Author: Jodi Meadows
Narrator: Katherine Taub
Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Producer: HarperCollins Audio

Story Review: Originally posted here (11/14/11)

This book is AMAZING! First of all, the premise is so interesting. A world where there are no new people? You're just reincarnated over and over? How cool is that?! Well... cool for a premise. After reading the book I don't think I'd want to live in that world.

But it brings up so many interesting ideas! What would the world be like if it was just made up of the SAME one million people forever? Everyone knows everyone. Everyone is born with the skills they need to survive (if not the physical strength). Would you ever have wars? The people you killed would just come right back. How would you love? Would you love life-by-life, or through lifetimes? And then there's the interesting bit about not always coming back the same gender.

Imagine being tossed into this world. Everyone knows everything, and you know nothing. TERRIFYING, right? I loved watching Ana struggle through this exact issue. How is she supposed to fit in? Everyone thinks in terms of lifetimes, but she might only have one! So how is she supposed to live her one life? Jodi does an amazing job of making both Ana and the reincarnates REAL people. I believed everything they thought, said, and did.

And on top of that THERE ARE DRAGONS. Dragons and sylphs and centaurs and who knows what else! Just when you thought this story couldn't get more interesting! Now, sometimes when books put so much into their storyline you feel like some of it is underdeveloped or just shoved in there for "wow" factor, not with Incarnate. Jumping from reincarnation to dragons was smooth and made perfect sense. By the end I was saying "Of COURSE there would be dragons in this world!"

All in all, an amazingly powerful book that will keep your brain spinning through all 400 pages!

Audio Review: The sequel to this book, Asunder, just came out at the end of January. So in preparation I decided to listen to the audiobook. I do think this was a good choice because there was quite a bit I had forgotten, but... I didn't love the audiobook. I adore this book, which maybe made me a bit overly critical of the narrator. Actually... I don't think so. I think she's just an annoying narrator.

She feels the need to draaaw out ceertain worrds. It always sounds like she's sneering. I don't know why everyone in this world was so sneery. It was like listening to a stereotypical Cali girl try to imitate a snobby British noble. Sound crazy? Yup. It was.

So while I would definitely recommend that you READ this book, I would skip the audio. I think it might ruin the story for you.