A trilogy by Tanya Huff, which consists of:
- Summon the Keeper: Claire Hansen is a Keeper, a woman of magical Heroic Lineage who fixes the holes in the fabric of reality by using magic. She's accompanied by a Loyal Animal Companion / guard cat named Austin. She gets summoned to a Hell Hotel with a Hellgate in the basement and an evil Keeper immobilized in room six...and then the site babysitter/Dirty Old Man owner takes off and leaves her holding the bag. Unable to fix the stalemate situation, Claire realizes that she may be stuck running the hotel for life and waiting on the supernatural clientele that visit. Currently living in the hotel are a friendly French ghost named Jacques and the hunky jack-of-all-trades employee Dean. One's too young and the other's too dead, Claire says, but... And then there's her sister and fellow Keeper Diana, a girl who's not too uptight about making sure that situations don't explode.
- The Second Summoning: Claire and Dean see if they can juggle a Keeper/Bystander relationship, but after they have Their First Time, all kinds of metaphysical consequences spring up. Specifically in the form of a teen angel and teen demon. Diana comes to the rescue in her own unique way, and gets a pet.
- Long Hot Summoning: Diana's first summons after graduating from high school is to try and save a mall from becoming a portal to the Otherside. Claire joins her, along with Sam and a bunch of street kids turned elves. And she meets a girl. Meanwhile, Dean and Austin are at home dealing with troublesome guests.
The series ended due to Muse Existence Failure: the series was inspired by Huff's geriatric cat Austin, and after he died she couldn't bear to continue the series any more.
These books provide examples of:
- Adventurer Archaeologist: Lance is convinced that he's one. Dr. Redik thinks this is poppycock...but then again, he's the one sleeping with a mummy.
- Air-Vent Passageway: This only gets used because it's on the Otherside, where everyone can end up a Reality Warper.
- Always Lawful Good: Dean. He has one brief moment of hesitation about saving someone he thinks is abusing his girlfriend, and immediately thinks he should go to Hell for it. Later he actually kind of lies in order to keep Lance away from the paying customers.
- Ambiguously Bi: Diana claims to be a lesbian but her one sexual encounter was with a man, then she meets Kris.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Diana. Adding to the fun, thanks to Youngest Child Wins logic and all other Keepers being only children, she's the most powerful Keeper in the world.
- Big Bad: Hell. Notably, its the same hole all three books, and it remembers Claire and Diana.
- Bottomless Bladder: Averted. "There's a demon loose in the world and we're waiting by the side of the road for a cat to pee."
- Cats Are Mean: Occasionally, when they are in the mood or pissed off.
- Cats Have Nine Lives: Austin seems to be on his last.
- Chaste Hero: Dean in book one. After losing his virginity, he finally becomes aware of other women checking him out.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Hell, even when it would be to it's benefit not to..
- Cultural Stereotypes: Dean is from Newfoundland, something that's very much emphasized (not just in his Canadian accent dialogue that Claire doesn't always comprehend) in the series.
- Evil Gloating: It's a requirement for any villain to do this... while the heroes stall.
- Good Witch Versus Bad Witch: Regular Keepers vs. Sara the evil Keeper.
- I See Dead People: In this universe, everyone seems to be able to see ghosts, regardless of magical ability.
- Hellhound: Baby, who is also Fluffy the Terrible.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Dean was entirely willing to make one. Ditto Kris.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Keepers frequently wipe or messes with memories of Bystanders.
- May–December Romance: Not really, but Claire is only 7 years older than Dean, and she is totally disturbed by that.
- Meaningful Name: Elysian Fields Guest House, especially when nine retired Greek gods from Classical Mythology come to stay.
- My Card: Claire's magical business card changes slogans with the situation.
- Noodle Incident: Many. Either refers to a past adventure of Claire and Austin, or something Diana did.
- No Name Given: Entities from Hell before they've earned a name.
- No Periods, Period: Sverted: Diana has to make multiple trips to a public restroom in order to close down a hole. Two teenage boys notice this and comment on it. Diana then claims to be menstruating and explains how that works in great gory detail. Then there's the time the evil overlord finds her tampon and she and Kris elaborate in great detail as to what it's for.
- One Degree of Separation: Any time Dean talks to someone, they seem to have a connection to someone he knows from playing hockey.
- Our Angels Are Different: Especially if they manifest as human teenagers. Or cats.
- Our Demons Are Different: Especially if they manifest as human teenagers.
- Our Elves Are Different: The street kids are morphing into elves on the Otherside. Pointy Ears and odd hair colors seem to do it.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Jacques can only manifest in rooms that hold an object that was in the room with him when he died. Keepers can also give ghosts flesh for a night, for sexual purposes. Jacques is all too aware of this fact.
- Painting the Medium: Hell TALKS IN CAPITAL LETTERS to itself a lot.
- Parental Abandonment: Dean's parents sacrificed themselves to save him from a house fire.
- Snarky Non-Human Sidekick/Talking Animal: The cats.
- Stupid Evil: Hell is not above backstabbing itself.
- Taken for Granite: Dean finds a basilisk at the mall.
- Tempting Fate: (Could be worse, could be raining). Among other memorable occasions.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Claire and Dean. "You could cut the unresolved sexual tension between you two with a knife, and I, personally, am tired of it."
- Virgin Sacrifice: Sara's evil plan goes awry the first time because the 15-year-old neighbor next door turned out not to be one. The second time she finds the right virgin...Dean.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: the main debate of book 2. Diana thinks that killing/releasing Samuel and Byleth is wrong now that they've become human and have personalities. Claire thinks that a demon needs to get eliminated from the world, period, and if the angel has to go in order to do it, then that's the case.
- World of Snark: The only person that doesn't snark regularly is Dean.
