[Book Review] One Girl In All The World by Kendare Blake & Iron And Fire Valentine’s Blend

Title: One Girl In All The World
Series: Buffy: The Next Generation, Book 2
Author: Kendare Blake
Publication date: January 31th 2023
Page Count: 336 pages
Age Range: YA (death, blood, gore, violence)
How I got my hot little hands on it: received a review copy
Publisher’s page: One Girl In All The World

#1 New York Times best-selling author Kendare Blake returns to New Sunnydale in this sequel to In Every Generation, set in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

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

Frankie Rosenberg is the world’s first slayer-witch, but she doesn’t have that slay-life balance figured out just yet. After all, being the newest slayer means that another slayer had to die. Frankie and the Scooby gang are still reeling from the deadly explosion that rocked the annual slayer retreat—and grappling with new evidence that some slayers may have made it out alive. And even though they defeated bloodthirsty vampire the Countess, it doesn’t mean Sunnydale is free from the forces of evil.

Something has reawakened the Hellmouth—and is calling old friends home. Someone is performing demon magic in the shadows, opening portals between dimensions. Everyone has demons to contend with—of the metaphorical and the very real (occasionally very hot) variety. And an oracle warns of a new evil on its way: the Darkness.

Could this be what attacked the slayers? And is it coming for Frankie?

My Review

One Girl In All The World is the second book in the Buffy: The Next Generation series by Kendare Blake. It takes place a few months after the first book, In Every Generation (see my review here), but you won’t be completely lost if you haven’t read the first one.

Frankie Rosenberg is The Slayer. The first ever slayer-witch actually. She’s the daughter of Willow and grew up surrounded by Aunt Buffy, Uncle Xander, & Uncle Oz. She was just your average eco-witch trying to survive sophomore year at New Sunnydale High (conveniently built on top of the smoking hole that was old Sunnydale) until an explosion at the annual slayer meeting resulted in missing slayers and Frankie being called as the new Chosen One.

With the slayers MIA, it’s now up to Frankie to deal with the Sunnydale hellmouth acting up again as a beacon for every familiar demon for miles. Luckily she has her own Scooby gang at her side consisting of her mom, her Watcher (Spike!), Oz, Jake (Oz’s wolfy nephew & Frankie’s best friend), Haley (sister of slayer Vi), and half-demon Sigmund.

One Girl In All The World felt very much like a middle book, in that it built upon what we had from the first book and set the ground work for the Big Bad Battle finale. In the first book we got the set up for the overarching storyline of the the series (All slayers in the world MIA, new slayer called) and introduction to the new players (Frankie & her Scoobies) and we got a monster of the week to showcase Frankie & said Scoobies. In this book, we learn a lot more about what happened to the slayers and we get to know Frankie & her Scoobies better and really delve into their interpersonal relationships, which I very much enjoyed. Being a bridge book is not a bad thing.

We didn’t get a monster of the week in this one, but at the same time we got every monster of the week? All the old demon foes that fans will remember from the shows are being drawn back to the hellmouth and it’s just an explosion of nostalgia (it almost felt like fanfiction at some points, but that is not a bad thing at all, there’s a reason Buffy fanfiction is so popular and what is a new Buffy series if not well-written, official fanfiction?)

The only thing stopping me from loving this book as much as the first one is the main love interest – he gives me the ick. Grimloch, hunter god/demon, is a fully grown adult male (way full grown at over 2k+ years old) in a complicated relationship with an adult slayer. But here he is returning to Sunnydale to follow around 16-year-old, inexperienced high school sophomore Frankie (according to Jake, she hasn’t dated anyone since 8th grade, and “that didn’t really count” – for clarity sake that was in middle school. She was in middle school 2 years ago). We don’t ignore these kinds of red flags in Taylor Swift’s 2023. I kept crossing my fingers it was a harmless, one-sided crush, but nope, there’s reciprocated kissage. I’m still hoping he’s playing her because I really don’t want this to be a thing.

Overall, One Girl In All World continues to have that same great “Buffy” vibe that makes this series such a great addition to the Buffyverse. Snappy banter, mixing humor with horror, trying to balance saving the world, school & having a personal life, and a pining Spike – all the necessary building blocks are right there. Hell, even the problematic love interest fits right in. This series has me hooked and to say I’m eagerly awaiting the next book would be a hellmouth-sized understatement.

Although it’s not a Valentine’s book per se, One Girl In All The World does take place on and around Valentine’s Day. For a hint of a Valentine-themed coffee treat, I recommend Iron & Fire Valentine’s Blend – an interestingly pretty coffee with notes of molasses and chocolate that comes in 100% compostable packaging (nothing less for our eco-slayer-witch)