Book Review: A Long Time Dead

I was sent A Long Time Dead by Samara Breger this spring and knew this sapphic, Victorian, vampire romance would be perfect to read and review in June for Pride Month. I just finished it yesterday and I loved it!

When I think of vampire stories, I think of something dark or possibly scary. But A Long Time Dead is not scary and not really dark either. It follows the journey of Poppy, her love and romance with Roisin, and their decades long battle with Cane – an evil vampire who sired Roisin and tried to kill Poppy. Friendship and found family are also threaded through the story and that was one of my favorite things about the book.

Poppy lives in Victorian London and is a prostitute. After meeting and become enamored by Cane, she is attacked and left for dead, but instead of dying is turned into a vampire. Roisin takes care of Poppy and helps her adjust to her new life. It doesn’t take long for Cane to get jealous of the budding relationship between Roisin and Poppy and will stop at nothing to destroy Poppy and whatever/whoever Roisin loves and holds dear to drive Roisin back to her. Poppy gets taken in by friends of Roisin and over the decades of Roisin trying to track down Cane to kill her before Cane can kill them, Poppy travels with her new friends/family. They go all over Europe, go to glamorous parties and operas, and have orgies with humans and other vampires. But the threat of Cane always looms overhead. Can they get rid of Cane so that Poppy and Roisin can live freely, happy, and in love without the threat of Cane?

The book was so interesting, entertaining, and had lots of humor. There’s a part early on when Roisin asks Poppy if she wants to write a letter to her friend so that she’s not worried about where she disappeared to (without telling her she’s now a vampire). At this point, Poppy is illiterate and needs Roisin to help her write the letter. Roisin says something like “Should we start with ‘Should we start with Dearest Lizzie’?” and Poppy responds with something like “She’ll never believe the letter is from me if you speak like that. You have to write, ‘Dear Shit-for-brains'”. There are tons of moments like that that I just found so funny.

The book was a little bit long for this sort of book (usually only high fantasy books are the ones I read that are this long and longer) at almost 400 pages with thin pages and tiny print, but I was entertained throughout!

Read this if you want to read a humorous sapphic, Victorian, vampire romance!

*This book was sent to me in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links.*