Neurotic Thoughts - Incarnate Book Review

Incarnate
Author: Jodi Meadows
Release Date: January 31, 2012
Genre: YA Paranormal Fantasy
Published by: Katherine Tegen
Source: Katherine Tegen Publishing and NetGalley
Summary from Goodreads:


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.

Incarnate's plot was so unique to me that even though I didn't love the book, I still had to finish it to find out where it was going. I've often wondered about past lives and if we have been here before as another person at another place in time, that's what originally drew me to this book. As well as the very striking cover. In my mind I never imagined that you would always remember you past and the people who you've known. That's where Incarnate went with this idea though and I found that to be so intriguing. 

The first half of the book was definitely my favorite part. This is where we meet Ana. Ana is uncommon because she is a new soul, meaning that this is her first life. In the world that Meadows has created, a new soul is a rare and terrifying event for the rest of the people. Typically a person dies only to be reincarnated into another body where they remember everything and everyone from their past life. Something went wrong for one soul though and that soul didn't return. Instead Ana was born. 

Ana sets out on her own, leaving her abusive "mother" behind to find more people and to try and figure out why she is here. Along the way she meets Sam. While I liked Sam there was something about the way that he was SO old (in a hot young bod) that was just a little creepy for me. Then during the second half of the book things took a weird turn and I began making those weird huh? faces. So while I didn't love Incarnate I did find it interesting and I've found myself thinking back on parts of the story again and again. If you like fantasy a lot or even a little you will probably enjoy this one more than I did.