Introduction Dresden's stray puppy (unnamed). Vampires, and discovery of a half-brother. The usual near-death showdown. The plot thickens... ( )

So this took me a ridiculously long time to finish, I was listening on Audiobook and for a while, I was making really good headway then all of a sudden I just... wasn't. I finally finished it though so yay! Time to move onto the next book.

The reason it took me so long to finish was not that the book was bad, quite the contrary my friends it was because the book was so good. When I listen to audiobooks my mind can sometimes wander, I don't have anything physically to hold my attention so I don't listen as well as I like so I made sure to only listen to this when I was sure I would not get distracted.

So let's talk about the actual book now. I feel like with this book and the last book Butcher has finally found his groove. The characters, which are well established, can shine bright and add to the overall story. We get a lot in this book, in terms of story and character development. We get more of Murphy, Ebenezer, Thomas, and even a little bit of Kincaid. The book starts out with Dresden dodging monkey poo from giant demon apes while rescuing some puppies for a monk. Once that is done Thomas asked him for a favor to help a friend of his (who is currently filming a porno, come on Butcher!) with an entropy curse. This job and the fact that there are vampires currently wanting to kill him brings a whole mess of trouble, some that will definitely follow him into the next books.

Considering Dresden spent some time on the set of a porno, he wasn't as perverted as he could have been and for that I am grateful. Dresden does still suffer from, "chivalry" but it also wasn't as bad as the previous books. We learn a lot about Dresden's family in this one, and there were quite a few surprises, although I guessed who the bad guys were from the state. Either Way, this was great and I can't wait to enjoy the next one. ( )

I've never DNF'd a book this far into a series, but I had to. I'm also calling it quits on the series, which I've rarely done this far into a series either. Though I mostly enjoyed the previous books, I commented about the amount sexual content in each of my reviews. Jim Butcher's main use for female characters seems to be as sexual objects, and their body parts are described often and in far too much detail. This makes me uncomfortable both as a woman and as a Christian.

So you can imagine my discomfort and frustration with this book that has a main setting of a porn movie set. At the 26% mark, I realized that just wasn't worth it. I have enjoyed James Marsters's narration, which might be the only reason I continued as long in the series as I did, but that's it for me.

Harry gets his dog in this book XD

Also - this book is Thomas' backstory! And some of Harry's backstory ;D

We also learn a lot more about the White Court, and one of Butcher's most hilarious scenes is in this novel. I liked this one a lot. Harry feels! ( )

Harry Dresden is up to his usual tricks: working his wizardry for a few scraps and pennies, dodging malicious entities, and navigating his personal feuds with vampires and the wizarding establishment. This time he also delves into the world of porn, and the differences between the various types of vampires become more defined. There is plenty of sex and violence and magic here as usual, but also the story of Harry begins to fill in a bit. I can’t binge these novels—I get a bit worn out on the procedural details and tropes. The character development is intriguing though, and I’ll come back for the next one after a while. ( )

454 ( )

Once again I'm reminded that urban fantasy is not my genre. Also that is usually a mistake to jump into a series on book six. Found this one in a used book store though and friends had liked the series so what the hey, I gave it a try. Competent writing, complex and often interesting story, but still not for me. ( )

Not sure why I continue on with this series, Harry is so irritating, but I can't stop reading them... ( )

This one in the series was very good, my favorite, so far. I didn't like some subject matter, but really liked the story line in this one. I think J.B. is maturing in his writing. I'm looking forward to the next in the series. ( )

I am so glad I finally got to read "Blood Rites." I can't believe I hadn't read it before. "Blood Rites" is a foundational book, just like the book before it, "Death Masks." It is pivotal because Dresden's life changes after this. I didn't find the story as engaging as the others, but its importance is in the details and the story's outcome. ( )

This one gets four stars only because the plot twist really got to me, but this book's case was meh at best. ( )

So this took me a ridiculously long time to finish, I was listening on Audiobook and for a while, I was making really good headway then all of a sudden I just... wasn't. I finally finished it though so yay! Time to move onto the next book.

The reason it took me so long to finish was not that the book was bad, quite the contrary my friends it was because the book was so good. When I listen to audiobooks my mind can sometimes wander, I don't have anything physically to hold my attention so I don't listen as well as I like so I made sure to only listen to this when I was sure I would not get distracted.

So let's talk about the actual book now. I feel like with this book and the last book Butcher has finally found his groove. The characters, which are well established, can shine bright and add to the overall story. We get a lot in this book, in terms of story and character development. We get more of Murphy, Ebenezer, Thomas, and even a little bit of Kincaid. The book starts out with Dresden dodging monkey poo from giant demon apes while rescuing some puppies for a monk. Once that is done Thomas asked him for a favor to help a friend of his (who is currently filming a porno, come on Butcher!) with an entropy curse. This job and the fact that there are vampires currently wanting to kill him brings a whole mess of trouble, some that will definitely follow him into the next books.

Considering Dresden spent some time on the set of a porno, he wasn't as perverted as he could have been and for that I am grateful. Dresden does still suffer from, "chivalry" but it also wasn't as bad as the previous books. We learn a lot about Dresden's family in this one, and there were quite a few surprises, although I guessed who the bad guys were from the state. Either Way, this was great and I can't wait to enjoy the next one. ( )

Nice read. Series gets better with each book ( )

It's been the better part of a year since I'd read the previous book. When I'm not reading one of these books I always kinda dread picking up the next one; I think that I have misgivings about the pace of the books being too slow to get to the meat of the action. Maybe I'm just mis-remembering that or else this book didn't waste any time getting up and moving. In any event, this one seemed to be hitting on all cylinders as we have multiple plot threads to deal with in addition to some life-shaking news that Harry gets. Satisfying ending and I'm ready for the next one already! ( )

I still like Death Masks better, but Blood Rites is still quite good. We're back to big magical rituals (a five book cycle?) but also a bit of goodly hint of vampiric mayhem (the Black and White Courts this time around).

Of course, since it's the White Court, the entire plot this time has to revolve around a ritual curse targetting an adult film director. All righty then.

As I'd mentioned before, the best part of Death Masks was the characters. This time around, it had to be have been just random scenes.

Awesome scenes:

A fight with monkey demons whose primary weapon is... flaming monkey poo. Dresden has a quite literal fight with a literal monkey on his back.

An entropy curse that kills via whatever bizarre means it can access. Including... death via frozen turkey.

A big basement showdown with Mavra (she's back!)... And that wasn't even the climax of the book.

A big fight in a cave system while a bad ass demon summoning is going on.

That's not to say that there weren't a few neat character moments. We learn a lot more about Thomas, Murphy, and Kincaid. Oh, and Dresden has a magic dog now.

One interesting thing that we really haven't seen that much of prior to this is lasting consequences, other than the war with the Red Court. Things are changing in the Dresdenverse. The big example: Dresden's hand. Smaller examples that I'm sure will mean more later: Dresden learns a lot more about his mother/family and about some of the more troublesome parts of the White Council (the Blackstaff). Slightly terrifying example: He Who Walks Behind.

My other favorite part of the Dresden Files in general and this book in particular:

"I put the ick in magic."

"I the hell am Harry."

"Proof is something you use with rational people. Right now you aren't."

Love it. ( )

Harry rescues a litter of puppies for a Far Eastern monk, who flies back. Much to his surprise one has taken refuge in his Blue Bug, so Harry becomes the involuntary owner of a notch-eared puppy, with a big heart. Thomas asks Harry to see who is trying to kill a porn movie director, who has not one or two, but three ex-wives, some of which were from prior movies. Women on the set keep dying, and Harry recruits Murphy and retains an assassin to help him eliminate the threat. As readers are drawn into the story, we learn much about Thomas and his White Court vampire family providing new depths for existing characters in the series. Like the predecessor books, gore galore, and several close calls with death for Harry, Murphy, and Thomas as they fight one of the their toughest foes ever. ( )

Yep, fun. ( )

First re-read since my first read about 13 years ago. Just like the first read, I was a little teary-eyed during and after the big reveal about Thomas.

I totally screw up and spoiled this book for myself. I read ONE sentence of book #16 [b:Peace Talks|22249640|Peace Talks (The Dresden Files, #16)|Jim Butcher|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585062885l/22249640._SY75_.jpg|40515430] and BAM! that was the big reveal in book #6. OMG who would have thought.... ( )

If you're a fan of The Dresden Files, then this is definitely an important book in the series. Of course it has all the usual elements that make this series so fun -- wizards, vampires and curses, all smack dab in the middle of Chicago, battling Harry Dresden, professional wizard -- but there's definitely a lot of back story on Harry and is family that I had always been curious about. I like this series because Harry doesn't take himself that seriously and the humor in these books is clever, witty and laugh out loud funny.

Looking forward to more! ( )

Not my favourite. Maybe because I got the distinct impression that the characters were moving in service to the plot, rather than in organic ways. And it may be because the bad guy and weapon seemed half-assed, and designed to minimize threat and suspense. It may be because the interchangeability of the bad guy at the other end of the curses. Maybe a combination?

On the cool side, this is basically Harry Dresden vs the Final Destination movies. People dieing in highly unlikely, but "natural" ways, because of the dreaded Entropy Curse. Dun Dun Duuuuun!

I found my attention lagging, at about the mid-point.

But, all-in-all, I still enjoyed the ride. ( )

Like all Dresden files books, it can get a little melodramatic and silly, but its not that bad. This book in particular was a little thick on the grand statements about family and love and all that silly stuff. Aside from that, nice action, nice (enough) characterization, and an easy read. Not bad. ( )

This book develops Harry's character a bit more than some of the others. One of the themes is family and what it means to have family or not have family. Murphy is dealing with her family and the pressure they put on her to live up to their expectations, Thomas is dealing with being on the outs with his family (we get to meat his father and sisters) and Harry is coming to terms with not having any family left. The mystery was interesting to me and liked getting to know Murphy and Thomas a bit better. This book is also the one where he acquires Mouse, one of my favorite literary dogs. ( )

There's a reason it took me three separate borrow periods at my library to finish this book. It's just not that good. I have loved most of the Harry Dresden books, and this one, nope. It just read as filler from beginning to end. Then the book ends on a weird note and at one point I wondered if my Kindle was missing a page (yeah I don't know if this is possible, but I worried about it).

in the sixth book in this series, we have our man Harry, wizard extraordinaire, back in the saddle again. He gets dragged into a mystery to solve by Thomas, the vampire that he met in "Grave Peril" Harry Dresden #3. I can't even get to the plot with a straight face. Thomas, who is a White Court vampire (shakes head, no not getting into that mess here) asks Harry to look to find out what he can about a series of deaths on a pornography film set. I think that right there just turned me off. There are some cute moments here and there with Harry adopting a puppy, but eh. I just could not get into this one even though I really tried. It took almost three months for me to finish this one. I should have just DNFed it, but I am trying to get through all of the books in the series and post reviews.

Harry is Harry. I really don't think we get much development by way of anyone else in this one except for a reveal about someone and Harry in this one. I don't want to think too hard about it, cause if I do I may just pull my hair out.

There is some back and forth between the White Court and Black Court vampires in this one and we get some new characters who I am going to assume will show up in subsequent books.

FYI, if I am going to make fun of Twilight for having a love shield, I am going to make fun of Harry for having one too. That whole thing was bonkers and didn't even make sense.

And the soulgaze thing. Anyway. I need to move on since I want this thing to be over.

There are a lot of things in this one that as I already said are just setting up things I think for the next book.

I have to say I have never been that interested in the goings on with the vampires in Harry's world and this book shows why. They really are boring. ( )

reread- even better than I remembered. ( )