A uniquely striking story full of magic, queer joy and adventure. Enchanting, a little steamy and utterly charming.

Thank you Netgalley and Creature Publishing for an arc of this book

I would recommend this book if you love Vampires and Queerness. And of course if you love a sex hyped vampire and a cruise filled with sex.

We follow Rebekah and Hugo. They are invited on a cruise for Queer people. While Rebekah is happy to be on vacation, she and Hugo meet Heaven. Hugo becomes infatuated with them and immediately falls in love them. While Rebekah does fall into their thrall, she see's Heaven for who they really are.

While this book kept my attention and was entertaining, it did take a weird turn. It is a good book just shy of 4 stars.

As a polyamorous, nonbinary queer person, I couldn’t help but be interested in reading a novella of such salacious- and likely controversial, to mononormative society- nature. Still, I felt a pleasant thrill of surprise and delight at the style and nature of the writing from the very first sentence of this book. That hook is powerful, utilizing vivid, poetic imagery and language threaded amidst that theme of narcissism. And from that hook on ward? There is no shortage of unabashed debauchery.
Rebekah, from whom the reader receives a first-person narration, remains delightful, charming, and somehow-forgivable in her unapologetic narcissism and brazenness… maybe she’s forgivable to me as a fellow baddie, and her energy makes me feel like I have permission to acknowledge my sexy, vampiric goddess energy. I cannot help but admire her despite her utter selfishness. “Who is worthy of a fuck and feed?” The perfect, vampiric slut question to ask herself- and ostensibly, the reader- at the start of the cruise. (There is a level of fourth-wall breaking present throughout this work which I LOVE)
Hugh I found to be incredibly endearing, though I have to admit I’m a sucker for a tortured artist. While I’m absolutely a Rebekah stan, I couldn’t help but advocate for Hugh and his journey moving apart from Rebekah and finding another life of his own. His soul is a sweet one, yearning for a taste of…
Heaven was, dare I say it, heavenly. Their presence is precisely the addictive, enthralling sort of nonbinary energy tortured, sexy queers could not help but drink in, and do so to excess.
I leave this a 5 star review because it absolutely delighted and entertained me, and I’d read it again- for myself or even for my lovers. I was far from disappointed in this work; honestly, I enjoyed it more than I expected even given the high levels of excitement I had coming into it based on the description. But I have to admit the level of jealousy and possessiveness radiating from Rebekah as things started with Hugh and Heaven did not sing of ethical nonmonogamy/polyamory to me- perhaps that was the point and still, I couldn’t help loving Rebekah… just a poly queer here not thrilled by that sort of exposure. A heartfelt thanks to Amanda Manns through NetGalley for the opportunity to read this delightful ARC!

This was an interesting novella to put it lightly. I'm still trying to grasp what I read even after 12 hours. If you can get past the choppy writing and characters this would be a delightfully funny horror-esque summer read. But the latter issues make it difficult to concentrate and fully immerse yourself in the story.
There really isn't much horror besides some gore during the last quarter of the book, and of course the vampire spouses, but also a surprise or two. I was hoping for this to be more horror heavy, but a girl can only dream. The cruise ship I felt was a unique setting that felt only slightly claustrophobic and more realistic. There was an attempted at a bigger world view, but the lack of detail and consistency within the novella made it out to be a sad attempt and one that I wish was done better.
The characters themselves felt lacking in depth and history. There are brief mentions about the couple's lives previously but it left me feeling miffed about the attempt. I did love how unapologetic they were and the vampire-esque was done in a very unique way. They were more human than most I've read about, and their feedings were also not the norm. Heaven..... was Heaven. That's literally all I can say about it because that's all that makes sense.

I can see why this has such mixed reviews, but I absolutely adored it.
This book is a short fever dream of hedonism and indulgence, nothing short of what I would expect of energy vampires on a queer cruise.
It's less gothic horror, Only Lovers Left Alive vibes and more Nadja and Lazlo from WWDITS in the sex party episode.
I was kicking my feet at the line 'We're actually not entirely prepared for an orgy. Hugh didn't even bring his cape'.
Rebekah was an absolute queen, and Heaven was a chaotic non-binary goblin. I wish Hugh had been a bit more fleshed out as a character and maybe have the book be a bit longer so other things could be further explored.
A messy and fun read overall, definitely more of a satire than spooky.

4/5 stars.

The plot is pretty much what the title says... vampires... at sea...except these vampires feed on energy and not blood.
I was excited to read bc queer gothic is absolutely my jam, but I just didn't enjoy it that much. It felt like this could be a short story, and instead it went off on some tangents and some unnecessary additions.
I also don't enjoy reading sexual scenes, so there was some I had to skip, which added to the feeling that there was a bunch of unnecessary points. At least the sexual aspect contributed to the plot. That made it a little better, since I really dislike the trend nowadays of adding sexual scenes to romance for no reason.

DNF'd around 50% through it. I thought I might be the target audience, I thought the premise seemed fresh and fun...I really wanted to like it, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I found the characters odious, the FMC vain and whiny the chemistry between Hugh/Rebekah/Heaven shallow. I just didn't get invested in the story, I didn't care to see what would happen next... the only thing that kept catching my attention was the mention of a war that was happening on land, and that ultimately seemed like it was going nowhere. Like, why mention it at all? Dunno. Lindsay seems like a very talented and skilled writer, it's just a shame that this was my introduction.

Thank you to NetGalley for the early access to this ARC in exchange for my honest review <3

Bad, substanceless, weird and not for me. Not vampiric, don’t be fooled. Nothing about it was fun or rememberable

The writing style just isn’t for me, it’s a bit too disjointed but it’s just personal preference. The use of slurs to describe some of the characters also seemed unnecessary and was not enjoyable to read for me personally

Vampires at Sea is a wild, horny, blood-slicked ride aboard a hedonistic cruise through the Black Sea. Rebekah and Hugh, emotional vampires with baggage and bite, just want a chill getaway. Enter Heaven, a shape-shifting influencer who throws their plans (and their poly vibes) into chaos.

This novella is messy, smutty, and utterly self-aware. Rebekah’s voice is sharp, snarky, and gloriously narcissistic. The plot is delicious chaos. Think What We Do in the Shadows meets The L Word, but at sea and everyone’s fangs are out, literally and emotionally.

It’s not here to solve war or reinvent the vampire genre, but it is here to entertain. And oh, it does.

Thanks to NetGalley and Creature Publishing for this weird, sexy cruise. I need a cocktail and a lie down!!

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

This book is about two pansexual vampires going on a cruise ship in order to have an orgy / lots of sex. This part does not scandalise or shock me, just the opposite really: I was thoroughly bored. Yes, it's queer and partly funny but I didn't like our main character, I didn't really find the 'story' interesting and I didn't really care for any of it. At least this was a very short read.

I was anticipating this book, but I ended up not loving it. There were aspects that I enjoyed, and I did like the writing style during some parts, but overall I never felt that I cared much about the characters. Some other parts crossed the line of cringey to me and made it difficult to embrace the writing as a whole. I feel that the vampires in supposedly vampires at sea got lost and that it should not really be described as a horror novel.

I think I was expecting more vampire shenanigans than I got but I did enjoy the couple drama as a marriage drama of sorts. I also was very intrigued by the idea of like sticking the immortal creatures on a smorgasboard of victims and then seeing the mess that turned out in a very Only Lovers left Alive but on SEA kind of dynamic.

This novel was a fun read. The main character is a vampire, which upon starting, I assumed was the traditional, suck blood for hunger type of vampire. I was mistaken. The vampires in this novel are energy vampires, which, considering the setting of the novel (a cruise), the reader would assume that they would have no complication in feeding their hunger. The plot is simple but engaging. This novel is brief exploration into commitment, includes a variety of identities without it being the main focus, and ends with an open question for the reader about what to do when things don't turn out as planned?

Bit weird but thoroughly enjoyable.
Excellent twisty storyline.
Keeps you interested right to the end.
Thanks for the opportunity to read and review

I was really interested on the summary of this book but I'm afraid something got lost in the middle.

The concept of the vampires on a cruise was on its own amazing to me because canonically vampires can't cross bodies of water... so kudos for the clever moment. That being said... I felt something was lacking.

Don't get me wrong, I really liked Rebekah and Hugh, but something didn't quite click for me.

The book builds up and while a slow climb I do think it was very enjoyable. Funny and witty tho maybe... not lusty enough?? I feel like I got in expecting a really horny book and that quite wasn't what I got. But hey, who am I to judge a vampire by their sex life?

The writing is funny and witty, the book is very fresh and the characters lovable if excentric in all the right ways.
I liked it very much!

This book was a complete fever dream – a crossover of vampirism, but with emotions instead of blood. Modern day influencers meet older vampires, or are the influencers also monsters? A typical cruise ship…a fancy cruise ship...how long is this cruise? I wish I had a bit more of a back story when I started this book so I could have followed along better and understood how these vampires were “vampires” and where they came from. The story is very unique and had a very interesting plot…also, there’s a lot of adult activities occurring. With a lot of partners. Is this a sex cruise? I’m still unsure, but I was definitely entertained.

Thank you to Creature Publishing and NetGalley for an E-ARC copy of this book.

There’s vampires on the cruise ship, what could go wrong? A vampire couple, feeding on strong (and different) emotions decide to try something new and they join a queer cruise. On the ship they fuck and explore new and intriguing forms of hedonism, when they encounter a nonbinary social media influencer named Heaven. It becomes clear they aren’t human either. Soon Hugh has fallen under their spell and Rebekah struggles to come to terms with the duality of jealously and desire battling within her.
If you like your vampire stories bloody, this is not the story for you. If you like them sexy… Meh, also not really (for a book that claims to dive into hedonism, most of the actual sex is deeply unsatisfying). But if you like emotional vampires with issues, selfish, horrible queer people and someone breaking out (or being broken out of) their everyday trot then you will find this here. We follow Rebekah, a vampire who has grown compliant living with her artist husband, feeding just enough to stay sated. When Heaven unsettles the balance, they have built together, Rebekah has to confront her hunger and her past. She is an incredibly interesting character, jealous and bitchy and selfish and to me intriguing (sometimes you just enjoy a horrible, problematic woman, who revels in her own pity even though everybody knows she suuuucks). I also really liked Heaven, nonbinary shapeshifter, homewrecker extraordinaire, selfish and horrible and oh so sexy. And I was deeply intrigued by the hate-interest-jealousy thing Heaven and Rebekah had going on (although I wish that had been explored in more depth! They were the most interesting characters after all and should have been the main focus tbh.) I wish Hugh had been fleshed out a bit more and I did not see the appeal Rebekah (or Heaven) saw in him because he just didn’t get enough depth.
I also did not get a real horror vibe from this, it is more queer vampire satire than anything even remotely scary and I would have liked to learn more about Rebekah’s past, but if you like what we do in the shadows and criticism of stan culture you might be more interested by this than I was. Just don’t go into it expecting any actual horror or erotica.
All in all, an interesting beach read if you like messy women, who feed of your emotions, satisfying for the short snack that it is, but not leaving me sated either.

TW: alcohol, slight issues of consent due to vampiric powers (already existing lust gets enhanced), death, gore, jealousy, violence

A vampire couple goes for a holiday - but they don't anticipate the queer influencer, Heaven, to be a wrench thrown into their relationship. This sets off a series of events and twists that are totally unexpected and very entertaining. It's a great read for anyone looking for a 'What We Do In the Shadows'-esque character study that explores vanity, narcissism and jealousy!

received this as an e-arc!

this book is strange in the sense where i really wanted to like it but there was something about it that prevented me from doing so. i personally am a fan of gratuitous sex scenes but the ones that were in this book confused me. definitely could tell that the scenes were not meant to arouse but then that provoked the question in me that was like 'oh okay, what is this for?' is to establish a power dynamic? is to establish a 'secret' relationship? it left me just kinda... confused?

that's how it was like the entire book frankly. i wanted to be more invested in the characters, in their pasts and their stories but in the end, what i got was a self-discovery journey in which i barely cared for. i mean like, i liked the main character, rebekah, but i wasn't so much Rooting for her so unfortunately, this book just missed the mark. i get where it wants to go and what it wants to do but yea, execution-wise, it could've been better. i will say though, i appreciated it for its witty and candid humour! i think more queer books need to be that way and this one definitely hit that mark for me.