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Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Book Review: Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books
Publication date: January 2012
Pages: 384
Source: ARC provided by publisher
For: Review (and the Debut Author Challenge)
Series: Newsoul, Book 1

Ana is unusual, a newsoul, one who has not been reincarnated for thousands of years; she's living her first life.  Even worse, when she was born another old soul disappeared and everyone blames her for it.  Rejected by her mother, left by her father, she has had a cold childhood.  But now she's determined to find out about herself and why she might be here.  Traveling to the city of Heart, she encounters hostility nearly everywhere, except from Sam and a few of his friends.  In Sam, Ana finds someone who might be able to care about her, despite being a newsoul.  But will their kindling relationship have time to smoulder or will it be destroyed by the many forces in place driving them apart?

Things I Liked:
I think what makes this book stand out in my mind is the unique world and details.  I have read a few reincarnation books, though they were more focused on a couple being reincarnated, finding one another, and then being unable to spend even one complete lifetime together.  This is different and in a much better way.  I like Ana; she's a unique, new soul, one who is clearly at a disadvantage when compared with everyone else, but who doesn't dwell much on it.  As the book progresses, she learns new things, develops her own talents and ideas, and becomes even more unique.  I thought the relationship between her and Sam was well done as well, providing sparks and interest and even some doubt.  Admittedly, I got mad at Sam and Ana a few times, but that is inevitable in a realistic relationship.  Interesting concepts, unique book.

Things I Didn't Like:
I was a bit disappointed at the end.  I felt like none of the ideas and mysteries Ana was trying to solve were explained.  It just kind of ended with no resolution, or at least not enough to leave me satisified.  I'll be interested to read the next one, but I wish there had been a little more meat to this one.  There were quite a few incidents that happened in the last couple of chapters that were strange, different, and nearly left unexplained. 

Read-alikes:
Maybe a little like The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller
It also reminded me, for some odd reason, of Pegasus by Robin McKinley

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: ! 
some, not a lot

mrg-factor: X 
it felt sensual, but nothing actually happens

v-factor: ->-> 
there is some fighting action

Overall rating: **** 

What intrigues you about this book?

If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage

6 comments :

  1. I have a few teen fantasy books to read. Too bad you didn't like the ending of this one.

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    Replies
    1. Are you planning to read this one too? I'm interested in other peoples' opinions about it.

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  2. This one sounded so good but I've been seeing negative reviews of it and now I'm nervous. Oh well, I rarely share people's opinions anyway. ;)

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I'll be interested to see what you think - I think it's hit or miss for a lot of people.

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  3. I just read this book and I'm still not sure what to think. I liked the concept and got sucked into the book, but there are definitely a couple things that bothered me.

    Like you said, there were a lot of things left unexplained (and maybe that's so Jodi Meadows can put them all in the sequels), but I still wish more time had been spent getting deeper into the world and the mysteries of the plot. Instead, we got lots of focus on the romance and relationship between Ana and Sam, which granted wasn't bad. It was nice and slowly developed, but it still creeped me out a bit that he was 5,000 years old and she was 16.

    So, I don't know. I liked the musical elements and I liked the original concepts, but I wanted to know more about the sylphs and the dragons and the creepy temple.

    Oh, and I also just read "The Alchemy of Forever" by Avery Williams and it has some similar concepts (girl who's been alive for hundreds of years, occasionaly swapping bodies, even a masquerade scene with a butterfly costume). When I get around to blogging "Incarnate" I'll probably do it back to back with "Alchemy of Forever". It'll be interesting to compare the two.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Definitely a creep factor for a relationship between 5000 year old and 16 year old :) I did like a lot of elements, but essentially wanted more too - esp the creepy temple, dragons, and sylph. There is so much potential there I hope it's realized in the next books. I'm looking forward to your reviews of Incarnate and Alchemy of Forever (last time I read reincarnation books, I read two similar ones at once too - it's like deja vu :)

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