Thanks to NetGalley and ByWaters Books for the copy in exchange for this review.

This story drips with lyrical prose and gothic horror elements. It follows Poppy Cavendish, a prostitute who finds her world twisted, shattered, and made anew in the darkness of her new vampiric life. Her first contact with this world is Roisin, a vampire as broken as she is beautiful. They find themselves coming to care deeply for one another, but Roisin is on a path of vengeance that she will not pull Poppy onto. The rest of the story spans decades as Poppy adjusts to her new world and finds comfort, family, and distraction. Through all this, two specters linger; Roisin, the woman she loves who can only give snippets of her heart, and the other is Cane, the ancient vampire that sired both Roisin and Poppy and plays the mouse, though often the cat, to Roisin's chase.
This story was a little hard to get into at first. The voice and word choice is something only some might be used to, but fit extremely well with the Victorian era it's set in. After a bit, I enjoyed the flow of the writing and the occasional need to look up a word.
The characters themselves were flawed and lovable and insufferable and endearing. There were many moments I wanted to shake Roisin and Poppy for their choices, but they were realistic to character and situation. Their love story was the definition of slow burn, but the payoff was beautiful and worth the wait.
Don't even get me started on the tattoos because that made me so happy.
The characters surrounding them were equally fleshed out. You grow to hate Cane the more you know of her, you come to love Lizzy as Poppy's best friend, and Carmen and The Brood are a bunch of decadent queers that are equal parts loving and sarcastic to one another.
This story might not be for everyone; there is a lot of sex (though I wouldn't qualify this story as erotica), blood, talk of mental illness. But again, none of it is for the sake of padding word count; it helps build the story and flesh out this world where immortals discover that forever doesn't need to mean stagnation.

I think this might be the best book I've read so far in 2023, and I can't see it being replaced unless something absolutely stellar comes along.
A Long Time Dead follows the newly-turned vampire, Poppy, and her companion (later lover) Roisin, detailing Poppy's adjustment to her new life, and Roisin's quest to destroy the vampire who sired her. Although Roisin's plot-line is a bit of a B-plot to the main course of the novel, I regularly found myself excited for parts of the book that were about her, and especially enjoyed things once the two plots converged and we got to see the entire cast working toward the shared goal of defeating Cane.
The prose in this book was absolutely perfect, just the right balance of elegance and lyricism that I prefer, without ever losing the sense of the character who was 'narrating'. Poppy's voice shone through every line, and watching that evolve as Poppy did was one of the hi9hlights for me.
On that note, literally every character in this book was a well-developed, three dimensional person, including the ones who just had a tiny bit of screen time. Particular shout-out to Valentin, who was just, *chef kiss*, perfect. I would say never change, but part of what made him great was the extremely subtle way his character arc was handled. The easisest way to get me on-side is to give me a bitchy, cynical, Frenchman and then make him be pining.
This might not have been the lightest paranormal romance out there, but I think that's something it has in its favour. Anyone who's enjoyed Interview with the Vampire but just wished it was a little more raunchy will be pleased with this book, I know I certainly was.
5/5 stars, literally the best book I've read in 2023.

First of all….. Anne Rice wishes!!! (Okay, rip Anne, why I am picking a fight with a dead woman but also…. I feel like she would be cool with it (?) and it IS kind of in the spirit of this book so I’m going with it.)

This is a hilarious blood-soaked horny lesbian historical vampire romance comfort read with juuuuuuust enough scariness to keep you on your toes. It starts almost as a kind of gothic satire, and then morphs into a much funnier The Old Guard. (And then goes a bit too long in wrapping everything up with the epilogue etc imo, but I generally dislike an epilogue so make of that what you will.) This take on vampires is a fun spin on the Anne Rice/Buffy/Twilight modern canon. All the time jumps just *work*. And this book about vampires, correctly, has a lot of time jumps! What’s the point of writing about people who live forever if you stay in the same decade the whole time!

And last but absolutely not least, Poppy, our heroine, is a genius protagonist, full of heart and one-liners. Loved her. More books about (characters like) Poppy!!

Tragically this book was not for me.

I saw lesbian vampires and I was entranced, but alas.

Full disclosure, I did not finish it, but unfortunately the flowery prose was not grabbing me and Poppy was beginning to chafe. That said, I may seek to pick it up again in October - perhaps when the vibes are right...

Regardless, thank you so much to NetGalley and Bywater books for the free eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. I'm sure this book will be someone's favorite, but sadly, it won't be mine.

I',m a great Anne Rice fan so I come prepared to any vampire stories out there.
The first part of the book is really really slow. It takes a while to get even interested in the story. I feel it lacks a great backstory about the supervillain Cane, where did she get her superpowers? She is supposed to be THAT strong and mighty she can even play tricks on Vlad (is he supposed to be DRACULA?).
Then after a long long hunt for her, she just gets killed like that. in a matter of a few lines.

Roisin's struggle gets dragged to long as well. She is portrayed as some kind of martyr devoting her life, undead life on finding and killing Cane.

Lastly the idea of not drinking human blood and surviving on hares and animals.
Well, again, any vampire can drink and survive on animals alone and if drinking from children might be considered unethical, there are many humans that might 'deserve' to be drunk from such as criminals.

A Victorian gothic following Poppy, a newly turned vampire and her enigmatic mentor, Roisin. Vampire is a tired subject now, but the author captured the classic essence, the push and pull of humanity and immortality. The prose is on point, lush and beautiful yet entirely readable. Being character-driven it’s a bit slow for me, then again I have the attention span of a goldfish.

This book as lovely. The writing style was different but it stood out and kept me reading. The characters were relatable in their own ways and the romance between them was fantastic. Overall a pretty good read.

Unfortunately, this prose just wasn't for me. However I'd recommend it to people who do enjoy a more purple prose.

A Long Time Dead is a terrific gothic vampire romance that captures your attention from the first page and doesn't let go.. Even though it is a little slower paced, that feels deliberate, as it is is used as a world building tool to create a melancholic atmospheric feeling for the story that adds a sense of tension and gloom to the book. I highly recommend this book to those who like darker victorian romances.

"Some impulses are meant to be curtailed. But not love."

A Long Time Dead is a sapphic Victorian vampire romance with found family and a large array of queer characters.

This is the most intensely passionate book I have ever read. The two main characters were vehement in their love for each other, but this degree of nearly instant infatuation felt unbelievable to me from the beginning.

Our main character is Poppy, a brave and outspoken sex worker, who is turned into a vampire at the beginning of the novel. During her transition she is taken care of by an older vampire named Roisin, and their time together quickly blossoms into a deep mutual desire for companionship that fuels the revenge journey they take together against Roisin's evil and powerful vampire sire, Cane.

The first 35% of the book takes place in one house in London, with Poppy and Roisin getting to know each other while Poppy learns the ins and outs of vampirism. This was the weakest part of the novel in my opinion and almost led me to DNF. We get a lot of Roisin during this part of the book - and I found her to be insufferable. This portion of the book was undeniably insta-lovey, but without the romance really coming to fruition. This hesitancy really did not make sense to me, and it felt like an attempt to create tension for the audience but instead caused me a lot of frustration. I did start to believe in the romance more towards the end after years of interactions - but I never really understood their initial connection.

The middle portion of the book was incredible - with Poppy finally getting to meet new Vampires, build relationships, and have some adventures. I LOVED the found family in this book - and would've read an entire book about the Brood. The characters were well rounded and dynamic with distinct personalities. The author did a great job organically building these characters relationships with Poppy in a way that was both entertaining and endearing.

- I appreciated the inclusion of sexuality (which warning - is at times pretty explicit) woven in with vampirism. The book is very sex positive, and vampires are the perfect supernatural vessel to use to represent greed and pleasure.

- The vocabulary used in this book is pretty advanced. Not in a way that felt out of place with the text at all, but as someone who reads 100+ books a year I was still looking up definitions at least once or twice per chapter. I actually enjoyed that a lot, but it was something I felt worth mentioning!

- Roisin struggled a lot during the book with dramatic self pity, shame, believing she didn't deserve happiness, etc. This may seem insensitive to me, but this was all introduced way too early for me to care. I never really felt invested in Roisin's character, so I had no patience for her constant self-loathing. Poppy on the other hand was undeniably self-centered, and it was painful to follow her journey for that reason sometimes.

There were so many parts of this book that I loved, and I see so much potential in the characters. But there were too many moments where I was checking every page to see if I was closer to the end. Without feeling connected and invested in the characters, the intense passion seemed misplaced and uninteresting.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Sapphic vampire romance in the mid- to late-1800's where Poppy, a sex worker wondering where her next meal will come from, takes on a sexy female client named Cane who puts her in a trance and turns her into a vampire. She is left in an old mansion with another woman turned by her named Roisin. Poppy immediately falls for Roison's tuppence eyes, but Roisin is guarded and unsure how to feel about this new addition to her once empty life.

It has found family, queer and trans main characters, vampire orgies, and a hunt to destroy the centuries-old Cane before she abuses more women. Literally my girlfriend was like wow you must really love this book because you cannot put it down AND SHE WAS RIGHT!!!! So so good, 4.5 rounded down to a 4 only because some parts felt a bit confusing to me (like how did we get from that scene to this one? where did that character go??

Beautiful, haunting, and seductive, this book is everything I want in a vampire romance. AND ITS GAY!! Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced ebook.

Samara Breger’s stunning A LONG TIME DEAD (Bywater Books, 412 pp., paperback, $23.95) recalls a vintage wine miraculously salvaged from a shipwreck. It’s also the best Sapphic vampire book since Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 classic, “Carmilla.”

The Victorian sex worker Poppy Cavendish wakes in a cobwebbed manor to find herself a creature out of a nightmare: Her only companion, Roisin, is a traumatized, stern vampire who has firm rules about drinking from humans (never) and sleeping with Poppy (also never, she protests a little too vehemently). Poppy misses drinking ale, she misses her human friends, she misses sex — and, slowly, she learns the reasons behind what Roisin has done, and what kind of monsters really come out at night.

I had to keep putting down “A Long Time Dead” to yell about how sublime and funny it was, to dwell on the way the sleekly poetic style melted down into brutal abstraction when Poppy’s bloodlust took over.

Roisin’s anguish is the reversed image of Bennett’s: “What vital 21-year-old immortal would tie herself to the bony ghost woman that time forgot?” Vampire bodies might not decay, but time still sinks in its teeth; vampire memories here are moth-riddled, undependable things. Time makes immortals parasites upon the human world, dependents and exiles both.

Absolutely breathtaking historical Sapphic vampire tale with incredible background characters! The dialogue between our main pair is so cheeky and refreshing, and their journey towards each other may not be smooth, but it is worth every step!

The way this book is written is absolutely insane and it sucks you in, in the best way (ha, unintentional vampire joke). there’s something about the way this book blends the historical feel and slang for a modern audience that is so very delectable.

But the thing that sets this book apart and absolutely steals the show is it’s characters. every single character in this book adds something so valuable and you cannot help but love them all. especially sarah, she came in and absolutely stole the show for me. like yes i was enamoured by poppy and roisin, but god if sarah isn’t one of those side characters you just have to love. poppy is an absolute delight and being able to read this book through her POV was definitely the best choice for the author.

The book loses half a star for me because i think the ending was a bit weak and felt slightly rushed (to the point where i thought there was going to be a second book which finishes off the story). the rest of the plot/story is solid and is well-paced but it is rather weak in certain places. but i am definitely a person who enjoys strong characters so please do take my review with a pinch of salt.

So yes, this truly is a wonderful vampire book that you should really sink your teeth into ( i am so sorry i will stop now).

Enjoyable, great pacing, exciting settings kept me hooked. Fun novel that will be the perfect to lose yourself in. Thank you Net Galley for ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

A poignant story about sapphic vampires who slowly learn to live again. I loved it, particularly the dynamic of the Brood, as well as how much work and healing Poppy and Roisin did together to get their HEA.

Who doesn’t love sapphic Victorian-era vampires pining after each other for centuries?

A Long Time Dead was a wild ride. It was funny, sad, sensual, and hopeful all at the same time! So much found family it almost made me cry.

I did think it was a bit too long, dragging at some parts that felt like filler. Especially in the beginning when Roisin and Poppy weren’t really doing much of anything. I also wish there would have been more Cain, because my toxic trait is liking evil women and she was a super entertaining character. Instead of chapters with the fam at parties, there definitely should have been more run-ins with the psychotic vampire they were trying to kill.

Overall very fun, though!

Thank you NetGalley and Bywater Books for this arc.

A sumptuous, dryly humorous, ultimately romantic sapphic vampire story moreso in the vein of Anne Rice than a lot of other similar books in its oeuvre — which may not jive with every reader, either, but proved to be exactly what I needed when I picked it up for a bit of pleasure reading ahead of this month. It's more slowly paced, but also really plays into how quickly the passage of time can be when you're immortal and some of your dear friends are still human. It's also just a great book about <i>women</i> in all their forms and exploring all of their idiosyncrasies and complexities, within the backdrop of a decades-spanning love story.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Topics such as the blossoming of a friendship into love are discussed ,the suffering of loss and the obsession with the one we love, the transformation and the struggle of a new "life". A slow-paced story, more character driven than plot (I do prefer plot) It. If you enjoy gothic vibes, vampires and some erotic vibes (it was a bit much for my taste), I really recommend it.

Vampires. Friends. Lovers. In a time when love was not accepted for Poppy and Roisin, they fought the odds to be together and found a community of their own. But as secrets began to surface their lives were upended.

I found many of the characters endearing in their own ways, but truly enjoyed getting to know Poppy and Roisin. The action and thrill of their vampire lives was entertaining. The physical exploration and tensions were intriguing. Overall, more than just a vampire novel with a gorgeous cover! It was a story about love and loss and finding your true happiness!

Thank you NetGalley, Bywater Books, and author Samara Breger for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.