Long Hot Summoning [Mass Market Paperback]

The action picks up a few weeks after THE SECOND SUMMONING, Claire and Dean (and Austin) are back at the Elysian Fields Guest House while younger sister Diana is finishing her last few hours of high school. Her first summoning arrives immediately after the last bell rings and takes her to a mall. It sems as though the mundane and magical worlds are overlapping here and need to be separated. Claire also arrives at the mall, the two set out to sort out the mess, meeting King Arthur along the way. Meanwhile back at the guest house Dean and Austin are dealing with their own problems.

The action is split among the two sisters and Dean which gives the book a lot of plot to deal with, maybe too much. At times it is difficult to keep the various threads straight, particularly between Claire and Diana.

If there is another in the series I hope that it returns to the standards of the first book. It is possible that this is the end of the series, and if so it was fun while it lasted. In any case, if you have read and enjoyed the first books by all means read this one. If the series sounds interesting to you start with SUMMON THE KEEPER. I will be looking for additional books by this author either in this series or one of her others.

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.

The characters seem to be taking a bit of a sabbatical here unlike SUMMON THE KEEPER and especially THE SECOND SUMMONING. The story focuses more on Diana, now a full fledged Keeper and on her first real assignment, and while she plays well as supporting foil for her sister Claire she doesn't have the interesting character quirks needed as the main protagonist. Sure she's a bundle of unpredictable hormonal insanity, but she's a teenager, that's not fiction that's real life! Her budding romance with a mall elf comes off more as teenage lust and experimentation than the love/fear/lust/need/lust/companionship/lust...well you get the picture, relationship that has developed between Dean and Claire. Also Diana's angel turned cat Sam just doesn't have the same cat-like qualities that dear old Austin has, nor does he have his razor sharp sense of humor. I was also disappointed to find that Hell, one of the funniest characters ever created, has only a cameo role and just isn't his old schizoid self.

However it's not bad and there are some really interesting parts although one of the best is really a subplot centering around the male bonding between Dean and Austin, ok a neuter/wuss bonding, but it's good none the less. We even get to see Dean move past his boy toy/Felix Unger persona into a true support base for his Keeper mate. The gender role reversal that so helped the romance/friction of the first two volumes is still there and doesn't seem to be adversely impacted by this change.

Good but not great, still I RECOMMEND it and will be looking forward to future episodes.