Magic in the Air

Skin Game by Jim Butcher is the latest in the Dresden Files series.

Harry Dresden. Chicago's only professional wizard, is about to have a very bad day...

Because ad Winter Knight to the Queen of Air and Darkness, Harry never knows what the scheming Mab might want him to do.  Usually, it's something awful

He doesn't know the half of it...

Mab just traded Harry's skills to pay off one of her debts.  And now he must help a group of supernatural villains- led by one of Harry's most dreaded and despised enemies, Nicodemus Archleone- to break into the highest security vault in town so they can then access the highest- security vault in the Nevernever.

It's a smash-and-grab job to recover the literal Holy Grail from the vaults of the greatest treasure hoard in the supernatural world- which belongs to the one and only Hades, Lord of the freaking Underworld and generally unpleasant character.  Worse, Dresden suspects that there is another game afoot that no one is talking about.  And he's dead certain that Nicodemus has no intention of allowing any of his crew to survive the experience. Especially Harry.

Dresden's always been tricky, but he's going to have to up his backstabbing game to survive this mess- assuming his own allies don't end up killing him before his enemies get the chance.

The Breakdown:
1. I love this series! Butcher does an amazing job of keeping the stories interesting.  Fifteen books into the series, plus numerous short stories, and he is still holding my interest from page one until the very end.

2. Butcher is a master of twist and subplots.  He always manages to surprise me.  Characters are not always who you think they are, good and bad both. This book is one the best in that aspect, so much subterfuge that he catches me by surprise more than once.

3. I love that Butcher brings back characters from other books all the time, and he never leaves me wondering whatever happen to. This book of course he brings back the villain I just love to hate in Nicodemus, plus several others that have had roles in other books.

4. I can just take a second to talk about Hades. Although his appearance was brief, I loved him. It is the way I like Hades written in books that incorporate Greek myth, not as the Greek version of the devil, but as the fair ruler of the Underworld.

5. How can I forget everyone's favorite wizard, Harry Dresden. He is a smart-ass that does not always know when to shut his mouth, and I totally love that about him.  Not to mention his copious amounts of movie quotes, because hey, I, too, live my life in movie quotes.  Plus, I feel like Harry grows a little each book, becoming a little wiser along his journey.

To Read or Not to Read:
Must Read

Currently Reading:
Ruin and Rising
by Leigh Burdugo