Summer Knight (Jim Butcher)

It was interesting to start this book; right away, Dresden makes it clear that he's at his lowest point in life. The high stakes on his livelihood are there, and as the book progressively describes the plot/trouble that Dresden gets into, more stakes are placed on the table, like dominoes stacked to tip over. It was entertaining to see the reactions of the characters around Dresden realize his state. There's so many jabs to his physical state (everyone tells him to get a haircut), and his sarcasm is amplified with everything going on. Another fact that's amplified in this book is that Dresden has a lot of people who care about him. It makes the stakes so much higher knowing that everyone Dresden befriends or loves ends up getting hurt because of the deep shit he's always in.

The conflict was fun too! The system with the Summer and Winter Courts, with their respective hierarchy of power, was cool to read about. The new characters were alright. Faeries were cool as characters because their intents are scary, but truthful (they can't lie). Everytime Dresden interacted with them, there's always a tension because you never know what they really want. There's also more lore in the book regarding Harry's past!

As always, Murphy comes back, and her banter with Harry is always amusing.

"Dresden. Am I interrupting anything?"
"Well, I was going to settle down with a porn video and a bottle of baby oil, but I really don't have enough for two."

I caught it, stuck my tongue out at Aurora, yelled, "Meep, meep!" and ran like hell.