The Hollow Book Tours Presents: Incarnate

 Title:  Incarnate
(New Soul #1)
Author:  Jodi Meadows
Format:  Ebook
Length:  384 pages
Publisher:  Harper Teen
Rating:  5 Stars
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 suspicious and 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.   -Goodreads





If Not Who You Were...Who Are You?
"What is a soul, but a consciousness born and born again? With the rise of new technology, we know souls can be measured as a series of vibrations, which Soul Tellers map out on machines. Each sequence is unique. Each sequence is the same as it was in its previous incarnation, no matter how different the body may be. I have been reborn a hundred times, and I remember every generation. Souls are sentience, an essence born into a new body when the old one dies. There have always been a million souls, but now we’re a million minus one. Five years ago, the temple flashed dark on the night Ciana died. This evening, when Li gave birth to our daughter, we expected Ciana’s reincarnation. Instead, truths on which we’d built society were irrevocably made uncertain. Soul Tellers took the newborn’s hand and pressed it on the soul-scanner, and the vibration sequence searched for a match in the database. There was no match, which means this soul has never been born before."   -Incarnate

Imagine a world where "finding one's self" is not necessary because you already know who you are.  Yes, you heard right.  You know yourself...likes, dislikes, strengths, and faults because you have had thousands of years to discover them.  
This is the way of life for the people of  "The Range" and the city of Heart since the beginning of time.  Until the night that Ciana becomes Ana, and the lives of all are changed forever.
Readers will find themselves transfixed by Ana's story from the first page of this wonderful read.  The injustice of her plight as a "nosoul" and the hardships that she has to endure as a result will tug heartstrings and allow you to understand Ana's self deprecating nature.  In Ana we meet a character who has suffered great abuse and alienation because of a difference over which she had no control.
To make matters worse, she is then released into a world of hostile climate, terrain, creatures, and people for which she is completely unprepared. 
  
Sam...
  Though it is true that Sam saves Ana's life in the early part of the story, he is NOT the "white knight."
She gets to save him right back, and it is this interplay between the two of them that makes their relationship and the book so engrossing.
Sam serves as the catalyst for all of Ana's transformations throughout the story's course.  While at the same time proving to be a very complex character in his own right.  He is allowed to be the mature but not perfected person that one would expect, without being closed minded or jaded.

Their World
Jodie Meadows creates a wonderful world within this book.  It is a veritable hodgepodge of high-tech, fantasy, and old world aspects.  It is this versatility that allows the reader to fully experience some of the more outlandish concepts of the tale, while at the same time, finding relatability  in some of the more mundane.

What's It All About?
This story is one about acceptance.  It stands to reason that if one cannot accept what is different or unique in others, one cannot accept the same in one's self.  The result being self hatred, narrow-mindedness, and unwillingness to grow or change.  Where there is no growth or change, there is no life.  Where there is no growth or change there is no love.  
If you live one life or a thousand, you must always do so with love...for love is the only thing that is truly INCARNATE.



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12 comments:

  1. Great review! I just picked up this book and it's in my TBR pile (amongst about a hundred others). Have you read Diabolical yet?

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    1. Thank you so very much for coming to see my review! I have Diabolical in my sights. TBR pile overfloweth! LOL

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  2. Hey fellow Hollow Tour host here. Great review! I LOVED Incarnate! I'm always happy when I see that people enjoyed books that I also enjoyed. Makes me feel like I gave good advice or something, haha. Anyway, just stopping by to say "hi!"

    Amber
    http://falln2books.blogspot.com

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    1. Thanks...so glad that you like my post! I went to your site, joined and all that good stuff. You can be very hard on a person's TBR pile with all the goodies that you have there.
      Hugs & Pages,
      Frishawn

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  3. Great review - i been wanting to read this book for a while now, well since it came out. Thanks for visiting my blog www.whatmorebooks.blogspot.com

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  4. Great review can't wait to read this

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  5. Great review, I agree it was a book about acceptance and love. I thought it was sweet.
    Latoya@LittleLibraryMuse

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  6. Thanks for the great review! I really can't wait to read this! It has been receiving glowing reviews and the blurb is interesting, plus the cover is beautiful!

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  7. This is a really good review! This book is already on my wishlist and I can't wait to take it off that list and put it on my "read" list :) And that cover! *swoon*

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  8. This is a really good review! This book is already on my wishlist and I can't wait to take it off that list and put it on my "read" list. :) And that cover! *swoon*

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  9. wow just the cover makes me want to read it, and your review makes me need to read it!!!
    thanks for the great review

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