#BookReview: Worth the Fight by Anna Hackett

Worth the Fight (Unsanctioned #3) by Anna Hackett
Format: eARC
Source: author
Genres: contemporary romance, romantic suspense
Series: Unsanctioned #3
Pages: 266
Published by Anna Hackett on June 30, 2026
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Goodreads

She needs me to fight for her.
Cole
I’m no hero. I’m a former mercenary and retired assassin. I’m rough, I live in the darkness, and keep the demons at bay by fighting in the underground Las Vegas fight rings.
Then I see her.
She’s offered up as a prize. She’s young, pretty, and far too innocent.
She’s everything I’m not.
I’ll fight for her, then I’ll set her free.
And I’ll keep my hands to myself…no matter how much I want to touch her.
Lili
I shouldn’t have been surprised when my deadbeat dad sells me to a ruthless businessman to pay his debt. Now, I’m the prize for a deadly illegal fight and I’m terrified.
Until I hear the fighter known as the Wolf will fight.
I know Cole Black is quiet, intense, and dangerous, but something tells me I can trust the scarred fighter.
But when he gets me free of the ring, that’s when my real troubles begin.
That businessman…he won’t let me go.
Now, I’m being hunted and the only person who can keep me safe is Cole.
But I soon learn he has his own secrets, his own burning need for revenge, and I might end up caught in the crossfire.

My Review:

Something about the opening of this one struck a bell – and that’s not JUST a pun. The scenario reminded me of any number of fantasy romances where the romance begins with the MMC (male main character) swooping in to rescue the FMC (female main character) after she’s been put up as the prize in some type of no-holds-barred and quite possibly illegal fight. Or a tournament of some sort.

Lili’s father is a former fighter and current coach for an illegal fight ring, as well as a spineless toady for the rich asshole who runs the operation. Dear old dad has “sold” his daughter to his boss because he’s scared, he owes money, and he doesn’t give a damn about anyone but himself.

Lili is intended to be the “reward” for one of the more popular fighters in this bloody ring – because he wants her and she’s said “NO” and he can’t handle that. Which is where Cole Black steps into the ring. He usually fights to quiet his demons. All the men of the Avernus have them, and this is Cole’s way of dealing with his. That he wants to protect Lili is something he can’t admit to himself.

But he just can’t let this happen. So he doesn’t. Setting off a chain of events and consequences that will save Lili from the life her father sold her into, crack the ice around Cole Black’s heart, and bring down one of the richest and dirtiest operations in Las Vegas.

Letting one more happy ever after brighten the Las Vegas nights at what was once the darkest club in town, Avernus.

Escape Rating B: I know this shouldn’t affect my review of the book, but this is a series where the covers aren’t working for me. I LOVE the Special Edition covers, but the regular covers, not so much. I think it’s that the photo covers don’t match the image in my head. The regular cover is at right, so perhaps your ogling mileage may vary.

About the book, first, this was a terrific book for a long day of travel. It’s a world I already know, populated with characters I’m already both familiar with and fond of. It was easy to slip back into the Avernus just to visit with my book friends. With a new story on top.

So, I was happy to be there, glad to go on another romantic adventure with these characters, but you probably sense that there is a ‘but’ coming. Which there is.

Because this series features a group of ‘retired’ assassins, all of the guys have a terrible case of the “I’m not worthys”, particularly that they each seem to believe they’re not worthy of, or too tainted for, the love of the somewhat younger and hopefully less jaded woman they’ve fallen for and refuse to let into their admittedly darkly-shaded gray worlds.

Their hearts are already a lost cause, it just takes each of them a while – and a threat to their would-be partner – to get with the program.

So far, I’ve enjoyed No Matter the Cost the most specifically because it’s the one story that doesn’t follow the pattern. The woman who has already stolen Sebastian Thorne’s heart is ALSO an assassin.

Howsomever, Worth the Fight returned to the original pattern, where Cole is certain he’s too old, too jaded and too tainted for Lili who isn’t half so innocent and naive as he imagines she is. And has already faced the gray of her own real and dirty world. She just needs Cole to help get her out before her situation turns entirely black.

Which, of course, he does. But I hope the next book in the series gets there by a slightly different road than both this story and Burn the World Down. We’ll find out sometime later this year.

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