I’m such a fan of Moreno-Garcia. I didn’t even read the description of her most recent book, when requesting it from the library. She’s such a talented exciting author…how could one go wrong with her latest work?
Well, this is how. By expecting a dark supernatural or noir thriller, liberally flavored with Mexican and/or South American mythology, etc. and getting a vapid romance set in a place that appears to be inspired by sometime ago France. Why is Moreno-Garcia writing this crap and why does she think that just by giving her two protagonist telekinetic powers, it’ll make it something other than a wrist-wringing-bring-n-the-feinting-couch romance novel? Seriously? It’s just sad. For the author to waste her considerable talent on something like this? Was it done for a paycheck alone? Or is she courting a…less discriminating more basic audience? Who’s to say? And this book did gather oodles of acclaim from respectable sources, but really…romance? Eeewww. I mean, it’s still a well written one, Moreno-Garcia is just too good of a storyteller to offer something less, but it really is quite basic. Specifically, a plot as trite as a good old love triangle. A famous telekinetic magician, the torrid love affair of his youth who is now a wealthy married dame of society of the eponymous Beautiful Ones, and her niece by marriage, an uncouth but well born young woman who becomes her rival. The performer and the lady once were all googaa for each other, one summer a decade ago. Then he went off to make his fortune and she gave in to her familial pressures and married for money. To a perfectly nice man, but still…she resents the situation and him along with it, a resentment that soured her entire existence. Now she has to babysit her spouse’s country cousin with the goal of marrying her off. The magician performer dude, meanwhile, made his money but never got over the woman who left him and now he’s back in town and circling her. And for convenience’s sake decides to court the niece to get closer to the aunt. Nifty, right? Well, sure enough sparks, however one-sides, do the thing that sparks do and the young woman falls for him. They both can move things with their minds. Yey. But alas, the course of true love and all that… Things don’t work out then. And when the two of them pick it back up a year later, the sparks are more dangerous, almost enough to start a fire. There. I made it sound as exciting as a romance novel can be. Which isn’t very. If you’re a fan of the author, you just expect more. The entire time. And it doesn’t come. It’s just this. This slow-simmering slow dance for three, trite, twee, and predictable to boot. What a waste. Seriously. It’s like watching Christian Bale do a Geicko commercial or something. Mostly it made me angry for being tricked into reading a freaking romance novel. You know, those things written for people who have no concept of how real life/love works. If you want telekinesis and lurv, Eleven and Mike have a more exciting and realistic romantic subplot on Stranger Things. Sheesh. Ok, here’s hoping this was a one off and now a new direction for Moreno-Garcia. Because otherwise, this (like the book’s prestigious society) is all the wrong kind of beauty.
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