This is a great combination of the Baby-Sitter's Club (vaguely) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Though some of the characters are more fleshed out than others, the book is a fun romp into demon territory. My only complaint is that I read this book as an ARC because now I have to wait even longer for the sequel!

I thought the first chapter of this novel was great. I was totally hooked! However as the story went on I found it wasn’t the semi scary vampire hunting story I had thought it would be. I think this novel would be perfect for the age range of 13-16 but I found it a little young for me. Which is weird because YA is my favorite genre. I loved all of the clothes the girls wore in this. Their sense of fashion is wicked! I enjoyed Pig, the pit bull. The cover of this is stunning and I loved the plot but the story wasn’t my favorite.

I am allllll for witches (I mean Sitters) being the new vampires. BRing on the GIRL POWER!

Thank you to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for the chance to review this title ahead of its release date.

This book was a fantastic opening to a series that really allowed you to understand the beginnings of the world without feeling overwhelmed. The book had the feelings of a superhero origin story, and I did not mind that at all. With a hint of romance that does not end how you hope it will and true friendship through great odds this book did a great job of developing both the main character and her best friend. The characters are genuine and real even with the magical mystical framework of this story and it make the narrative compelling to follow. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a contemporary ya series to start a journey with!

Almost sad I read this book already because now I have to wait until fall of 2020 to see where Kate Williams can take this world. Will be honored to read that arc as well when it comes out!

PS Janis finds out again, right? because I need janis in the coven

⭐ARC from NetGalley in exchange for honest review⭐

This book pulled me in within the first few pages. It was a magical witchy like read that was beautifully paced and kept me wanting more.

I will be buying the book once its released! (because that cover 😍)

Now I will impatiently wait until fall of 2020 for the second book.

What an adorable first book to kick-off a new series!
Williams writes with such a youthful, quick tone, I couldn’t help but laughing at the girls’ dialogue and feeling like I was right there for the day to day high school melodrama. I especially love the descriptions of their outfits and even the shorthand IDKs & IRLs included. It was fun to have such a fresh twist on an old classic, too, with lots of homages to the old Baby-Sitters Club series but updated technology and a whole new aspect with the magic. The added depth of a teen dealing with a sick mother and a basically single-father while navigating drivers-ed and high school bullies made it more down-to-earth as well.
Janis was a perfect and hilarious best-friend character, too. Loved everything about her.
I genuinely look forward to the next book in this series and I’d recommend it to anyone with a soft spot for the old series, witchcraft, fashion, or teen drama.

I loved this book! As a Babysitter’s Club fan, i was pumped to read about sitters and witches. Throw in the fashion, humor and major pit bull love, and you’ve got a winner of a book.

Let me just say a BIG thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of this book!! I had heard some good things in one of my Facebook book groups, and I really like the description "Adventures in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer." It might be showing my age, but the first was a movie from my childhood, and the second is only one of the greatest TV shows ever made- so I was anticipating greatness from this book. It did not disappoint. It's a very quick read, easy to dive into, the narrative voice is engaging and funny. It starts off with a bit of a bang, and then it sort of slows a little bit, but once it gets going again it does not stop! It sets out all the plot threads for the next book (or books- who knows how many adventures it will take for the crew to resolve things). This was a great first book in the series, and I am only sad that I have to wait until 2020 for the next installment! I will highly recommend this to all my friends.

I freaking love this amazing cover! But to me the book read a bit on the young side. There was some fun humor, but I think I wanted a bit more. I would have liked more of a romance in there as well. The character was likable and the dialogue was good too!

I totally loved this book. Definitely gave me vibes from my younger years reading the babysitters club. I love that that babysitter's have super powers! Love this story and I'm hoping there will be another one!

I am in SUCH a spooky Fall mood even though it’s June so this was the 🌙🎃✨PERFECT WITCHY READ✨🎃🌙

The Babysitters Witch Coven stars Emse Pearl, just a regular junior in high school with your average cuckoo mom and distant dad. She and her best friend Janis comprise their own Babysitter’s Club, but things are getting weird. A strange man shows up in the night during with the kids they’re watching, luring them away and scaring everybody… A new girl has shown up at school and taken a mysterious interest in the girls’ club… and to top it all off, Esme apparently has super powers?

It’s all a little spooky.

This book is less a witchy retelling and more modern homage to the og Babysitters Club. I didn’t have some issues which I’ll get into, but let’s start with the good! The modernization worked really well, like the cute descriptions of the girls’ thrifted themed outfits (one of my faves was Lydia Deetz Goes to the Beach).

The humor could be so funny (I laughed at that tampon shelf stocking anecdote in the beginning and I’m not ashamed) and the MOOD of this book, though. The cover, which is absolutely gorgeous and so aesthetic, goes hand in hand with the atmosphere in this book. It’s spooky and Halloweeny and witchy and gorgeous, and I loved it! It’s also a very easy read; it’s very entertaining and voices so it’s easy to get engaged and fly through, despite some pacing problems.

Unfortunately, I did have a few issues with the insertion of the feminism, which could feel a bit “all talk, no work”. On one page we had railing against the patriarchy, then on the very next we had a bitch slap cat fight complete with hair pulling, between our MCs and the bitchy caricatured cheerleaders for “stealing [one of the cheerleader’s] man”. I felt this book wanted brownie points for parroting feminist catch phrases but… Sorry, I’m not your troop leader. 😴

I might as well come out and say some of the issues I had with the self-proclaimed intersectionality of the feminism as well. This book is written by a white woman, starring a white MC. Esme’s best friend is Janis, who is black, and is the only one of the club without powers, and spends much of the book being sidelined as a friend who is growing apart.

Then we have Cassandra, who is the new girl at school, and Dion, her older brother. They’re Mexican. Cassandra is described as a terrible student, she displays a shocking lack of empathy, she gets in fist fights, and she shoplifts. Cool. Dion is basically objectified by Esme the whole book… till (no spoilers), then he’s a fuckboy who gets mistreated by the white MC with, again, a shocking lack of empathy. Their family, also, was (SPOILERS) a primary villain/antagonist, whereas Esme’s family was nice and victimized by Cassandra and Dion’s parent. And Janis’s family didn’t even have page time. I’m not saying the things that happened shouldn’t have consequences, but honestly? It felt weird to me. Little red flags were going up for me as I was reading, and I didn’t like. :/ I’m a white girl myself, so I’m not claiming that I know what’s up and what’s down, but I want to outline the things I read so you can make informed reading decisions.

The issue isn’t that we can’t have diverse characters of all personality types and backgrounds–the issue here is that the characters of color are all relegated to negative stereotypes or background roles. For a book that is very vocal about the future being female, the hot takes were surface-level. I’ll sum my feelings up in two sentences: it felt like reading a Buzzfeed article. Obnoxious, hypocritical, and self-serving.

Look, I really want to love this book, so I hesitated so much with this review, and I debated over posting it. I even had my CPs read over my thoughts to see if I was being fair, or if I should reevaluate my feelings and findings in case I was overreacting. But I can honestly say that after reflection and second opinions, I don’t think I am, and as such, I just can’t be disingenuous. I hope I’ve illustrated my points in manner without (much) emotion, so you yourself can judge without my angry haze. I’m really trying to review in an un-sensationalized manner these days (while still being able to crack a sick joke 😜) and I hope that comes across.

I think edits could fix the problems I had with this book, as well as a few sensitivity readers. It could be a very fun book that’s perfect for Halloween if these problems were addressed. There is going to be a sequel (which I didn’t know till the cliffhanger ending–yikes) so maybe some of these things will straighten out in subsequent books.

Esme feels like the girl I was in high school: not popular, but not an outcast; not cool, but not exactly uncool either; a few close friends, plenty of embarrassing moments, an enthusiastic pursuer of her niche interests, and generally a person any parent would feel comfortable leaving their kid with for a night. Even though the chosen one trope is a little worn these days, it felt fresh in this book, because there really was nothing extraordinary about Esme beforehand. She’s the secretly-destined, super-powered girl every average teenager longs to be.

I loved her friendships with both Cassandra and Janis, and I loved that they took precedence over any romantic subplot. Friendships are the most lasting and life-changing relationships I had in high school, and the conflicts felt natural and relatable.

Her relationship with her parents also felt very real to me, as did the entire high school experience. As a child of the 90s, about half of the references in the book went over my head (and that ratio will probably be higher for teens), however, the cultural references and flair made for a voice that hooked me. This book hit me right in the part of my heart where the Buffy fangirl in me lives.

I disliked this book. I picked the book because I thought based on the description it would be a fun read.

My one compliment is I liked the usage of a dead shopping mall as a setting. Multiple malls closed in my area, so I related to the every feeling of being surrounded by shutters shops.

Babysitter’s Coven is neither deep nor entertaining.
The writing style is poor, countless filter words, telling instead of showing and abbreviations. I’d be fine with them in a text message, but abbreviations like AF appear in dialogue and narration. Either include swear words or use ambiguous language like “she cursed.” if the author’s goal was to hide them from young readers.

The pacing is the book is either slow or rushed. Esme’s many paragraphs describing her outfits stall the plot. The villain isn’t foreshadowed so the climax of the novel feels random. Cassandra and Esme develop their powers rapidly. Any inconvenience the characters face is quickly solved. There isn’t any tension.

In regards to characters, many are unlikeable and all are underdeveloped. The secondary characters are just plot devices with dialogue. Esme is hypocritical, judgemental, and lazy. She doesn’t learn from these flaws or grow at all. I think the author intended for Esme to be likeable, but readers need more than pop culture references to care about a protagonist. Casandra is slightly more bearable, but perhaps that’s only because she isn’t the protagonist.

Additionally, who is the audience? Based on the content, I can’t imagine readers above 14 enjoying this novel. However, the book is filled with references to older media like Buffy, The Craft, Babysitter’s Club, and horror movies young readers might not understand. Also, entire plot points and character types are copied from Buffy.

I’d rather rewatch Buffy the Vampire Slayer instead of reading Babysitter’s Coven,

This review will be posted on my blog a week before the book’s publication:
https://megansreviewingjourney.tumblr.com

Esme and her friend, Janis, are the last members of their local babysitters club. They work each weekend, taking care of the local children and making a little money on the side. It's better than getting a "real" job.

But, except for her best friend and her babysitting, Esme just doesn't have much else. Her mom was committed to an asylum when Esme was young and Esme doesn't get along well with others. She's dealing with her life, though, such as it is.

Then Cassandra and Dion come into her life.

Cassandra is nothing like Esme, but she seems to be determined to join the babysitters club for some strange reason.

It turns out Cassandra has her own home life issues and Esme may be the key to solving the mysteries that have surrounded Cassandra and her brother since their parents died.

When strange things start happening around Esme, she and Cassandra must work together to understand what's going on.

Final thoughts: Messy book. This is a bad combination of The Baby-Sitters Club and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's awkward and poorly written with very little to recommend. There is no build-up of anything, including tension. Things just happen without warning and then go away just as fast. Not good and not worth reading the next book.

Rating: 1/5

ARC courtesy of NetGalley

I didn't know what to expect when I started this. To be frank, I thought the summary reminded me a bit of those 80s-90s teen thriller movies. I LOVE those movies, so that ultimately led to me requesting this. Despite that, I still
wasn't entirely sure what I was getting myself into, but I think it was worth it in the end.

I found this to have a very slow start. Like veeerrrryyy slow. It was a slow burn, but I felt that it just dragged quite a bit. I almost didn't really feel like continuing when I was a quarter of the way through. However, I did find it start to pick up the further we went along. By the end, I found it to be quite a thrill ride and was really pleased on the ending!

I found the character development to be good. Was it perfect? Definitely not. I mostly blame the way it dragged and the constant descriptions and exposition put into it. Constantly pointing out a certain character trait just made it lose it's effect. They would get beat into the ground and just made me not care so much anymore. There's also the fact that many of the characters we encounter just don't have much going on for them. For the way this book takes itself though, it was good enough to give us some life to these guys.

Story though. This one shines in the plot department. The quirkiness and thrill of the story is what saves this book. It keeps itself fresh and interesting, and ultimately makes itself fun to read as you go on. Even though it has a rough start, it starts to find itself and just becomes fun. With the meh character development, the story keeps this book afloat. Unfortunately, even though I found myself enjoying it by the end, the beginning is easily forgettable.

Overall, this was an alright book. I'd suggest going to your local library and picking it up there first before committing to buying a copy.

ARC provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Beautifully written and a real page-turner. I fell in love with this story and the characters. Couldn't put it down and was so invested into it. Hope it gets the hype it deserves upon release.

This book is SO MUCH FUN and I can’t believe I have to wait another year to read the next in the series. It’s basically the BSC meets The Craft — in other words, it’s awesome.

Great "witch" version of the babysitter’s club books! It has more modern references, of course. I like the fashion sense of the main character and her best friend too. Looking forward to more books in the series from this author!

(will post on Amazon and Goodreads once it it released.)

ughhhhh this just wasn't good. I was so excited for this because I really liked undead girl gang, but this was just not doing it for me!

I received a copy of The Babysitters Coven from Delacorte Press through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this book was charming and spoopy! I really liked Esme and Janis, Cassandra not so much but the way the book dealt with magic was super-cool!

This was such a fun read. It's got some fantastic characters and pop culture references, and the tone and feel is very Buffy, which, to me, is a high compliment and basically means that there's some real danger and action but also enough camp to keep it relatively light, despite the darker elements. I cannot wait to read the next one.