Review: Incarnate

Incarnate (Newsoul #1) by Jodi Meadows
Release Date ~ January 31, 2012
Katherine Tegen ~ HarperCollins
ISBN13: 9780062060754
ARC received from HarperCollins Canada

Goodreads Synopsis:

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.


Reincarnation? Yeah, we've all read those books before. A book filled with creepy paranormal activity and soulmates complete with insta-love. Or so I thought prior to reading Incarnate...

Whatever impressions I had of Incarnate prior to reading it were absolutely blown away. This is an incredible, outstanding debut and the extent of Jodi's creativity and talent is extensive.

1. A fantasy world:
   I was expecting Incarnate to be another paranormal (a GOOD paranormal, but still a paranormal romance) but I quickly realized I was wrong; the world of Incarnate is this mystical creation positively oozing creativity! The world building and explanation of the background was nearly flawless, as it's complicated enough to leave some mystery but never becomes convoluted. And the setting is so unlike any other I've ever read about; it's honestly worth reading Incarnate for this reason alone. But thankfully, there are others to take it over the top. The story itself also raises some great questions about love and even faith, and that sense of not quite fitting in. So, so beautiful.
2. Truly swoon-worthy romance:I told Jodi this on Twitter, but she honestly wrote one of my favourite kissing scenes EVER. It was so well done, and I love that she took the time in Incarnate to build up the tension and anticipation leading up towards it. The whole romantic plot felt so natural but also didn't feel exaggerated; Ana doesn't spend all of her time obsessing over her new crush, which is a relief. Plus, Sam makes such a great love interest. He's really very sweet and totally crush-worthy. *melts into a puddle of lovesick goop*
3. Some well-rounded characters:
   Initially I was on the fence trying to decide how I felt about Ana, but she won me over. I think it took some time for her to really develop as a character, but by the end I was impressed with how well-developed quite a few of the characters were, and in particular Sam and Ana. Plus, Ana and I totally ended up seeing eye-to-eye on what some of the issues and complications were of this concept of reincaranation. And I LOVED that she was willing to question those things and ask hard questions.
4. Fantastic, creative premise:
   Incarnate really is one of the most imaginative books I've read; and I love that it's been released now because I kind of felt like I was in a rut of reading the same types of books over and over. So hurray for a new one that really stands out among the rest! It was a great take on reincarnation and I love the amount of thought that Jodi put into it.
5. Jodi's writing style:
   Plus I really loved Jodi's writing, I thought it was so smooth and the book had such a natural flow to it. It's impossible to put down, and I liked how I was able to pick up on the voices of the different characters.

There were a few secondary characters that I felt could have been fleshed out a bit more, but I'm hoping to see more of them in the next books. And it was fairly minor in the big scheme of things.

It's true love for Incarnate. I'll be counting down to the sequel and anxiously trying to find time for a reread with this one!

Incarnate Treasure Hunt Stop

Hey guys! Welcome to another stop on the INCARNATE Theater Treasure Hunt!

This week, 45 bloggers are celebrating the release of INCARNATE by Jodi Meadows by participating in a treasure hunt with clues, activities, and lots of prizes including signed books and handknit fingerless mitts. I'm one of the blogs with a CLUE, which means somewhere on this page is a clue to finding the hidden page and grand prize entry form on Jodi's website. Follow 26 clues to get there!

For more information on the INCARNATE Theater Treasure Hunt, check out Jodi's post which you can find here!

Jodi also made some really adorable knitted characters and took pictures to share them with you!




And as part of my post for this treasure hunt, I had the great opportunity to interview Megan Segrue (@megrue), a Marketing Coordinator at HarperCollins Children's Books! This was really cool for me, because Megan was able to give me (and you guys!) and inside look at some of the "behind the scenes" marketing and a little taste of what we can expect from Incarnate!

What involvement do you have specifically with the promotion and release of Incarnate?

I’m on the marketing team for Incarnate. About a year out from the book’s publication, we brainstorm the marketing plan for a title, which includes plans for galley distribution, advertising, online outreach, and more. We then continue to adapt and revise the marketing plan as time passes, and as more opportunities and new technology become available. My job is to make sure the great plans—a book trailer, consumer advertising, social media engagement and so on—are executed. I feel really lucky to be able to work on the gorgeous Incarnate! The projects I specifically worked on for Incarnate were writing copy and providing creative direction for the online advertising, developing a creative direction for and working with the producers of the book trailer, creating Incarnate-specific content for the Dark Days online promotion (check out Pitch Dark on Facebook to take the “Who were you in a past life?” quiz! Marketing plug!), and continuing to develop a strategy for Incarnate to be connected to real book clubs—stay tuned for more exciting stuff on that soon!

Since you're involved with promoting Incarnate, could you tell us what some of your favourite things are about this new book? Anything that makes it stand out from other YA books, for example?

I think what sets Incarnate apart from other YA books out right now is the totally unique premise and internal conflict that Ana experiences. The book’s unique approach to reincarnation allows Incarnate to ask big questions about life and death and love that still deeply resonate on an individual level with teens—and twenty- and thirty-somethings for that matter! And that jacket! Tell me the gorgeous colors of the jacket don’t make you want to pick up the book and ogle it. Go on, I dare you.

Thanks for taking the time to join us, Megan!

AND now for my clue! Third word: F.

And remember that there are NO spaces in this password! I have a link below to help you guys out with finding the rest :)

Now, make sure to stop at the rest of the blog posts so you can collect all the clues and find out what sorts of activities are going on for this treasure hunt! I'm including the links to three other clue blogs to help you along the way :)

Good luck!

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