The Beautiful Ones

Book Title: The Beautiful Ones

Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Date Started: May 13th 2023

Date Completed: May 28th 2023

Genres: Romance, Historical

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

The Beautiful Ones was definitely more romance focused than I had expected after reading Mexican Gothic, though the setup and many themes carry through; this is Regency era politically infused love schemes with Moreno-Garcia's signature stylistic flair. Honestly, it's not my kind of genre, namely because I find characters who act this way very hard to get behind - but kudos is due to the book for giving tempered backstory so characters' actions are motivated. Unfortunately, I still didn't really enjoy reading any of the perspectives.

There's an awful lot of preamble for a final crux that wraps up startingly fast and neatly. The first half of the book acts essentially as a prologue for the latter, and I wished it hadn't felt so separate and detached. I also felt the magical elements were underused and more like some aesthetic feathers than built solidly into the world, which I found a little disappointing as the concept was interesting and felt at times like it could have contributed to raising tension and political pressure. In the end, it was just sort of displayed and left alone.

Much of this book, from the early plot to worldbuilding, was necessary for the final beats but felt largely included just for the deus ex machina. The distinction between the 'beautiful ones' of the title and everyone else felt tagged on for an explicit status divide but not followed through with lore or actual politics. While this is predominantly a love story, I had hoped that the background framing everything and so deliberately thought about would be more than just a background in the end.