A Review for The Proximity Power (Final Legacy #1) by Carrie Ann Maxwell

Posted by Guest Reviewer Melanie

Published Date: January 28th, 2012

Finished Date: February 28th, 2012

Source: For Review from Author

Format: Kindle

Pages: Unknown 
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The Blurb from Goodreads: Wray was just minding his own business when he encounters a girl jumping off of a bridge--a girl no one else can see. By helping her, he finds himself crossing a line into a different world, with its own set of rules. And whatever was after the girl he saved is now after him! If he wants to live to see 17, he has to learn how to control his new 'powers', fast!
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The Review: This was quite a good book in which we find Wray, a teenager whose life is blown apart when he rescues the girl from his dreams after she dives of a bridge, he has to give her the kiss of life and then she disappears. With her sudden reappearance Wray realises a few things – He seems to be the only person who can see and hear her, she is definitely not from here, she has been visiting him in his dreams and has now brought havoc into his life after the life-saving kiss causes transference of power. A power that everyone wants, a power that draws people to it and that some will stop at nothing to possess, turning Wray into the ‘hunted’.

This was a good debut novel by Carrie Ann Maxwell, it was a ‘run & chase’ book with a supernatural good vs. evil feel. The main characters are Wray – a young man who was working in a diner until he meets Daeda and by saving her he accidently takes her powers. He spends the book trying to fathom out just what is going on whilst trying to get control of his power and trying to avoid being killed. Daeda was the former owner of the power and has taken it upon herself to see that he masters it and tries to help him in any way possible along with her friend Randy who is transgender, living as a woman with the voice of a man who is along for the ride with them. All good characters but I feel we could have had a lot more from them as we didn’t really get to know them. They spent the book reacting to the here and now so we didn’t really get a feel for who they really are – not a bad thing though, just something I would like to see for future character development because they seem to have a lot to give. Randy was quite unique and random, it’s the first I’ve read of a character like that, not sure why there was a need for it but it made a nice change.

The storyline was really good and quite original especially when you find out what the power is meant to be (if I got it right). The threats posed and from whom were quite sinister and scary, they were really fitting to the origin and use of the power and coincided with what Wray was beginning to understand. The plot kept moving all of the time as they are put in constant danger and you were always aware they were being followed and the urgency to keep moving to get where they needed to be, there were no lulls in it and that made a nice, easy, smooth read. The whole books is pretty imaginative especially with Wrays dreams being woven throughout the journey, they left me wondering what was real and whether it was actually happening. It also made the threats that much worse because it could happen anytime, in dreams or awake –Freddy Krueger style. I didn’t really ‘get’ the spaces use though and felt like it could have been explained more – were they like time vacuums? How did they work for travel? Were they in a different dimension? Why couldn’t people breathe in them? Again nothing major and doesn’t interfere with the enjoyment of the book, I’m just curious.  Needless to say it all appealed to me and has good potential as a series; I enjoyed it a lot and will be looking out for the sequel to find out what’s next for Wray. 3.5 out of 5.