This is the second book in a series, and I highly recommend reading book 1, The Babysitter’s Coven, first, so that you understand a lot of what is happening.

This story takes place over the span of a few days and picks up shortly after the first one. Everything started around Halloween for Esme and Cassandra, now it’s almost Christmas. In some ways a lot has changed over that time, but in other ways much is the same. Esme and Cassandra are now more secure in their powers and things are going well-ish on the Sitter front, but things in their personal lives are pretty shaky… especially Esme’s.

Esme is still a combination of strong, her dedication to the children she babysits and the people she protects; and fragile, with her ever-growing concerns about her dad. She puts other’s needs before her own, but is forced to put the secrets of the Sitters ahead of her loyalty to her best friend, Janis, and she hates it.

And while the story is still told from Esme’s point of view, we get to see more vulnerability from Cassandra this time around. Though she does continue to have a hard outer shell and is infinitely quirky.

We are introduced to several new Sitters in this story, and it appears they will continue to play a part in the next installment as well. I enjoyed learning more about Sitter history and the Sitter lifestyle through them. And while in the beginning, it looks like they are distrustful of Cass and Esme, the others ultimately have their backs and become great friends.

I don’t want to say too much more to avoid spoilers, but I will say that this book did not disappoint and was a lot of fun, though it did have it’s emotional moments as well. I’m definitely looking forward to book 3!

Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book through NetGalley and the publisher {Random House Children’s, Delacorte Press} in exchance for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.