Download A Heartless Design (Secrets Of The Zodiac #1) Expressed By Elizabeth Cole Shown In Hardcover

started as a cute historical romance but by the end it dragged a bit, Cordelia Bering a female engineer, Working under a false name as women were not taken seriously in this era, becomes caught up in an international plan to steal her plans, on a ship made from iron which could win the war for the French should they manage to get their hands on them.
Sebastien Thorne, a spy in the service of Crown has been given the job of intercepting the plans to stop them getting into the hands of the french.
This was okay. It took me way too long to finish for what it is, The premise was good, the characters were fine, and I have to give the author props for creating strong, intelligent female characters.
That's awesome. Also props for the criminal justice rehabilitation narrative thrown in there as well, I appreciate that especially in an historical novel.


However, for whatever reason this just didn't pull me in, The pace was extremely slow and I was often bored, I had no real desire to continue reading this except to take it off my "currently reading" shelf once in for all and I'm not a quitter.
I received a complimentary copy of this book as a part of a book tour in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I rated it.out ofStars.

Taking place during the Napoleonic wars, A Heartless Design by Elizabeth Cole is the story of the romance between an intelligent, headstrong woman determined to control her own life and a recently titled nobleman secretly working for his Majesty's secret service.
Well developed characters, good world building, engaging dialogue and just the right amount of physical action, kept me turning the pages to discover what was going to happen next.
Adding just the right amount of romantic and sexual heat, Ms, Cole crafts an intriguing historical romantic suspense and a strong beginning for her new series,

A young woman, often referred to as "heartless", Cordelia Bering is intelligent, independent and beautiful, Realizing marriage would limit her freedom, Cordelia has turned down every marriage proposal she's received, regardless of who makes the offer.
A woman with secrets, Cordelia manages her own money, her own house and more than a handful of servants, Inheriting her father's gift towards design and engineering, Cordelia dreams of the day when her most treasured invention, The Andraste, can take to the seas.
Keeping her father's legacy alive, and making her own contributions in engineering, even though she has to make them under an assumed identity, keeps her busy during the day and enables her to live in the style to which she's become accustomed.


An Earl by default, Sebastien Thorne works as a secret agent for his Majesty's kingdom, Secretly a member of the "Zodiac", Sebastien is tasked with discovering all he can about The Andraste, an invention no one seems to know anything about, but which enemies of the crown have developed an interest in.
Determined to complete his mission, Sebastien encounters Cordelia at every turn and begins to wonder if she's a spy working for the French or if fate has put her in his way as a stumbling block.


The scenes between Cordelia and Sebastien are well written and lots of fun, They have great verbal and sexual chemistry and Sebastien has a hard time keeping his hands off Cordelia, who he nicknames "Cor".
Both intelligent, and with secrets they are carefully guarding, they never the less continue to run into each other, When Sebastien begins to unravel the secrets Cordelia is hides behind, he discovers a strong woman willing to go to any length to care for and protect those she loves.
He also discovers his perfect match,

As Cordelia begins to understand Sebastien and what drives him, she discovers a man who's determined to keep his country and family safe from any enemy.
She discovers his loyalty, his wit and his charm and falls head over heels even though she thinks marriage is something she can never have for herself.


Ms. Cole does a good job developing the secondary characters and I liked meeting and getting to know quite a few of them.
I especially liked Cordelia's widowed aunt and chaperone, Leonora, a woman who has a good sense of humor and is devoted to her niece and their happiness.
I also enjoyed getting to meet Cordelia's "staff" of servants, who all have secrets of their own and especially "Bond" her lady's maid.


I also enjoyed getting to meet Sebastien's mom and sister, who both try to make sure he's not falling back into his "wicked" prearmy ways, and the members of the "Zodiac" we get to meet.
While this book has more than one villain, only one is really well developed and it's easy to dislike him from the start he's smarmy from the get go.


Will Cordelia and Sebastian be able to keep the plans for The Andraste safe Will their fledgling relationship turn into something more permanent You'll have to read A Heartless Design to find out, I enjoyed it and look forward to reading the next book in this series.

Meh. Picked this up because it was free on ibooks, read it on my work breaks because I had nothing better to do.
Romance isn't my genre, but every now and then there are standout gems that I enjoy this just wasn't one of them.
That being said, I don't think it would be fair of me to rate it given that I knew going in that it wouldn't be my thing.
It passed the time, and it wasn't grossly chauvinistic, and that's good enough, A Reckless Soul is the second book in the Secrets of the Zodiac series, Elizabeth Cole's writing style is similar to Elizabeth Hoyt, Julia Quinn and Amanda Quick,

Sophie is a spy for the Zodiac and she's a good one, Bruce is as well. But when they are put on assignment together personalities clash, partially because Sophie is a woman,

This is the kind of Regency that I can't put down, There's more intrigue than romance here, but things are definitely heating up with Sophie and Bruce, even though they have issues with each other and the job that they are doing.
Neither wants help on the assignment they have, and would rather be working alone,

However as they start the task, they grow closer and more intimate, Love is definitely in the air, until things start to go terribly wrong, Both come close to losing their lives and there's a double agent in the Zodiac,

It is impossible not to love Sophie, She's a heroine that is strong but not without emotion, The flashbacks Ms Cole gives us of Sophie's mother will break your heart and make you want to hug Sophie.
She definitely is a woman that needs some love, even though she is strong and independent,

Bruce is a tough nut and one you'll want to hit with a stick because he refuses to trust her even when she saves his life.
He lets some pretty low people cast doubt on her character,

This was a fabulous read! I look forward to more books from this series, A Heartless Design has all the things I love in a book, It is set in Regency England, there's mystery involved and even some spying,

It really can't get much better than this,

Cordelia is one of London's most beautiful women, but she has secrets, lots of them, and they keep her from walking down the aisle.
That is until she meets Sebastian who is a member of the Zodiac,

What can I say about this book, . . Cordelia is a strong heroine, but she's not the typical Regency heroine, She's not shying away from marriage because she's independent or because men have hurt her in the past, She is independent and beyond that, terribly smart, She's turned down marriage offers from many titled gentlemen, She knows, she can't marry, because if she did, her secret would be found out and that would endanger her life.


That doesn't stop Sebastian from being the perfect

man for her,

What you have now are two people with a lot of secrets and they are falling in love.


Its funny, I read a book not too long ago with a heroine that had a career she had to hide, in that case she was an architect and in Cordelia's case, she's a designer of ships.
. . and engineer.

I really loved the mystery involving who wanted the plans and for what reason, It really was an engaging read,

Elizabeth Cole also created some great secondary characters, particularly Cordelia's servants and Sebastian's sister Adele, No story is just about the hero and heroine, and these characters really helped make this book worth reads,

This was a fantastic story that is perfect for fans of regency romance and mysteries
There are two extremes of historical romance writers: the ones that sound so historically accurate that you feel like youre in the time period no that sounds like a good thing but what Im talking is about is a story that it sounds and reads so historically it puts you to sleep and takes you forever to finish reading the book if you even ever end up finishing the book and the ones that sound like some obtuse person from the present who has never went to a history class, of any kind fell into the past and started narrating the story you are reading.
Elizabeth Cole unfortunately falls towards the latter extreme although her writing isnt as severely horrendous, Coles writing sounds like some from the present who knows a lot about London society and culture fell into the past and started narrating the story to someone also from the present who didnt have any idea what on earth the person was talking about and needed explanations and definitions for every historical thing in the story.
Now this isnt typically a bad thing for first time historical readers its actually very useful but is very annoying to the readers whove already gotten an idea of what the time period the book was set in was like.


Another thing, Cole did that a lot of writers do especially in romance novels is to do the first chapter in the guy or girls point of view and then do the second chapter in the other ones.
This is okay but what I didnt like it was that by chapter three there was already too many different plots going on Cordelias servants secret pasts, Cordelias passion for making ships, Sebastians mission as a spy, Sebastians need to tell everyone hes poor so he doesnt get pinned to a gel, a young genteel girl , if you didnt already know by the way this is what Im talking about but Cole does it much better and subtly than me.


I dont know I didnt like this story as much as I thought I would, This isnt the best spy novel Ive ever read that honor goes to another, I give Heartless a solid three,
.