Unless as someone in the FB group pointed out this is something that either Justine or something that looks like Justine has engineered and Thomas is actually trying to WARN Harry with his 'Ju.s.' comments.Art imitated life too closely for the comfort of lawyers representing Jesse James Hollywood, the Santa Barbara 20-year-old who is the youngest suspect ever to make the FBI's most wanted list. Oh, and Thomas being the beat stick again felt like deja vu. This smells a bit of retconning to me and I don't like it otherwise though it was a solid if unremarkable entry in the series (saving a final assessment for when part II comes out in Battle Ground). He does warns Harry about getting too close but generally doesn't seem to feel any differently about them than he does any other group of monsters in the Dresdenverse. He has interacted with the White Court before heck in Turn Coat he speaks of their combat prowess with a degree of admiration after having fought WITH them on Demonreach. I found Ebenezer's sudden turn towards EXTREME HATEFUL LOATHING of the White Court (to the point where he is willing to put the beat down on Harry over it at several points in the book) came out of nowhere. And I swear, if Butcher has Freydis get sexy with Karrin and Harry in Battle Grounds, I'll burn the damn book. The altercation with Lara at the end of the book seemed to be manufactured to give Murphy a moment of awesome, but didn't make much sense - everything about Lara says she would have gotten an explanation before attacking. If you're going to choose anyone for that, make it someone like Marcone instead of your main protagonist. On the other hand, making Harry another 'Chosen One' trope didn't impress me. I've recently discovered the term, 'progression fantasy', and I will say Butcher does a good job of ramping up Harry's abilities over time in a believable fashion, and increasing the opposition to match. If it were someone I knew writing this, I would tell them, 'Go get laid first, THEN write the book.' The only thing uplifting about his portrayal of sex and love was Harry and Karrin being committed to each other, which is a natural result of so many books spent on them getting closer over time. The unattached females all seem to lust after Dresden, and Butters in a relationship with two females felt like a teenage male fantasy. I found the book mostly enjoyable, but Butcher would be better served toning down the sexy - not because that's bad for a book, but because he can't write it well.

Alter by H.R. Truelove