Review: Incarnate

Title:  Incarnate 
Series:  Newsoul #1
Author:  Jodi Meadows 
Publisher:  Katherine Tegen Books
Pages:  374
Format:  Paperback
Source:  Bought

 NEWSOUL
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.

NOSOUL
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 Review:  This book had been sitting on my bookshelf for quite some time before I decided to pick it up.  I'd heard so many good things about it that I was a little nervous to pick it up because I didn't want the high expectations I had developed to affect how much I enjoyed it when I finally did begin reading.  I was very pleasantly surprised when I started reading and realized I had absolutely nothing to worry about. 

I was immediately sucked into this new world that Jodi Meadows created.  It was so interesting to think of a world where the same souls are always recycled and actually remember all of their past lives.  When I first heard the idea, I thought it was really unique and cool but as I continued reading, I saw what this sort of existence would mean.  Any crimes  you committed in past lives would carry on to the next one, though so would all the good.  You could be married to one person in one life and then in the next one, you may be their parent or child.  You never know which gender you would come back as.  There is so many different factors that make this concept and this idea so captivating and fun to delve deeper into.  I enjoyed learning this world and seeing how all of the souls interacted with each other.  

The characters quickly captured my heart.  I loved Ana and thought she did a terrific job in this story.  She was the underdog and didn't have the same history and intelligence that everyone around her did but she worked on learning more and came into her own through all the new experiences she had.  Sam was an interesting character as well.  I loved every moment with him.  He wasn't the usual type of guy I go for in books but I found myself really liking him as I learned more about him.  He was such a cute guy and, despite being extremely old, I never felt as though he was looking down on Ana.  She was naive sometimes but instead of getting angry and tired of her, he help her learn how to navigate through life.  

The plot was simple and easy to enjoy.  There were some twists but not too much which I was happy about.  I liked being able to just sit down, relax, and read.  However, some pretty big surprises began popping up near the end that had me at the edge of my seat, flipping quickly through the pages.  So much happened in the end.  I'm so excited to see where all of these events lead to in the next book.  My only problem was that there were some moments that were pretty confusing.  The descriptions got a little jumbled as I was rushing through it at the end to try to see how everything came together.  I had to keep flipping back and rereading to keep things straight.    

With likable characters, an interesting and easy to read plot, and an amazing and beautiful world that will suck you in from the first page, Incarnate is a book I know I will come back to in the future.  If you are holding back from reading this book, don't.  Go get it now and enjoy all of the awesome!

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