Review - Taken by Fire by Sydney Croft

HIS MISSION WAS TO TAKE HER OUT. BUT DESIRE GOT IN THE WAY. A product of genetic manipulation, Melanie Milan shares a body with her malevolent sister Phoebe. A sleek, blonde predator with a heart of pure darkness, Phoebe puts their body through the wicked underbelly of sex for thrills—when she’s not igniting her pyrokinetic skills for an evil organization bent on taking over the world. Melanie rarely gets out to play—much less fall in love. But that changes when rival ACRO agent Stryker Wills shows up, with a mission to take out the woman who torched his partner. An operative with rare abilities, Stryker soon realizes that the woman he’s about to kill isn’t the murderous fire starter he’s hunting. But he does want her. Melanie, with the power to ice anything in her path, is heating things up in ways that are setting his blood on fire. As long as Melanie stays in control, she is his best ally to bring down her sister and stop hellish havoc from being unleashed. Walking a tightrope of longing and hate, Stryker and Melanie begin to understand that true power lies in sweet surrender to each other, to the fire between them, to the erotic adventure that’s joined their hearts and abilities to become their salvation—and perhaps the world’s.

For this last installment in the wonderful ACRO series, I’m going to do a little different format for the review. By now, we all know that this is the final showdown with the big bad Alek, head of Itor, and the book had 3 storylines going, our lead couple Stryker and Melanie, Annika and Creed and finally Dev. This review will focus on the characters, their place in this book and the overall series.

Stryker & Melanie

I’ve been looking forward to Melanie’s story for quite awhile and it doesn’t disappoint. Melanie shares a body with her sister Phoebe. They are not split personalities, but 2 separate individuals, who have to share a body. Only one person can come out at a time and they are total opposites. Phoebe, to put it very mildly is a total crazy psychopath. She’s an agent with Itor, Alek’s daughter and wants nothing more than to see ACRO and especially Dev go down in flames. She hates Melanie with a passion and is just a horrible person. Her talent is fire, whereas Melanie’s is ice and when Phoebe’s in control she’s out for blood. Melanie is the sweetest person and has been trapped in a life she desperately wants out of. Phoebe has so many enemies that when Melanie is in control of their body, she can’t leave the house for fear of those enemies mistaking her for Phoebe. She has her gift of turning everything and everyone into blocks of ice, but beneath that, she’s not a fighter. She longs for a normal life, one with a husband, kids, a career, but with having to share a body with Phoebe she can’t risk having any of that. Phoebe would destroy any life Melanie tried to make for herself out of spite.

Enter Stryker. He’s out to get Phoebe who killed his partner and when he finally catches up to her, its Melanie he faces. It takes him quite awhile to reconcile the fact that they are 2 very different women and while he’s falling in love with Melanie, he still wants to end Phoebe. Melanie teams up with ACRO in the hopes of finding a way to keep Phoebe from taking over permanently. Dev wants to use her to help bring an end to Itor, and I wanted Melanie to just be happy! It’s a tough road for Stryker and Melanie, Phoebe does her best to ruin everything for between them and have I mentioned that she is 100% evil?  There’s one scene specifically that shows the length that Phoebe will go to ruin Melanie. I don’t want to spoil the scene, but the total sum of everything she does in that moment shows how full of hate Phoebe is. It was a hard scene to read, and makes it clear that Phoebe has no conscious, no care for anyone if they stand in the way of what she wants.

Stryker and Mel go through a lot of angst, and I wondered throughout most of the book how it was going to be possible for their relationship to work. They're a great couple to cheer for and as is the case in all the previous ACRO books, sex plays a huge role, not only with how it’s needed to counter the agents extraordinary abilities, but what starts out as sex by necessity turns into so much more.

Creed & Annika

Hands down, they are my favorite ACRO couple. At one time, I longed for them to have their own full book, but it’s almost better that we got their supporting storyline running through the entire series. We had Oz’s vision coming to the forefront in this story and their ending was so emotional and perfect, I couldn’t have hoped for anything more for this couple. Thinking about where Annika was at the beginning of the series to now being on her way to motherhood, committed to Creed, having a family that includes Dev, she’s come a long way. It made me laugh to read about her waddling around when we’re so used to her running around and kicking ass.

Annika eyed the couch and then decided that if she sat, she’d be turtled and never get up again.

Creed goes through the emotional wringer in this one. He worries about Oz’s vision of Annika, his child’s birth, things that happen during the final few scenes and finally losing someone who’s very close to him. If ever a couple deserved an HEA, it’s Creed and Annika.

Dev & Gabe (& Oz)

Gabe has stuck by Dev through quite a bit, even when Dev couldn’t and wouldn’t give all of himself to Gabe, he still loved him and waited. Waited for that time when Dev would finally be able to move past the loss of Oz and open himself up to finding love again. Oz played such a wonderful role in this story and was the driving force of finally giving Dev closure and bringing Dev and Gabe together for good. The path was rocky, as it always is, but in their final scene I had tears threatening to fall and was cursing Oz for making me grab the tissues! Dev deals with so much pressure running ACRO and worrying that each decision he makes could lead to being the wrong one for his agents and with Gabe and eventually Melanie, he’s found a soft place to land. He’s only ever longed for love and family and in the end he’s surrounded by it, more than he probably ever hoped he would be. It’s of course not easy getting there for him and those around him, but if ever a guy needed some happiness, it’s Dev.

While this story focused on Stryker and Melanie and their relationship, the final showdown with Alek and Itor didn’t disappoint. We get to see all the ACRO agents in action and they all come out blazing with their special abilities. I also love that we get a really nice final scene, giving us a little bit of info about where each of our favorite ACRO couples are, their families and perhaps if Larissa Ione and Stephanie Tyler ever give Sydney Croft a chance to spinoff or continue this series, we may have met the next generation of ACRO agents by books end.  

Release date: June 28, 2011
Publisher: Bantam Dell
Buy Here: Amazon.com | B&N
For more information on the ACRO series, check out the author's site: Sydney Croft