New Release: The Complete Smoke Trilogy by Tanya Huff and A Look at Vampire TV Series

I discovered Tanya Huff several years ago when the show Blood Ties premiered on Lifetime. I quickly fell in love with Henry Fitzroy, 470 year old vampire and bastard son of Henry the 8th.

The show premiered on Lifetime in March 2007. It lasted for 2 seasons and 22 episodes. In May 2008 Lifetime declined to renew the series...which I think was a huge mistake on their part. Perhaps the show was a little darker and more paranormal than their normal shows but in November 2008 the vampire craze launched thanks to the Twilight movie being released. Vampires were hot and in demand. The show could have flourished.

But it premiered about a year too early. 

Just like Moonlight which also premiered in 2007 and was axed in May 2008. I wonder if those TV execs kicked themselves for cancelling those shows after the vampire craze amped up and all things vamp were hot sellers. 

Other series of vampire books turned into TV shows at just the right time were wildly popular. 

The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris were turned into True Blood on HBO which launched in September 2008 and lasted through August 2014.

The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith were turned into a TV series for The CW. The show premiered in September 2009 and lasted through March 2017 and produced 2 spin off series, The Originals and Legacies.

But thanks to Blood Ties being cancelled I went in search of more Henry through the Blood Books, which the show was based on. I loved them and really wish there were more.

I never got around to reading The Smoke Trilogy. A side character from the Blood Books, Tony, is the main character. 

Henry appears in the smoke books as a side character but it's just not the same. I loved the chemistry between Vicki and Henry and Vicki and Mike. The books were more intense than the TV series.

I have just started The Smoke Trilogy though, so I'm giving it more time. It's different, and that doesn't mean bad. I just need to connect to Tony and his story.

In the meantime when I'm not reading the trilogy, I think I'll pull out my DVDs of Blood Ties, try to remember how the DVD player works (it's been awhile since I used it) and re-watch the series.

About The Complete Smoke Trilogy

Now in an omnibus edition, the Lambda Award-nominated supernatural Smoke series presents contemporary fantasy with a gothic twist.

Book 1-

When Tony Foster relocated to Vancouver with his vampire Henry Fitzroy, he knew it was his chance to get his act together. In an example of art echoing life, Tony landed a job as production assistant for the syndicated TV show, Darkest Night, a series about a vampire detective. And except for his unrequited crush on the show's handsome co-star, Lee Nicholas, Tony was pretty content.

Until everything started to fall apart on the set.

It began with shadows­­--shadows where they didn't belong, that almost had an existence of their own. Tony tried to ignore it--until he found Nikki Waugh's body, and felt the shadow's touch, and a stunt crash went wrong for no discernible reason--and Tony knew that he had to find out what was threatening everyone on the set.

Book 2-

Tony Foster, a former street kid, is given a second chance by vampire Henry Fitzroy, when they both relocate to Vancouver. Tony lands a job as a production assistant for a TV show, Darkest Night, about the adventures of a vampire detective.

Everything is going fine until shadowy forces from another dimension attack the crew, and Tony discovers he’s a fledgling wizard. 

Things have been quiet on the set since the defeat of the shadows. Then Chester Bane, head of the company, rents Caulfield House, a long-deserted, turn-of-the-century mansion, to shoot an episode about a haunted house. It should be an easy week, with a perfect setting, but there’s one little hitch—Caulfield House is really haunted

Book 3-

Fledgling wizard Tony is now an assistant director on "Darkest Night," the syndicated TV series about a vampire detective. But it's hard to concentrate on the latest episode when a Demonic Convergence is allowing lesser demons entry to our world, and the sexy stuntwoman, Leah, is also an immortal Demongate whose death would open the way to unimaginable peril. Can Tony halt the Convergence, keep Leah alive, and still have a career? Or will his artistic ambitions-not to mention the rest of the world-go up in smoke?

Free Book Friday: Blood Price and Blood Ties Season One on DVD

For this week's Free Book Friday I have something very special courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment.

Not only do I have Blood Price, Book One in the Blood Books series by Tanya Huff I also have Season One of Blood Ties the the television show on DVD.

This is a great prize pack (thanks again Eagle Rock) and all you have to do to win is leave a comment and tell me why you like Tanya Huff's Blood series or the Blood Ties show (if you have ever read the books or watched the show).

If not just tell me why you are into vampires.

And if you don't win this Blood Ties prize pack this time, don't worry I have a couple more I'll be giving away at a later date so you might get another chance.

A winner will be announced next Wednesday!

(Monday add on: Sorry I flaked on this as I was getting ready for a romantic weekend with the hubby and no kids...first time in years we have been totally without children...anyway US shipping only and I'll need a contact email to pick a winner, thanks.)

A Review of Blood Books Volume One by Tanya Huff

Ok, so I went back and kicked it old school with these books.

I had missed out on reading this first set of Blood Books for awhile now. I read the other four in the Blood Books series by Tanya Huff back when the television show Blood Ties first came out but this elusive first set kept escaping me. But finally I got my hands on a copy of Blood Books Volume One which actually contains two books, Blood Price and Blood Trail. There are six books in the series and are available in three volumes.

It is hard to believe that Tanya Huff started writing these books twenty years ago. The idea and the series was born in 1989. Other than the fact that there's not a cell phone in sight you wouldn't notice because the content is not dated at all.

I love this series, I really do and I was glad to be able to get the chance to revisit it. I really wish Tanya Huff would come back to these characters and write more about them. Vicki, Henry and Celluci are so very real, so very alive and I love the way they interact. Vicki is so stubborn but such a strong heroine, Henry is an unapologetic vampire and former member of royalty (being the bastard son of King Henry the VIII). I love that he is strong and accepts who and what he is. There is no whining about being a monster. He is what he is.

And Celluci... well he's every man, the good guy, the stubborn guy, the guy that really loves Vicki and has to accept things he may not like but does it anyway because he loves her. I can see why Vicki could never choose between the two men. Because they both have their strengths and their traits that make them so damn lovable, but a life with Henry really wouldn't fit but later...a life, at least not the one he might have once envisioned, with Celluci is no longer possible either.

These characters are so real, so complex and so alive you can really get into these books even with the paranormal elements that are so seamlessly blended into the real world. I could read a lot more about these characters but Huff says she is done with them. So sad.

I miss the show as well. Blood Ties was one of the best vampire shows on television. Strong characters, and the actors portraying the characters were perfect. They really fit into the descriptions and personalities of the book characters.

I wish the series would have lasted longer so we could have seen more of the relationship develop between Henry and Vicki and the relationship pick up where it left off (before the show began, off camera) with Vicki and Celluci.

In the books Vicki is intimately involved with both of them and it makes the heat and the interaction between them very interesting because both Henry and Celluci work with Vicki and therefore have to work with each other...and neither really likes to share- though Henry...in his 450 years of existence deals with it a little better than Celluci.

I think the show could have really been a hit if perhaps it had been aired on a different channel and been advertised more. I thought it was awesome and was really disappointed that it was canceled. I am eagerly awaiting the second season on DVD because I'll finally get to see the last two episodes that were not aired.

Anyway onto the books. In Blood Price, the first book, someone is summoning a demon and it is killing locals in Toronto. Vicki gets hired to investigate and is throw back in with the police department she left because of her degenerating sight. Along the investigation she meets Henry who is also investigating because he thought the murders were being committed by an unruly vamp. After some disbelief Vicki realizes Henry is indeed a vampire and accepts him as is and they begin to work together...which makes Celluci none too happy.

In Blood Trail Vicki is asked to help investigate the murders of Henry's friends, a pack of werewolves. It's a very interesting visit to a farm outside the city which might as well be the middle of nowhere to city girl Vicki. After she is welcomed into the pack she begins her investigation. Celluci is left back in the city doing some investigating on his own...into Henry. Jealous? You bet. So much so that he drives out to the farm and walks right into a pack of werewolves who do not take kindly to strangers, especially an alpha male like Celluci. After some male posturing, a fight where Henry saves Celluci's ass, Celluci gets welcomed into the pack too and realizes there is more in heaven and earth than he ever dreamed imaginable. But right up to the end he's still not sure what Henry is but he finally realizes he is not dealing with a human.

Awesome books. And just think Tanya Huff was typing away about vampires before LKH even got her first Anita Blake book published and long, long before Stephanie Meyer was writing Twilight. She was writing this series back when Anne Rice was at the top of her game with her vampire books.

If you are a vampire fan and you have not read Tanya Huff's Blood Books then you are seriously missing out.

Hit the library, hit a used book store, hell head over to Amazon (and please click through my links and support this site) and get your hands on these books. Tanya Huff's characters are ones to read. Strong, determined, no whining...characters you'll adore because they are so alive.