place that I'd actually like to live in, maybe just for a day. I don't say that often about fictional worlds, but this one was really interesting to read about.

Now, let's move onto the characters in the book. There are the two main people we read about, Ana and Sam. Ana is our New Soul. She was born after another soul died, but that soul didn't return. Ana took her place. She has a really hard time believing that she is worthy of life and that she belongs. She is shunned by a lot of the community, and her mother was pretty abusive while growing up. When she finally leaves home, she meets Sam. HERE WE GO. Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam! This gorgeous dude takes Ana in, helps her merge into the community of Heart and teaches her music. Their relationship blossoms from a strong friendship, but it takes time. We learn some pretty interesting stuff about Sam that I will not mention, as that would spoil the book for you if you haven't read it yet. Anyways, the characters in this book are really well written. Even though the book is in Ana's point of view, I was able to feel Sam's emotions as well, while 'seeing' him through Ana's eyes.  The other characters in the book were well written as well, all keeping the story together. I never felt the question of 'Why does that person exist?' come up. Everyone mentioned had a place, no matter how significant to the story. Even the person who makes honey was important, although only mentioned maybe twice.

I'm not sure if this all makes sense, but this book was really hard for me to wrap my brain around, as usual. The whole concept of the souls reincarnating is one thing, but then the New Soul comes up and it's on a whole other set of tracks in my mind. Incarnate is a terribly romantic, crazy suspenseful  book with an incredible message, portrayed in a world of mystery and immortality. I loved it so much. It wasn't what I was expecting, but I think that's a good thing. I'm extremely excited for the next book to come out and I hope that everyone who reads this book will enjoy it as much as I did!

So, how's everyone's day going so far? I'm still sick, but I'm finally able to focus on a book. I finished the entire season of the Lying Game online in two days... Does anyone else like that show? I loved it a lot, but it'll never replace Pretty Little Liars! although, have any of you read the books? Were they any better than PLL? I'd like to give them a try, since there's only three so far, instead of what... Eleven? That is a lot of books! Let me know what you thought of the books, if you've read them and the show as well.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway, if you haven't already!
Happy reading!
-Kristy