This book was ridiculous in the best way!  Described as "Adventures in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer" I couldn't pass up the opportunity to read this.

Esme Pearl is surviving high school with a keen fashion sense and a babysitters club with her best friend Janis.  When a freak accident happens in driver's ed, Esme finds herself on the hook for a large sum of money in damages and is left with a ton of questions about supernatural abilities.

Cassandra Heaven arrives in Spring River intent on becoming part of the babysitter's club that Esme sees as a lame joke now that she's seventeen.  When Cassandra confides she discovered a note from her now deceased mother telling her to "find the babysitters", the new friends discover that their fates are intertwined thanks to a long line of women known as Sitters who protect a portal in our world from demons.

Unfortunately for Esme and Cassandra their Giles/watcher is the former interior decorator turned Spring River football coach named Brian and he's been too busy with the season to teach the girls about their newfound powers.

Brian assures them that the portal is still firmly closed and that there's plenty of time for him to teach them but when a young girl they're babysitting is kidnapped, they have no choice but to cast some spells and hope that the Synod (the governing magic council) will help them out.  (See, ridiculous, right?!)

This book seriously made me laugh out loud at times with its droll humor.  Esme's wit and cynicism were spot-on for a seventeen-year-old and I love that the characters make references to The Babysitters Club, Buffy, and The Craft and acknowledge the obvious similarities.

If you grew up watching the above-mentioned shows/movies and appreciate the pop culture, you'll appreciate The Babysitters Coven!  I also recommend to readers who love paranormal YA.  While parts of the story moved slow and the ending fell a bit flat, the humor kept it entertaining and it's also the beginning of a series so readers will have more answers in the future.  For me, it was just plain fun.

Thanks to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.  The Babysitters Coven is scheduled for release on September 17, 2019.

Thank you Random House Children's and Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my review.

The Babysitters Coven (TBC) is/was one of my most anticipated books of the Fall -- I already have it pre-ordered. I mean, look at that cover! It's gorgeous!

TBC is a good read for a late elementary or middle school student but may be difficult for the adult audience to enjoy (even those who primarily read YA).

The concept behind TBC is delightfully unique, albeit similar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That said, I contemplated DNFing TBC several times. I found all of the pop culture references to in excess -- as if the book tried too hard to be 'relevant' and similar to Buffy that the references became jarring and distracting. I'm embarrassed to admit that I began skimming some sections (I never skim!, ever!) to avoid the pop culture references and predictable character dialogue. Also, there's a section in the first chapter where Esme is wearing boots and then, magically, a few paragraphs later only has socks on. ???? The consistency was confusing.

All in all, I'm going to keep my preorder and happily anticipate sharing this series with my kids. :)

The Babysitters' Coven is so much fun. It's got a definite Buffy the Vampire Slayer feel to it (and one of the characters actually references the similarity of their situation to Buffy).

Esme is a typical teen just trying to get through high school. She's neither popular nor unpopular, and she and her best friend stay mostly under the radar, spending their spare time babysitting. When new girl at school Cassandra wants to join their babysitters club, Esme is a little surprised. When she figures that Cassandra has no experience with kids and is a totally incompetent babysitter, she's really confused. But Esme is also confused by weird stuff that's happening around her, stuff that she seems to be making happen. And Cassandra apparently has the same problem.

I really enjoyed this book. It's funny, fast-paced, and very self-aware (it's got a very Buffy vibe, and that's actually acknowledged in the book). Esme is a great character. She's a typical teen dealing with some very atypical stuff. Cassandra is much more of a loose cannon (the Faith to Esme's Buffy), but she was orphaned as a young child and grew up in the foster care system, so she hasn't had the stable parental influence that Esme has from her dad (but not her mother, who has been institutionalized since Esme was a small child). I thought the contrast between the two characters worked really well.

This is the start of a series, and I'm interested to see where things go.

Clamoring for dark and gritty paranormal reads is basically my thing. But even I need a nice fun read from time to time, with lots of lightness to it. The Babysitters Coven sounded like something I was in the mood for but I don't think I was the right demographic for this book.

Let's start off with a positive. I love Esme's voice, she is hilarious and I definitely had more than a few laugh out loud moments since her humor is so similar to mine. Her voice upbeat and modern and most importantly, realistic and easy to relate to.

Now plot wise.. it's predictable. You can read it like an open book. (Yeah, I went there.) The dark twists were only surprising because they were a bit darker than the rest of the book, but not because readers can't see them coming. This books real power to captivate readers comes from its quirky humor, and even quirkier characters. No really, the cast of characters found in The Babysitters Coven are awesome. Even the side characters get some depth and when bad things start to happens you can feel for everyone. Even if they deserved it.

Although this book has more than three-hundred pages, I felt as if the page time could have been used so much better. The story failed to bring the magic world to life for me. the book is likable. It’s got a certain charm. And while it won’t blow minds, it’s a pretty standard example of how YA runs these days, and compared to some spectacular fails that are out there, it’s not bad.

I enjoyed this story, but it didn’t live up to my original expectations. While I understand that Esme and her best friend Janis both enjoy fashion, I found the multiple outfit descriptions to be a bit much. I also found the use of abbreviations throughout the book (ex: FML, LOL, etc.) to be off putting for me personally and I don’t know how well they would translate to readers in years to come. I really wish we could’ve learned more about what being a Sitter actually is and how they operate as a whole, because it was towards the end of the book that things really picked up but I felt that there weren’t many answers given for the actual system itself.

This book is super quirky and I loved it. Esme, the MC, has a very witty and sarcastic sense of humor which I found hilarious and made this book for me. About a babysitter's club who develop powers and essentially are guardians of portals to keep the supernatural/evil out. It looks like it will be the first in series and I am hype for the next one. I do wish that there was a little more development in some of the characters, but that can always happen in the next book! Thanks for the free copy in return for my honest review.

I really wanted to like this. As someone who grew up reading The Baby Sitters Club as a kid, when they were actually still being written, and someone who loves her witchy books, this premise sounded awesome! I have to say i was disappointed by the actual book itself.

I couldn't make myself care much for the main character, Her characterization felt shallow, and somewhat flippant? Not the characteristics i look for in a main character. I'm assuming all the outfit descriptions were a nod to Ann M Martin and The Baby Sitters Club books, but i honestly found them boring and just started skipping them. Plus i gotta say, Rayon is not a plastic. It's fabric made from plants, and i guess back int he day they wanted to make it sound all cool and techy, it's just a plant, like Modal. I was wishing for a little more scary, and a little more interesting. I was disappointed.

This isn’t a bad book. The writing is fine; it’s certainly up to YA standards. The protagonist is interesting and there are nice little quirks that bring her to life. Even the plot is very cute... I think my issues with this book are a me problem. I read a lot of YA, but I think maybe I’m just too old for a YA, witchcraft, babysitter’s club book. Even as the mystery unfolded, I had to push myself to read. It just wasn’t anything new or innovative. It reads like a million different CW teen shows.

4 Stars! Received as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks Netgalley!

So very cute! This is a must read for one who wants/likes the 1990 vibes brought back to life, loyal frienship bonds, and all the witchiness!
Esme is a tenn who lives in a small Kansas town where not much happens and football is everything. Her and her bestfriend are somewhat outcast to their classmates, and run a babysitters club together.
Esme has been noticing odd things happening with herself until new girl in town Cassandra arrives. Now something occurs yet again and Cassandra notices.
This is when reluctantly Esme has Cassandra join the babysitters club and this is where the true story begins. Oh plus I really liked that the dog featured was a pitbull! The author must own one to be able to describe just what truly one is like, love that!
I did rate only 4 stars because it was a bit on the slower side at time for me' otherwise I really loved it!
I will definately be putting this on my to buy list!!

This book seemed like a good idea at first, hence I requested it. Mentioning “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” would just make fans like me intrigued. I tried to read this book and it was kind of entertaining. It was funny in a way that the narrator, talked about minor situations as if they were significant. Normally, I’d enjoy reading books such as this one but unfortunately, I felt that this book wasn’t for me.

The reasons why I didn’t enjoy this as much as I expected was because it left me feeling frustrated, which was more of a “it’s not the book, it’s me” type of issue. I felt disinterested in the main character the more I read the book. Also, the plot was just slow and since I wasn’t invested in any of the characters, I thought I couldn’t finish reading the entire book. Instead, I opted to skim.

Anyway, I thought the first chapter was hilarious and it definitely caught my attention, but while reading, I realized this book would’ve been better for a younger audience. I think a 13 year old would be interested in this novel. I wanted more of the paranormal aspect, instead this reminded me of a clean version of “Buffy” or maybe even “Charmed” through the eyes of a 13 year old.


This review will be posted at http://bookscoffeeandrepeat.wordpress.com at Sept 3rd.

The Babysitters Coven reads like a love letter to 80’s and 90’s cult classics. It’s entertaining, funny and engaging while remaining fairly self aware.

It’s pitched as Adventures in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I can see 100% and is mainly the reason why I decided to pick it up, along with the cover art. Let’s take a second to admire that amazing cover.

The plot does read a lot like a Buffy half-season arc with the promise of more “Big Bads” but the ending kind of wraps itself up in a pretty bow without much wiggle room. I’d be interested to see where the series goes from there.

I did enjoy Esme and Janice’s friendship even though there were points in the book where it did dip into the whole “these three girls are cool, all the others are kinda mean.” trope. Cassandra was just enough of a Faith-like character without going overboard. Her personality really added to the story, she was my favorite character by far.

There were a lot of older pop culture references that might fall a bit flat on the younger generations unless they were heavy into the 80’s and 90’s. I understood all of them, but I’m also in my early 30’s.

All in all I did enjoy it and found it entertaining once the plot began to pick up. I don’t know if that was just a pacing issue or a character development issue, but I felt like there was a bit of a lag where the second act and third act kind of bled together.

I think it’s pretty fun and modern. Something a little more tongue in cheek for the Riverdale/Sabrina crowd with a 90’s twist.

"I, Esme Pearl, high school junior with a mediocre GPA, one friend, no driver's license, chin acne, and zero college prospects, had special powers. Supernatural powers."

This book was EVERYTHING I have ever needed in a fluffy, witchy read. It was just so much FUN! It includes everything I love: a setting in a small town during fall/Halloween, witches, a very lovable dog character, a little mystery, and some great pop culture references. I devoured this book in less than 24 hours, and I would have consumed it a lot quicker if stupid things like work and sleeping didn't get in the way.

I wouldn't necessarily say that Esme Pearl is your typical 17 year old girl, and that's not just because she discovers she has supernatural powers. She is a little bit of an introvert, but her wit is absolutely amazing, and I think that's why I love her so much. She has her one and only BFF, Janis (who I loved as well), and then they suddenly meet the strange new girl at school, Cassandra Heaven. You discover that Cassandra and Esme have quite a bit in common, and everything takes off from there.

I don't want to give away too much, but let me tell ya: If you like old school horror movies, anything to do with Halloween, great friendships, and don't take this book too incredibly seriously, it will be one of your new favorites. It is definitely one of mine and I can't wait for the next installment!

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review*

I was really excited to read this book, the description, the cover... it was all very my aesthetic. It just really missed the mark for me. I really tried to enjoy it but I found the writing a little annoying, almost like the author was trying to sound relatable to current readers but instead sounded like a parent trying to be cool.

The humor was inconsistent for me. A whole chapter on boys farting in a car? I could have done without that.

Esme wasn't a very approachable narrator, I had a hard time getting into the book because of that. It's not that I need to like a character to enjoy a book, but if I'm spending all my time judging what the character is saying/doing/describing, I'm not going to be sucked into the plot.

This book is probably better for tweens than teens maybe 11-14.

Thank you Net Galley for giving me the chance to read this book, it was one of most highly anticipated books and I am so appreciative for the gift you gave me.

The publisher described this book best when they said "Adventures in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this funny, action-packed novel about a coven of witchy babysitters who realize their calling to protect the innocent and save the world from an onslaught of evil". This book did not disappoint! It is a YA book and reads like one so keep that in mind.

This was such a fun light read and perfect for fans of witchy things!!! I loved this read and feels like it was something perfect to take to the beach!

I think a little bit of everything about this book fell a little flat with me. I couldn't connect with any of the characters, the plot was too slow and then too quick, nothing entirely made sense? The magic aspect was a little spotty and strange. The whole babysitters thing was also a bit iffy for me. The stuff with the coach was honestly just random and misplaced, I felt like. And Dion was meh. I thought it might have been a stronger story if there was some kind of romance plot between Esme and Cassandra (which is honestly what I thought we would be getting going into this book) because that would have made more sense than half the things going on here.

Alright. I gave this book two stars basically because there is more that I do not like about the book, than more than I do. It would make for a decent read if there were so much more!

The first thing I want to say, is that this book made me laugh, literally out loud from the start, and even throughout the book, so I loved that! I have to admit there's some pretty funny stuff in there. But then, it gets into Esme, the main character, who finds out she has powers at seventeen. I do love her as a main character, but she was very calm of the whole idea of finding out that she's a 'Sitter'. To be honest, or should I say 'TBH' (another thing I didn't like about the book, the amount of abbreviations) the whole witchy world and characters in the book were just weird. I wish there could have been more detail, better magic! Things kind of just happened, with very little explanation, so it just didn't keep me interested.

I believe this book is more for an audience that would be in middle school, or people that like to read things that are just a little more G-rated, I guess?

I did love that the book made me laugh so much, a book never does that. But this book just wasn't for me.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in an exchange for an honest opinion.

The narration of the main character flowed nicely and was charmingly realistic. I can honestly say I have not read a book quite like this in awhile, which was a breath of fresh air.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Esme started a babysitters club with three friends when she was 12. Now 17, she and her friend Janis are the only two left in this club where they mostly use it as an excuse to hang out together while babysitting occasionally instead of getting a traditional job.

Strange things, however, start happening to Esme and Janis while they are babysitting. One charge ends up on the roof with no idea how she got there. And someone breaks into the house another night.

Strange things also begin happening to Esme. She finds that she is able to make things happen by thinking about them, but at first, she’s not sure what’s going on.

Enter Cassandra, new to town, who knows exactly what’s up with Esme. They both have powers.

As alluded to in the official plot description from the publisher, the two of them discover that they have lineage as Sitters who are protectors of the normal world. And something is definitely up in their town, and they may be the only two that can stop it.

The Babysitters Coven is a fun read, a bit like Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Hocus Pocus. Stories with a paranormal element aren’t usually my cup of tea, but this made it really fun to read.

As a final note, one of the disappointing things was the use of the word “crazy” thrown around to describe Esme’s mom. Esme tried to say that she was reclaiming the word from all those people who called her mom “crazy,” however, you cannot personally reclaim a word if you aren’t the person directly affected by it.

Overall, a fun read and one to check out when it releases in September 2019.

I received this ARC for review from Netgalley and Delacorte Press (Thank you!).

This book was awesome. Babysitter's Club+The Craft+Buffy= sign me up! And that cover! I really enjoyed this book.

I enjoyed the descriptions that the author gave in this book. I could see the outfits and scenery so clearly in my head. The characters were pretty great too. Although I didn't care for Cassandra's attitude and Esme's tendency to be slow at picking up on things, they were pretty believable as teens. I wanted more of Janice though and I wish she also had powers.

I would say that this book is worth your money and when it comes out you should pick it up. I can't wait for the sequel if there is one. I really hope their is, because I want a certain someone to get his just desserts.