Belle Morte was ok for me. I was in the mood for a YA vampire book so grabbed this one. I thought the characters were interesting but I didn't really connect with any of them and they all came off as a little shallow. This was a quick read but in the end I'm on the fence on whether I'll pick up the next book.

I was pleasantly surprised with this book. I was intrigued by the premise but I wasn't expecting so much tension and surprises!

Renie was a great main character. She was so strong and proactive but she was still human and relateable with her grief and anger. She was so easy to like and I fully supported her and was rooting for her from the get go.

Edmond was an amazing male lead! He was sexy, mysterious, and the right level of protective that made me want to swoon.

The character development was great. I sometimes got a little confused with the vampires of the house as they were just background characters and I forgot their names easily. There were a few that stuck out because of their larger roles, but the others were totally forgettable.

The pacing of the book was great. It was tense enough that I found it so hard to put down, I was literally cooking and reading at the same time.

I'm already eagerly anticipating a sequel as I feel like this story is just starting with everything that happened at the end of the book. There's so much more to this world that we've not seen yet.

Overall, if you're a fan of vampires and strong female leads, this is a book for you.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you, NetGalley for a copy of this book for an honest opinion.

Belle Morte. How I wanted to like you, how I wanted to love you. The premise sounded promising. Celebrity vampire housing, human pledges, stipends for households of said pledges. Mystery when one of the pledges goes missing and her sister comes to find her. But when I find myself skimming entire chapters and nothing progresses and not only am I not lost in the storyline but 150ish pages have gone past and nothing remotely interesting has happened? I'm sorry. But that's a major no for me.

I DNF'ed this on page 110. (The original page I started skipping pages)

I really enjoyed this book! I didn’t realize it was a modern vampire story until I started reading and wasn’t sure how I would like it..but it was great! I loved Renie and her determination to find out what happened to her sister..even the most powerful vampires couldn’t stop her! This book was fast paced, and I couldn’t put it down! After that ending I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book!

All reviews posted March 12, 2022

WOW, this book surprised me in a really good way. I didn’t have high expectations because vampire books can be a hit for miss for me, but I had a fun time reading this. I defiantly think there were issues with plot pacing, but overall still really enjoyable. The characters were great to read about, and I found myself invested not just in the main characters but in the side characters as well. And the vibes and atmosphere in this book are what pulled me in the most and caught my attention from the start.

While I liked the plot and was invested in it, I had some pacing issues throughout. Especially in the beginning, I think we could have lived longer in each moment and gotten used to the new world and surroundings more. I felt that I was being thrust from plot point to plot point for the first half of the book, without much time to get a feel for anything going on. Other than that, though, I found myself constantly wanting to know more, and by the second half, I had a hard time putting the book down. I defiantly predicted the ending, but I did play out in a way I wasn’t expecting.

The characters were such a joy to read about. I loved that all the characters, even the side, and background ones, had depth. They were all interesting to read about, and I felt each added something to the story. I hope that the author explores each character more in the coming books. I found myself rooting for the romance pretty early on in the book, which is not like me at all. I just thought everything was so cute, and nothing felt forced or unnatural.

The setting and the world that the author created was absolutely stunning. Like I found myself wanting to live and experience this magical mansion in person. I wish I could see images in my head because everything about this book felt elegant and timeless.

Belle Morte had a really interesting premise. I loved the concept of vampires as celebrities and Vampire Houses spread throughout the world. The donor system and how that gave people status and money was also super intriguing and the way that tied with Renie’s sister did make me curious about what was going to happen in the book. Too bad the execution of those elements here was incredibly poor and killed any sort of enjoyment I might have had for the story.

The writing here really wasn’t for me. I disliked the shifts in perspective when they happened inside the same chapter, especially when the snippets from one character’s POV were so short that before I had time to get used to them they had changed again. There was little emotion to the writing as well and most of what were supposed to be tense or action packed scenes fell flat to me.

Regarding the characters, Renie came across to me as very immature and righteous to the point of stupidity during some chapters. Edmond and his connection to The Count of Monte Cristo was super duper out of place with the overall tone of the novel and, personally, I didn’t find him a well developed character. I don’t think any of the other characters had enough of a personality for me to be able to comment on them.

The plot was also very predictable. I guessed what was going to happen during the first few chapters and the way Higgin developed and set up some of the twists didn’t manage to catch my interest after that. Because of that, to say the ending was underwhelming would be an understatement. Really not the book for me.

I have to admit: I requested this as soon as I saw the name of the publisher because I've read enough Wattpad stories to be curious about what, exactly, a Wattpad book would be.

The answer: this is a pretty standard vampire novel with a bit of romance. And it's completely fine! If you like vampire stories, this will certainly satisfy your need for something of a higher caliber than Twilight. The shift from first-person to third-person POV is disarming enough that it annoyed me as I was reading, but it's a pet peeve of mine (just pick one!), so it may not bother you as much. I enjoyed reading it and was pleasantly surprised by how endearing the side characters are, but I don't feel the immediate need to devour a sequel.

3.5 ⭐️ I really enjoyed this one! Who doesn’t love a good vampire book? The plot was super intriguing, I’ve never read anything like this before! The tension between our 2 characters is phenomenal, I need more! I loved the construction of immortality in with modern day living, and the idea of vampires being out and proud about what they are, and the Houses with blood donors was a cool concept!

I’m looking forward to the next book!

Thank you to Net Galley and Wattpad Books for the eARC to read and review!

Series Info/Source: This seems to be the first book in a series. I got an eGalley of this book through NetGalley. I can only say shame on me for being drawn in by a pretty cover.

Thoughts: This was a pretty bad book. I was expecting kind of a mediocre YA vampire fantasy going in and what I got was a bit worse than that.

The premise here is simple (just like the whole plot). Renie's sister volunteered to be a donor at one of the glitzy vampire houses (vampires have recently outed themselves and everyone is cool with that). Then her sister disappeared. Now Renie has offered to be a donor in order to get inside the house of Belle Morte to solve the mystery of her sister's disappearance.

Of course while she is there she meets a hot vampire and gets into a forbidden relationship with him too! Hmmm….this whole book and plot seem strangely familiar.

There was absolutely nothing in this book that wasn't expected and there was a lot of page space given to a lot of nothing at all. You can seriously skim most of this book and not miss much of the "story".

The characters were fairly one dimensional and not very easy to love; they were all just kind of silly.

The writing style itself was okay and not terribly difficult to read. I did think it odd that Renie's POV was first person and Edwards's POV was third person. Did I mention we switch back and forth between Renie's and Edward's (the main vamp protagonist) POV in typical YA paranormal romance style?

My Summary (2/5): Overall, in the end there wasn't anything I actually liked about this. It is a very quick and easy read which is the only reason I finished it. I guess if you are looking for a predictable and slightly trashy fan-fic-style YA vamp read you might enjoy this. It wasn't for me.

Okay, I love the concept. It is well thought out. My issue is things got very repetitive. Still looking forward to book 2.

Thank you to Netgalley, Wattpad books and Bella higgin for an ARC of this book.
This book is set to release on April 5, 2022.
First off, WHAT A GORGEOUS COVER. I had a vague recollection of reading this book on Wattpad and the more i read, the more i remembered what happens. But this book had me in its grips and i LOVED this.
i loved that we get a Dual POV AND FORBIDDEN LOVE TROPE!!!
I enjoyed the friendship between Roux, Jason and Renie so much and the sisterly love for June that makes Renie come searching for her sister.
Also Edmond? hi, my new book boyfriend who loves to read Read and talks French (he makes me want to get back to learning french). in other words i cant wait for a sequel of this.
#BelleMorte #NetGalley

We’ve all had the lingering question of “What if vampires existed today” at times, and the whole premise of Belle Morte is just that.

In this story vampires have finally come out to society and now want to live peacefully among us. The way that they do that is through blood donor houses. There are houses placed all over the world and that’s where vampires stay and people can volunteer to be donors in exchange for staying at the luxurious mansions as well as monetary compensation.

Renie has never liked the thought of vampires living among us but when her sister mysteriously stops returning her letters after five months of living in Belle Morte, one of the vampire houses, she decided to become a donor herself to figure out what’s going on. Once there things don’t add up and Renie is ever more suspicious that something has happened to her sister. She teams up with other donors and even a few vampires to figure it all out.

Overall, I enjoyed the story because, in all honesty, stories about vampires never get old for me, lol. The pacing of the story was okay, kind of slow but it helped with the suspense aspect. The actual climax of the story was pretty obvious to me but it that didn’t hinder the overall book for me. The love interest wasn’t all that great for me though. Edmond was just “meh” and had no real backbone. There was no banter, no build up…nothing; Just insta-attraction that fell into insta-love.
The ending, again, was obvious but I do want to continue the story just to see how it all plays out.

**Thank you to Netgalley and Wattpad books for the opportunity to read and review this title. The views and opinions expressed here are 100% my own and are in no way a representation of the author, publisher, and/or distributor.**

This book was great! The storyline was really well executed. It did remind me of Twilight to a certain extent (MMC's name is Edmond) but I actually like this storyline much more.

The world Bella Higgin has built for us is an alternate universe where Vampires (thought to be a myth) come out into the world after hiding for centuries and essentially become celebrities. They have their own mansion where humans go to live to be their blood donors, which is hugely popular, and when they decide to leave they are handsomely compensated. Our leading lady, Renie is invited to be one of those donors at an exclusive vampire house, Belle Morte. She takes it upon herself to solve the mystery of her sister's sudden disappearance from the same house several months later. Going from a poor family that was just herself, sister, and mother, Renie is thrust into the lavish lifestyle of the vampire elite. Fancy clothes, balls and let's not forget bloodletting, are all foreign to her as she looks for the truth about her sister. In her search, she (of course) befriends a vampire, however, house/vampire rules state that only friendship can be allowed between humans and vampires. (Forbidden love anyone?) She becomes conflicted as the weeks go on since she still wants to find her sister but the bond between her and her vampire friend, Edmond has her confused. Her body and mind are consistently battling one another. The journey for the truth leads her to more than just answers but deadly choices.

I would say that I enjoyed this book, a lot. There is a cliffhanger, which has me wanting more answers from the next installment. It was YA to a point, obviously, there is blood and some scarier scenes. It was a good start to a series, not my favorite but vampires aren't totally my genre of choice. My only actual issue with this was the formatting of the digital copy that Net Galley granted me. "Editor Break" verbiage was sprinkled throughout like it had been forgotten to be removed and there was some odd capitalization at the beginnings of chapters that I was unsure if it was on purpose or not. Also, I wasn't too sure house to pronounce the FMC's name so I just settled on calling her 'Renee'. Overall this was a solid book, like I mentioned, vampires aren't my choice favorite but I wanted to branch out of my comfort zone. Thank you to Net Galley and Bella Higgin for this book!

I seem to be the only one who could not get into this book. The premise is interesting: vampires have come "out of the coffin," so to speak, and now employ humans to be donors. These donors are, in turn, rewarded with living in beautiful mansions with the vampires, and receive designer clothes, catered meals, and a pile of cash upon finishing their contract. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the execution, though. The main relationship felt very much like Twilight (and Renie felt a lot like Bella). Instead of the countless detailed descriptions of all the rooms in the house and the clothes people were wearing, I would have appreciated more focus on the actual plot.

I am, of course, grateful for the opportunity to read this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc! I have lots of thoughts I love renie she is a perfect main character full of stubborn and spit fire like attitude. This story starts with renie becoming a donor at belle morte to find out what happened to her sister June. At first renie is hating the vampires and her stay at belle morte until she meets Edmund a sexy green god like vampire renie cant stay away from. I feel like a lot of this book could have been skipper and we should have got more of battle scene and renie with June. I am excited to read the next book because that ending just had me like whAt!!!

Set in the modern world, vampires are celebrities and the talk of gossip magazines after revealing themselves years before. Humans have the opportunity to become blood donors and in return get fame, money, and to meet the vampires that will drink their blood. Irene “renie” Mayfield is only doing this to find her sister June, who signed up to be a blood donor but has stopped sending letters. There was great, easy to understand world-building, characters who jumped off the page and were relatable, and gorgeous vampires. This book got me back into reading fantasy!

What was that ending?! I feel like I read a very short version of a new Twilight. The main plot line is that Renie's sister June entered Belle Morte, a Vampire House which is in the "future" as Vampires are out in the open and Donor's can apply to feed the Vampires but now Renie hasn't heard from June in a while. She decides to enter the house as a donor to figure out what really happened to her sister. There is a love interest that seems to be the main focus of the book and I honestly wasn't interested in that part of the plot. I would have loved for the author to emphasize on June and what happened to her and how to solve the issues that arise at Belle Morte instead of the romance. The ending has sooo many unanswered questions that I would have loved to be answered in the first book and got rid of the romance. I did enjoy the concept of Vampires being out in the open and how the world would be. Just wish the author would have expanded that part of the story.

Thank you Wattpad Books for granting me access to this eARC!

Grisly and poignant, Bella Higgin paints a picture of vampires that gives them the humanity they once had. Whether vampire-lover or hater, there is an intriguing facet to the story that makes the reader want to explore the world of these immortal beings and the history of the many lives they have lived, as Renie, our heroine, discovers for herself.

I will always love a vampire book. If it's between werewolves or vampires my choice will always and forever be vampires. This is a new take on a vampire story, which is something I was very grateful for because so many storylines are becoming nauseating, and by that, I'm referencing Tracy Wolff's Crave series.

I like how the book doesn't shy away from mature themes. The story is also refreshing, I haven't read a story about modern settings, and a willing donor for vampires. And for once, the girl who caught the vampire's eyes is actually spunky and independent, and she shows it. The 2 mystery of the book was also nicely written, I was on the edge of my seat trying to figure it out until the very end. And the cliffhanger ending! I read this book in one sitting and wow, I want book 2 NOW!