Incarnate

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.

So I didn't really know what to think about this book. It got a ton of hype, had a pretty cover, and a blurb, that intrigued me and confused me at the same time. 

One of my biggest problems with this book, at least early on, was the world building, or the lack of it. I felt as though I was reading a sequel - the world had already been introduced, and the reader was expected to know all about it. Like, what the heck are newsouls and nosouls? Why are trolls only mentioned, never actually show up?

But the part that bothered me the most was the whole reincarnation bit. It's not the reincarnation in and of itself bothers me - it was just the way it was portrayed in Incarnate. Like the fact that Ana wore clothes that Sam wore when he was female in a past life. That two souls, supposedly 'in love' with each other in every lifetime, had killed each other when they were in bodies of the same gender. Like the fact that no one knows why Ana's soul was born, yet there's this whole 'Soul Council' (not the exact name) that regulates souls. If these things had been explained a bit more, the book would have been much stronger. 

The romance was also a bit iffy. For the most part, Sam seemed like a fine character, and Ana didn't annoy the crap out of me, but there was just no chemistry. It was obvious the author was trying to make some, but there just wasn't anything really natural about the relationship. After one awkward 'almost kiss' (which Ana talks about for the next 200 pages) practically nothing happens between the two of them besides piano playing. I swear, 75% of this book was music, Sam/Ana awkwardness, and the butterfly metaphor. Gah, the butterfly metaphor.

This is the second book I've read in 2012 that has the MC referring to herself as some sort of winged creature. (Shatter Me with the bird metaphor was the other). And the metaphor once or twice is okay, but when it comes in every chapter two or three times, it gets a bit excessive. And, like in Shatter Me, the butterfly metaphor in this book got to be a little too much. I mean, the cover is gorgeous. It's what got me to read the book in the first place. The first time Ana mentions that she's like a butterfly, I was all 'okay, whatever.' But by the time she was getting ready to make her dress, I knew exactly what she was going to be. 

This book had the potential to be great, but it fell flat. It wasn't flat; it was just something weak that left me with more questions than when I started it. (And not in a good way).

And so the pretty cover strikes again.