The Crimson Cipher - Susan Page Davis

It's been a while since I've read one of these. By that I mean a Christian romance. The subject matter of this one appealed to me, so I decided to give it a whirl.

Emma's father has died. He's been murdered, and she now has nowhere to go. A job offer gives her the door she believes God has opened for her, and she moves off to perform cryptography work for the government. All the while, a group of German sympathizers is sabotaging significant locations, even though America hasn't yet entered the war (WWI).

So, I have personal issues with this book. The way Emma handled her father's death (or not) bothered me. She never even found out who murdered him and wasn't really trying that hard. I realize this is a personal parallel issue that I've attributed to this story, but it still bothered me. If I push that aside, I still found it a bit strange the way Emma and John thought so much about themselves when there were lives at stake. I get this is a romance story, but the sabotage/cipher portions of the book were more interesting to me.

The other thing, and it's a minor thing, is the religion. It's not saturated to the point where I couldn't read a page without being smacked in the face with it, but there were a couple spots where I was tempted to roll my eyes. For example, one of the girls is happy to have a friend who believes the same way because she may be friends with the other girls, but it's not the same as having a friend that shares her religion. Or something.

Anyway, the notes at the end were neat. Learning what was based on facts that happened and what were fictitious was helpful, and the reading suggestions were interesting. The story itself was okay, but I wish there had been more focus on the matters at hand. People were blowing up ships and factories, and these two are worried about their next date. It also would have been nice to have more stakes with Kobold (the mastermind). He just pops up here and there and yells at people. Add that to the "daddy issue" I personally had, and I was on the fence with this one. I don't think it was written super poorly. It just wasn't for me.