Smoke and Ashes – Smoke series #3
by Tanya Huff
(urban fantasy)

This is my favorite of the series. Hands down.

I love Tony. And Lee. (Yum.) And this book has both of them in the action. Unlike the previous two “Smoke” books, where Tony only told the fewest people he needed to about the supernatural, Smoke and Ashes has most of the TV studio knowing about the problem, and quite a few helping to stop it. This makes an odd amount of sense… if any one group of people is going to accept the strange, it’s going to be theatre people of one kind or another. And I have to say, it’s very nice having someone know about the problems from the start.

The threat of demonic invasion makes a great adventure story, and fills up the pages quite nicely. But also nestled in there are enough relationship issues to make a book on their own. Tony and Henry. Tony and Lee. Not to mention Tony’s friendships with Amy, Zev, and the cop Jack Ellison.

I also like the way Tony has to develop his powers, with part instinct, part guess, part instruction, and part panic. It seems very realistic, at least to someone who hasn’t ever tried to stave off a demonic invasion before. Tony finally comes into his own at the end, and in a very satisfactory way.

The only problem I have with this book is that I’ve heard it’s the last contracted one in the series. Hopefully Huff will get contracted for and write more. In the meantime, I’m going to recommend these to everyone