This felt like a bit of a slow burn at times, but it's because Moreno-Garcia is building strong, believable characters and dialogue--and boy does her talent at that shine in this book! Even when the plot felt a bit slow, I still enjoyed the characters and world. And the amount of detail made the story feel cohesive and immersive.

I enjoyed the dynamic-ness of Nina and liked her more and more (in the beginning she was a bit annoying sometimes).

And Valérie, wow, it's been a while since I've come across such a convincing and strong antagonist. She's one of those you love to hate. Having read 4 of Moreno-Garcia's novels now, I can tell this is one of her strengths, and I enjoy her stories all the more for it. Not all novelists have the skill for building such good--or bad?--antagonists.

I wasn’t sure if I would like this book because it’s not really a genre I gravitate towards, but I always like to read new thing. This book did not disappoint! I loved it’ it was so cute, true to the time period, with a bit of fantasy (which I love). This book might turn me into an avid romance reader lol. Loved it!

*4.5 stars

“He was chained to her, to this brilliant ideal of a perfect love.”

Everytime I read a book by Sivia Moreno-Garcia, I’m always amazed by how different they all are from each other.

The Beautiful Ones is a fantasy of manners and I would describe it as more of a fantasy romance. I’m not a huge romance reader, but when I say I adored every aspect of this book, especially the romance. In fact, I would argue that the romance was the main selling point for me.

This follows two characters, Nina and Hector. Nina is new to society and her cousin wants her to find a good match before she gets too old. However, Nina is not what people would call an acceptable lady, especially according to her cousin’s wife, Valèrie.

Nina eventually meets Hector who is a very talented and famous telekinetic. She is enthralled by him and he eventually begins courting her. Hector is keeping a huge secret from Nina though that may threaten the friendship they have formed.

This reminded me so much of those regency romances and I really didn’t think this would be my thing, but it was. The biggest selling point of this story are the characters, especially Nina and Hector. I loved them both even if I was frustrated with Hector quite a bit. Nina is so headstrong and so uniquely herself in a society that rewards conformity. She was so full of life and I just loved following her throughout the story.

Hector is the complete opposite. He’s more mysterious and he has a lot of inner turmoil, especially as it concerns his love life. I can’t say too much about it because it would get into spoiler territory, but just know that I wanted Hector to wake up and get out from under the spell of a certain someone.

The last character we unfortunately have to meet is Valèrie, who I despised from the very beginning and that feeling got worse as the story progressed. I think that’s one of the reasons this didn’t get five stars from me. Valèrie storyline went on too long for my liking. It kind of took away from the love story of Nina and Hector. I was lowkey over it by the end.

Now this is a fantasy and there is this society, The Beautiful Ones, that I wish was explored a bit more. The only thing we really know about them is that they value beauty, a very white beauty that Nina doesn’t fit into, and they have to act a certain way.

Despite that, I still loved this so much and that was because I looked at this as more of Fantasy Romance, heavy on the romance, and I recommend that is how everyone who picks up this book looks at it.

Nowhere near as good as Mexican Gothic!

This was a fairly straightforward society romance novel, with just a pinch of magical realism for flavor. There was some good drama and some nice prose, but all in all it felt so much longer than it actually was. Idk, it's fine, there's nothing outright wrong with it—it just falls pretty easily into the last position on my list of Moreno-Garcia books.