Review: Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

Incarnate (Newsoul #1) by Jodi Meadows

January 31st, 2012 · Katherine Tegen Books
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 374

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.

Right from the beginning I was enchanted. I had originally only set out to read a chapter or two before bed but once I started I couldn’t stop. Another chapter won’t hurt, I thought to myself as I flicked one page after another. After reading 50 pages or so, I finally put the book down. How I managed to pull myself away from the engrossing story that is Incarnate, I will never know.

Ana might come off as rude and reserved but it’s perfectly understandable considering she’s been thrust into this whole new world and is still gathering her bearings. Ana’s love interest, Sam is adorable. He’s so caring, kind, gentle and sweet. He melted my heart.

Since Ana was born, no one bothered paying her attention or including her, basically she’s been neglected and because of this when she sets off to Heart and meets Sam, she starts learning about all these things she never knew existed. It was amazing watching Ana discover these objects and things which might be common to us, but for her it was a whole new experience. Jodi nailed this aspect and that feeling of absolute excitement when being introduced to something new for the first time.

In Incarnate, when people die, their souls are reborn which means that in their lifetime they will have been both female and male multiple times. It sounds strange and weird but…it kinda works.

The authors prose is magnificent - charming, delicate and captivating. I thoroughly enjoyed her writing style and how easily I was swept up into the story.

I can pretty much count the number of fantasy books I’ve read on one hand, so I really appreciated that Jodi took her precious time to ease the reader into the world of Incarnate, resulting in fantastic world building.

I have mixed feeling regarding the ending. For a minute there, I was really struggling and it’s hard to pinpoint why exactly but I think it might have been because there was so much description and hardly any interaction and speech. It did pick up in the very end and whilst my head is still spinning and grasping from how it ended, I’m definitely looking forward to getting my hands on Asunder.

Apart from the ending, I loved this book! Mesmerising, original and unique, Incarnate marches to its own beat.

4/5