Incarnate by Jodi Meadows Series: Newsoul #1
Published by Katherine Tegen (1.31.2012)
Genres: High Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Source: I own it
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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
Despite all that, something was just missing for me. I felt nothing. Nada. I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t connect with Incarnate. The only time I felt a twinge of anything for this book was hatred for Ana’s mother, Li. And even those moments were fleeting. I was a little disappointed that despite all the magic surrounding the story, I still couldn’t conjure any emotion at all while reading.
The romance between Ana and Sam fell flat for me. Her feelings for him developed a little quickly, but I can see why. He saves her, shows nothing but kindness to her when her whole life she’s been raised to see herself as a burden and a nosoul. I did like Sam straight off because he teased her a lot and had a sense of humor, but as time went on he started to waffle a lot and got on my nerves a bit. He does redeem himself, though.
Ana really annoyed me for the majority of the first half – she was really bitter and defensive, she overreacted a lot, and all in all she was down right petulant. But again, I can see why she acted that way. If I had a mother like Li I would too. She lived a pretty horrible childhood, getting punished excessively for silly little things and being told she was basically worthless. I might have had a bit of a complex too.
HEY! :D
Super love your blog and great review on Incarnate. I haven’t read it yet but I have it on my to-read pile. :D
Hmm…I was actually really excited when this book came out, but after reading this review, I’m not so sure anymore. Still might read it though :3
And you’re right–the cover’s absolutely amazing!
This might be very random, but I gave you an award! ‘Tis here: http://writingella.blogspot.com/2012/02/im-just-tiny-bit-late-on-this-but.html
Dragons!!! This world sounds fascinating! But its a shame that you couldn’t connect with the characters. Hm…I’ll still read this but thanks for the heads up bout the characters. Normally if the plot is still extremely interesting, I can still get into the book so long as the characters aren’t downright annoying. Awesome review!
New follower!
Mackenzie
I’m not sure what to think about this book. The reviews seem to be all over the place. The world seems to be fascinating and I am disappointed you didn’t like it or only found it ok, especially since it features DRAGONS!