The Babysitters Coven is a fun adventure for younger YA readers and fans of Charmed,

With so many protagonists focuses on being 'not like other girls', it's refreshing to have Esme and her friends who support each other and the legacies their mothers have left for them. This is the kind of representation we need more of in all genres.

The Babysitters Coven was SO much fun! If you love YA sprinkled in with some magic and “babysitters club” then you’ll absolutely devour this. Most of the characters featured in the narrative are well fleshed out and have their own personality rather than just being the side-kick or bad guy.

I can highly recommend this book and I will be waiting anxiously for the next book in this series!

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley!!

This fun book is based on a coven of "witchy babysitters."
I absolutely love the cover. The storyline is easy to follow, which makes the story easy to read!
I'd say this book is definnitely geared towards young adults/teens, and i don't really fit that age group. The book was still a fun quick read, but not amazing to me.

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

Wow. This book was just what I needed. Witty writing, with a magical plot-line and a protagonist you can cheer for to the very end. I just came off reading a highly disappointing anticipated read, and I have to be honest, my hope in books plummeted a bit. But thanks to this delightful, witchy read, hope has been renewed.

What's it about?

Esme is a seventeen-year-old babysitter from a complicated home. Her mother was put into a mental hospital when she was young, and her father doesn't really jump at the chance to talk about it. Along with her best friend and fellow fashionista, Janis, they form a babysitter's club which is really just them browsing the internet and watching movies. Weirdo things start happening when a new girl named Cassandra and her hot brother show up. Suddenly, Esme finds herself in an entirely different club, and it has nothing to do with changing diapers.

What I loved: Esme's voice. Her narration does a colossal justice to YA everywhere. It mixes in a sometimes cynical girl who loves movies and clothes and her friends and is entirely awkward in front of her crush. It was so fun reading her quirkiness. And I laughed out loud so many times. When a book can do that to me, I know it's going to be good.

The story was light-hearted and went ways I couldn't even imagine. I've never watched an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer so sue me, but It is inspired by it, and from other reviews, I hear it takes a few notes from the show as well.

I judge a book by how fast I get ready for bed to lie down and read. This one had me skipping skincare routines so that I could continue reading. It's a quick, spooky romp through the head of a girl who is just trying to navigate life but has to fight evil monsters instead.

The only thing that did irk me was the lack of CALLING THE COPS thing when things happened. I get it, for plot's sake, they had to deal on their own, but being the mother-bear inside of me was cursing them out for not enlisting the adults. ARGH.

I'm hoping for redemption and a real love interest in the next one. I cannot wait to take Esme, Cassandra, and Janis and just squeeze them and tell them things will be all right if you stick together, darn it.

Kate Williams has made a fan out of me.

So I’ve been on a YA kick lately because I realized there are some really amazing stories that I am missing just because I felt like they were too young for me to read. This was a book that caught my eye for of both the cover and the blurb. I was a staunch reader of the Babysitters Club in the ‘90s and it was my first book club; so I might have a soft spot for stories that pay tribute to my first book loves.

This story was such a delight to read I would liken it to Adventures in Babysitting crossed with the Babysitters Club with a dash of Practical Magic (the YA version). This book while YA did has great narration, dealt with some genuine topics and was filled with amusing antics and engaging encounters. It was easy to follow and was engaging enough to get my niece to stay involved and she is not a dedicated reader.

The story starts out by introducing the reader to Esme, a baby sitter and a high schooler trying to find her place in her ever changing life. She has a few “accidents” and soon discovers both life and the new girl in school is different then she could have ever imagined. I loved the way this story developed from an everyday coming of age story into a fun story of witches and the ultimate battle of good vs evil. The way the author blended the Babysitters club and the coven was wonderful, they seem to fit so well together that I never once questioned the odd pairing.

I really think that this is a story that needs to become a classic for young readers the world over. It is funny and sweet, kind and all inclusive. It left me with a delightful sense of gratification; not only for great stories, but for past book loves and a renewed sense of wonder. I had the delight of an ARC via NetGallery and I am leaving my honest review. #NetGallery #TheBabysittersCoven

Oops, wrong review initially posted here but I loved this fun book!! Such a unique concept and executed with wit and heart. I have so many friends who will enjoy reading this one and I look forward to recommending it!

This was a cute book! The writing style felt grounded in the authentic Teenage Experience; I related to how hard but also adorable babysitting was 100% from my own teenage babysitting days. The main character was down-to-earth, tired, and tried so hard.

I do think the plot was somewhat slow and boring. Half the time I was reading, I wanted the main character to stop observing things (breaking the immersion). But the emphasis on female friendship! and the Halloween setting made up for that.

Review to come on my blog closer to publication date!

This was a really cute premise that was very specific to my interests (self-described as Adventures in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer - which it was and wasn't) However, Witch-y, slayer types with rescue pit bulls: I mean, that's more or less my identity.

The story follows 17-year-old Esme Pearl as she discovers that there's more to babysitting than she ever thought. If we want to compare this to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I would say trigger-happy new girl Cassandra is being set up to be the Faith to Esme's Buffy, and Janise serves as a Willow/Xander hybrid. Alas there is no Angel or Spike or any swoon-worthy interest. Esme does have a flirtation with Cassandra's older brother, but it falls flat (which may have been the point.) There are other comparisons that are introduced later on but I will leave out to avoid spoilers (the book also calls these similarities out too.) I don't know who Pig's (Esme's pit bull) Buffy counterpart is, but I love her and any positive portrays of pit bull type dogs in the media. Pig's inclusion made me want to bump this up to a 4, but honestly it wasn't quite there.

It started out really cute and fun. I liked Esme; her quirks weren't over-written and I enjoyed her "themed" outfits. Esme and Janise's friendship was nice. I would have liked a better / serious love interest but maybe that's coming?? Where it really went off the rails for me was the mythology. The author was really trying too hard to make this 'Sitter' thing work and it's just silly. Overall, I will stick around for future installments, more or less for Pig because she's a very good girl.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sometimes comp titles get me so excited about reading a book that actually reading it is a let down. This was not the case with The Babysitters Coven, as Williams expertly weaves together a tale that entertains all! I hope everyone enjoys this book as much as I did!

This was a very entertaining book! I liked most of the charters, and thought the premise was cute and reminded me a lot of movies and shows I watched growing up. Really fun read!

If you enjoyed the craft or babysitters club this is definitely the book for you it was a very enjoyable book and everybody should give it a shot!

My daughter, who is 12, and I read this together, essentially. I didn't know how much I'd like it, because, obviously, it is written for teens, but I actually ended up really enjoying it. (My daughter did as well- she asked me to pre-order it on Amazon or through my store, which I have). It reminded me a lit of the shows, books, and movies I grew up on- The Craft, The Baby Sitter's Club, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.... I would definitely recommend this to middle schoolers, possibly 9th graders. I know I would have LoVED to get my hands on this at those ages. If a book written for teens or young adults can hold the attention of a 35 year old mother if three, it speaks volumes about how entertaining that book is.

The Babysitters Coven = Babysitter's club meets the Craft, in the best possible of ways. Highly recommend, and how can you not after seeing that amazing cover art!

The aesthetic of this book will be very popular among our younger teen readers--I really think it gets at something that young readers are looking for these days. I'm excited to see the published version.

This was .... interesting. And a little hard to rate. For the first half of the book I was bored out of my mind and totally not invested in the characters. I didn't like them very much, they were boring, there wasn't much going on, etc. But then things picked up a bit towards the second half and it got a little better. I still did NOT like the characters at all though. Cass was a terrible person, a huge jerk throughout the entire story. Selfish, rude, entitled, the whole gamut. Esme is better, but still oblivious and kind of awful. Not nearly as bad as Cass, but still awful. She is just as selfish and self-centered, but in a less obvious way.
The story was a predictable trope and the solutions were stretched to fit, without making much sense. For example, four people doesn't really mean four people and can mean some people and some animals. And you need a situation where the adult is gone so he gets mysteriously arrested. But then POOF everyone forgets everything because MAGIC. I'm sure that middle schoolers will enjoy it but it was a huge meh for me.