Smoke and shadows ebook

To understand every nuance of this series, you need to have read the previous "Blood" series, beginning with Blood Price. Those books are the story of vampire Henry Fitzroy and ex-cop Victoria Nelson. But from the first book, Henry, who is bi, also has a relationship with Tony, the street kid who saves his life, whom he rescues and gradually comes to love in his own way. Tony appears in flashes in those books, snarky, self-deprecating, honorable, and vulnerable.

Events lead to Henry moving Tony in with him and moving to Vancouver. The "Smoke" series are Tony's own story. Tony loves Henry but he also feels overwhelmed and consumed by him and not just in a literal sense.

As the book opens, Tony has moved out of the apartment they shared, found his own place, and a job as a TV production assistant. The TV show is about a fictional vampire detective, a topic which Tony could tell them a lot about, but doesn't. Tony also has a crush on one of the co-stars, who is straight according to his publicity, but occasionally sends mixed messages. The most mixed message, though, happens when the actor, Lee, is possessed by a shadow force that only Tony seems to be aware of.

These books are a fun urban paranormal romp, with great snarky lines, and yet a sweet heart to the story. Tony is one of my favorite characters anywhere - a guy I'd love to actually know. After so many rereads I can't be objective, but I recommend these books as old friends. View all 7 comments. I never cared much for Tony in the previous series Blood Series. I didn't dislike him, but just didn't pay much mind to the minor character.

I was curious how it would be pulled off making him the primary protagonist, and as a character it turns out I enjoy him more now. His older street jargon has been replaced with more proper speech - we're informed this has been encouraged by Henry "offstage. Tony isn't as exciting I never cared much for Tony in the previous series Blood Series. Tony isn't as exciting as the previous Vicky who got on my nerves much of the time for her attitude or the adorably lovable Celucci.

The Shadowlord, an intriguing and unique enough villain, is well-written. It's not every day you read a book focused on living shadows that are part of a larger being. The story itself is a good one but the pacing is too slow for some areas; as an example, when emphasis is placed on Tony's day-to-day interactions on the stage set, none of this interested me and I kept gliding through passages where he chats with co-workers. Being boring is a book or movie's greatest sin, and while Smoke and Shadows never committed this crime exactly, it was sadly close some of the time.

Henry comes back and is as great as ever, I love the whole possessive type angle, but I found the whole "hunger" and "seduction" expression vague at best and over-used. There was no tension with these scenes, it was just written, no build-up and no description.

This, thankfully, is a minor thing that did not distract me from the otherwise interesting and somewhat unique story that I enjoyed reading. Not a book you would be forced to read through in one sitting, forgoing sleep and other life needs, but a book that still keeps you drawn in just enough to keep wanting to reach the end line. The negatives and pluses aside, I'm wanting to read more of the series. The ending of the book let loose some intriguing ideas about Tony's character that suddenly makes him more intriguing.

I would like, of course, to keep seeing more of Henry and his relationship with Tony for, like the previous series, he is much of the glue that keeps the stories together. I remember being depressed that the Blood Lines series ended, and I'm happy it's been picked up again for a few more rounds, even if it's with a new 'bloodline'.

I didn't find Tony to be a very likable character in the Vicki novels so I was a little hesitant about the Smoke books, but found myself enjoying them pretty well. Henry is along for the ride too, and that helps a lot. Huff's portrayal of a vampire-themed TV series is completely captivating and absolutely hilarious and worth the price of admission on its own.

Jan 09, Nancy rated it did not like it Shelves: waste-of-trees , crime-mystery-thriller , paranormal , sf-fantasy , abandoned , library-books , lgbt , vampires. The book is so bad I can't even finish it. It is neither funny nor scary, the plot drags, the dialogue and the writing are clumsy, and there is not one single interesting character. Oct 16, Vanessa rated it it was amazing Shelves: urban-and-contemporary-fantasy , forever-favorites. If "The story of a former street kid turned PA on the set of a vampire detective show, stumbling once again into supernatural adventures his actual-vampire ex boyfriend took him away from" written by Tanya Huff doesn't convince you to read this book, I will add that this story is full of wonderfully quirky and charming side characters and raise you that Tony has an absolutely adorable crush on the second lead actor of his show, that is actually taken seriously and rest my case.

I will rec this t If "The story of a former street kid turned PA on the set of a vampire detective show, stumbling once again into supernatural adventures his actual-vampire ex boyfriend took him away from" written by Tanya Huff doesn't convince you to read this book, I will add that this story is full of wonderfully quirky and charming side characters and raise you that Tony has an absolutely adorable crush on the second lead actor of his show, that is actually taken seriously and rest my case.

I will rec this trilogy to everyone and anyone who asks me for recs, because it's so damn enjoyable to read and re-read. Tony is one of my favorite main characters ever. He is sarcastic, he is caring, he is vulnerable, responsible and he's a complete dork. He loves his "different" family, his friends, old movies and staring at Lee Nicholas in his leather jacket.

In short, he is a joy to read about. But what would a great main character be without others to interact with? And what an awesome supporting cast this world has! Amy, the receptionist with the gothic touch. The sound technician Zev, the not-straight straight man when everyone else loses their heads. CB, the owner of the studio before whom even supernatural entities quiver.

The lead actor, Mason whose hilariously big ego more often than not hides his good heart. Lee, the object of Tony's affection who is probably the better actor of the two and who would like to let you know that he's definitely not a damsel in distress.

Plus all the other colorful characters on The Darkest Night any resemblance to persons living or dead is completely accidental! Anyone who has read Huff's Blood books about Vicky Nelson will already know who he and Tony are, but you absolutely don't have to read them first I haven't. This story can stand on its own.

Make no mistake, this is a pretty light hearted story with lots of humour and heart warming moments, but there is also something scary about shadows possessing people. As a reader one perfectly understands the urgency Tony feels and his frustration with the one person who could help but refuses to do so for certain reasons.

It's an interesting conflict that's leads to a pretty unusual friendship. As always, Tanya Huff's style is easy to read, full of wit and makes pictures appear in the reader's head. View all 3 comments. Jan 24, Olga Godim rated it really liked it Shelves: fantasy-scifi. An unusual urban fantasy. Tony works as a production assistant for a third-rate TV serial about a vampire detective. He is young, gay, and fascinated by television. He wants to be a director. Arra works for the same serial as a special effects wizard.

But when strange shadows started infringing on the show, stranger facts emerge. Arra is really a wizard. She escaped from a murderous sorcerer S An unusual urban fantasy.

She escaped from a murderous sorcerer Shadowlord in another realm, and he is tracking her down to Earth, to our TV set in Vancouver, Canada. He is set on catching and killing her, no matter how many people he will destroy in the process. She is set on escaping again. Tony stands between them and urges Arra to fight. He is not a wizard, he is out of his league, and he knows it. Perhaps everyone in the city. But until Arra finds her backbone, Tony has no choice but to keep fighting the Shadowlord and his minions, the shadows.

Fast paced and original, this novel was a joyful ride. Its protagonist Tony was a likable guy, compassionate and courageous. And pining for a straight actor on the set. Arra was a believable cowards until the last few pages, when she finally turned around and kicked ass, and I sympathized with her even more than with Tony.

The other characters infused the tale with the life-like complications and a gurgling brew of emotions, while the non-standard setting of Vancouver, my hometown, added some piquancy to the story. Very nice. Dec 21, Angela rated it liked it Shelves: urban-fantasy.

For those of you who are fans of the Vicki Nelson "Blood" series by Tanya Huff, the "Smoke" series is a followup trilogy to that--starring Tony, the former street kid who was Vicki's source and later Henry's companion. It's a solid story, and it's nice to see what happened to Tony and Henry once they moved to Vancouver following the tail end of the Vicki books.

It won't be a surprise to anyone familiar with Huff's writing, but for those of you who aren't, it's also a nice switch to have an urban For those of you who are fans of the Vicki Nelson "Blood" series by Tanya Huff, the "Smoke" series is a followup trilogy to that--starring Tony, the former street kid who was Vicki's source and later Henry's companion. It won't be a surprise to anyone familiar with Huff's writing, but for those of you who aren't, it's also a nice switch to have an urban fantasy star a queer boy.

As is Huff's way, she is quite straightforward with Tony's sexuality, and at the same time doesn't really make a big deal of it, either. He has a huge crush on a straight boy, is tentatively flirting with another queer boy in his workplace, and is wrestling with his ongoing connection to Henry--which has persisted in strength even though Tony has moved out into his own place and is trying to establish his own life. Really, he's got all the complications you'd expect of any straight urban fantasy lead character, only he's queer.

It's a nice change. Plot-wise, things are not terribly complicated: Tony, Henry, and a refugee wizard from another world must team up to fight off an incursion of magically animated shadows that have come through a gate between worlds in pursuit of said wizard. Most of the plot is driven by Tony wrestling with establishing his independence from Henry, while Arra, the wizard, wrestles with her conscience and is dragged kicking and screaming into the fight.

As part of it all, we get to see the beginnings of intriguing talents on Tony's part which, through the next couple of books, will quite likely help him out with that whole holding his own with Henry thing. Half a star off for occasional editing errors, but otherwise a good and entertaining read. Three and a half stars. Jul 18, Kelly H. Maybedog marked it as abandoned Shelves: what-male-protagonist , what-mm , what-lgbtq , what-not-romance , what-modern-fantasy , what-mm-abandoned.

This had so much promise but the story is boring and slow. I was also very discombobulated with the POV changing from character to character in the middle of dialog or a descriptive paragraph. It was so jarring and confusing I would have to reread the page to figure out where the POV changed. Usually it wasn't even clear. I think remaining with one character's perspective until a section break is as important as punctuation in a book. I'm also confused about these relationships because two of the This had so much promise but the story is boring and slow.

I'm also confused about these relationships because two of the characters came from earlier series' but I just don't care enough about anyone in it to stick with it. There is no emotion, no indication of how Tony feels other than when he lusts after someone. In fact, he doesn't react at all at times when logic dictates he should. He feels like a robot; a nice robot, but still a robot. Then there's the fact that there isn't even a hint of romance. Things like that. I really wanted to like this series but I'm so bored.

View all 4 comments. Apr 07, amireal rated it really liked it Shelves: g-fantasy-urban , a-huff , reviewed. This book is the first in the series that spins off her Blood series. It takes Tony, a relatively minor character from before and turns him into the main.

Though you don't have to read the other series to understand this one, this book does spoil how the other one ends. The story is light compared to much fiction, especially compared to the series it spun off of, its tone has a feel that you'd recognize if you read a lot of fanfiction.

But that doesn't detract. It has humor and wryness and a sens This book is the first in the series that spins off her Blood series. It has humor and wryness and a sense of Huff's own fangirl nature seeps through in the varying in jokes about the Vancouver production scene.

The plot alone isn't original, but the take on it, her spin is. As a side note, Tony is a well rounded, gay character and you don't see many of those around. Or maybe I just haven't read enough. Oct 16, Kerry rated it liked it Shelves: , fantasy , 7. I find Tanya Huff a mixed bag. I liked all the Vicki Nelson books even if some of the themes did get a bit disturbing by the time we got to Huff's riff on Frankenstein's monster and the first Keeper book.

I found the second in that series so-so and never finished the third. Most of her others haven't done anything special for me, although I did like her early pair of books about Crystal. All of this meant I ordered Smoke and Shadows when it came out, but didn't rush to read it. This is sort of I find Tanya Huff a mixed bag. This is sort of a spin-off from the Vicki Nelson books in that it is about Tony, who moved to Vancouver with Henry after he moved on to leave the Toronto territory to Vicki.

It's five years later now and Tony has moved out of Henry's place and is trying to make his own space in the world. He's working as a PA on the set of a syndicated TV show about - wait for it - a vampire detective. Tony was only a minor character in Vicki's books, but I liked him when we turned up and it is nice to see him finding himself now. The scars of his past haven't vanished, but he's dealt with a lot of them and the things he learned on the Toronto streets and in company of first Vicki and then Henry are going to help him out as he finds himself having his own mystical adventures.

Ignore the blurb above; since the wizard in question is a she rather than a he and Tony is a pretty low-level member of the production crew, I wonder if the person who wrote it even read the book. Henry is less of a presence here; he's a main character, but he's playing second fiddle to Tony - something he probably wouldn't appreciate if he knew about it. The secondary characters are all well drawn, although some are more fleshed out that others.

The wizard, Arra, is a nicely motivated character even if those motives are less than pure and the more realistic for it. This was a good, solid and enjoyable read. It was nice to see familiar character again, and better that their previous adventures had changed them enough that they were also new characters at the same time.

There are a few pop-culture references that readers may or may not get I did like Tony's comment that with everything that was happening and likely to happen, he had a lot more sympathy now with Buffy the Vampire Slayer's season six version of Buffy Summers but they don't overwhelm the story enough to be annoying. This was part of my summer reading and it has been perfect for that. While there are references back to the Vicki books, you don't need to have read them although they are worth the time , so get out and give this one a go.

Aug 10, Lightreads rated it liked it Shelves: fiction , romance , fantasy , lgbt , urban-fantasy. Trilogy about a gay production assistant on a, by all appearances quite terrible, Canadian vampire detective show. Hey, check it out, these are books I actually finished!

So, I could just say 'too much boyfriend: not enough production assistanting,' and leave it at that. But actually I don't think that really gets at the problem. These are quirky, well-intentioned, fun little books about a former street hustler turned PA turned wizard.

I remember people talking excitedly about them ten years ago, t Trilogy about a gay production assistant on a, by all appearances quite terrible, Canadian vampire detective show. I remember people talking excitedly about them ten years ago, the way we did when we had so little commercial LGBT fiction to read, let alone genre fiction. But the thing is, even if I hadn't checked the copyright dates, I could have accurately dated these books by the shape of the romance.

See, this is one of those 'gay guy falls for beautiful unattainable straight guy' stories, except oh wait maybe he's not so straight — oh wait he totally is — touch me — touch me not, where the allegedly straight dude plays mind games and is generally an all-around dick, but hey it's cool guys, finding out you like guys is really hard okay.

And you just don't see that much in LGBT fiction anymore. At least not played for romance, as it is here. I'm tempted to make some sweeping statements about cultural esthetics of queerness, and how allegedly straight dude's convulsions and reversals and spewings of internalized homophobia are actually a larger commentary on the place of queerness in the general psyche, or in genre fiction.

And I think that's pointed in the right direction, though it's painting with too broad strokes. I mean, there's a reason the esthetics of queer romance shift over time — when's the last time you read an actual we're not gay we just love each other story written in ? But that was, like, the narrative of the 90's — the trappings of queerness without ever having to use the word. The shifts over time reflect the cultural reckoning that a lot of straight writers were doing with queerness, and it's not as if queer writers like Huff are immune to the tides.

Anyway, my point being that the particular esthetic of queer romance in these books is pretty uncomfortable to read now. It was better when I flipped gears to read as historical document, but still. So Tony ex-street kid! Prince of Man! Or extraworldly darkness, whatever. Tony's working as a production assistant on a television show about a vampire detective and his human sidekick hm, sounds familiar , and suddenly things get creepy.

The shadows don't want to stay put. Tony's a much different narrator than Vicki. He's more playful, makes pop culture references, and, for all his ex-street kid toughness, sounds like a kid a lot of the time. I like his confidence and how easily he lies. It's a nice change after Vicki's inflexibility. The book itself is a little uneven. The plot lurches forward in a series of small battles rather than a steady ramping up of tension, but once it's clear what Tony's objectives are, things get more exciting.

I liked Arra and Zev. Zev is such a cutie! Too bad Tony has a super huge crush on Lee, who is supposed to be straight. There's not much slashiness here except for Henry and Tony, who have broken up, sort of , but I expect that'll change. Three stars. It's slow in parts, but Huff avoids some of her earlier mistakes, like letting the bad guy tell us all about his evil plan and spoil the surprise.

May 07, Saphirablue rated it liked it Shelves: read-in , glbta , vampires , series-to-continue , hurt-comfort , fantasy , in-english. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I love Tony a lot. The major stuff got explained and the little things are things that probably make you go Yes!

Except - now I have to hunt down the book in which Tony and Henry first meet because woha. I love Tony and his inner monologue and his realization that he is the hero who has to save t I love Tony a lot. I love Tony and his inner monologue and his realization that he is the hero who has to save the world. XD I love that a certain power imbalance has been addressed and everyone knows that it's not quite okay but that in this case there is no way around it because there is a Vampire involved. I like the "Who is the Shadow" part a lot and Tony trying to figure it all out and getting Arra to help him save the world.

I also love the little jabs of doing a TV show with a Vampire detective because from what I've gathered? The main series is about a detective and a Vampire solving supernatural crimes and got made into a TV show? XD So, yeah, like this one and am looking forward to reading the next book. My original review of the novel The Tony Foster trilogy is one of my absolute favorites on my shelf, so I was super thrilled to find out that there are audiobooks.

That usually doesn't happen to my older favorites barely anyone talks about anymore. So of course I loved the story. Brian Sutherland is a competent narrator, too. Still, I substracted a star because while it definitely is enjoyable to listen to this, I thought that there was something I've listened to audiobooks where the n My original review of the novel The Tony Foster trilogy is one of my absolute favorites on my shelf, so I was super thrilled to find out that there are audiobooks.

I've listened to audiobooks where the narrator elevates the story and makes the characters' voices their own. Maybe it's just me, but sometimes they just sounded so flat? Still, I'll definitely listen to this again. May 01, Alealea rated it did not like it. Barely decipherable. By trying to represent the chaos apparently inherent to a tv show set, the writer only succeeds in confusing the reader and you have to bull through inept dialog to read the book. I only forced myself because kind of liked Tony and wanted to enjoy him becoming the main character.

Sep 08, Shaitanah rated it liked it. I tried the Blood Ties series when I was a teenager. I managed two books and decided Tanya Huff was not my author. My experience with this particular book was better.

I still think the writing is kind of clumsy and the plot drags a bit, but Tony is a relatable and entertaining character, and I enjoyed his teamwork with Arra. Overall, a quick light popcorn read. I'll probably read the other books in the series too, eventually. My review of this book disappeared and I can't remember exactly what I said about it. It was a fairly enjoyable read, a spin off from Tanya Huff's 'Blood' series. Life is as full of illusions as it is of genuine experiences.

False friends abound. Trials hurt, but then deliver unexpected strength and blessings. People put up smokescreens to hide their true intentions or feelings; and only sometimes do we ever discover why.

The world seems hateful until someone delivers light and love in a surprising way. The poems in this new collection explore some of the illusions and deceptions people experience in their lives, the clarity and wisdom gained from hindsight, and the lessons we can learn from them.

Media Smoke and Shadows. Save Not today. Format ebook. Author Joanne Van Leerdam. Publisher WordyNerdBird.