I guess we're coming from a different place then - I'm a huge fan of the Dresden books, whereas I thought Cinderspires was a flaming pile of dog poop. The strength of the Dresden files is the really rich and nuanced cast - each of the main characters has a real sense of motivation and depth, whereas in cinderspires they felt like relatively thin cliches. Posh, naive girl with a sense of fair play, common girl who's picked on, but is secretly very talented, captain with a mysterious past. Yawn.
But yeah, I think Dresden is head and shoulders above cinderspires. But then the series really takes until book three or four to get going, so maybe I should give cinderspires a bit more time.