Review: Incarnate

Title: Incarnate
Author: Jodi Meadows
Series: Newsoul
Pages: 384
Published: January 31, 2011

Summary:
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 suspicious and 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?

Review: I have so many feelings towards this book that I don't even know where to begin. When I first saw this novel, the concept interested me, as did the cover, and between the two I was determined to read it. When I luckily got my hands on an ARC, I dropped everything to read it, hoping that I wouldn't be disappointed with such a beautiful cover and a mystifying description.

Needless to say, I was not even close to disappointed.

The concept of a world that has souls that are constantly being reborn, reincarnated, is a magical thing all on its own, but when you throw in a new soul (or a nosoul as Ana likes to call herself), it's just downright intriguing. Add to that dragons, sylphs and a city that literally has a heartbeat and it just makes for an amazing novel.

When I started this, I expected to like it, because Ana was an intriguing character and the concept of these souls being reborn for hundreds of generations was really rather awesome. The fact that Ana not only got a chance to discover herself but also discover new friends, a new family, that was something wonderful all on its own.

I think the best part about the entire novel was probably the last thirty percent of the book, and while it has a lot to do with the big, dramatic climax of the story, that doesn't change the fact that it really turns the novel into a dramatic page-turner. I was surprised to find that things that I expected to happen didn't happen, and the plot line that I was following, I'd pre-determined would happen one way and it completely excited me with the fact that it didn't go the way I was thinking it would at all.

And the end. The end! It was magnificent.

Incarnate was a wonderful novel, and I really cannot wait until the next book in the series comes out, because I am so excited to see how Jodi Meadows can take an already amazing plot line and extend it further.

Rating: ★★★★★ 5/5 Stars