The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Antonina “Nina” Beaulieu has arrived in the city of Loisail for her first Grand Season with the hopes of finding the love of her life to marry. She’s been sent to live with Valérie Beaulieu who will oversee Nina as she attends balls and mingles among the high society. Nina coming from wealth should have no problem finding a husband with one exception, she has telekinetic powers that she hasn’t been able to control leaving her the subject of gossip.

When Nina meets Hector Auvray who happens to be a telekinetic performer she is immediately drawn to him with the two sharing their ability. Hector doesn’t shun Nina but instead sees her powers as a gift and begins to help her hone her skills and learn to control them. As the two spend more and more time together Nina thinks she may have found the love she had been looking for but Hector hasn’t let Nina the whole truth about himself.

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is mainly a historical romance story that has the added element of the two main characters in the story being telekinetic. I think those looking for more of the fantasy side involving telekinetic powers will be a bit disappointed in this one as it’s a very very small detail that doesn’t really get expanded on very much at all with the romance being the vast majority of the story. And a warning for those looking for romance the story I hope not to be too spoilery with this but it is a bit of a triangle that at one point becomes a love square so just be warned if those elements are something that you totally dislike before picking up this book.

For myself I thought the story was one that was just on the OK side since it is a rather slow moving book and I’m more of a fan of the faster pace reads. I probably would have enjoyed it a bit more myself had the author done more with the telekinesis too but I’m not sure that would have really moved it along any faster though. The story stretched over quite a bit of time and it just didn’t seem to actually have much depth to the plot other than eventually making Nina and Hector a pair so while I didn’t dislike it I wasn’t a huge fan either.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.