It's been quite a while since the last Dresden novel, over 5 years, and I was really eager to get into this one. Twelve Months is a bit of a change of pace from the recent novels; there's a lot less action, less epic battles and crazy otherworldly beings. All that stuff is still present in Twelve Months, but its much more of a setup novel, with more reflection and healing and preparation - gearing up for the next part of the saga.

The Dresden Files are a bit like comfort food for me. I discovered them over a decade ago and tore through the dozen or so that existed at the time in just a few weeks. They've evolved, expended, and generally gotten stronger as the series has gone on. At the start they were pretty standard monster of the week urban fantasy, but around the fourth or fifth book the world really expanded and a real main plot started to develop. I miss those simpler stories a bit, but the transformation into a more epic fantasy story has been great too.

These novel isn't my favorite. It's uncharacteristically slow, especially in the beginning. The years since the previous release have made details fuzzy, which made the emotional trauma Harry is dealing with hit a bit less hard as a reader. I can almost guarantee if this novel came out a year or two after Battle Grounds, it'd be a solid 5 stars for me rather than 4. I still enjoyed it, very much so at some points, but it wasn't exactly what I want or expect from a Dresden novel. Harry's a great, compelling character, and his cast of sidekicks and friends are most interesting too, but this novel was a bit too navel-gazey for me, sometimes veering into corny or melodramatic territory.

The conclusion mostly resolves this plot point of Dresden needing to heal form his trauma. If you've stuck around for the 17 previous novels, you'll enjoy this one.