Rabid Reads

Three the Hard Way
Author: Sydney Croft
Series: ACRO #7
Publisher: Amazon Digital
Published on: December 1st 2014
Genre: Erotica, Paranormal Romance
Format: 160 pages, eBook
Provided by: NetGalley

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Lovers Taggart Brody and Justice McKinney possess special abilities that make them valuable to agencies who employ—or enslave—people with extraordinary talents. When tragedy tears them apart, Justice finds purpose working for the good guys: ACRO, the super-secret Agency for Covert Rare Operatives. But he never forgets Taggart or the past they once shared.

Heartbroken, Taggart runs from who he is . . . right into the arms of Ian Bridges. But Ian, battling his own demons, betrays Tag to the terrorist organization Itor. After months of torture, Tag manages to escape, but kills an ACRO agent in the process.

With nowhere left to turn, Tag disappears into the Alaskan wilderness, but it’s only a matter of time before his enemies track him down. He reaches out to Justice, and somehow Ian finds him too, hoping to right his wrongs. With ACRO and Itor both bearing down, the three men must figure out how to forgive, how to work together, and how to love each other—or the coming battle will destroy them all.

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Twenty percent of all proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the It Gets Better Project.

The It Gets Better Project’s mission is to communicate to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth around the world that it gets better, and to create and inspire the changes needed to make it better for them. Visit their website for more information and to find out how you can get involved.

I read the first book in this series, Riding the Storm, and found the world fascinating. When I saw that this was still on available for review, I asked around and found that I could read this one before reading the rest of the series, so I jumped on the chance to review it.

If you aren’t familiar with the ACRO series, it is a series that has a similar premise as the X-Men. The characters have different supernatural powers and there are two groups, good (ACRO) and bad (ITOR). Both with military training.

Three the Hard Way starts of with Taggart and Justice when they are just boys. Both of their mothers had been tested on by the bad group. Their mothers didn’t have much trust for outsiders. They passed that distrust to the boys. Both Tag and Justice have an affinity with metal and magnetic fields. Their powers work very well together. These two boys grew up as best friends.

Then we jump to several years later. Both of their mothers have been been killed by ITOR. Tag and Justice go their separate ways. Justice joins ACRO. Tag gets captured by ITOR. Tag is tortured and forced to do some really bad things. Tag escapes and is hiding out in Alaska, but thinks he has been spotted, so he turns to the only family he has, Justice.

Enter Ian. Ian is a mercenary. He generally works for ITOR. He was to bring Tag in to ITOR. He told ITOR that Tag was not the right man for the job, but they really don’t care. So, Ian turns Tag in and it is the worse decision he has ever made. ITOR wants Ian to find Tag now that he’s escaped. Ian, on the other hand, tracks Tag down to warn him that ITOR is on his tail.

Three the Hard Way is a short, fun and quick read. You have Tag, who has had relationships with both men, but has been betrayed in different ways by both. I got Tag reconnecting with each of the men quickly. I don’t know that I buy Justice and Ian taking to each other quite so quickly, but that’s okay.

The story was well written. Three the Hard Way was fully developed, even if the romance was quick. I really liked all the characters. As per the theme of this series, the story is pretty erotic. I still enjoy the world and can’t wait to get into more books in this series even if I am reading them a little out of order.

ACRO Series
My Review