The Beautiful Ones

Antonina "Nina" Beaulieu comes to the city of Loisail for her first Grand Season. She lodges with her cousin Gaétan and his wife Valérie, a calculating hostess. Nina wants a place among the Beautiful Ones, the city's fashionable set, but she is a provincial girl whose telekinetic gift keeps slipping out of control.

Her efforts to fit in earn her mostly gossip, with little admiration. Soon she meets Hector Auvray, a telekinetic performer who has become known on stage, and who is full of charm. He proposes to coach her until she can control her gift, and he starts courting her.

Hector's attention carries a motive Nina cannot see. His past with the Beaulieu household is tied up with Valérie's, and that history shapes how he treats the newcomer.

The novel is a fantasy of manners told from three points of view, so the reader sees what each character hides from the others. It is set in an invented city with a Belle Époque feel, where telekinesis is the only magic. Love, ambition and the cost of acceptance in high society are all in play as the Season unfolds.