I read this book as it was billed as 'Twilight meets Bridgerton' and I like both of those series. I'm not sure that description is entirely apt as the 'spice' level of this book far exceeds either of the others. To say these vampires are decadent is an understatement!
Julian Rousseaux, eldest eligible bachelor of the powerful Rousseaux family is expected to make a match this season. Julian has other ideas however and will do almost anything to dodge this particular duty. Enter Thea, a talented young cellist who has the misfortune of providing background music at the first gathering of the vampire social season. As Julian finds he's not the only one drawn to Thea, he decides to protect her and keep her safe, in exchange Thea will pretend to be his girlfriend. I did find this book quite compelling as there are so many occasions where you just don't know if Thea's going to make it through the next event in one piece!
The ending is quite a cliffhanger and I hope we won't have too long to wait before we find out what happens next!
Thank you NetGalley and Renegade Books for the review copy.

This book was good. I liked the writing and the whole vibe. The plot was good but the characters missed something. I couldn't really relate to them or get attached. But it was good.

Well! I was surprised to quite enjoy the majority of this book. Although a little silly in quite a few places it was an entertaining read with engaging characters and the story flowed along quite nicely.

This is quite steamy in places but a light-, hearted fun read... apart from the ending which quite frankly was awful - it literally just suddenly ended, leaving me with lots of questions!

Ooh yes, one other complaint...the constant referral to Thea as "pet" was extremely annoying!!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley, Geneva Lee and Renegade Books for this ARC.

Filthy Rich Vampire is book 1 in the series.

Thea is a music student and a cellist who is trying to pay off her loans and her mother's hospital bills. Julian is a almost 1000 years-old and is expected to marry but he has fallen in love with Thea and he offers her a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and the ability to pay off her debts.

Filthy Rich Vampire felt like a mix of Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey. The little mention of a ballet studio and reading books about vampires hunting deer just gave it away. I felt like the story was not put together as well as it could have been and the ending wasn't well done.

I was really excited to read this one as I had been hearing a lot about it on social media - unfortunately, it just didn't work for me. This was more than likely a me problem, rather than an issue with the book, but I couldn't connect to the characters and found it a struggle to power through.

This is definitely more True Blood or Empire of the Vampire then Twilight!
As a huge fan of Vampire books I quite liked this, it’s a bit raunchy, has a bit of quirkiness, some humour, has a slightly different backstory again from other Vampire sagas, enough to keep you intrigued.
The two main characters are likeable. Both have a backstory, some we learn, some outstanding I assume so they can use this to build another novel or two.
Well paced and easy to read this was an overall winner for me!
Really looking forward to Book II The second Rite….

I had huge expectations for this book. It has a gorgeous cover, and the plot has all the elements that I look in a book. Vampires? Check. Supernatural world? Check. Mates? Check.

However, I didn't like the delivery of the story. Or of the characters. Julian is a vampire who gets woken up from his slumber by his assistant. The vampire council has decided to have The Rites, events where vampires meets familiars, witches with no magic power, to procreate the new generation of vampires. He's not happy about that, so when he meets Thea, a human, he proposes her a deal—fake a relationship with him and get all of her debts paid. The attraction Thea feels for Julian seems to help her accepts the deal. So the two start travelling together and attend the events. Thea seemed lovely at the beginning, but after a while her naivety got on my nerves. She just lets everything happen to her and she doesn't react. Julian instead has no backbone. He knows what Thea is worth to him but he's not willing to fight for her. Both main characters were spineless and didn't have their own personal development throughout the book.

I enjoyed this. The story outside of the romance seemed a little under-developed, but this sits firmly in the romance first, fantasy second category so I didn't mind too much. It was angsty and dripping with tension and the ending has left me desperate to get my hands on the next book.

Forbidden romance, billionaire vampire and fake dating. What's not to like?

'Vampires were real. The sexiest man ever was one of them, and he might be flirting with me? And his mother looked both younger and hotter than me'.

As the eldest of the Rousseuax family, it's social season - meaning Julian Rousseuax needs to find a 'familiar' (witch) wife and produce heirs. One problem with that though, Julian meets Thea, a human, and is instantly captivated by her. Will Julian go against his family's wishes to be with Thea? What started as a fake dating arrangement is turning into something way more..

𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀
What a page turner, I love a vampire romance - and when you add forbidden romance to the mix, I'm completely sold. I loved watching Julian and Thea's relationship grow, Julian letting her in, and standing up to his mother. This was like Bridgerton for vampires and I'm here for it, especially adding in the fact that Thea is a cellist - I was just imagining Bridgerton-type music during the social events!

But that ending, I was so upset for Julian and Thea - I'm excited for the next book now to see how things pan out!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dialogue Books for this copy. This review is voluntary.

𝔸ℝℂ ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕕 + ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨

Filthy Rich Vampire by Geneva Lee

🦇🌙🕯️🏰🪦☠️✨🖤🥀

7/10 ⭐️
2/5 🌶️

𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘴𝘵, 𝘴𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘷𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘣𝘺 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯-𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘢 𝘓𝘦𝘦.

Julian, the rich and eligible bachelor from a high ranking vampire family, is awoken from his slumber after 3 decades to be put on the market, as demanded by The Rites and Vampire Council. Early in the social season he meets Thea, a talented cellist at a vampire soirée and is struck with bloodlust.

Thea, human, working 2 jobs and studying music while also helping to support her mothers medical bills, worked a private function with her quartet when she is thrown into a paranormal world of fairytales, or nightmares. Julian offers Thea the once in a lifetime opportunity, to see the world and experience riches and experience beyond her reaches, for just pretending to be his girlfriend for a year.

Book 1 of 4

Firstly thank you NetGalley and Geneva Lee for this ARC opportunity 💜
I think the credit of Twilight meets Bridgeton is definitely the summary of this story. It gives all the classic vampire falls in love with human elements you expect but with more lore and history which is really interesting. Adding the element of fake dating, which we all know never stays fake 😏, it’s a interesting romantasy read with magic and witches in normal modern day. After receiving this ARC I saw it was the first in the series so predicted roughly the ending to the first story and knew this wasn’t gonna end as a HEA in this book, but my only criticism was that the ending was sort of just in a weird place. There’s obviously more to come but it didn’t end as a cliff hanger and it felt like maybe a few more paragraphs or words said might have given it that Twilight book 2 ending it needed to bring you back for more but satisfied that this chapter closed? I apologise if that doesn’t make sense 😬

On the whole I will be finishing this series when the rest of the books come out and look forward to seeing The Rites and lore unfold further.

I really enjoyed this one.. even if it was Twilight meets 50 shades of grey. It's left me wanting to pick up the next book and it was a read which I totally devoured. I read it in one sitting because I just couldn't put it down.

I liked the characters, the miscommunication (Which is usually a nope for me). I'm intrigued to find out more about these kept secrets and I'd definitely recommend this to my spice enjoying pals!

An easy to read story with romance, Bridgestone vibes and vampires and super human powers. What’s not to love. Can’t wait for the rest of the series.

A fast paced and utterly addictive vampire romance. I love how the relationship between the two characters develop as we learn more about his world. As romantic as Twilight, but I loved the change in location. I would love to have seen a little more about her relationship with her mother, but the ending leads us on to hopefully another book. An easy 4 star rating with lovable characters and fast paced romance storyline.

Well, this was a bit of a roller coaster ride of a story, the fast pace was excellent although I did have to skip some of the more raunchier passages, I didn't think it needed them, the imagination can fill those in easily, but I felt bereft at the ending

I am really torn about this one. There was so much I liked in this, but it had a few flaws that gave me reservations. The story revolves around Thea, a young woman working 2 jobs, going to school, trying to succeed as a cellist and pay off her mother's medical debts. She meets Julian, a 900+ year old vampire who's just had a 40 year nap. Julian would have slept longer, but his mother has summoned him for the vampire social season where he is expected to select a mate and produce little vamps. He offers Thea a deal to solve both their problems - or does it?

So...

💋 Good tension and a steamy romance - Julian is a tender, considerate lover.
🖤 But both Julian and Thea have way too much angst. Julian is obviously withholding critical info from Thea and I cringe whenever this happens. Can't we have some tension without a huge lack of communication? Julian has the communication skills of an awkward adolescent, not a man of nearly 1000 years.

💋 A nice take on the vampire legend - they can go out in daylight, feed from donors and blood banks (with the occasional feeding from an unwilling victim), and there's a social season for selection of mates that includes a rite for potential mates and a blood orgy as a 'warm-up' event.
🖤 But Julian does not prepare Thea for all the politics and family drama - she is basically thrown into deep end and expected to swim.

🖤 I absolutely hate cliffhanger endings - and this one ends abruptly and without resolving any story lines. While I will likely continue with the story, it is frustrating. It feels incomplete and comes off as a ploy to sell the next book.

🖤 Is this Twilight fanfic? I go back and forth...Thea is a young innocent woman who is smitten with an older, more worldly vamp. There were several sly references to Twilight. For instance: ...Sometimes I hunt...Hunt what? Deer?...You've been reading too many books, pet. Julian and his family is fabulously wealthy - so he can afford to gift Thea with half million dollar cellos. However, Thea is thrown into a family / world that she is woefully unprepared for. There are other similarities but I don't want to give any spoilers.

I did mostly enjoy this book, despite the frustrations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Renegade Books for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Quotes to remember:

Time was a tricky thing. Minutes might last an eternity while years slipped away in the blink of an eye.

"The world," he said softly. "I can offer you the world."

The families we find are the families we keep.

Sometimes, what we intend to do is different from what fate has in store.

I’m always up for a vampire book and this was a good one! Super duper oh wow kind of smutty, and while I thought there wasn’t gonna be much of a plot, it actually became really good and I’m so intrigued where the story is going!

Whilst I really did enjoy it, some of it was just so ridiculous and silly to me. Firstly, Julian seriously needs to sort his mood swings out, come on dude. And while I get that’s there probably certain reasons for Thea’s overt infatuation with Julian, the fact she just upped and left her mom indefinitely after everything she’d been through and how it was pretty much at he forefront of her worries beforehand?

Oh and you know, just heading over to a party at mom’s house. Oh party, I mean orgy. It’s cool and normal. My mom’s here but I’m also part of this orgy.
What the fuck

But yeh I had a good time otherwise and I genuinely am looking forward to reading the rest of the series!

I read an eARC of this book so thank you to the author, the publisher and Net Galley.

This is a move about a vampire who was turned in 1066 who has just woken up from a forty year slumber at the behest of his family. Rites in the Vampire world have been enacted and his presence is required. At a party he finds instant attraction to a human cello player and decides he must protect her from all the vampires that will want to feed on her.

If you’re a fan of insta love, modern vampire romance, male dominant relationships and books with a bit of spice then this will tick a lot of boxes for you. It didn’t quite click for me personally but I can definitely see why this would be popular with fans of those themes.

No issues with the writing, the pacing was good, the book was never dull. The vampires were violent and dangerous. There’s plenty of opulence, lavish parties and outfits, luxurious settings, obscene displays of wealth.

While I liked both characters individually, I found the relationship a bit toxic so it was hard to get into it. The vampires are generally pretty awful to the human female love interest and I couldn’t understand why she was sticking around. It was positioned that she was burned out from the amount she was working to pay her mother’s medical bills and the vampire was offering a lot of money to pretend to be his girlfriend but the level of cruelty she was experiencing just made it hard to want to see her in that situation.

Can definitely see this being popular with readers who like these tropes and themes!

This is the story where Bridgerton meets Twilight, with a hint of Fifty Shades of Gray (without any sex though). A 1000-year-old vampire meets a young cellist, he wants to get out of the marriage market and she needs his help to pay the bills for her mother's hospital bills. It's not unique but was still fairly entertaining. There is plenty of blood, heat, nasty vampires and sensible friends.

The heroine is so naive it's almost painful at times. There were quite a few times it felt very cliched and with a rather immature writing style, but I did quite enjoy it and may get the next one in the series just to find out what happens.

Ok I was so mad at the non-ending of this book ... until I realised that is part one of a four part series (that have all been published) so thankfully I can keep reading the books.

Julian is a 900 year old vampire who awakens in 2023 after being asleep for almost 40yrs. He doesn't want to be awake but his mother has sent for him as he needs to attend the vampire social season in order to find a familiar to marry and produce vampire babies with.

This is an interesting take on the classic vampire story. The only two things that seem to remain the same as all other vampire stories - they are ridiculously horny creatures and they're incredibly wealthy. In this telling of the vampire story, they can be out at all hours of the day (as the OG Dracula could as well), they have familiars (witches) and they possess some kind of old magic that even they don't seem to understand. There was also quick mention of warewolves so clearly they are alive and kicking in this realm.

While it felt like the writing wasn't great at times, the themes in the story made up for it. I enjoyed the push and pull relationship between Julian and Thea. Though the ending was a cliff-hanger! I'm really looking forward to reading the next books in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley, Dialogue Books & Renegade Books for the opportunity to read and review this ARC

I am such a sucker for a good vampire story and this book did not disappoint. This book has been described as Twilight meets Bridgerton and I somewhat understand the comparison but this is a book that takes place in present day so don't going into expecting Regency era settings; I did feel at times that the narrative structure and some of the lore aspects felt a little bit like Twilight. I am not great at comp titles but the best way that I could describe this book is a fake dating billionaire royal romance with witches and vampires... so basically sign me the eff up and do it yesterday!

I really enjoyed the way that Thea and Julian interact and I liked that there was a lot of complex vampire lore to the story. I went into this book knowing that this was book one in a series but, given the Bridgerton comparison, I thought that we would be following a different sibling in each book so I wasn't ready for the cliffhanger. From what I understand, these books were originally indie / self-published and are now being traditionally published so they are being released on a rapid release schedule (thank goodness!) but the idea that I will have to wait for a year for the series to be complete still hurts. I am most definitely counting down the days until the sequel comes out and I can see what comes next.

There is a real magic the romance in this book and I appreciated how self-aware it was when Thea and Julian wanted to describe what they were experiencing as being love after only knowing one another for two days and one of the other characters was like "stop right there, don't you dare say love, you have known this guy less than 72 hours!"

I do have a bit of an issue with this book and likely this series but I will say that it is somewhat common in the genre of romance and in particular in fantasy romance and that is the way that virginity is discussed. This book felt particularly challenging as Thea's virginity is set up as a being a ✨thing✨ early on in the story and it just generally felt very uncomfy. Whether I felt that the ✨thing✨ was well-done or could have been applied using something other than virginity, the way that Thea's approach to sex was depicted was incredibly awkward. At one point, this very self-aware book makes a point of saying that is Thea can not say words like "sex" or "cunnilingus" or even "oral", maybe she isn't ready for sex and.... I have to agree, book, if Thea is not comfortable discussing sex, she probably should not having sex and there is no shame in that fact. Overall the way that sex is approached in this book is very hetronormative and also brings to mind the hypocritical purity culture stereotype of so long as it isn't p-in-v, it doesn't count as sex. Once again, the book is weirdly self-aware and at one point the ✨thing✨ almost happens whilst doing something that isn't p-in-v.

For all of the issues that I had with the way sex and virginity was approached, I actually really loved this book and I am left with a lot of questions about what comes next for the story and I am very excited to find out. I will also definitely be checking out more of Lee's books because I had a really good time.