Summer Knight by Jim Butcher

As Summer Knight opens, Harry Dresden’s true love, Susan, has left town, the Red Court Vampires have declared war on him and someone’s shooting at him. Oh, and it’s raining toads. To top it off, Mab, the Faerie Queen of Winter, wants to hire him to investigate the murder of a mortal… Harry thinks it can’t get worse, even when the White Council convenes to consider turning him over to the Red Court to end the vampire war. He is wrong… After the unrelieved darkness of Grave Peril, this book is somehow lighter, even though the stakes are high and the consequences are real… With its sparkling wit, pizza-snarfing pixies, fantasy-gamer werewolves, plausible magic and powerful action scenes, Summer Knight is one of the better books in this strong series. Read the rest.