Book Review: Proximity by M. A. George

Proximity
Proximity #1
Author: M.A. George
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction/Paranormal Romance
Released: October 3rd 2012
Review Source: Author
Available: Amazon

Summary: (from goodreads) Dr. Palta Capal would be a typical American career woman…if only she were human.

She has found her calling in this world as a physician. It’s an ideal outlet for her compassionate spirit...and unearthly healing powers.

Palta may spend her nights rereading Jane Austen novels, but she deliberately avoids pursuing her own love story. Human men — attractive as they may be — inevitably grow old and wither, leaving her to grieve in solitude. Frankly, no one has seemed worth the torment.

Enter Eric Moran, the intensely attractive and enigmatic new coworker on the scene. With his quiet confidence and warm smile, he manages to draw Palta’s attention. Little does she know that he, too, holds a secret…one that will propel them both into an escalating collision of two worlds.

Dr. Palta Capal is an alien/American. She is captivated by the human species and has spent her adult life focused on medicine, specializing in Infectious Diseases. Given the fact that she has special healing powers, her choice to work in human medicine seemed logical. Her family left their planet, Ononti, years ago to avoid being killed in an uprising. After arriving on Earth, her mother died during her birth, so Palta understands the history of her family and planet only through stories told to her by her older sister, Sabela. Palta is extremely close with her father and Sabela, who in many ways has been a mother figure her whole life. Her family lives a moderately reclusive existence on a large piece of property, residing in separate houses, in New Mexico. Relationships are something she avoids because humans age much quicker then Onontians. Though her sister has married a human and has come to terms with this inter-species relationship, Palta has never met anyone that she feels a connection with except Eric Moran, a handsome PH.D. candidate that she works with, but he has never taken notice of her.

Eric has secrets of his own, and after an incident at work that threatens Eric's life and exposes Palta's secret healing ability, she realizes that she is not the only Onontian on Earth. After seeing Eric's telltale orange blood, Palta reveled her own true identity to Eric, but instead of bonding them he took off, leaving Palta weakened, from healing Eric, and confused by his terrified reaction to her. Initially with the help of Sabela, her husband Dominick and finally including her father, Palta searches to find answers to the presence of someone that is clearly from Ononti. Soon they realize that Earth's very existence is at stake and the whole group must pull together to save the planet. Eric and his sister Emma, royalty from Ononti, join forces with the Capal family to thwart evil invaders of Earth and help return Eric and Emma to Ononti. If all their plans work out, Palta must make a choice, either stay on Earth with her family or give this new love she feels for Eric a chance by going back to Ononti with him.

Proximity has a very unique story line with a twist on typical paranormal stories. I really enjoyed the lead character in the book, Paltafoena, for many reasons, but the main reason being that she reminds me of a typical twenty-something first generation American who's family hails from another country, they feel the pull of two cultures and sometimes struggle with a desire to live the "American" way along with the family requirements to remain true to the originating culture. I liked all the action in the book after being introduced to Eric and his situation, but I thought that the first part of the book was a little slow. I also had a little bit of an issue with how quickly Eric and Palta fall in love. I don't really understand the whole, "love at first sight" thing and Proximity didn't help clear that up for me. The pacing of their relationship went from 0-60 and I had a hard time buying it. I also liked what we are told about Eric, but would liked to have had more information about him. Maybe that will come with the next book in the series. Overall I thought it was a good story with potential in the subsequent books to be even better.