Google’s point of view on paid links is quite clear: they have no objection to them, but they won’t improve your SERPs or PR. They’re only useful to bring direct traffic from the site you’re paying.
PR is meant to be an indication of how respected your site is by others. In a way, reciprocal links go against this ethos – if all we do is ‘vote’ for each other’s sites, it’s worthless. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point Google discount all reciprocal links. 3-way links are a way round this, but it wouldn’t be too hard for Google to discover if the owners of multiple sites are doing this and discount those too.
In the long term, your site will do well if it’s linked to by sites which Google respects. At the start of the website life-cycle, that’s incredibly hard unless you’re doing something unique and worthwhile. So do something unique and worthwhile!
Sticky content is the way to success with Google. Have content on your site that people just have to link to – that will get you respect in your chosen industry, Google will see it as a vote of confidence and your site will start to rank well.
I’m afraid there are no shortcuts. This is a long haul and whether, in the current climate, it’ll be ultimately worth the effort is debatable.