My Thoughts: Ever since I’ve seen The Thomas Crown Affair I’ve been fascinated by heist and art theft stories. Be it movies or books I’m all for it (sadly in my opinion there are not enough of these stories), so when I heard that Jenna Bennett’s (whose previous paranormal romance Tall, Dark and Divine I enjoyed a lot) new release had this set-up I couldn’t wait to read it.

ACT of Redemption is the first book in a new series by Jenna Bennett, the Art Crime Team Mystery series, featuring the FBI’s special team specialized in art theft recovery (“FBI art theft. You steal it, we reveal it.”). What I loved about ACT of Redemption was that it had many facets making it an original and unusual romance: it had the art theft storyline, the mystery element, the globe-trotting/virtual sightseeing set-up as well as the discovering your ancestry and finally the budding romance just to name the main ones.

The characters seemed real and were likeable, the heroine very relatable, while the hero dashing and crush-worthy. I loved how despite being a serious hunk Nick was a good guy with a great and protective heart, and the chemistry between Annika and himself was just lovely. Nick’s humour at times made me chuckle:

Fredrik nodded. “I’ll send someone down there to pick up the bag and bring it back here.”
“Don’t bother.” Nick headed for the door. “I’ll go down there myself. And tomorrow morning I’ll take the first ferry to Gotland and give her the bag myself. And tell her everything.” And then he’d shake her until her teeth rattled and ask her what the hell she thought she was doing, ducking him. If he liked her answer, he might kiss her.

at times made me erupt with laughter:

Her eyes widened behind the lenses, and her mouth dropped open. He grinned and lowered his voice.
“Librarians may do it quietly. But some of us do it well enough to make any woman scream.” And then he winked and left her standing there while he went to greet the police.

and then at times made me sigh:

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have told you… I just thought… before… that you should know.” Her lip started quivering, and she bit down on it, and that was his undoing.
“Listen to me.” His voice was rough, even in his own ears. “I don’t care what your father did. I don’t care what you’re doing. You can have the entire contents of the treasure chamber at the Visby museum hidden in your underwear drawer at home, and I couldn’t care less. All I care about right now is kissing you. And if you keep dropping things like that on me, I can’t.”
“I’m sorry…”
“Don’t be sorry. Just kiss me back.”

As already mentioned,  besides being an exciting mystery and a sweet and sexy romance ACT of Redemption also worked as a travel guide and history book: Jenna Bennett infused the story with descriptions and trivia about the location and Swedish history which I found fascinating as they were colourful and leapt off the pages. I enjoyed the virtual sightseeing and guided tour Jenna Bennett took me as a reader on with her story, making notes of the sights a tourist might want to check out in Visby.

Verdict: ACT of Redemption was a wonderful story I greatly enjoyed! I was so engrossed in the virtual sightseeing of the romantic gothic city ruins, the race against the bad guys and the sizzling chemistry between Annika and Nick I stayed up until dawn without realizing time was flying by! ACT of Redemption had everything one could ask for in a thrilling and entertaining read: adventure, cultural travels, romantic sights, dreamy sexy hero, relatable heroine, sizzling chemistry and nail-biting mystery. I can’t wait to read more of this series and look forward to what other corner of the world Jenna Bennett will take me to next time!

I give ACT of Redemption 4.5 stars!

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.