However, I was won over by the characters themselves, and the minute detail in which the author delineates their shifting relationships. Her detailed physical description of Nina made me wonder it she was referring to a portrait, perhaps a family one. I did wonder why the author had chosen to tell this story. I imagine that the author will have refined this in later works. The copyright date is 2017, so this is reprint of an early novel. Meanwhile Hector pays court to Nina in order to get closer to Valerie, and Nina asks him to help her manage her abilities, which currently involve breaking crockery and causing books to fall off shelves.Īlthough we are treated to descriptions of sumptuous interiors, ornaments and clothing, the prose itself is a little awkward, and could have done with a bit of sub-editing. Nina herself has telekinetic powers, and is also an amateur entomologist, both of which are likely to prove a hindrance in the search.

Nina’s mother is hoping for a suitable match for her, but Nina wants “the romance of a lifetime followed by the grandest wedding imaginable”. The characters gyrate weightlessly in a city of painted wallpapers and gilded furniture, glass conservatories, velvet curtains, mosaics and chandeliers. Whilst I can understand the desire not to set the novel in actual France, to avoid pedantic people like me picking holes, it does leave the novel strangely unmoored, with neither history nor politics to anchor it. We have no hint, however of French politics and history. Motor cars and photographic cameras have recently been invented. We are not, however, in Regency England, but somewhere reminiscent of France at the dawn of the 20 th Century. But now Hector is back, and he is still obsessed with Valerie. Ten years ago, Valerie threw Hector over to marry Nina’s wealthy cousin Gaétan, and Hector crossed the ocean to make his fortune in the continent of Iblevad.

Valerie is a Beautiful One, and Nina will join her if she marries well. But in any case, Hector is madly in love with Valerie Beaulieu, Nina’s chaperone and sponsor into society. Hector meets Nina at a ball, and is unimpressed by her “square jaw, black hair and thin lips”. They are however prepared to be amused by entertainers such as Hector Auvray, a telekinetic stage magician. Aristocrats from old money, they despise the merely rich. The Beautiful Ones are the crème de la crème of Loisail society. The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The beautiful ones silvia moreno garcia