First off, pretty sweet book!

I don't think it matches my favorites (Turn Coat and Small Favor), but still pretty good. I almost think it tried to pack too much stuff into one book- there was stuff about the Faerie Courts, about Nemesis, about Harry returning to life, and about Demonreach. Stuff felt a little stretched- it would have been nice to see more focus on the whole "Dresden is back from the dead" thing, or more of the workings of the Winter Court.

It was nice to get an explanation for the headaches- the two most likely theories I'd see were either Lash or Mab. Lash for fairly obvious reasons, and Mab because the only other time Harry got piercing headaches was when he tried to think of his fire magic after Mab had messed with his brain.

Although, there was a scene in Turn Coat... Thomas has been kidnapped, and Harry is trying to think of how to find him. Yet for some reason, Little Chicago never occurs to him, and it's covered by a tarp in his lab, and I think he gets a headache around then as well?

Anyway.


The whole thing with Sarissa kind of bugs me. "I have a form of congenital dementia? I watched what it did to my older sister... doctors can't help me, Mab can. ...as long as I remain myself and sane, I attend Mab 3 months out of the year."

And she's Maeve's younger sister (not identical twin, but very, very similar looking).

So I guess I'm a little confused, I thought that Changelings HAD to Choose. The ones we saw in Summer Knight were like late teenagers, and were already feeling the need to make a decision. Yet Maeve implies that Sarissa has been a Changeling for a long time.

And I'd assumed that Maeve had been Winter Lady for a long time, as well. Remember, the idea of a Faerie Queen, even a Lady, dying, is a BIG deal. When Harry did it, the entire world kind of stopped for a second and said, "Huh."

What I'm saying is, it really doesn't seem like Maeve only recently became Winter Lady. It seems more like she's been around for millenia, or at least centuries.

So where did Sarissa come from? How old is she?

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Next up, Molly. Interesting plot twist, and I'm just going to go along with Butcher saying "spent some time learning from a Winter fae means that you are a suitable candidate for becoming the Winter Lady."

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That said, I enjoyed the book. I especially liked the Demonreach/Warden stuff, and anything with Mab. Mab is so hardcore.

It's pretty obvious that Dresden's stepped up to the big leagues now (or, at least, bigger leagues than pre-Changes). Rashid's always been mostly friendly, but he treated Harry as an equal in this book. I think it's going to be difficult to maintain the "private investigator" feeling from now on, but we'll see.