Review: Zen and the Art of Vampires

Posted December 19, 2008 by Tracy in Reviews | 4 Comments

White picket fences can be dangerous to vampires. Sometimes a woman’s gotta choose….

Pia Thomason doesn’t have a typical life, but she wants one: the husband, the kids, the house in the suburbs. With her fortieth birthday looming, she decides to do something drastic, and takes off on a singles’ tour though romantic Europe. But the few guys on the trip leave much to be desired – un-like the two men Pia sees in a small Icelandic town. They’re handsome, mysterious, and very dangerous … Just the sight of them puts her in a dither.

When their paths cross again, Pia knows one thing for certain: Where vampires are concerned, love isn’t the only thing at stake.

Pia is not having a good day. First she’s on this tour. It seems everyone is hooking up with either other people on the tour or the locals. She’s talking to a 4 year old. A fellow tourist is driving her nuts with her complaining and telling her that Pia’s getting over the hill and let’s face it you weigh a little more than you should so you’re not gonna get anyone. Needless to say the fellow tourist, Denise, isn’t skinny minny either. All of this is making Pia a crazy woman!

While Pia takes a dare from Denise to try to get the attention of two gorgeous men that are hanging out in town she bumps into a woman, Anniki. Well, that starts the ball rolling into utter chaos in Pia’s life. She’s believed to be an esteemed member of The Brotherhood of the Blessed Light which means that she’ll have to get married right away, she’s chased around town and then ends up meeting up with, none other than, the two gorgeous men…Alec and Kristoff.

Alec takes an immediate liking to Pia and she takes a liking to him as well. But there’s something kind of sinister and attractive about Kristoff as well – even though he scowls most of the time. Pia ends us sleeping with Alec and when she wakes up in the morning Alec is gone and Anniki (woman she ran into that day) is sitting in Pia’s bathroom with a knife in her chest. Pia runs for her life and ends up with Kristoff, who she goes with and yes, has sex with…after he forces her to marry him so that she won’t marry the guy from the Blessed light and come into her Brotherhood powers.

Although Pia is having strange feelings about Kristoff and being more and more attracted to him she feels that she is betraying Alec and tries to stomp down any thoughts of Kristoff that sneak in. While she’s thwarting her feelings she goes to the Brotherhood and explains that it’s all a misunderstanding but guess what they do….they make her marry the Brotherhood guy anyway! So now she has 2 husbands! Is any of this legal, she wonders?

I can’t possibly go into everything that happens to Pia, Kristoff, Alec, Denise, Pia’s friend Magda, the cadre of ghosts (yes, ghosts) and everyone else involved in this story. Suffice it to say that there was never a dull moment in the story.

This was a great book. I wasn’t bored for one moment while reading it and I loved that! Although I have 1 or 2 Dark Ones novels in my TBR, I’ve never read them. I think I might change that now that I’ve read ZatAoV. The only bad thing that I have to say about the story is that the relationship in the end…and I’m not saying if it was Alec or Kristoff….is completely unresolved. I.Hate.That. lol I really do. I want to know what happens NOW dammit! 🙂 And the next book, Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang, doesn’t come out until next May! I guess I’ll have to find someway to make it through until then because I’m very anxious to know what happens next.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5


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4 responses to “Review: Zen and the Art of Vampires

  1. I have never read a Katie MacAlister book. Glad you enjoyed this one, hopefully May won’t take too long to get here so you can read the next one!

  2. Thanks Anna – I’ll have to look into getting those. I think a friend has them so I can just borrow. 🙂

    Amy – they’re usually very funny. I’ve heard her Dragon series is great but I’ve not read it yet. Corset Diaries was hilarious!

    Alys – yes she is! I really do like her books and I’m not usually a 1 ppov person. 🙂

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