Review: Side Jobs by Jim Butcher

Do I have any Harry Dresden fans out there?  If you are, you are my new best friend.  If you have never heard of Harry Dresden, keep reading and maybe I can convince you why.  Three years ago or so, I was just getting back into reading after sometime taking a break.  You have kids and they consume your life.  I had forgotten how much I loved to read and I was lucky enough to have a young man on my team at work, Matt Davenport, who worked at B&N part time and who is also an indie author. We will talk more about Matt another time.  Anyways, Matt has a very contagious excitement when he talks about books.  He starting telling me about this character Harry Dresden.  Harry Dresden is a Wizard who lives in Chicago.  If you are in the Chicago area, look him up in the phone book. 

Anyone who is cool enough to have an ad in the phone book as a wizard is worth checking out. So, I read the first book in the Dresden File series and was hooked.  About this time every year, I start to get a craving for a little Harry Dresden.  Normally I can hold off until the release of the next book in the series which usually is around Thanksgiving.  However, the next book, Skin Game, has no release date.  NO RELEASE DATE!!!!!  Now, I did find a possible December 3rd release date, however, that has not be confirmed yet.  Now what is a girl supposed to do?  So, in order to sate my appetite I watched the entire TV series that came out about 5 years too early since it was cancelled after the first season.  I recommend you check it out on Netflix if you have it, it's amazing nothing like the book but amazing in it's own way.  This was just the appetizer.  I needed more, so I picked up Side Jobs, which are short stories that occur at various times throughout the series.  My favorites were Backup, The Warrior, and Aftermath.  Here is a list of all of the short stories you will find.

Side Jobs by Jim Butcher

Rating: 3 wine glasses, very, very, very full

“Restoration of Faith”- Takes place before Storm Front
“Vignette”- Takes place between Death Masks and Blood Rites
“Something Borrowed” - Takes place between Dead Beat and Proven Guilty
“It’s My Birthday Too”- Takes place between White Night and Small Favor
“Heorot”-Takes place between White Night and Small Favor
“Day Off”- Takes place between Small Favor and Turn Coat.
Backup - A novelette, takes place between Small Favor and Turn Coat      
The Warrior- A novelette, takes place between Small Favor and Turn Coat  
“Last Call”- Takes place between Small Favor and Turn Coat
“Love Hurts” - Takes place between Turn Coat and Changes 
 Aftermath- A novelette, takes place after Changes

What can I tell you about Harry Dresden.  He is a kick butt wizard and ends of having a lot of issues with vampires, werewolves, Chicago PD, archangels, fae and a whole bunch of bad guys.  He is goofy and clumsy, but somehow he manages to save the day.  Jim Butcher has done an amazing job developing all of the characters in the books and you can't help but fall right into the series.  I will admit that this was the series that started my book binges, yes I have a problem, no I don't care.