Review Detail

One million souls. That's how many souls are in existence. Five thousand years. The amount of time these same one million souls have been in existence. At least until 18 years ago when one suddenly disappeared and a new one showed up in its place. Incarnate centers around Ana who is classified as either a nosoul or a newsoul depending on who you ask.
Incarnate opens up just as Ana, who has celebrated her 18th birthday, is set to leave the only home she has ever known. Through a series of unfortunate events Ana is rescued by Sam, a stranger who is as mysterious to Ana as a newsoul is in a world of incarnates. Ana then travels to Heart, the epicenter of the incarnate world. In Heart we begin to learn more and more about this world that Meadows has skillfully crafted just as Ana learns about a world she has been kept away from so long.
When Ana discovers Sam's true identity it sent shock waves through the reader, but in a very good way! Once the reader knows who Sam truly is we can learn more about his character as Meadows continues to create a fully developed story. It is not often that we can learn so much about the other characters in a first person narrative but Meadows crafts the story perfectly!

I absolutely loved this book! Last year there were only a handful of books that I bestowed the five star rating to. If I love a book and talk about it to everyone that I meet I give it four stars. A book really has to move me in order for me to give it a five star rating. Usually I read these books with a heavy heart and feel the weight of the world on my shoulders, just like the characters, as I read them. That is how I determine the five stars. Does my heart feel like its being ripped out?
Incarnate pushed on me a totally different feeling, but one epic enough that I am rating it with five stars. This book made me happy. I was happy for a lot of the time reading it. Yes, there were sad moments. Yes, there were dangerous moments. Overall though this book made my heart swell with other emotions besides pain and suffering, even though Ana and Sam do experience that type of emotion. I found myself running back to this book every moment that I put it down. When I was at work I found myself talking to all of my co-workers about this book. I could not stop thinking about it, could not stop talking about it, and sadly I could not stop reading it. Its only sad because now I have to wait until next year to read the second one! That is way too long not to get an Ana and Sam fix. I guess I will just be rereading Incarnate over and over and over again until then.