Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

Incarnate

by Jodi Meadows 

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.

(summary from goodreads.com)

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This was a fun read - I like books with unique never-before-seen premises. I liked this book, but I didn't love it. Why did I like it? It was a creative plot with a hopefully-to-be-later-satisfied mystery (we got enough answers to not be frustrated), there was a romance with two characters that I liked reading about, there were dragons (always a plus), and I cared about what Ana experienced with her mother and her bewilderment at being a new soul. It was a fun world to be a part of - souls get reborn over and over again, for thousands of years you meet the same million people over and over again. Kind of fun, in a way - death becomes more of an intermission than an ending, and you can spend lifetimes perfecting and learning. 

Why didn't I love it? I cared about Ana, but I never felt as emotionally invested as I tend to get with really good books. Great books linger - I can't stop thinking about characters and scenes and imagining what-happens-afters. That didn't happen with this book - I was interested to read Ana's story, but it didn't go deeper. As someone who thinks gender is a vital part of each soul, having the souls change gender with each subsequent birth was unsettling. So much of who I am is because I am a woman! I can't imagine I would be the same person in a next life if I was a man. I also felt there was too much disparity between Ana and Sam. Bella and Edward had to deal with a hundred years or so, while Ana and Sam are dealing with thousands. Quite a difference. I wanted Ana to be less of a baby and more of an "old soul", despite her age. Not surprising I guess, since she grew up in seclusion with someone who hated her, but still - I wanted to see her more equal with Sam. BUT - we're talking about the difference between liking a book and loving it - I still enjoyed the story. I liked seeing her grow from someone who believes she is no one to someone with self worth - she grew up by quite a bit in the end, so I look forward to what the next book will give us. 

Mom note: As a mother of readers, I also want to make a note to myself (and others if they care) why I would or would not have my children read this book, because honestly, sometimes I forget. Violence: fairly standard fantasy fare, some thrown knives and one fight, and the chaos of a dragon invasion. Profanity: none that I can recall. Sex: One or two make out scenes but no sex.