I have been on a vampire phase for the past few months. Can't explain it, but it caused me to binge read this book within two days. I loved it so much and it's a pretty fast-paced book. It starts off in a mysterious mansion called the Belle Morte. It was immediately giving all the vampy vibes and humans can go to this place for a good time, not a long time. Renie is the main character who signs up to look for her sister who disappeared after she was last seen in this mansion. While it's a little predictable, it was exactly what I wanted. Renie is a very likable character as well and I never found her to be irritating or weak. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I personally find it hard to read books where the characters remain a damsel for the duration of the book. If you want a fun vampire read, here you are!

Vampires and romance --- these elements, no matter how basic and common they are, if patched well enough, could keep readers seated through until they're consumed by the plot. However, Belle Morte falls short in terms of weaving these themes together to deliver a satisfying read. The storytelling was lackluster and the characters weren't charismatic to keep me hooked.

I'll probably give it a second chance by rereading it when the book is close to its publication. For now, 2 stars.

Big thanks to Wattpad Books, Bella Higgin and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for a review.

Vampires are real and they are out in the public eye. For good or bad, they are the new celebrity status quo. As with any celebrity status comes the followers. In this case though, the followers do more than watch. The feed the vampires. Once you go into a Vampire home, you are theirs until you are told to leave. What goes on behind the doors of Belle Morte is not all you see in the news and magazine covers.

Renie's sister gets to be a donor for the Belle Morte house but stops sending letters and is no longer shown in photos from the grand parties the vampires throw. So what happened to her? Renie is going to find out, but the only way to know for sure is to go in as a donor.

I liked this take on the vampires. They are celebrities, but still have that lethal edge that puts them a step above the mortals who worship them. I was expecting some darker, maybe some explicit writing, but it's fairly tame overall. There's a lot of blood (duh, vampires) and some carnage but this definitely falls more into the YA, than new adult.
The one and only complaint I have is that Renie's chapters are written in first person, where as Edmonds are written in 3rd person and it was weird. I know people have big feelings regarding the prose of narration, but I don't care if it's 1st person, 2nd person, 3rd or some form of omnipotent but I couldn't get past the switch. Just stick with one, please!
5 stars for me!

3.75/5⭐️

I’m a huge lover of vampires, so the premise of this book immediately drew me in. Vampires in the public eye? Gorgeous, foreboding mansions? A mystery in the west wing? A missing sister? A brooding vampire boy with an obsession? COUNT ME IN.

Let me just start off by saying that it took me a little while to get invested in this one. The pacing for the first half or so was a little bit slow, and I’m not a fan of insta-love. However, once I got into the meat of the story, I couldn’t put it down. I had to know what happened, dangit!

The vampires in this book were fairly run-of-the-mill, which I definitely appreciated. They were gorgeous and mysterious and otherworldly, and they could be absolutely terrifying at times. As vampires should be.

I was definitely left with my mouth hanging open at the end of this one, because…um, what?! It ends THERE? What even just happened? I predicted a few things about the story, but wasn’t prepared for a few others. I’ll definitely be picking up the sequel.

If you’re looking for a YA vampire romance that you can blaze through in a few days, I would definitely check this one out!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Another vampire read for the win! With so many vampire books out there it’s hard to weed out the good ones, and I enjoyed this one for the most part. I was left a little wanting at the end though.

“Je vous veux comme aucune autre ”

“I want you like no other”

What a wonderful read! First, the concept is fantastic. I mean, vampires are always hiding so why not change it up. Second, the donors have such a great sense of humor. My favorite part will always be the drunk fashion show. That is hilarious. I think the ending was surprising. It flows really well between the two characters. All in all a great read.

I think Belle Morte is a really wonderful book! The cover and premise is gorgeous but the plot is very intriguing. I feel like there was definitely something missing but it was still satisfying.

Okay … you had me at “vampires …”
The premise of this new series intrigued me and I really enjoyed the development of the characters.
That said, this book feels “chunky” and awkward at times it struggles to transition to the next part of the story.
I still found this book hard to put down and I can’t wait where the author takes the characters next. The ending left me dangling and anxious for more.

Belle Morte was just about what you would expect from a Wattpad vampire story. An interesting plot line, fast paced and easy to get sucked (no pun intended) into. I really enjoyed the plot of vampires becoming acknowledged in the mortal world as celebrities of sort. The only real issue I had with the book was with the romance. I would have loved to see more of a slow burn romance rather than an insta-love. I liked both of the main characters and enjoyed their interactions together. The heroine was ruthless and willing to stop at nothing to get what she wanted out of Belle Morte. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of either Twilight or Vampire Academy - if you’re looking to get a quick vampire fix with some forbidden romance then Belle Morte is definitely a book you should check out!

This is a great YA book. I really enjoyed the story, and the even though there are a lot of vampire romances, this one was definitely different. I did see the end before halfway, but I'm an older adult so.... It was a quick read for me, and I enjoyed the characters a lot. I do hope for more, because I want to know more about them.

(I will be reviewing on my goodreads,and tiktok roundup)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me have a free ARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Belle Morte is the name of a house vampires run, where donors volunteer to have the vampires feed on them. Vampires are like celebrities and donors remain at the house for as long as the vampires want them there, so you could be a donor for a month or six years. After Renie's sister June stops writing letters from one of the houses, she decides she needs to make sure she is alright. That's where this wonderful book begins.

Belle Morte is an emotional book fueled by love - both sisterly and romantic. Though I found some of the plot twists predictable, that didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book. The second half of the book was more gripping and tumultuous than the first half, but I liked both halves of the story.

There is a romance between a vampire and a donor in this book -- forbidden love, my favourite romantic trope. I thought that the love interests liked each other a little too quickly, but I still felt all of their emotions and almost cried towards the end.

The note that this book ended on was shocking and left me flipping the pages hoping for more, so I would definitely read the sequel!

In terms of characters, my favourites were Melissa and Roux. They were more developed than the other characters -- thought I have a soft spot for Ysanne as well. I felt that Edmond wasn't a very developed character and thus it was sometimes hard for him to be as believable as the others. I did like the reference to The Count of Monte Cristo though!

The one thing I would say about the use of French in this book was that occasionally it took me out of the conversations for a moment, but it wasn't enough to detract me from enjoying the novel!

2.5 stars -- I enjoyed the setting and some characters, but the main characters fell flat for me and I found the first half a bit overlong. The instalove wasn't my cup of tea either. Despite this, I would still read the sequel and enjoyed the ending of the book. The idea behind the entire story gripped me to keep reading this book!

Thank you NetGalley for sending this arc for an honest review!

Honestly I’m on a roll idk why but lately evrey book I’ve been reading has consisted of some shape of a vampire. Quite odd but at least it’s not like twilight. Haha no far from it. It’s probably why I enjoyed it so much. And enemies to lovers? Truly captivating. It was so intresting to see how the story went on and these vampires jobs were very different than a typical vampire. I would have to say this story reminded me a lot of “king of battle and blood” seeing as to how the MCs both have the same motives.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. All of the opinions given are my own and have been given nothing for my review.

The premise of this book was interesting enough. The thought of vampires being turned into A-List celebrities was very intriguing to me and what sucked me in initially. I can totally believe that in another world, they would have their own rabid fanbase who would volunteer as blood donors.

However, I don't think the worldbuilding was there to fully suck me in. The whole idea of blood donors and how this all was started and the details were vague. I really appreciated that the author included a very diverse group of characters (although these are mainly the blood donors). The actual vampires are pretty much all white and ancient. Renie herself is determined and snarky which I found compelling. Edmond is the main vampire protagonist I liked that there were sections from his perspective.

There were a few big things that I did not like though. One being the main romantic storyline is between an 18-year-old, Renie, and a centuries old vampire, Edmond. I know this is a pretty regular trope in vampire storylines, but Renie is very young and naïve at points, so it made me uncomfortable to read about her being with an experienced older vampire. Relationships with huge power imbalances generally worry me. It also bothered me that the gay friend is relegated to being boy crazy and great at giving fashion advice. I felt like I was reading about them getting dressed up for a party for pages.

A major plot point that kept me reading was to find out about the mystery of what happened to Renie's sister. I loved the sister storyline and that the strength of their bond kept driving Renie on. There was a nice little twist at the end that is a nice lead in for a great conflict. All in all, this book wasn't for me. There is a lot of potential there but I think the storyline just didn't compel me enough.

Belle Morte by Bella Higgin is a refreshing take of the vampire narrative. In Belle Morte, vampires are viewed as celebrities and humans volunteer to be their blood donors. Renie, our main character, doesn’t see glamour and appeal of the vampires but becomes a donor to find out what happened to her sister in one of the vampire houses. What she encounters is more than she could have ever imagined.

Belle Morte really is a fun read. I enjoyed the interactions between characters, beautiful descriptions of the environment, and who doesn’t love a bunch of sexy vampires. For me, some of the plot and twists were pretty predictable, but it didn’t take away from my reading experience. All in all, I would totally continue to read this series.

Belle Morte is a is a wonderful and incredibly rich fantasy novel, so well built and fast paced that I wasn't able to put it down till I reached the end. I was absolutely captivated by the atmosphere, and the characters.

This novel submerges the reader in a landscape so imaginative and detailed that the information of the world building/plot never feels forced, and is never difficult to understand or picture in one's mind. I had an enjoyable time reading this and it held my attention the entire way through that I finished it within the day! I enjoyed every page and thought that the plot/story was very unique. Would recommend to anyone!

I cannot express how pleasantly surprised I am with this book. The title and cover caught my attention, but the premise did not inspire confidence. I wasn’t sure just how bad it’d be, but it wasn’t anything I could have expected.

I am now in love with this book and with everything this series could be. The writing itself was so well done. Somehow, there’s just the right amount of detail, and everything flows so nicely. I was deeply invested in the story and it’s characters within the first few chapters. Speaking of the characters, they felt so real and authentic. The story matched the characters and the characters matched the story. Everything fit together wonderfully, especially the chemistry. A problem a lot of books can have is the lack of chemistry between characters, whether romantic or platonic, but it was not an issue here. It was all so believable and chemistry filled. Even the tension was handled so well!

This is the kind of vampire story we’ve been missing for ages, and I cannot be happier I took this leap. It’s fun and engaging and entangling and everything you could want in a story like this.

It was all very predictable and I was slightly bored since there wasn’t much adventure or plot twists. I did enjoy the romance part but it was all very repetitive stuff you read in other vampire books. It was slightly creepy thinking about how old the vampire was as well and how young the girl was. I like the different POVs. I didn’t enjoy knowing what they both thought but I also really like romances so that was great.

[Review taken from my Instragram Post]

🦇Belle Morte ARC review🦇

🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
3 stars

This book was originally published as a Wattpad book and I read it back when it was!!! I even checked and I had it on a shelf called "favourite books" so I was VERY excited when I got the arc (my insta stories that night were full of me freaking out about it lol)

🤍I've sperated this review into positives and negatives 🤍

💖
- Overall, the vibes were👌
- I liked the whole "don't go to this creepy west wing thing" when it comes up in books
- the whole blood donor system
- that scene in the library was cute and I want more of that
- we love a friend who's willing to help you dig up a dead body
- there is no spoiler free way of saying *the scene* but I loved it and it was written so well and I was at the edge of my seat

💔
- Jason is gay best friend stereotype
- not insta love but definitely insta attraction
- wasn't really a fan of the mix of first and third person
- Renie (mc) made really stupid decisions a lot of the time
- Pace was a little off (the middle chunk was really good and then the attention waned a bit till the end)

I overall really enjoyed reading this, with some improvements on writing I think this could have been easily a 4 star 🌟 and I'm so glad I could get my hands on an early copy

This is now one of my favorite vampire books! The plot was perfectly crafted and I loved the idea of celebrity vampires that humans want to be sources for! The pacing was fast which I love - I could not put it down because I had to figure out what was going to happen and if the main character would solve the mystery of her sister's whereabouts after she disappears after becoming a source. The romance was hot! I loved all the characters and cannot wait to see what happens next!