The Babysitter's Coven Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway

The Babysitters Coven (The Babysitters Coven #1)
Author: Kate Williams 
Genre: YA Fantasy/Witches
Release Date: September 17, 2019
Publisher: Delacorte Press

Synopsis:

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. 

Seventeen-year-old Esme Pearl has a babysitters club. She knows it's kinda lame, but what else is she supposed to do? Get a job? Gross. Besides, Esme likes babysitting, and she's good at it.

And lately Esme needs all the cash she can get, because it seems like destruction follows her wherever she goes. Let's just say she owes some people a new tree.

Enter Cassandra Heaven. She's Instagram-model hot, dresses like she found her clothes in a dumpster, and has a rebellious streak as gnarly as the cafeteria food. So why is Cassandra willing to do anything, even take on a potty-training two-year-old, to join Esme's babysitters club?

The answer lies in a mysterious note Cassandra's mother left her: "Find the babysitters. Love, Mom."

Turns out, Esme and Cassandra have more in common than they think, and they're about to discover what being a babysitter really means: a heroic lineage of superpowers, magic rituals, and saving the innocent from seriously terrifying evil. And all before the parents get home.

The Babysitter's Coven is the first book in a fun and spooky new young adult fantasy series that will leave readers demanding the next book. I want to say first off that I don't read any other reviews before I read I book I'm going to review because I don't want to have any bias going in. And I also really don't like it when books get described as perfect for fans of "X Show" or that it's a blend of "X" and "X." Like when the description for this book said that it was a mix of Adventures in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I immediately groaned. I think it's setting readers up to hope for and expect things that the story might not live up to, leaving readers unhappy and not giving the best reviews. After reading that comparison in the description though, I tried to keep it out of my head and keep an open mind - but I will admit that it kept creeping back in there and I found myself finding similarities and differences that really stood out to me.

That being said, I did enjoy the book overall. The story was somehow upbeat while facing these terrible situations and evil. I have to say that took some imagination because I didn't think it those things could be blended together in a way that would work as a novel, but the author managed to pull it off. The reason I immediately knew I had to read this book was because it's about witches and magic - basically any type of story that has witches in it means I'm going to read it. I did really like reading and learning about this crazy magic - it's history, the rituals performed, the "superpowers" that came with having this task of being a babysitter, and the horrible evil they are charged with stopping and saving innocents. It was really fun for me to learn about all of it and I hope we get to find out even more in the next book.

Esme is the book's main character and I think she was a great one for the story. She was definitely realistic and I easily identified with her right from the beginning. She's smart, tough, brave, loyal, and loving daughter and friend, and is willing to take on heavy responsibilities that she had no idea were coming. But she is human and a teenage girl, so she definitely had her fair share of flaws too. I liked the other two major characters in the story, Janis and Cassandra, as well. They both had rounded personalities that made them feel realistic and not just flat characters or stereotypes. The author wrote the book in the first person point of view from Esme's perspective, which I absolutely loved. If you've read any of my other reviews, point of view plays a huge part in whether I like a book and can literally make or break it for me. I think it was a fantastic idea to tell the story with Esme as the narrator. We get to know her on a deeper personal level than the other writing styles allow. We get access to her inner thoughts, emotions, memories, hopes and dreams, fears and nightmares, and everything in between. By the end of the book I felt like I really knew Esme and had been by her side throughout the entire story. This was a fantastic start to a quirky new YA fantasy that breathes some fresh air into the genre. I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for the next in the series. Highly recommended for fans of YA, fantasy, paranormal, witches, and contemporary.

 

I'm a YA write or die, originally from Kansas but now living in California. 

I've written for Cosmopolitan, NYLON and Seventeen, amongst other magazines, and worked with brands including Urban Outfitters, Vans and Calvin Klein. 

The Babysitters Coven is my first novel, but fingers crossed it won't be my last.

Win a finished copy of The Babysitter's Coven (The Babysitter's Coven #1) by Kate Williams (US Only)

Starts: September 11, 2019

Ends: September 25, 2019

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