Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: Sapphic Holiday Cruise: A Lesbian Holiday Collection
AUTHOR: Erzabet Bishop
PUBLISHER: Naughty Nights Press
LENGTH: 219 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 4, 2018
BLURB:
Season’s greetings from USA Today bestselling author Erzabet Bishop!
Join her as she whisks you away on a holiday cruise filled with romance and sexy times on the high seas. Meet an alluring pirate vixen, a boudoir photographer, and more with stories that are sure to make your season merry and bright.
Titles in this collection include:
The Mermaid Tattoo: When Erin goes on a cruise with friends to forget her failed romance, new revelations will make her holiday season bright.
Captain, Oh Captain: A Temptation Resorts Story: Every fantasy can be made real at Temptation Resorts. Even the cruise line that brings you there.
Holiday Gifts: A Temptation Resorts Story: Never underestimate the power of seduction and hidden benefits of dating the boss.
Wrapped in Red: Sexy times ensue when a chance encounter leads Laurel to a boudoir photography session.
REVIEW:
Since these stories all have similar themes, I’ll review them as a whole rather than as separate parts.
Bishop is an erotica writer who always brings the steam, and a kinky lesbian cruise is the perfect setting for holiday naughtiness. The two middle stories, “Captain, Oh Captain” and “Holiday Gifts,” which seem to take place in a particularly sexy universe, are the strongest of the bunch, featuring stories about women who let go for a weekend of luxury away from their troubles back home. I liked the tongue-in-cheek “pirate abduction” kink, though I think it could’ve gone further, and the steamy photo shoot between an older and younger woman in the next story is the hottest part of the book.
I was less impressed with the bookending stories, mostly because they felt very similar. They both have the eye-rolling classic “woman has first lesbian crush ever and immediately becomes expert at gay sex” plotline, and there just wasn’t enough chemistry between the women who just met. I actually found those two stories pretty dull.
I’ve enjoyed many of Bishop’s short stories this year, but as a collection, these ones didn’t work very well. It seems like the idea for the collection itself was very last-minute, with loose themes and characters tying stories together while lacking a particularly interesting setting. Each story, especially the middle two, seemed to be a snippet from a larger world or universe Bishop created that I’m not yet familiar with.
I was so excited for a cruise-themed lesbian holiday collection—so much fun!—but really, the cruise itself is hardly more than a bit player. There’s no vacation feel, no holiday imagery. We could’ve been anywhere and the stories still would’ve worked. Only one of the stories had a strong holiday theme, with festivities only mentioned in passing in the other ones.
I was disappointed with this one. The overarching theme of a sexy lesbian cruise seemed like a slapdash idea, and the stories didn’t cohere. But there are some steamy and sweet bits that will make you smile.
RATING: 
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