Oof I am a SUCKER for vampire books and Belle Morte did not disappoint! At first, I was nervous that this would be a bit too similar to Twilight at its core, but honestly once I started reading I was like Edward and Bella who??? Lol which basically means that no, this is not a Twilight re-write. I found it unique and refreshing - I personally may have gone with a different name than Edmond simply due to the massive popularity of Edward but meh like I said, I wasn't thinking about Twilight at all while reading.

SO! We have vampires out in the open, and since their reveal 10 years ago, they have risen to the height of fame and become celebrities. They live around the word in various "vampire houses", each with a different name. This book is based on a UK vampire house called Belle Morte. Humans apply to these houses to become donors, and get paid very well for the honor.

Renie was a headstrong, spirited girl with fire in her heart and a stubborn streak a mile long. She was loyal and determined and was more of an "act before you think" type of person which is always great in a book lol! Edmond was broody and sexy and stoic until he was vulnerable... yum. Everything I want in a male lead. He would do anything to protect Renie and it was swoon-worthy watching his devotion to her grow.

I loved all the side characters - Roux and Jason were hilarious and amazing, I ended up liking Ysanne more and more the more I read, and I'm thinking we are going to see more Ludovic and Etienne in book 2 which is exciting for two very different reasons lol!

Overall, I think this was a really great debut! You need to go in expecting a YA vampire novel, otherwise you will be disappointed. You really do need to think along the lines of Twilight, not Dracula. (I'm not saying this is like Twilight, but that's the sort of vamp novel you need to go in expecting). I went in with basic idea of what to expect and I ended up being really happy with what I read! I think the more this author develops her writing skills, the better her books are going to be and I'm really excited to watch her progress!

I had to DNF this book at 30%. This book has a very interesting premise which is why i was very eager to read it. But I just couldn’t connect to the characters. The main character comes off as very whiney. Instead of strategically searching for her sister, she starts making demands right from the first day. I understand her desperation to find her sister but the way she goes about it is very frustrating. The romance felt like an insta love with very little connection between the two characters.

I wanted to read this book because I found the concept of the vampires living openly along with humans very cool, but most of it fell flat for me. The writing lacked emotion and I found that I was not invested in anything that was happening. The characters were very basic and lacked personality.

Good story. I enjoyed it from first to last page. Renie, main character is so... Full of life and mixed emotions. Nice read for vampire books fans for sure.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

A solid story that was nice. I can see what looks like inspiration from the count of monte cristo in this novel. That was a nice nod.

This book is honestly one of the best books I’ve read this year! I’m not usually a fan of vampire based Dorris but this book turned it around! The book displays a wonderful take on vampires as celebrities in our modern world with humans volunteering to be donors. The friendships and mysteries in the book keep you reading on and wondering what is going to happen next. I highly recommend this book and believe it is a must-read!!

Vampires are the new celebrities since they outed themselves. Living in different Houses over the world, they no longer hunt humans for blood. Donor programs are the new normal and Renie has just been accepted into one. Belle Morte is where she is headed to be a donor for any and all vampires for the foreseeable future. What she hasn’t told anybody is that she’s only going there to find out what happened to her sister June.
I loved the mix of vampires into the modern social media world. The story is well written and flows easily. An intriguing plot that makes you want to keep turning the pages.
The chemistry between all the characters and their interconnecting relationships are very believable. I enjoyed the push and pull between Renie and Edmond, it makes me very interested in reading what happens in the next book. Will they find a way to each other? Will it all work out? Can’t wait to see what happens ahead.

*arc provided by NetGalley & wattpad books*
3.5 ✨
i thought this book was so fun, and so creative. the overall plot of the book was a familiar story but a completely new & entertaining spin on it. i highly recommend this book for readers who love anything vampire. the romance seemed surface level, and I wish there was more to it. it got annoying at times the back and forth of “we can’t be together but I’m falling for you” the plot twist and storyline was predictable but not necessarily in a bad way! this book sucked me in and left me satisfied (pun intended ;)) and I’m excited to see what else bella higgin has in store for edmond and renie and all of their friends :)

Did somebody say, 'vampires?' Sign me up!
This book was one of those guilty pleasures. This book has the familiar feel of your favorite vampire books while having its own spin. I really enjoyed the different POVs, and the cliffhanger ending didn't bother me. Though the pacing was not as even as I would have preferred, and the formatted file was a hot mess that made it difficult to read at times... the latter, I'm sure will be fixed before publication. I still enjoyed the story and the nostalgia it brought back from when I read Twilight for the first time when it was just another book among others in the corner of a bookstore.

Recommended to anyone who loves vampires and just wants a nice comfort read.

Okay let me say that I don't know what to say about this book which is why it's an average three stars and here is why. This book is about a girl who goes to Belle Morte, the house of vampires to find her missing donor sister and Edmond has the answers but he's hard to resist. So this book was a mix of Twilight, Crave, The Vampire Diaries and every other vampire book out here. As the story was kind of good, it just wasn't as original as I was hoping for. Some scenes are kind of what I have read before or felt like it so I was kind of fine with it but also not. I enjoyed the setting though of the whole vampire house idea and how humans know that vampires exist but aren't scared of them. That was probably the only original thing I found about it. The pacing was great too as the story slowly builds up from the beginning until to the end. The storyline was also great and there were some suprise twists that I didn't expect at some points. If I remember correctly this book is written from both Renie and Edmond's pov

The main characters in this book are Renie and Edmond. I didn't honestly enjoy Renie’s character as I often felt annoyed with her but I loved how much she loved her sister and would do anything to get her back. Edmond is the old vampire who acts like an old man but also a teenager (if that makes sense). Both characters have minor character developments but I think they could have been better. There were many side characters in this book who I enjoyed like the keeper of Belle Morte as I thought she was kind of the best morally grey, antagonist. She knows what she wants and what she has to do in order to get it. There is also romance in this book which is enemies to lovers and age gap. The romance was kind of a meh for me as I felt that it was bland and forced.

The ending was well done but in my opinion the overall story could have been better. It still felt like a wattpad story in a sense where it wasn't edited as much and just went off to publishing. You can sense so much of the past vampire books that it doesn't feel like a refreshing vampire book. But somehow there was still a part of me that enjoyed the book as I didn't dnf it and the suspense of what happened to the sister kept making me read the book.

* Thank you to NetGalley and Wattapad Books for providing me an eArc in exchange for an honest review - all thoughts and opinions are my own*

I was excited to read this book, vampires set in a very modern setting where they are A-list celebrities. They hire donors to willingly give vampires access to their blood. Our main character Renie (Irene) applies to become a donor for Belle Morte manor after her sister who is a current donor stops communicating. She fears for her sister's safety and wants to know what happened to her.

I enjoyed the premise, I thought it was a fun take on the paranormal trope of vampires. I was able to read this book very quickly. But unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book very much. I really enjoyed the setting of Belle Morte manor. However, the characters are very one dimensional, no one was unique or interesting. All the vampires are stereotypical. The main vampire Edmond is every typical male vampire stereotype - nothing new. Our human main character Renie hates vampires and wants nothing to do with them. Her only personality is the need to find her sister. I was very frustrated with her, she makes dumb decisions, isn't clever or thinks through her actions. There is insta love that I really do not like or is in anyway believable It clashes with Renie supposed ideas of vampires. It also has a very basic predictable plot with just okay writing. I guessed what happened to her sister and who did it within the first 100 pages. Also really did not like the ending, it made no sense for what our characters personalities and motivations are supposed to be - very contradictory. It also ends in a place for a sequel, so this is not a standalone.

I'm dissapointed that I didn't enjoy this book however, if you enjoy stereotypical vampire stories, an easy read, insta love, mystery maybe give this book a try.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this advanced reader copy.

This book felt a lot like a mash up of cliches I loved when I was in junior high. There was vampires, instalove, forbidden romances, and of course it’s all unsupervised by parents. This book would have been right up my alley as a teenager had it come out 15 years ago.

Renie isn’t a character who keeps her cards close to her chest. Upon finding out her sister went missing from a house that provides donors (aka humans) to vampires who have recently been pulled into the limelight, she attempts to go in there with her fists up. I usually love a headstrong character but in this case I think it would have done her some good to be more discreet with her interactions. She doesn’t try to hide why she’s there and if the vampires get suspicious they could easily expel her from the house and she’d never be permitted again. As an outside viewer I just wanted to tell her to keep her head down and stop garnering unnecessary attention, but she barrels forward with all the grace of a bull in a China shop.

Edmond and Renie develop a very odd dynamic off of the get go. This is common in YA romances/fantasies because I believe as teenagers we want to believe in “the one”. That magical connection where the girls is “not like other girls”, this is due mainly to her being willful, outspoken, or being a more casual individual. Whereas the boy is always a dark and mysterious character (and generally has a supernatural element), that draws the two young lovers together. This book relies on that trope and there’s a reason it is repeated in books and movies; it’s because it’s popular and makes people excited about a story.

Renie (Mary Sue) believes from the beginning of the book that Edmund believes she is special. She expects him, essentially a stranger to her, to spill secrets and betray other vampires he has known for far longer than her. It makes her character seem immature and naive at times.

I unfortunately guessed the twist ending within the first 30% of the book and that was disappointing when I got to the end and I was correct. I personally would have liked to see stronger characterizations and had the book rely less on overused stereotypes. I haven’t truly enjoyed a vampire book in quite a long time so perhaps personally for me I’m just not the target audience for this particular book.

I rounded up to 3 stars, but it was more of a 2.5 stars for me. This book had the interesting vibes with all the different vampire materials thrown in along with the potential romance and such. The story as a whole had some good elements, but other times it really was just scattered and had a different pacing than most books. It would jump around a lot and also didn't give you a lot of backstory on most of the characters which was difficult at times to follow. I liked the idea of the book, but didn't love the whole story. The ending was different as well, I'm not sure if there's a sequel or if it just ended? Anyway, it was fine, just not a highly recommended book for me. If you were looking for a vampire book, then this would fit that book category, but this doesn't make it high on my book list.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

In fair warning, Belle Morte definitely reads like a debut (in terms of pacing, characterization, writing style, the love triangle, the twists and the scenes very reminiscent of other popular books), but it was still a really easy to read and fun fantasy romance. The premise reminded me of The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, which I love, and the plot was quite enjoyable and easy to follow. The romance, although not the enemies to lovers it was advertised to be, was pretty cute (the guys falls first/guy loves her more trope is always really cute, regardless of execution). I've been getting back into fantasy after reading a ton of contemporary romances recently, and this was a really good transition book. I'd recommend it to anyone just getting into or getting back into fantasy. If the author continues the story with more books, I'm not sure if I'll pick them up, but I'm glad I read this when I did. It's not perfect, but pretty damn fun.

This was a good entry into the vampire young adult genre. It was an easy read though I wish the characters had been developed a little more deeply. There is a glut of vampire fiction and I feel like the author fell into some of the more common tropes and did little to add no ideas.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wattpad Books for providing the ARC.

I wasn't sure what I was getting into with a book that became famous on Wattpad, but I was not surprised that this book bored me to tears.

The characters were so one-dimensional - Renie with this obsession with finding out what happened to her sister, when in the world of vampires, there's really only one thing that could have happened. And Edmond who plays the tortured hero who just can't resist the main female character. And the fact that his name is Edmond Dantes? Alexandre Dumas is turning over in his grave that his literary masterpiece has been reduced to this drivel.

The prose was boring and forgettable. The first third of the book, Renie must have mentioned figuring out what happened with her sister about a hundred times. There was a sequence where the characters were getting ready for a party, and it lasted for at least ten pages. Even the supposed love story between Renie and Edmond was just so unremarkable. There was no tension, no emotion. They said they cared about each other, but those feelings were never evoked on the page.

I picked this book up because it has a gorgeous cover. I was willing to give it a shot, despite any misgivings I have about Wattpad books. It was poorly written and forgettable.

Vampires are real, and they live luxurious lives as celebrities in their Houses. Fans from all over apply to become a donor--one who allows vampires to feed off of their blood--in exchange for a taste of opulence. That's exactly what June, Renie's sister, did. But Renie knows that there is something wrong. And the only way to find out is to enter the House herself.

If I was 13, or still in my (sort of embarrassing) Twilight phase, I would've loved this book. It's the grandeur, and the hot vampires, and the star-crossed, semi-spicy romance that I would've thought was utterly passionate. But, if I'm being perfectly honest, those years are far behind me. Modern me said that while this book had an interesting concept, it was bogged down by a boring plot and an instalove romance. 2 stars.

Frankly, I was cover-struck. It's absolutely lovely, with just the right amount of darkness and intrigue. I was even piqued by the synopsis; what I thought I would be getting was a dark novel with threads of romance and mystery, but what I really ended up with was a heroine I didn't care for in a story that felt mostly stagnant.

The story is told primarily by Renie, but is marked with short paragraphs from her vampire love interest, Edmond. Renie herself is a trope: she's not like those "other girls." She doesn't get the vampire craze, she isn't interested in a life of grandeur, what she wants is to find her sister. Funny, how quickly that changed as she and Edmond starting sharing intense eye gazes the moment they meet. While there was a lot of promise in the plot surrounding June, it was quickly overshadowed by the forbidden love between human and vampire.

Unfortunately, I skimmed a lot of this book. I only ever felt vaguely invested in the last ten percent, but was turned off by the abrupt ending. (I have yet to see if this is a series beginner, or if it is a standalone.) Final verdict: interesting concept, but lacking in its execution.

Posted to Goodreads on February 11, 2022.

I can never say no to another YA vampire book. Call me weak.

I loved the vampire network this story has. The different houses and council. I’m excited to explore that more in the series.

Renie was a strong character. She didn’t bow down and fought for what she wanted. She was tenacious and a smart mouth. I loved it.

Somethings were a bit predictable but I still enjoyed the story nevertheless.

Content warnings: violence

Three and a half
This YA book proves that Vampire books just never really go out of style and whether it’s Stephanie Meyer or Bella Forrest that first got you hooked I do feel as a reader we are always looking for the next one that will blow us away. This wasn’t perhaps that book but it certainly held my interest.
A young woman looking for a sister who has apparently not gone missing but there’s no way that Renie believes that. Renie is stubborn, determined and pretty pugnacious but I quite liked that about her. She is perhaps a little prejudiced against Vampires but I enjoyed how her opinions not changed exactly but grew. Somethings were just glaringly obvious I’m afraid which did have me rolling my eyes and please don’t get me started on the oh so sensitive Edmond because I think you can probably guess who he reminds me of !
This was easy to read and I did enjoy it in spite of the constant harping on about how poor Renie and June had been which frankly was very irritating. The best part for this reader were the friendships that Renie made with two absolutely delightful supporting characters. These Vampires are portrayed as civilised but that veneer was obliterated as the end came hurtling along which I actually applaud because seeing the monstrous side of them made this a much better story.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair