I struggled to love this read. I felt the pacing was all off and the plot was not smooth and had a lot of pacing issues. I felt like there was no real conflict in the start of the book and it was hard to keep my attention. The elements of this book the baby-sitting, witches and friendship and family just did not mesh super well and I had a hard time feeling connected to the plot and characters. I think the world building in the book was weaker and just introduced too late to be engaging. I might read the sequel and hope the world building and the mystery elements are stronger. ( )

I struggled to love this read. I felt the pacing was all off and the plot was not smooth and had a lot of pacing issues. I felt like there was no real conflict in the start of the book and it was hard to keep my attention. The elements of this book the baby-sitting, witches and friendship and family just did not mesh super well and I had a hard time feeling connected to the plot and characters. I think the world building in the book was weaker and just introduced too late to be engaging. I might read the sequel and hope the world building and the mystery elements are stronger. ( )

2.5 Stars.

I have A LOT to say about this book, and you may not want to hear it because it's not a bunch of good things. I had high hopes for this book (I mean, just look at that cover!!) and it just did not live up.

First off, the potential for this story is SO high. I feel like every reader I know would start salivating over a Baby-sitters Club Buffy The Craft mash-up. Just the idea of it makes me want to get up and do a dance. And I so wish that I could say this book made me feel that way too, but it just didn't.

The Babysitters Coven is about Esme, who babysits for extra money and may or may not be discovering new powers. It isn't until a new girl at school comes around that Esme learns what is truly going on-- she has telekinesis!! And new girl can make fire. It seems there's a complicated family history that connects the girls-- and they're about the find out that it's so much bigger than just them. They're being tasked to save the world... and the kids!!

I don't even know where to start with this book, so I think I'll make a list for you:

▪️Teen Talk. It's the bane of my reading existence. Do author's think that teens actually talk this way?? This book is so full of abbreviations (GTFO, AF, BRB, WTF, IDK...) and they happen during dialogue AND when the character is talking in her own head. Who actually SAYS GTFO?? Texting-- fine. But the way this was written it felt like the author was trying to be "cool" and it took me right out of the story.
▪️The Outfits. At first I really really liked this aspect. After a while though, they got so costumey and over-the-top, that it started to feel like a gimmick rather than a fun part of the character's personality. It was pretty unbelievable that Esme and her BFF Janis dressed this way everyday and none of the kids at school even batted an eye at it. Sometimes they dressed low-key, but more often than not they were full on Halloween costuming it. I tend to think someone who wants to design their own fashion line would have a specific aesthetic and style rather than to just dress up like other people all the time.
▪️The 90's. If you know me, you know I LIVE for the 90's. BUT-- I kind of hate when I read a YA book and alllll the references are to the 80's and 90's movies and music. It reeks of an older person trying to write younger people. I don't think teens today are running around talking about all the stuff that I grew up loving. Is there a 90's influence today? Hell yes!! But I think teens have their own pop culture too.
▪️Buffy. I was still with the book until the Buffy-stuff came in. Unfortunately, this was also about the time that book's action started picking up, so it was a Catch-22. The thing is, when Esme and Cass find out what they're actually apart of (AKA- the world building), it ends up being exactly Buffy. Just no. It can have a Buffy feel, but you can't just legit steal Buffy's world. That's lazy. The Watchers, the Council, the training, the Hellmouth-- it's all present and accounted for.
▪️BSC. Once we're let in on what exactly this whole Sitter thing is-- the reason behind having them be babysitters became so THIN to me. There should have been a link to babysitting beyond the name Sitter. There should have been a club with the connections like the BSC had.
▪️The Coven. Where was it?? They did some spells, and they actually were pretty cool, but it wasn't near witchy enough for me. I wanted "Guardians of the Watchtowers of the North" and shit. I wanted there to be 4 girls in an actual Coven.
▪️Convenience. I don't think there's anything I hate more in books than when things happen conveniently. The character needs to know how to do something?? Oh, here's a book to tell you!! The book is just full of lists of things and no one really knows how it works?? Well, the character magically just KNOWS what to do with these lists. I won't even get into how convenient the ending is-- but it's basically ridiculous.
▪️Dion. NO. Of course the love interest is the most beautiful guy to ever walk the planet. And the girl is the "I don't know I'm pretty" girl.
▪️No Mystery. I knew who the bad person was. Everyone who reads this is going to know who the bad person is.

Basically, the only thing I did like was the best friend, Janis. She was cool and deserved better. Also, I thought it was super readable-- like even though the bullet list above was happening, I was still flying through it-- so it was doing something right with the writing flow. And it was rather refreshing for the book to almost feel like a Middle Grade book. I like edgy, but I think there's a definite place for the younger style YA.

OVERALL: Nope. So sad to say that I can't do it with this one. With such HUGE comparisons (BSC, The Coven, Adventures in Babysitting, Buffy), it's going to have to be better than this. I think I would recommend this to early YA readers. It skews towards Middle Grade in feel, and that's who I think should be reading this.

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I think if I had known for sure that this was the first book in a series, I would've enjoyed it a little more. Because I didn't, it felt like the plot took forever to get started. We don't seriously meet the antagonists and know what's truly going on until 50%. Also, I'm not sure I like Cass all that much. I can see how Williams is already setting her up to be the Faith to Esme's Buffy. I do wish Janis could've kept her memories, and I hope that Esme is able to get Mackenzie a new phone (and/or the Synod helped her out with that). I do want to keep following this series, cause I'm curious as to what will happen next. Hopefully Williams will stop using "LOL'd" in the prose though. ( )

I loved this book, and will be writing a more thorough review on my blog (www.booksbeyondbinaries.blog) at a later date, however I hope that some of the ableist language will be addressed prior to publication, because it felt gratuitous to me as a neurodivergent reader.

Featured in a blog post at https://booksbeyondbinaries.blog/2020/03/16/neglected-favourites-of-2019/ ( )