The Beautiful Ones
They are the Beautiful Ones, Loisail’s most notable socialites, and this spring is Nina’s chance to join their ranks, courtesy of her well-connected cousin and his calculating wife. But the Grand Season has just begun, and already Nina’s debut has gone disastrously awry. She has always struggled to control her telekinesis—neighbors call her the Witch of Oldhouse—and the haphazard manifestations of her powers make her the subject of malicious gossip. When entertainer Hector Auvray arrives to town, Nina is dazzled. A telekinetic like her, he has traveled the world performing his talents for admiring audiences. He sees Nina not as a witch, but ripe with potential to master her power under his tutelage. With Hector’s help, Nina’s talent blossoms, as does her love for him. But great romances are for fairytales, and Hector is hiding a truth from Nina — and himself — that threatens to end their courtship before it truly begins. The Beautiful Ones is a charming tale of love and betrayal, and the struggle between conformity and passion, set in a world where scandal is a razor-sharp weapon.
Praise
Moreno-Garcia fills her fantastic novel of manners with sumptuous language and plausible romantic complications in a setting that appears to be based on 19th-century France and is lightly garnished with minor magic…Readers who enjoyed Mary Robinette Kowal’s Glamourist Histories magical Regency series will be particularly enthralled by the genuine emotions evoked in the course of the unsustainable love triangle.
—Publishers Weekly
This novel of manners presents carefully crafted characters with nuanced motivations to rival any Thomas Hardy classic. Moreno-Garcia adeptly captures the ecstatic highs of first love and the bitter disappointments of first heartbreak. Hints of the paranormal and dashes of adventure and feminism are subtly interwoven, making for an unforgettable work.
—School Library Journal
The talented author of Certain Dark Things and Signal to Noise returns with a novel that is light on fantasy but overflowing with delicious melodrama … a great fit for fans of the 18th-century French classic Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
—Library Journal
This elegant tale of hidden desires and misplaced amour will appeal to fans of historical fantasy.
—Booklist
Though it may depart in setting and subgenre, The Beautiful Ones demonstrates Moreno-Garcia’s smart and colorful writing, with descriptions both sensory and sumptuous, and characters you will root for, even in their worst moments.
—B&N Blog
The Beautiful Ones is an elegantly paced novel that moves its characters into place with ease, with careful attention paid to ways a word or a moment can change an entire life.
— Book Page
Many of Moreno-Garcia’s characters do terrible, despicable things to hurt each other and profit personally in this book, but that’s what keeps them and the narrative interesting. It’s a slow-burn, stately novel about the magic of what it means to love, and love truly.
—Tor.com
Readers who enjoy light speculative elements, historical fantasy, romance, and beautiful prose will find a trove. Straddling several genres with elegant intelligence, The Beautiful Ones is both an easy read and a fulfilling one.
—Locus
This is the third novel I read by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and I loved all of them in different ways: each in a different genre by a chameleon writer with incredible writing skills.
—Kirkus
The Beautiful Ones is a hauntingly lovely book, romantic and crushing by turns, touched with magic on every level.
—Vancouver Sun
If you’ve ever thought that what Dangerous Liaisons really needed was more Force Adepts, this may very well be the book you’ve been waiting for.
—James Nicoll Reviews
The whole book is a magnificent tangle of unspoken words and feelings. Nothing is tepid; everything, even the absence of feelings, is charged with danger and heartache.
—Strange Horizons
Certain people in the world of The Beautiful Ones have telekinetic abilities, but while these abilities do play an important part in the story, this is not a story of magic unless it’s the magic of the human heart.
—FantasyLiterature.com
Whatever genre you call it, the story is compelling. I read it with the same rabid avidity with which I eat a bag of chips.
—Smart Bitches, Trashy Books