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.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for this ARC! I am always down for a novel with a Chosen One, witches, or anything set around Halloween, and this book gave me all three! It had heavy Buffy the Vampire Slayer Vibes with The Craft undertones, yet made a lore all its own that was so original and fun!

We follow Kate, a babysitter. She and her friend Janis comprise the Babysitter’s Club, so named after the popular book series. There were more to the group, but as the other girls grew up and found high school interests, they drifted apart. Kate and Janis are the only two left, until Cassandra Heaven moves to their school. She pushes her way into the club and into Kate’s life, and we soon learn that the two have supernatural powers that neither one can explain.

They set out on a mission to find the reason for their powers and to solve the mystery of their parents: Kate’s mom is in an asylum, and both Cassandra’s mom and dad are dead. It doesn’t take too much snooping for them to trace Cassandra’s mom’s spells and odd occurrences back to an unlikely ally who reveals themselves to be the Giles to their Buffy. They show the two their responsibilities as Sitters, and just in time. There is an evil force at work that they must stop, and before innocents are lost.

I loved the magic usage in this, and how spells were easily cast with items you might have around the house! It felt so much more accessible rather than tracking down a Black Market seller of toad’s livers or the back tooth from a mastodon. The lore was also so inviting, with the inclusion of why the Babysitter trope is so important in horror movies. The Halloween setting gave it that spooky and unpredictable vibe, and left me wanting the smell of fake blood in the air! I can’t wait to see what awaits us in the sequel!

5/5 stars