Review: Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

Incarnate

Author: Jodi Meadows
Series: Newsoul, #1

Blurb: 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.

REVIEW

Short Summary:

In Range, exactly one million souls have been reincarnated for thousands of years, keeping memories, experiences, and sometimes even loves, from their previous lifetimes. Each soul is reincarnated into new bodies and new genders. But then one soul didn't come back. Instead, another was in its place: Ana. Ana is a Newsoul, but everyone, including her own mother, thinks she is a Nosoul, incapable of love and feelings. They believe that when she dies, she will die forever and that she is the beginning of the Nosouls. The ones who will replace other reincarnated souls. They are all afraid of the unknown. Shamed, Ana's mother Li moves outside of the city of Heart, keeping Ana away from everyone. Finally on her 18th birthday, Ana takes off on her own to journey to Heart and discover why she was born. The path is more difficult than she thought and after a run-in with death, she meets guy named Sam who comes to her rescue. He takes her in with more kindness than Ana has ever known. He leads her to Heart where the path to self-discovery is a lot more than she bargained for.

What I liked:

I loved the whole concept of reincarnation and Jodi Meadows did a fantastic and beautiful job creating this entire world. Not only are these souls reincarnated, but their city Heart was created just for them with everything they could ever need inside it. There are also other creatures such as dragons, sylph and centaurs who frequently attack the city and the people. She doesn't say if this is an alternate Earth, a future Earth or a completely different planet but you can still feel everything about this world very vividly. Because Ana is a Newsoul she is very young in comparison to every other person she comes across. She feels very alone in the world because all the people around her have been alive for thousands of years and know far more about the world than she does, and the only thing that really soothes her and makes her feel better is music, which her mother rarely let her listen to. She's incredibly intelligent, having taught herself how to read and learned everything on her own because her own mother hated her, and more than likely wanted her dead from her birth. The entire book is like a breath of fresh air. The romance between Sam and Ana is heartwarming and beautiful. In the beginning Sam kept a secret from Ana and after it was revealed my heart sung. I'm actually surprised that I didn't catch on to it, but I didn't. I think I was as shocked as Ana was. Everything about their relationship was just so sweet.

What I didn't like:

I'm rather disappointed that we didn't get to see much of Range and the rest of the world. There was a little hint that there might be more to the world than just Heart, but the question was never answered and I really hope that it is in Asunder. I have to admit that I'm a little creeped out by Janan who is supposed to be the god-like figure in this story. He's their creator, the one behind the reincarnations and the one they're supposed to worship, but the whole atmosphere surrounding him and his temple just seemed off to me, and to Ana as well which is probably why I felt that way. I wasn't too fond of how the story left off with more questions to be answered but I'm hoping that we'll get all of our answer in Asunder.

Conclusion:

Incarnate is a magical world with fantastical creatures who share a world with reincarnated souls.  The picture Jodi created with words was so clear I could see everything perfectly. I can't even imagine where she will take Ana next but I'm hoping it's to the outside world. I would love to learn more about it.


I rate this book:

The Newsoul Series