Incarnate - Jodi Meadows

Title: Incarnate (Newsoul, #1)
Author: Jodi Meadows
Pages: 384
Genre: Young Adult|Fantasy
Publication Date: 1/31/2012
Rating: ****

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?

The first sentence took my breath away completely:

What is a soul, but a consciousness born and born again?

Incarnate was an incredibly and beautifully written novel, set in a world where the same one million souls are reincarnated over and over -- that is until Ana is born. Ana is a newsoul who is unfortunately born to Li, who is a horrible mother. Ana, who has just turned eighteen, sets out to find out who she really is and why it is that she was born and along the way meets Sam.

I really thought the concept of reincarnation was creative in that it recycled the same souls, yet the conflict of Ana's birth brought about all different kinds of reactions. I loved how the writing flowed and how easy it was to be drawn into the world Ms. Meadows created. Her descriptions of the world of Range and Heart were amazing.

Ana is a great character and I feel that she is strong even with everything she has been through and continues to go through. She lives in a world where most hate her and accuse her of being a 'nosoul'. The only thing that really got to me about her was her constant defensiveness. I totally get why she was defensive, having grown up with the horrible Li for a mother, but after awhile, I felt she could have loosened up a bit, especially with Sam and Stef. Overall though, she was a great character.

Sam was amazing. He had the kindest of hearts, and even though sometimes was a bit broody, it wasn't overwhelmingly so. It was more in a subtle type of way, whereas Ana's defensiveness was abundantly clear. I really liked that even though he was Ana's love interest it wasn't in your face as a lot of romances are in YA. Don't get me wrong, I am a total sucker for romances, but it was a nice change.

Overall I found this to be fresh and exciting and ultimately nothing like I expected. I would definitely recommend this one!