In the tenth installment of the Dresden Files, Harry finds himself once again caught in the middle of a conflict between the Summer and Winter Courts of the fae.  Queen Mab of the Winter Court calls in a favor that Harry owes her.  Mab informs Harry that Chicago's leading crime lord, John Marcone, has been abducted by the Denarians, fallen angels bent on corrupting and destroying mankind. Harry is reluctant to help Marcone at first, but Harry soon realizes that if the Denarians are able to corrupt Marcone to their side they will have control over very powerful power base within Chicago to cause more havoc within the city.  Harry's job of rescuing Marcone is further complicated when the Summer Court sends in her henchmen, the Gruffs, to try and stop him from his mission.

In the course of trying to track down Marcone, Harry soon discovers that the Denarians have bigger fish to fry and the power used to attack and abduct Marcone was just a test run and the Denarians are really after a powerful source of magic and knowledge that will spell the end for mankind if they are able to corrupt that source to the fallen angels side.  Once again the underdogs, Harry and friends team up to fight against overwhelming odds in their fight to save mankind from the forces of darkness.

I really enjoyed Small Favor and it turned out to be one of the best of the recent Dresden books.  Butcher quickly gets to the meat of the story in the novel and takes you on a frentic, faced paced ride.  Butcher has also created one of the most complex and creative worlds in the urban fantasy genre.  This book has a great cast of supporting characters, even if a few are under used like Thomas and Murphy.  A few new surprises are dropped into the story line that leave you curious and guarantee that you'll be back for more Dresden adventures.  In a genre that is dominated by female protagonists, it is refreshing to read a story from a male point of view.  Harry's got a lot of heart and humor that has helped to make him one of the favorite characters in the urban fantasy genre.  Harry is definitely a character that is getting better and better with each book and I am eagerly awaiting more of that wry, wonderful wizard.  It's gonna be a long wait for Dresden book 11.

For more Dresden, you can view four preview pages of the comic Welcome to the Jungle, at Jim Butcher's website.

Entertainment Tonight has got a behind the scenes look at the upcoming Twilight movie hitting theatres December 12, 2008.

Borders has a chapter one excerpt of The Host available for your spoiler pleasure.  This book will be released May 6, 2008. 

While I wasn't all that impressed with Twilight, I am going to give Host a go seeing as it is an adult novel.  If I don't enjoy Host, I don't think I'll be returning to the Twilight series.

Hope Adams, first introduced in the anthology Dates From Hell, finally gets her own book with Personal Demon.  Hope is a tabloid reporter and  member of the Supernatural Council who uses these two positions to get herself into situations that will feed the chaos demon that is part of her nature.  When Benicio Cortez, leader of the most powerful warlock Cabal in the US calls in a favor that Hope owes him, she is almost too eager to accept the dangerous assignment and all the chaos vibes her demon side will be able to feed upon.  Hope goes undercover and joins a supernatual gang in Miami that is starting to cause problems for the Cabal.  Hope advises Lucas Cortez, also a member of the Supernatural Council and Benecio Cortez's son of her assignment and he agrees to come to Miami to do some digging around within the Cabal.  Karl, Hope's ex-boyfriend and werewolf also flies in to help keep an eye on Hope.

Hope is taken on a few heists and revels in the chaos and excitement that the gang life provides.  At first she believes that they are just a gang of young adults looking for thrills. But when important members of the Cabal end up dead, Hope realizes that she is in over her head.  Part of her fears the dark world she has been drawn into while her demon half is feasting on all the chaos going on around her.  Hope, Lucus and Karl must work fast and come up with a plan that will save Benecio from the gang members nefarious intentions.

The book has a very good flow to it and it is well plotted out with plenty of twists and turns in the story that keep you guessing right up until end.  Armstrong has done a masterful job of tying events from previous Otherworld books into this story.  I enjoyed this book, but it is not as good as previous installments of the Otherworld series.  Hope is not a very dynamic character compared to other female protagonists in the series.  Personal Demon is told from the point of view of both Hope and Lucas, but their voices in the book were so similar that I sometimes forgot whose voice was narrating the story and I had to flip back to the beginning of the chapter to check whose POV the chapter was being told from.  Hope needed to stand out in the story more to help distinguish her voice from Lucas'.  Luckily the story is strong enough to carry you through to the end of the book despite the fact that the main characters are kind of dull.

Hope will be narrating the next Otherworld book, Living with the Dead, due out in October.  I just hope that Armstrong will give Hope a stronger and more interesting voice in the next book.  Even with my  mild  criticism of the latest book, I still feel that Armstrong is one of the best story tellers in the Urban Fantasy genre and I continue to look forward to her books.

Patricia Briggs has released the cover for the next Mercy Thompson book, Bone Crossed. Artwork once again done by the amazing Dan Dos Santos.  Bone Crossed will be released February 2009.

I am lovin' this cover, I think it's the best one yet.

The following is a book blurb for Living with the Dead due out November 2008.

When Robyn Peltier—a very human PR rep—is framed for murder, the two people most determined to clear her name are half-demon tabloid reporter Hope Adams, and necromancer homicide detective John Findlay.  And suddenly Robyn finds herself in the heart of a world she never knew existed—and which she is safer knowing nothing about....

You can view a book trailer and learn more about The Summoning, the first book in the Darkest Powers Trilogy at Armstrong's website.  This book is due out July 1, 2008.

SciFi.com has a nice mini page up for Personal Demon where you can see a book trailer and read an excerpt for the book.

Anna-Paquin.net has got one of the first promo pics for True Blood  that shows Sookie and Bill in all their glory.  There is also a nice Business Week article where Alan Ball discusses his work on True Blood.

The more I see on this show, the more excited I get.  Can't wait!

Today is another great book release day:

Embrace the Night by Karen Chance. You can read an excerpt here.

Small Favor by Jim Butcher.  You can read an excerpt here.

Rogue by Rachel Vincent. You can read an excerpt here.

Personal Demons by Stacia Kane. You can read an excerpt here.

More books to add to my growing out of control again TBR pile.  Ugh!  Must read faster...

I found what I believe to be a fairly complete list of authors that will be participating in The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance:

 Karen Chance, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Lilith Saintcrow, Keri Arthur, Vicki Pettersson, Alexis Morgan, Rachel Vincent, Jenna Black, Sherri Browning Erwin, Nancy Holder,  Savannah Russe, Colleen Gleason, Jenna Maclaine, C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp, Delilah Devlin, Shiloh Walker, Kimberley Raye, Rebecca York, and Susan Sizemore.

This book is due to be released August 11, 2008.

Not too many authors that I like in this anthology, but I'll still probably pick it up for the few that I do enjoy reading. 

The cover art for the illustrated Dresden Files Backup novelette has been released.  The novelette is illustrated by Mike Mignola of Hellboy fame.  The novelette will be released October 31, 2008 and is available for preorder from Amazon.

Subterranean Press has annouced that they will be releasing a hardcover graphic novelization of Storm Front to be published this fall.