In a world where everyone has been reincarnated hundreds of times, Ana is a nosoul. A few years before her birth, a woman named Ciana died, Ciana was supposed to come back, but she never did. Ana was born instead. While all the others in her world remember their past lives, she has none and that makes her a threat--dangerous. Ana's cruel mother, Li casts her out of their home on Ana's 18th birthday. Ana has no choice but to go to Heart and see if she can figure out why she was born and if she will be born again or if her life will fizzle out. Li gives her a faulty compass and she loses her way to Heart. She is rescued from freezing to death in Range by a mysterious man named Sam. They venture to Heart together, a place where he will be her greatest ally and possibly her greatest love.
Overall Merit: First of all, I love the cover so kudos for that. Secondly, the premise was fascinating. Imagine remembering all of your past lives for millennia. However, some of the storytelling didn't ring true for me and I was especially disappointed by the ending. The world didn't make sense because there simply weren't any rules in place. There were dragons and sylphs running around and some god-like entity called Janus, but we never knew whether or not he was real and if he was what purpose he served. Also, in the story, the people just found Heart already built and waiting for them. What?! No, just no. At the beginning, Ana had a motive: find out why she exists, but after about a day she seemed to forget. She was way too busy drooling over Sam for 80% of the novel. This book had so much potential, but it fell flat. There were too many inconsistencies and technicalities that went unexplained. Score-6
Characters: The characters all had a fatal flaw, they were almost good but not enough, the antagonist was almost evil, but not enough, etc. They were boring. Ana was dull, she is a passive character who steps up at random moments to rescue someone, usually Sam. However, how come she can stand up to sylphs, but when she sees Sam sneaking out every night and overhears him talking behind her back, she can't confront him about it? Where is her backbone? Sam wasn't very interesting either and I didn't buy his "crippling" fear of dragons. It was a cop out. Meadows makes him seem like a brooding artist character, only to reveal that he's distant because he's afraid of dragons. Hmm...yea no. Li was the only real antagonist, and well she wasn't even that interesting. It seemed like she was being mean for the sake of being mean. She had some connection with Ciana, but it was never established properly and therefore her animosity wasn't convincing. Score-6
Blush Factor: This consumed the entire story. Literally the whole novel was about the romantic tension between Sam and Ana, which would have been fine if it were actually interesting. It actually got frustrating how slowly it moved. It's like "just kiss her already!" There was nothing unique about their romance and when I can predict exactly what's going to happen, it makes me irritated. Basically it was a standard YA romance that took up more space in the book than it should have. Score-6
Structure: Standard linear first person, but the thing about first person is that it's limiting so unless the narrator is compelling, the reader is apt to get bored. Ana was not a very interesting narrator. For all her abusive upbringing there was no inner turmoil, I could not feel her angst! YA novels are supposed to have a TON of angst! Nothing interesting happened in terms of structure. First person is pretty straight forward so nothing new here. Score-6
Plot: Before I start, I promise that this category will score extremely low. The concept was there and it was brilliant, but the execution was painfully bad. What started as a promising story turned into a long running love story with a protagonist who seemed to forget what she had been looking for in the first place. Sure she spent some time researching in the library, but most of her time was spent mooning over Sam and learning to play the piano because apparently she had a passion for music. The ending was atrocious, talk about a deus ex machina (literally). I won't say exactly what happens, but just know that you couldn't possibly conceive this ending because no one in their right mind would come up with it and think it was a good idea. No offense to Meadows, but this was pretty sad.
Vervain Says: "Deus ex machina is a Latin phrase and it literally means 'God out of the machine'. In other words, it is when a writer invokes a god or higher power or even just brings in a character that seems to have all the answers and can put the story to rights with little difficulty. This is a device that should be avoided at all costs."
Overall Merit: First of all, I love the cover so kudos for that. Secondly, the premise was fascinating. Imagine remembering all of your past lives for millennia. However, some of the storytelling didn't ring true for me and I was especially disappointed by the ending. The world didn't make sense because there simply weren't any rules in place. There were dragons and sylphs running around and some god-like entity called Janus, but we never knew whether or not he was real and if he was what purpose he served. Also, in the story, the people just found Heart already built and waiting for them. What?! No, just no. At the beginning, Ana had a motive: find out why she exists, but after about a day she seemed to forget. She was way too busy drooling over Sam for 80% of the novel. This book had so much potential, but it fell flat. There were too many inconsistencies and technicalities that went unexplained. Score-6
Characters: The characters all had a fatal flaw, they were almost good but not enough, the antagonist was almost evil, but not enough, etc. They were boring. Ana was dull, she is a passive character who steps up at random moments to rescue someone, usually Sam. However, how come she can stand up to sylphs, but when she sees Sam sneaking out every night and overhears him talking behind her back, she can't confront him about it? Where is her backbone? Sam wasn't very interesting either and I didn't buy his "crippling" fear of dragons. It was a cop out. Meadows makes him seem like a brooding artist character, only to reveal that he's distant because he's afraid of dragons. Hmm...yea no. Li was the only real antagonist, and well she wasn't even that interesting. It seemed like she was being mean for the sake of being mean. She had some connection with Ciana, but it was never established properly and therefore her animosity wasn't convincing. Score-6
Blush Factor: This consumed the entire story. Literally the whole novel was about the romantic tension between Sam and Ana, which would have been fine if it were actually interesting. It actually got frustrating how slowly it moved. It's like "just kiss her already!" There was nothing unique about their romance and when I can predict exactly what's going to happen, it makes me irritated. Basically it was a standard YA romance that took up more space in the book than it should have. Score-6
Structure: Standard linear first person, but the thing about first person is that it's limiting so unless the narrator is compelling, the reader is apt to get bored. Ana was not a very interesting narrator. For all her abusive upbringing there was no inner turmoil, I could not feel her angst! YA novels are supposed to have a TON of angst! Nothing interesting happened in terms of structure. First person is pretty straight forward so nothing new here. Score-6
Plot: Before I start, I promise that this category will score extremely low. The concept was there and it was brilliant, but the execution was painfully bad. What started as a promising story turned into a long running love story with a protagonist who seemed to forget what she had been looking for in the first place. Sure she spent some time researching in the library, but most of her time was spent mooning over Sam and learning to play the piano because apparently she had a passion for music. The ending was atrocious, talk about a deus ex machina (literally). I won't say exactly what happens, but just know that you couldn't possibly conceive this ending because no one in their right mind would come up with it and think it was a good idea. No offense to Meadows, but this was pretty sad.
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