The Number of Love - Book Review

Who doesn't love a good espionage novel? When I picked up The Number of Love, I thought it was just a typical historical novel, but I quickly found out it was based on an intelligence group within the British Admirality during World War I. This was my first book by Roseanna M. White and it will certainly not be my last. The Number of Love is a WWI historical romance and the first in a three book series. If you liked The British Booksellers by Kristy Cambrom, you’ll love The Number of Love.

Plot Summary

Margot De Wilde enjoys using her math skills in Room 40, where codebreakers within the British Admirality dedicate their time to discovering the enemy's next move. When a death occurs in her life, she’s left reeling and seeks to find the answers of why and how it happened. And if it wasn’t for Drake Elton's flirting and a puzzling stranger's game in the park, she could focus on that wholeheartedly.

Espionage agent Drake Elton is intrigued the minute he meets the mathematical Margot. He’s put in an unusual position to interact with her when he’s wounded on the field in Spain and sent home to heal. His work in the field follows him home when a enemy agent comes to England. Drake and Margot must work together to crack the codes and discover the agent's sinister plan before it's too late.

Personal Thoughts

Margot and Drake were both amazing characters, though they were different from each other. Margot was logical, precise, and mathematical. Drake was sanguine, persistent, and thoughtful. Also, it's a little thing, but I loved how he sent her encoded notes. At the end I wanted to know what was going on with Camden (one of the side characters) and what his story was.

I always love a good espionage novel, and this book hit it out of the park. Though Das Gespenst was clearly a little crazy, his motivations were realistic. John Williams and his board game also intrigued me and I couldn't figure out how it all fit together until the end. The case had me on my toes and the final plot twist threw me.

Notes

Steam Level: 💋💋

This is the first book in The Codebreakers series.

Ramblings Inspired by the Book

After her loved one passes, Margot reacts by boxing up her feelings and trying to find the answers. She doesn't know why God allowed it to happen and since He won't give her the answers, she sets out to find them herself. She's trying to find a logical reason for the unexpected passing but the answers don't match up with her expectations. Eventually, she has to accept that sometimes, God does things that don't make sense to us.

Though most of us are not as mathematical and precise as Margot, we tend to look for the logic in tragedies and losses. Perhaps that's why we most often ask "Why?" when anything occurs. It's hard to accept that there are some things that occur that don't make sense. We don't know why they happened and we most likely won't understand while we're here on earth. Psalm 139:6 puts it this way: "Such knowledge ... is too high, I cannot comprehend it" (NASB).

At the end of the day, God is the only One who is all-knowing and all-powerful. We are finite humans with finite minds who cannot comprehend why God allows some things to happen. However, we can comprehend that God has purpose behind the bad things in this world. When we can't understand why something happened, we can trust that God is working through it and though it doesn't make sense to us, it makes complete sense to Him.

For those of you who have read The Number of Love, what did you think of it? For those who have not read it, would you? Tell me in the comments below!