Incarnate

Incarnate

by Jodi Meadows

SYNOPSIS:

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?
Jodi Meadows expertly weaves soul-deep romance, fantasy, and danger into an extraordinary tale of new life.

Read More
5893
4.5
Book #1 in Series

As beautiful as the cover!

These days I’m a bit out of sync when it comes to the books I read.. I like some books that others don’t, and I don’t like the books the others love, I feel like I’m missing something.

This books is one of the books I loved, while some of my book fellows didn’t.. I don’t know what’s the element that really made me like it so much, but I know that from the very beginning I was hooked and couldn’t put it down.

“If I only get one life, I don’t want to waste it by hesitating”

The world settling was  great – a mix between dystopian and fantasy (with futuristic technologies but also dragons and other mythical creatures). For me it felt like a parallel world where human (their souls) can reincarnate over and over again, and the city has its own heartbeat. It was intriguing and somehow original, mostly different than what I’ve read recently… It felt refreshing to change perspective and to get lost in such an unusual world.

The cover is beautiful and it fits the story. This is the 3rd book in the past months that has a masquerade scene in it, and (this time again) I loved it. And I loved how Ana (the main character) thought that she was like a butterfly – it was a good comparison on so many levels.

The characters are complex and they have more than only one layer. It is the world that make them different than us, that make them act differently, feel differently, be something entirely different than us.

– Ana
She is a ‘newsoul’. That means that this is  her very first life. In a world where for thousands of years people have reincarnate over and over again, she is the only one new – the only one without a past, without memories, without friends from past lives. Her mother who resembled a regular evil fairytale stepmother, made her think the worst  of herself.. made her think that she has no soul and she doesn’t deserve the life she has. Why is that? Because before  Ana was born, another soul vanished forever (it never came back to life again) and that soul was her mother’s best friend.

– Her mother
Of course in our world it is hard to understand how someone could care more about a friend that a child, but think about the fact that in this fantasy world there is  a limited number of souls. They get to be reincarnate and have kids from the same group (in one life you could be my parent, the next one you could be my child). The friendship is the most valuable thing you have, the only thing that never changes through all these lives.

Also,  a new soul taking someone’s place is a threat for everyone.
What if someone else will vanish as well, what if this is not a singular case. Is this newsoul going to reincarnate, or will people vanish forever at some point. People feared Ana, people hated her for taking away a friend, even if it wasn’t her fault.

– Sam
When Ana finally leaves home (it takes her a bit more to do that than the others because she knows almost nothing about the dangers that await for her) she faces some of the mythical creatures I told you about. It’s Sam who’s saving her life and tries to keep her safe (and warm *giggles*), and even after knowing who she really is, he still protects her against the entire world.

“After I worked so hard saving you, I’d appreciate
if you didn’t try to kill yourself again”

Sam becomes Ana’s teacher and protector and their story is one that will stay with me for a while.

I like them as a couple, I liked how they got from complete strangers to friends and then lovers. It was a slow and sweet transition that made me like them both. I liked their conversations and how Sam made her understand that she has a soul and she hasthe right to love and be happy. I loved how music brought them closer, how they were both passionate about the things they did, how they were better as a couple.

There are some other secondary characters too, but I can’t say if I liked them or not. Mostly because I didn’t know them enough, and at times I didn’t trust them. My focus was always on Sam and Ana, and their lovely romance. They were a strange but wonderful mix like the world they were living in – she was a newsoul, he was an old-soul; she was impulsive, he was more calculated, they complete each other perfectly.

 

“It’s difficult to focus on my sudies when my best friend is struggling to get through the hour”.
He hesitated. “So I’m your best friend now?”
My cheeks heated, and I shrugged. “It was between you and Sarit, and you have music. She just has honey.” 

Now I can’t wait to see what comes next, I want to see how Ana will change through the story. Also I have some questions that have’t been answered in this installment, I want to know more about this world, and I want more Sam-and-Ana moments.

Music of choice:

The Moment – Yiruma

Book Source: ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. (thank you!)

« »

LEAVE A COMMENT

8 responses to “Incarnate”

  1. Love the images! I cant WAIT to read this one!! Awesome review!

    Giselle
    Xpresso Reads

    • Ari says:

      Thanks.. the second pic, on the lake, is a bit deceiving.. it should be freezing outside (no time for wearing pink dresses) but I couldn’t find a better one :))
      I hope you will like this book as well, though it seems that people tend to like it a lot OR not like it at all.. I really like it ;))

  2. Sam @ Realm of Fiction says:

    A great review! I LOVED this book. And your music choice is just perfect. 🙂

  3. Heidi says:

    Hi Ari!
    It is nice to meet you. Thanks for following my blog. I love your day and night feature so fun. I am wanting to read this book. Your review convinced me it is worth checking out. I love your pictures. I will be chatting with you on GR. Oh and if you like Masquerade themes check out the upcoming Masquerade by Cambria Hebert!

    • Ari says:

      Thank you too, Heidi.
      I hope you will like this book when you will get the chance to read it. I will check Masquerade now, as you made me curious about it 🙂

  4. kimba88 says:

    I just reviewed this book myself and despite some frustrations, I really liked it. I will be reading book 2. I think its cool how opinions vary. One person may completely hate a book because of a character and you might agree, but it might not be enough to change your opinion. New follower. I did GFC, then realized you are not on blogger, so followed on NWB and Google+. You have a lovely blog and I wish you success.

    • Ari says:

      I know what you mean. Most of my friends didn’t particularly liked this book, but for me it worked and I liked it a lot.
      Thank you for following I hope that we will keep in touch to gossip about the books we love (or even the ones that we don’t like) 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Discover more from Reading After Midnight

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading