Incarnate (Newsoul #1) by Jodi Meadows

 
Incarnate (Newsoul #1) by Jodi Meadows

Paperback, First Edition, 374 pages

Published January 2nd 2013 by Katherine Tegen

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.

“Who am I?" My first spoken words.
"No one," she said. "Nosoul.”
― Jodi Meadows, Incarnate

Let's be honest, that cover is gorgeous. I cannot deny that I was first drawn to this book because of how beautiful I found it. But hey, that is not a bad thing. The cover was attention grabbing; it made me want to pick the book up and see if the words inside were just as amazing as the cover on the outside. And let me tell you, they were.

I was hooked, almost instantly, from the first few pages. 

We have dystopian world where in the country of Range, souls have been reincarnating over and over. The people of Range have known each other for thousands of years and remember everyone and all their hundreds of lives. Then one day, someone dies, and instead of their soul being reborn, it is gone. No one knows what caused this soul to disappear. But in its place, a new soul was born. This new soul is our main protagonist, Ana. Unfortunately for Ana, most of the people of Range blame her existence for the loss of the other soul. Including her own mother, Li, who kicks her out of the house.

Out in the real world for the first time, lacking the skills and knowledge that everyone else in Range possess, Ana makes it her mission to get to Heart as she believes it is there she will discover the truth behind her existence. As Ana's story unfolds, we are introduced to a dangerous world of slyph, dragons, and people who want Ana dead. 

Jodi Meadows has a real talent when it comes to creating strong characters that you cannot help but get attached to. Ana is a strong character, even though at times she seems to be dependent on others, such as Sam. But when you think about it, she knows nothing really of the world and everyone else has had thousands of years to figure things out, so her dependency is understandable. And she grows as a character as the book and series progresses. Sam, you just can't help but love. From the very beginning, he is very accepting of Ana, even though she's the "no soul". Li, well, she is pretty awful and I can't stand her; that's all I have to say about her. 

The romance is perhaps the one thing that bothered me. But even then, it was not that big a deal honestly. The romance was kind of insta-lovey, which is pretty typical of the YA genre. Normally, this irks me quite a bit, but I enjoyed everything else about the book so much that I was able to overlook the insta-love just this once.
 
The world building in this book was brilliant, as was the writing style. I just could not pull myself away from the story being told and found myself desperate to get my hands on the rest of the triology (which I did, immediately!). The whole concept of reincarnation is fascinating and Meadows truly took a unique and captivating twist on this concept. Incarnate was action packed, unique and a fantastic read. I highly recommend it!

4 out of 5