Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, #3)

by Jim Butcher

Then she simply crossed her legs, so that the cut of her dress left one pale leg bare to midthigh. A subtle motion of her back thrust out her young, firm breasts, so that their tips pressed visibly against the fabric.

Ugh. UGH.

Babies, in their little glass cribs, screamed lustily all around me.

Weirdly ok with this wording

surrounded by crying babies.

I was ok with the wording until it was immediately repeated, but more boringly.

She accepted it with all the loving tolerance of a Komodo dragon. “Don’t you hello angel me.

Ugh why are all of his women just the worst?

She was slender, but curved enough to draw an admiring look from the officer behind the counter as she stood there in a flirty little skirt and half-top which left her midriff bare.

UGHH WHY. Just a classic visiting the police station outfit 🙃

female officer walked by, her lips twisted into a knowing little smirk, and I felt my cheeks flush.

You could just say officer...They're not a different species.

That should have been enough to tip me off.

YES IT SHOULD HAVE. Especially with the number of times you've been jumped almost exactly like this.

She was a woman of medium height, comfortably overweight and solid-looking. Her face would have been gorgeous when she was a young woman, and it still carried that beauty, refined by years of self-confidence and steady reliability. Her eyes were reddened, and she wore no makeup, but her features seemed composed. She wore a simple dress in a floral print, her only jewelry the wedding band on her finger.

with a broad smile and a nose that peeled in the sun if he walked outside to get his morning paper.

Lol it's me!

The shadows of the trees in Wicker Park, meanwhile, stretched out like black fingers creeping toward my throat. Thank God my subconscious isn’t too symbolically aware or anything.

There were no sparks, no glowing luminescence or anything else that would cost a special effects budget some money—just

Lol! Please adapt me!

I would be smart to call Michael. Maybe even Murphy. I could get to a phone, try to get in touch with them. It wouldn’t take them long to get here.

Ugh you don't even have to wait for them to get there. Maybe start doing the things you know are smart? You insufferable prat.

“If it’s using my power, it makes me responsible for what it does with it.” Bob scoffed. “Harry, that’s irrational.” I shot him a look. “That doesn’t make it any less true,” I snapped.

Uh yes it does. That's what irrational means here????

“Okay,” Bob said, meekly. “We have now left Reason and Sanity Junction. Next stop, Looneyville.” “Grrrr,” I said, still pacing.

"Grrrr?!?" WHAT is this dialogue? And harry still hasnt let anyone know whats going on.

A ghost can only affect something that relates directly to its death somehow. Agatha Hagglethorn couldn’t have terrorized a Cubs game. That wasn’t where her power was. She could mess with infants, with abusive husbands, maybe with abused wives—”

This is a cool take

I’ve done smarter things in my life.

STOP USING THIS SAME DAMN LAMPSHADE

on a normal night—but tonight wasn’t.

*which tonight wasn't

I closed my eyes, and saw Michael’s little daughter. I thought of her growing up without a mother. Damn it. “I accept your bargain, Godmother.”

This character is infuriating. I HATE him

“Michael, killing this thing already!”

Kill..ing?

I felt a flash of anger at my own stupidity.

Me too, me too

I stood there in the rain, feeling tired and cold and stupid.

GOOD. This was a terrible twist, but I'm not even mad because YOU DESERVE IT. And you don't deserve Michael.

White for protection. And because they’re the cheapest color at Wal-Mart. Hey, being a wizard doesn’t make money grow on trees.

It wasn’t until I hit upon the sense of the Nightmare, for lack of a better word, the terror it had inspired that the spell latched onto something.

Weird punctuation

What are we going to do?”

Call Susan back. No? Anybody? Mortal danger alert? Harry Is THE WORST boyfriend. And wizard. Also just the worst.

I got up and went to the mantel over the fire, but what I needed wasn’t there. I frowned, looking around the room, and spied it on the coffee table. I bent down and plucked up the white envelope, taking the gold-lettered invitation Kyle and Kelly Hamilton had delivered.

Weird detail. Maybe it means Susan took a peak and went to the party? Clever.

Michael said. “I’d like to talk to Him for a moment.” He half smiled at me. “You don’t have to say anything. Just be quiet and stay out of the way.”

Cute

A pair of gorgeous legs in pink high heels slid out of the car, followed by a slender and scrumptious girl barely covered in flower petals. She had a short, tight skirt made out of them, and more petals cupped her breasts like delicate hands. Other than that, and the baby’s breath woven into the tumbled mass of her black hair, she wore nothing. And she wore it well. In heels, she might have been five-seven, and she had a face that made me think that she was both lovely and sweet. Her cheeks were flushed in a delicate pink blush, vibrant and alive, her lips parted, and she had a look to her eyes that told me she was on something.

This one is fine for me in context

She just molded her body to Thomas’s in what looked like a most pleasant fashion.

We all trouped up the front stairs, affording me an uncomfortably proximate view of Justine’s legs along the way, lean and lovely and made for doing things that had nothing to do with locomotion. A

Ok thats a little weird

Bianca wasn’t tall, but she was statuesque in a way you only find in erotic magazines and embarrassing dreams. Pale of skin, dark of hair and eye, full of sensuous curves, from her mouth to her hips, everything possessed of luscious ripeness coupled with slender strength that would have caught the eye of any man.

She had on a pair of real heels at least, adding several inches to her rather unimpressive height. The shoes did interesting things to the shape of her legs. The curve of her smile promised things that were probably illegal, and bad for you, and would carry warnings from the Surgeon General, but that you’d still want to do over and over again.

She crossed her legs, slowly, flashing naked skin up to her taut, silky thigh as she did.

I drained my goblet in a single gulp, hardly noticing the delightful flavor of

Fool! Unless he likes being drugged?

“The wine is poisoned.”

Duh

I watched Justine’s legs go,

Ew, Harry. He doesn’t even see women as people at all.

“You don’t get it,” I said. “You don’t understand.”

Why are all the women so stupid??? I mean, harry is too, but he's presented as cool and can take care of himself

“No,” Susan said, her tone flat. “Absolutely not. I’m not some kind of child for you to tote around and make decisions for, Harry.”

Just despicable. Except for how the author writes you like a child

I heard the click of a tape recorder being switched off.

Uh ok lucky edit: this didn’t even come up again to help with Susan’s memory

knew the risks when I came here.”

No you didnt, you insipid idiot

I whispered, as soft whispers

Anger is my hiding place from fear, my shield and my sword against it.

Is it though? Because you’ve been a half step from peeing yourself many times, but never seemed particularly angry.

Bianca would want someone like Justine—sweet looking, gorgeous, unconsciously sexy. Probably dress her up in a plaid skirt and a starched white shirt with— Down, Harry. Hell’s bells.

I hate it when a woman asks me for help and I witlessly decide to go ahead and give it, regardless of dozens of perfectly good reasons not to. I hate

Me too. Wow, he’s so relatable when hating Harry Dresden

Justine had just done all three, but I couldn’t hold it against her. She just looked too sweet and helpless.

She let out a little shudder that ran through her most attractively, and then she pressed herself against me. “Thank you,” she murmured, nuzzling her face into the hollow of my throat so that little lightning-streaks of sensation flickered down my spine. “Thank you, Mister Dresden.”

Ewww

“Harry!” Bob said. “I really think you should hear this!”

You could have just said the thing in the time you took to say “wait! Hold on! There’s something you should know! Give me a second to say it!”

“Almost everyone dies in a hospital. You’d get to be someplace different. Isn’t that better?”

That’s cute

That’s why the Whites love her so much. They feed on emotion, and this little darling is positively mad with it.” Justine’s body shivered, and arched sensuously. “It’s rather exciting, actually. Madness.”

Even I didn’t expect you to drop like that; maybe the link with that doll worked so well because it was anatomically corr—”

Lol! Ok, that was an alright zinger

What goes around comes around. And sometimes you get what’s coming around.” He paused for a moment, frowning faintly, pursing his lips. “And sometimes you are what’s coming around. You see what I mean?”