Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Three the Hard Way 
SERIES: Part of the ACRO series
AUTHOR: Sydney Croft
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 160 pages
BLURB:
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.
REVIEW:
I have read all of the ACRO books I think, but there may have been a couple in anthologies I missed…. I loved them, the creativity in the characters and the plots kept me very entertained over the years as they came out. I was quite surprised to see this one on Riptide Publishing’s website, I didn’t think we’d see any more from this series. So I gladly asked to review it!
Justice and Taggart grew up together, their mothers were held by Itor (the bad guys), and experimented on, resulting in two boys with exceptional powers. They all managed to escape, and the moms and boys were able to live for some time without the evil influence of Itor. Unfortunately it all went to shit when the boys were in college, and the two go their seperate ways. Justice to ACRO (the good guys), the less trusting Tag off on his own. Only to end up manipulated, captured, and forced to join Itor. He gets away and heads to a remote cabin he has in Alaska. In desperation he calls ACRO trying to find Justice, his only hope.
Justice goes to him, but so does Ian, the man who betrayed him to Itor. The three spend some time locked in a cabin in a blizzard, and guess what happens next? You got it….. enemies to lovers sex. Justice and Tag have rough-I-hate-you sex about fifteen minutes after reuniting, then continue to fight and argue, which only escalates when Ian arrives. Justice hates Ian on sight, and is pretty pissed off at Tag. Tag is pissed at Justice, and hates Ian. Ian hates Justice, but loves Tag. Around and around they go.
So there wasn’t a lot of plot. Most of the book, with the exception of a bit in the beginning about Tag and Justice as boys, and a glimpse of Justice in Devlin’s office, takes place in a very well stocked cabin the middle of nowhere Alaska. It was pretty much the three men arguing, fighting, and fucking. Which was fine for what it was, but the arguing got old, and it was soooo predictable. Of course they’d end up lovers. No surprise at all. They discuss things that happened in past books, but this didn’t contribute anything to the overall series. There was a bit of excitement and action just before the end of the book, which I loved! I wish it had more of that and less arguing. The ending was good, but felt like it was tacked on to make it a Christmas story.
I liked it, but I’m not sure it really had anything to do with the ACRO books. Yes, it had ACRO and Itor characters, but it could have been any three men in a cabin with issues, being chased by bad guys and good guys. They do have special powers, and we do see some of that, in fact Tag and Justice’s abilities play a big part, but it just didn’t feel like an ACRO book to me. It felt like a short story set in a familiar world, with familiar characters making appearances, and the main characters having sex. I couldn’t help thinking back on some of the awesome ACRO books with action, drama, big plots, fighting, and intrigue, and missing that all in this book. The first half was bland, but the second half was exciting. I wish the whole thing had been like the second half. I can’t say that there was anything wrong with the book, but there were no surprises, no big moments, nothing made me go “Oh shit!”. I didn’t dislike it, but after reading it nothing really stands out in my mind about it. It was a good story about three men stuck in a cabin having sex. That’s about it!
If you like enemies to lovers plots you’ll like this. If you have read the ACRO books you should probably read this one as well. If you like three-somes you’ll probably like this one. If you don’t, well…. maybe not a good choice. There was no romance, and not much in the way of love declarations. A couple of sex scenes between two at a time, then all three, that were very well done. The writing was good, the plot was predictable, there is a good connection established between the main characters (mostly hate to begin with), there was some action in the second half, and it had a happy ending.
RATING: 
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