Log in with Facebook 
Vajazzled? Psychopathic hosebeast? LOL I love Harry!
*Book source ~ Library
Harry Dresden, wizard extraordinaire, private investigator, defender of Chicago and…ghost. After being shot and falling into icy Lake Michigan Harry wakes up to find himself back in Chicago. Only it’s not Chicago. Not exactly. And he has a mission should he choose to accept it. He must find out who murdered him and restore the balance. With his friends’ lives on the line, of course Harry rushes in where angels fear to tread. Ok, they don’t fear to tread in the spirit world, but it sounded good. Go with it.
Guest Reviewers:
A ~ my 17-yr-old daughter
T ~ my 15-yr-old son
K ~ my 14-yr-old son
First off, the title sort of gives this book away. After the ending to Changes it’s fairly obvious where this one is heading. We enjoyed the book quite a lot, but have to admit it’s not a favorite. There is a lot of blah, blah, blah going on amongst all the good stuff, but instead of a 4 we gave it a 5 because it was kinda cool to have a story involving Harry as a ghost.
The plot is a bit murky, but we went with it. Old favorite characters are back and some new ones are introduced. Mortimer is a bit of a dweeb in the beginning, but we really like how he grows and steps up toward the end. Butters is a bit of a surprise. Who knew the little guy was so damn smart? I mean, we love him and he’s proven he’s got balls, but he really shines in this book. Sir Stuart is awesome.
T loved how we got to see many of Harry’s memories and K thought seeing inside Bob’s skull was pretty cool. We were all surprised at the effect destroying the Red Court had. A perfect example of not thinking something all the way through. Everyone loved the whole Star Trek scene, Uriel’s seven words, Harry’s speech at the end and the ending itself.
Now I must address the narration. We were not happy with the change in narrator. At all. Period. *emphatic nodding* While we agree that John Glover has a pleasant voice and we would be happy to listen to other books he reads, after 12 books in the Dresden universe narrated by James Marsters, we just couldn’t wrap our heads around a totally different take on the characters and off-sounding secondary characters by a new narrator. The entire book grated on our nerves. We feel bad for Mr. Glover, walking into the middle of an established beloved series, but we like what we like and we did not like his version. End of story.
Favorite quotes:
“Star Trek?” I asked her. “Really?”
“What?” she demanded, bending unnaturally black eyebrows together.
“There are two kinds of people in the universe, Molly,” I said. “Star Trek fans and Star Wars fans. This is shocking.”
She sniffed. “This is the post-nerd-closet world, Harry. It’s okay to like both.”
“Blasphemy and lies,” I said.
***************************************************************************
“My gast was pretty well flabbered.” (hehe I use this one once in awhile.)
***************************************************************************
“Jump into an open grave? What kind of idiot are you?" Butters replied. "I might as well put on a red shirt and volunteer for the away team. There's snow and ice and slippery mud down there. That's like asking for an ironically broken neck.”
***************************************************************************
Courage is about learning how to function despite the fear, to put aside your instincts to run or give in completely to the anger born from fear. Courage is about using your brain and your heart when every cell of your body is screaming at your to fight or flee - and then following through on what you believe is the right thing to do.
Only 2 disks left. Thank everything that's Holy, like books, chocolate, tea and buffalo chicken dip made with Frank's Red Hot. *drool*
*Book source ~ Purchased at Audible
Narration ~ 5 bites
Harry Dresden, Chicago’s wizard extraordinaire and private investigator for the supernatural (and the sometimes mundane) has just found out he has a daughter and that she’s been kidnapped by the Red Court. Fury such as he’s never known nearly consumes him, but his own good sense and the common sense of his friends keep him, barely, grounded. The Red Court has crossed a line that Harry will not tolerate and he’ll stop at nothing to get his child back. Even if it means he has to call in every favor he has and then some. Hell hath no fury like Harry Dresden and the Red Court is about to find out exactly what that means.
Guest reviewers:
A ~ my 17-yr-old daughter
T ~ my 15-yr-old son
K ~ my 14-yr-old son
The changes kept on coming in this book, from the very beginning where Harry finds out he has a daughter to the very end where, well, let’s just say the ending was a shocker. K & I had already read the book, so we knew what was coming, but A & T were blindsided. In fact, T said, “That’s bullshhhhhh.” The kids aren’t allowed to swear, but for this I told him, “Go ahead. This ending is worthy of it.” “Really? That’s bullshit!” he proclaimed loudly. Oh, my, that ending. *sigh* Yep, so many changes that I can’t even list them without spoiling the story. I will say this…there are a Baker’s Dozen (13) major changes to Harry’s life. Well, that’s really just our opinion. Some people may come up with less, some with more, but that’s the number we settled on.
We all love Harry and to watch him in this book was so extremely painful. One thing after another piled up on him, but he kept going and going, like the Energizer bunny. Now, this is typical of Harry, he pushes through all the crap to finish the job, but this book was saturated with Harry’s urgency and desperation to save his daughter. T did not like all the changes, A didn’t like them, but said they added drama and K liked all the changes. In fact, K said he liked the ending. What?! Of course, you have to take in the fact that he’s read the next two books in the series and I tried to tell him to think back about when he first read the ending, but he couldn’t separate then from now. Oh, well.
I asked them if Harry’s decision (can’t say what without spoiling) was the right one and everyone said yes. Well, K said Harry should have called in ALL his markers, but that boy likes to make things extremely difficult for the main characters. They weren’t all that surprised about Maggie (Harry’s daughter), but there are other things that did surprise them. Again, so many spoilers in this book! All-in-all, this book put us through the wringer, but was well worth the read.
Favorite quotes:
There were, as usual, many good ones, but we whittled it down to these.
“This creature serves you?” Sanya asked.
“This one and about a hundred smaller ones. And five times that many part-timers I can call in once in awhile.” I thought about it. “It isn’t so much that they serve me as that we have a business arrangement that we all like. They help me out from time to time. I furnish them with regular pizza.”
“Which they…love,” Sanya said.
Toot spun in a dizzy, delighted circle on one heel, and fell onto his back with perfectly unself-conscious enthusiasm, his tummy sticking out as far as it could. He lay there for a moment, making happy, gurgling sounds.
“Well,” I said. “Yes.”
Sanya's eyes danced, though his face was sober. "You are a drug dealer. To tiny faeries. Shame.”
****************************************************************************
“Da. This is going very well already."
Thomas barked out a laugh. "There are seven of us against the Red King and his thirteen most powerful nobles, and it's going well?"
Mouse sneezed.
"Eight," Thomas corrected himself. He rolled his eyes and said, "And the psycho death faerie makes it nine."
"It is like movie," Sanya said, nodding. "Dibs on Legolas."
"Are you kidding?" Thomas said. "I'm obviously Legolas. You're . . ." He squinted thoughtfully at Sanya and then at Martin. "Well. He's Boromir and you're clearly Aragorn."
"Martin is so dour, he is more like Gimli." Sanya pointed at Susan. "Her sword is much more like Aragorn's."
"Aragorn wishes he looked that good," countered Thomas.
"What about Karrin?" Sanya asked.
"What--for Gimli?" Thomas mused. "She is fairly--"
"Finish that sentence, Raith, and we throw down," said Murphy in a calm, level voice.
"Tough," Thomas said, his expression aggrieved. "I was going to say 'tough.' "
As the discussion went on--with Molly's sponsorship, Mouse was lobbying to claim Gimli on the basis of being the shortest, the stoutest, and the hairiest—
"Sanya," I said. "Who did I get cast as?"
"Sam," Sanya said.
I blinked at him. "Not . . . Oh, for crying out loud, it was perfectly obvious who I should have been."
Sanya shrugged. "It was no contest. They gave Gandalf to your godmother. You got Sam.”
****************************************************************************
And my personal favorite because I’ve basically said this all along:
“Then you know that Sam was the true hero of the tale,' Sanya said. 'That he faced far greater and more terrible foes than he ever should have had to face, and did so with courage. That he went alone into a black and terrible land, stormed a dark fortress, and resisted the most terrible temptation of his world for the sake of the friend he loved. That in the end, it was his actions and his actions alone that made it possible for light to overcome darkness.”
