Throwback Thursday Review: Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

Throwback Thursday is a new weekly/biweekly feature hosted by Sabrina at I Heart YA Fiction where readers review older releases and/or books that have been on our tbr shelves for a while. Click the link above to see Sabrina's TBT review and if you participate, join the linky list at the bottom of her post!

This week's feature?

About the book:

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 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.

Release Date: January 31, 2012
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Genre: YA fantasy/romance
Pages: 374
Added on Goodreads: June 18, 2012

My rating of Incarnate (Newsoul, #1):

Release Date: January 31, 2012

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Genre: YA fantasy/romance

Pages: 374

Added on Goodreads: June 18, 2012

My rating of Incarnate (Newsoul, #1):

Short & Sweet:

Wow, did I enjoy this more than I expected! It's a very fun, light read that has great conflict and serious conflicts. I LOVED the romance, the fantasy intrigued me rather than scared me off, and the storytelling was wonderful with good pacing. Meadows had a way of telling the fantasy, conflicts, and romance of the story so beautifully. Only a few small things made me drop it from "Amazing!" to "Great!"

To Elaborate...

I'm not a fan of high fantasy, but this one was really cool! I loved the creatures--centaurs, sylph, and dragons--and it was not complicated, which is probably why I enjoyed it. Definitely on the lower spectrum of high fantasy but the mention of other animals across the world expanded the fantasy too. I am glad a god had been used in this fantasy story. Religions have been cut from and looked down upon in our culture when it used to be the main thing that held a culture together. Seeing it in a fantasy novel and having the characters cast a wide range of opinions on the god-like figure was a great touch.

The reincarnation concept awed me! The idea that the same soul could reincarnate as a man or woman in the next life; that some souls matched with others and found each other every reincarnation period; that they all knew each other because they had been living with one another for thousands of years; that their houses were stocked with their old things….oh my did I love it! I can't wait for my questions (i.e. how was the limit created?) to be answered as the books continue.

It was really interesting being in Ana’s mind in the beginning, when she didn’t trust anyone and thought so little of herself. Her journey of opening up, seeing her need and want for love and self-love … it was told so eloquent. Speaking of love, the romance made my heart flutter and race and me grin like an idiot. I love reading these kinds of romances! It was light and fun, but seeing the bond between Sam and Ana grow as they battled their inner conflicts added a serious note to their relationship. Very well balanced.

Sometimes the characters in stories that occur over several weeks or months appear to have changed drastically because too much time has been skipped. Scenes that would showcase the depth of character or relationship development just aren't always there. In Incarnate, the way the breaks were made in this book were perfect. I never once thought that we missed something vital in the character growth or the plot.

My only deduction is for the random parts that I stumbled over while reading and the ending. A few times I felt like a transition sentence or two had been deleted because all of a sudden I wouldn't know what was going on or how something had just happened. Even after going back and rereading, I still would still be confused. The ending was a bit sporadic too, although I can't describe how. There was also a section toward the end that consisted of a lot of description and slowed the story a bit. Apart from these finer points, this book was great! It exceeded my expectations and I am excited to continue the series!

Did you love Incarnate? 

Are you a music junky like me? 

Check out "Poet" by Bastille!

It's awesome AND it reminds me of Incarnate.