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Summary: Another good humorous fantasy
Review: "Long Hot Summoning" is a very unusual humorous fantasy. It's not like the other two in Ms. Huff's universe, in that it focuses more on Diana, Claire's lesbian sister, and her tangled attempts to have a meaningful relationship.In the second book, "The Second Summoning," Diana ended up making friends with Sam, a literally fallen angel (who decided to be immediately reincarnated as a cat). This was probably the first friend she'd ever made, as she was too powerful for her own good from an early age, and had no compunctions about using her powers to suit herself. Her parents rather despaired of her; her sister didn't know what to think, half the time approving, half of the other time being appalled. In this installment of "The Keeper's Chronicles," Diana has finally graduated high school, meaning she can now be summoned to do Keeper work. As she's the most powerful Keeper in the world, she's more than ready to do the work, too. Or is she? She gets out to the latest incident, a mall looking for a place to implode/explode (Huff calls it a gateway, I think, although I could be misremembering the terminology), and takes her sister with her. Dean, Claire's boyfriend, and Austin, Claire's cat, can't go with her (although Austin tries, but ends up getting sent back home). So it's just Diana and Claire, trying to do their best to keep the mall from becoming a gateway to Hell. Do they succeed? Well, that's up to you to decide. As for everything else, I'm a bit split on how I feel regarding Diana's romance with the punkish transformed human Kris. Kris is bright, feisty, and attractive, but what else is pulling at Diana to make Kris be the one she fixates on? This really isn't shown, although Diana's confusion as to whether or not it's actually OK for her to kiss Kris is done to perfection by Ms. Huff. And as a few others have pointed out, Claire seems a bit like an afterthought for most of the book. And that's wrong; Claire, Dean and Austin are the backbone of this series, and easing them out is the wrong move in my opinion. I sincerely hope Ms. Huff doesn't do that. I'd definitely recommend this book, to anyone over fifteen that likes humorous fantasy laced with satire and sarcasm. There is a remarkable amount of strong language here, more so than in the other books of this series, and between that and the necrophilia hinted at in the relationship between the mummy and the professor, I'd rather err on the side of caution in recommending this book to anyone under fifteen (or an extremely mature kid of any age, with parental supervision). As for future adventures, I'd definitely buy them. Bring 'em on as fast as possible, Ms. Huff!
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Summary: The reason I keep coming back to the Summoning series...
Review: ...is simple. I'm in love with Dean. Oh, sure, I like Claire and Diana and the cats, but it is sweet, devoted, anal-retentive Dean who has literally captured my heart. And apparently Claire's, as well...but I digress. Suffice it to say that the third installment has all the fantastical characters, irreverent Canadian in-jokes, and sweetly lovey-dovey stuff of the first two books. In addition, Diana finally comes into her own as a Keeper and hooks up with a hot elven babe, to boot. And Hell's still pretty damn funny. All in all, this book was a very satisfying summer read. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: SADLY---not as good as its predecessors
Review: Don't take me wrong. It's not a bad book. It's certainly worth reading if you really enjoyed the first two, but..... Maybe it's the lack of novelty. The book lacks a certain *something* The first book was charming in its novelty. The cutting insight of Austin....Hell talking to itself...It felt fresh and fascinating. In The Long Hot Summoning, the narrative seemed more forced, less natural. Unfortunately for fans of the series, Tanya said publicly at a conference that it is likely this is the last of The Keeper books. This makes me sad since this book is not of the same quality as the first two.
Rating:
Summary: SADLY---not as good as its predecessors
Review: Don't take me wrong. It's not a bad book. It's certainly worth reading if you really enjoyed the first two, but..... Maybe it's the lack of novelty. The book lacks a certain *something* The first book was charming in its novelty. The cutting insight of Austin....Hell talking to itself...It felt fresh and fascinating. In The Long Hot Summoning, the narrative seemed more forced, less natural. Unfortunately for fans of the series, Tanya said publicly at a conference that it is likely this is the last of The Keeper books. This makes me sad since this book is not of the same quality as the first two.
Rating: 
Summary: It keeps Coming
Review: Huff managed to take the story and spin it around while holding your interst. She changes main charaters without losing anything. That I apprecaiate. Some autors can only keep one charater with a preticular world or storyline. Huff does not lose it by switching around. The books are fun, the charaters have to deal with a lot, and they deal well. This one is a story of learning that jobs can be a lot harder then they see, and arrogance tastes cold later. Duty and honor are crunched into a funfilled fantastic fast paced ride.
Rating:
Summary: It keeps Coming
Review: Huff managed to take the story and spin it around while holding your interst. She changes main charaters without losing anything. That I apprecaiate. Some autors can only keep one charater with a preticular world or storyline. Huff does not lose it by switching around. The books are fun, the charaters have to deal with a lot, and they deal well. This one is a story of learning that jobs can be a lot harder then they see, and arrogance tastes cold later. Duty and honor are crunched into a funfilled fantastic fast paced ride.
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Summary: The coming of age of Diana
Review: I enjoyed the previous 2 books in this series, however I would have to say that this installment has been a distinct disappointment for me. The focus of the novels have now shifted to Claire's younger (and most powerful of the keepers as we are constantly reminded) gay sister Diana. Claire is still part of the story, but more of a sub plot, with Dean and Austin as a back story to the save-the-world-from-the-mall main storyline. Huff has tried to split the story between the two sisters, and in the process you feel like the novel lacks focus. A great deal of time is spent crawling around the mall trying to work out what is wrong and with a rather heavy handed "romance" developing between Diana and Kris, one of the street-people-turned elves inhabiting the mall. The whole Diana romance subplot seemed rather a waste in many ways as you never really do get to know much about Kris aside from the fact that Diana is attracted to her and in now way does it compare to the Dean/Claire storyline of the previous books. I'm sorry to say, that if this series continues to focus on Diana I'll probably drift away from it. As a character I like her much less than Claire, and in this particular novel I found the sub-story of Dean/Austin and the Mummy more interesting than what was happening at the mall, and Diana's constant little sister put downs of Claire didn't help me make like her any more as a person. For a novel that tries desperately to be witty and fast moving and contemporary I would have to say that the cats and Hell probably are the funniest bits of the story and this is the weakest installment in the Keepers series so far.
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Summary: ah, finally...
Review: I have been waiting for this novel for a while now and was pleasently surprised when I found it. This whole series is high on my list of favorite books. it has well placed humor, a fast paced plot that keeps you ( the reader) involved from beginning to end, and wonderful morality that isn't pushed onto you. Now onwards to the bad stuff. I missed Claire. yes she was in the book and yes you did get to be in her head for part of the story, but well... I still missed her. If you haven't read the other books i'm positive this one made absolutely no sense to you. I think the character of Kris needed to be more developed. When Claire fell for Dean everyone did, Kris just seems kind of bland against the background of the books. ... We've known since book one that Diana is a lesbian and that Huff is not shy when tackling sexuality. Overall I think these books are excellently written and worth the time to read. I'm praying that this isn't the last one of the keeper chronicles. This story has so many possibilities...
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Summary: Minivans are EVIL!
Review: I have greatly enjoyed all of the Keeper novels by Tanya Huff. Oddly enough, these have turned out to be great read-aloud books for long trips (I know, I shouldn't be doing something that distracts the driver, but my DH does most of the driving and I enjoy reading aloud). Although I found this book perhaps a bit slower going than the first two, I was glad to see more of Diana, the younger sister and most powerful Keeper and was also pleased that the Angel who became a Cat was an important secondary character in this book.
Ms. Huff has managed to work in once again all sorts of mythic archetypes (Arthur) plus lots of good fun, bad puns, and bits of horror including some classic stuff (ancient Egyptian mummies who come back to life by...well read it and find out).
I do have to confess that I am still trying to puzzle out just what minivans have to do with Evil, but it's good fun (I'm a bit worried: we drive a 94 white Nissan Quest minivan. Does this mean we're allied with the Bad Guys?)
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Summary: Questions?
Review: I have read and enjoyed the other 2 in this series. I really like the other series that Ms. Huff writes. I have only one question- why do there have to be lesbian influnences in this one? The attraction of a Keeper and another female character does not add to the story being convayed. (Was it to make the book PC?) The cats are the best characters in this book!! As usual, their comments pace the story and add a great deal of interest. All that being said, I did enjoy this addition to the "Summoning" series.
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