Review: Incarnate, by Jodi Meadows (Newsoul #1)

Title: Incarnate (Newsoul #1)

Author: Jodi Meadows

Publication Date: January 31, 2012

Genre: YA fantansy/dystopia

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 Rating: 4/5 stars

This story is a refreshing tale about reincarnation, and the author handled the topic very well. 

Everything was flawless in this book. The plot was intriguing without being too complicated, and Jodi Meadow's writing style is lovely. And that gorgeous cover!

The only problem I had with this book was Ana. What a confusing character. One second she would be a fearless fighter, and the next second she would go cower in a corner and start whining. I understand that the author was trying to make this out as a character flaw, and give her room to develop throughout the span of this series, but still. No one is like that; the way she acted one second contradicted what she did the next second. I guess I should call them mood swings, but I don't think that is the correct phrase to use to describe how she acted. 

I can't get over how beautiful the author's writing is. Her lyrical prose and the way she phrases things is so brilliant. It's definitely one of the shining points of this novel. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“He held on to me like I was a rock, the only thing keeping him from drifting out with the tide of dark memories."

“My heart wasn't big enough to hold everything I felt, but I couldn't bear the thought of asking him to wait while I caught up.”

“I was an afterthought, five thousand years later. A mistake, because Ciana was gone. I was the dissonant note on the end of a masterpiece symphony. I was the brushstroke that ruined the painting.”

“I closed my eyes during a flute solo, wishing I could wrap the silvery sound around me like armor.”

Sam was, hands down, my absolute favorite character in this book. Being the sweet and shy guy he was, I liked him from the start.

Something that I wish the author did was give us more information on Menehem. He was a very important character, and I, for one, wanted more background info to get to know him better.

If you want a spell-binding, compelling read, you need to read this book. Incarnation is a very interesting concept, and if the author improves on Ana's character a bit more in the books to come, this series would be a spectacular  read.