THE CHALLENGE

Author: Susan Kearney ISBN: 0765348918 2/2005 FUTURISTIC Publisher: TOR

She was shot protecting the president, and woke up naked, in the arms of a hunk... A hunk named Kahn, who told Secret Service agent Tessa Camen an outlandish story about traveling through time, saving the world, and a Challenge only she can accept. Kahn offers her proof she can't refute: Tessa has been brought forward through time to save Earth by winning an intergalactic challenge. Kahn only has a few weeks to train Tessa to use the psi-abilities he insists she has. He is confident in the success of a time-honored method that uses sexual frustration to bring out her powers, but Tessa is dubious. She's a martial arts expert and can fight her way through anything, but she's never had much luck with emotions. Luckily for Earth, Kahn can be very convincing...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

In this futuristic time-travel, Tessa is a Secret Service agent who is transported to the future in order to participate in a challenge to save Earth. She's shot while protecting the president from an assassin, only to awaken in a strange place with a strange man, Kahn.

THE CHALLENGE is pure fantasy, but that's part of the fun in reading futuristic romances. The hero is over-the-top alpha and very domineering. So much so, that the hero holds the heroine captive at the start, forces her to be naked, and sexually teases her. This might put off some readers and normally, I wouldn't enjoy reading about a hero like that either. But in this story it works, and I was able to suspend my disbelief and just go along for the ride. Of course, before the story has ended, Tessa has brought Kahn down to size and is more of an equal partner in their relationship. The couple shares some very sexy and steamy love scenes, and highly charged sexual tension practically from the beginning. The SF aspects of the story are aptly described and I especially loved the smart-alec, sarcastic computer Dora.

I found THE CHALLENGE full of energy and a thrilling tale, but this story isn't for everyone. In fact, I'd probably just recommend it to those romance readers that read pure SF/fantasy as well. To those readers, it's a must.

Kendra Patterson