Into every generation, a slayer is born. One girl in all the world . . . sort of.

Frankie Rosenberg is the world’s first slayer-witch, but she doesn’t have that slay-life balance figured out just yet. She’s still reeling from the deadly explosion at the anual slayer retreat—and new evidence that some slayers may have survived. And while she’s defeated her first Big Bad, Frankie soon realizes it was just a warm-up act. Bigger, badder forces of evil are just getting started.

The Hellmouth has been reawakened and its calling old friends home. Portals are opening between Sunnydale and other dimensions. And the Scooby Gang has too many demons to contend with—real, metaphorical, and sometimes absurdly hot.

Then an oracle warns of a new foe on its way: the Darkness. Could this be what attacked the slayers? And is it coming for Frankie?

Set a few months since Vi’s mysterious reappearance and disappearing act, Frankie and her Scooby Gang have gotten into a routine with the Slayer business. So routine that there’s almost no demons to fight leaving Frankie to ironically ask for more baddies to tackle.

Careful what you wish for because that’s exactly what happens.

Too many demons come out to visit the Hellmouth and starts to fracture the group apart. I enjoyed how Blake expanded the scope of the series. Whereas the first focused primarily on Frankie’s doubts and misconceptions of what a Slayer is, and what she could be, this one focuses on her fear of being left alone in the fight while her friends suffer their doubts. Hailey is torn between her new friends and the return of her sister, Sigmund between his scholarly human side and his demoness, and Jake is worried he won’t be as useful as the others until he gets his full wolf under control.

Even the parents get bigger spotlight as they grow closer to finding Buffy and the other missing Slayers from the explosion. Willow’s struggle between using her powers to help, and the ease of Dark Willow remains a prominent plot point and let’s Blake explore what Willow’s life is like post-finale and how Tara remains a huge effect on her. We even get a classic Spike moping over his new soul and complex feelings for Buffy.

Unfortunately the romance between Frankie and Grimloch that I had been hoping wouldn’t happen, did. I understand that it harkens to the original series and a Slayers’ tendency to involve themselves in creepy, highly-dysfunctional combative relations with demons, but this one has less ground to stand upon than Angel and Buffy. He thinks she’s amusing, she sees him as tragic and hot. Which is enough for a teenager, but I’m not invested in it.

I did enjoy how the synopsis of long-ago demons returning to Hellmouth allowed for references to the original series like the infamous Go Fish episode and other notably demons. Blake’s action scenes are well-done in that you are able to keep rack of what everyone else is doing, and you can easily visualize the stunts in your head.

Another point I appreciated is how the reader is given more insight into who the true Big Bad is. Even better is that Frankie and her friends learn of their real enemy mid-way through instead of Blake dragging on the potential betrayal in the final book. This allowed for some proactiveness on the part of the Scoobies that led to a true unexpected twist in the 3rd act.

Despite my dislike of the primary love plot, the rest of the narrative had its signature humor, pathos and growing pains that make me eager for the final battle.

4 stars