Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an eARC of this novel!

Ah, where do I even begin with this novel? I suppose I should have known better from the beginning that this wouldn't be my type of book. It's adult fiction about a werewolf. I should not be surprised by the content.

But I hated so much of it. This book has a lot of explicit scenes, which I'm not a fan of, but I can't critique that aspect much since it makes sense that it would be in this novel. But the novel itself doesn't take itself seriously. The main characters made poop and fart jokes like there was no tomorrow, then they'd talk about how much they wanted to have sex, and I just couldn't invest myself into the storyline.

Not only did the book have that, the two main characters were just annoying to me. Seth not as much, but he fed into Cass, and Cass annoyed me so much. She is very insecure, which makes sense at times, but there are times where it takes so much convincing for her to believe something that I had to skim. This book could have been so much shorter. There was so much pointless yapping.

Beyond that, the main villains, though they were bullies, made the plot feel very high school-esque. I think this would have better read in a high school scenario and not as adults. I understand that sometimes comments can be very hurtful, but at the same time, why give people that power over you? It's been a decade.

The ending of this book was also a little insane. They have a big sex scene, and it lasts for a while, then afterward, they move on. Two pages later, they have yet another giant sex scene, and they act like this is new content? And then she wakes up and thinks he betrayed her, but it seems clear that something happened, in my opinion. But she's prepared to kill him? I think the twist at the end was interesting, but I will not be continuing this series.

honestly this book had the bully trope, tied with fatphobia for a great problematic cake. it left a bad taste in my mouth personally. I feel as if the weight wasnt such a major conversation of the bullying the mmc would probably have been redeemed in my eyes. but he wasn't, and it made this a hard hard read and i ended up dnfing sadly. i love seeing plus size women in books, as someone plus sized.. but my god i hate the negative annotation to it as well. can we not just live?

Before I begin, I would like to thank Charlotte Stein for allowing me to read her upcoming book, How to Help a Hungry Werewolf, which will be available on October 1st, 2024.

Cassandra Camberwell comes back to her hometown Hollow Brook to sort things from her deceased grandmother’s house and finds Seth Brubaker at her door. It might have been good to see her ex-best friend, if he wasn’t part of the worst thing that happened to her in high school and her being convinced, he wants to be cruel to her once more. But then she realizes that he’s here because he’s actually a werewolf that believes she is the witch that can help him feel better. Seth makes her a deal: if he can teach her about her untapped magical powers, then she could brew the potions that will help him. Nothing personal, until there are mating-bonds, bullies from the last and talking raccoons. Can Cassie and Seth heal from the past? And most importantly, will they discover what they want for their futures?

This book was brilliant. You have Cassie, a wonderful young woman whose sass and quick thinking made me cheer her on throughout the entire story. You have Seth, a young werewolf that has made a lot of mistakes but is rather anxious and sweet. There were many sweet moments as Seth helped her learn about the magical world and beings that are a part of it, and the parts where either Seth, Cassie, or both of them were freaking out were relatable, chaotic, and absolutely hilarious. Also, this book talks a lot about body image and some of the trauma that jerks give to others because they feel like they can, and the healing from those that were bullied on the other side in the future. This book has quite a bit of spice and I thought that the two main characters’ emotions, vulnerabilities, and dedication to doing their best to help each other were well written and heartfelt. Overall, if you like curvy heroines, sweet and rambling werewolves, humor, magical creatures, romance, spice, and karma, then I would highly recommend this book.

I was kindly provided with the ARC of this book by NetGalley and the editors in exchange of an honest review

3⭐️

This was my first book from the author and I did enjoyed the paranormal stories and romance of Cassie and Seth, BUT, I did not enjoyed quite much the fact that he shaming her in front of all their school because of her body…. This is a TW of the book indeed, but I think it was a little unnecessary, idk maybe for me it would be it if he just followed “his friends”, maybe not having her back at that point would be enough but he was actually the one who hurt her so that made me had a hard time trying to connect with Seth’s character.

I know he made up that mistake, but I do really think it would be better if he just made a tiny little mistake instead of what happened 😅

Overall it was a good book with a great plot, and I look forward to keep reading this author and perhaps find something that makes my heart racing 🙊✨

This took me a few chapters to really get into and to really grasp the writing style. There were a few moments in the first half, where I had to reread a section cause it wasn't making since in my brain. But the more I read of it, the more her style started to make sense. But I really loved this honest friendship and I loved that the FMC was just such a total badass. I hope she writes more in this series for other characters, but that we still see these two and Pod again!

Thank you to NetGalley and to St Martins Press for my digital ARC!!

Hmm, this was a very interesting book! I like paranormal romances, so I was excited to download this one for free. Cassandra and Seth are both cute characters. You can feel their chemistry right away. However it took a really long time for them to get past ... their past, I guess. I completely understand Cassandra's hesitancy to trust Seth again. But she seemed kind of wishy washy and allowed herself to easily slip back into that insecurity. I think their romance would have been a little more believable if they hadn't drawn it out for so long. It also seemed a little long? But maybe that was just because I wasn't into it.

This was a strange read; I am sure How to Help a Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein won't be for everyone, but my goodness, I really did end up enjoying it!

Our main characters, Cassie and Seth, are starting from a point of real conflict after not seeing each other for several years; a quite hurtful remark about Cassie by Seth during high school rips these former best friends apart and leaves Cassie in particular feeling antagonistic toward Seth at the start of the novel. However, it doesn't take long after supernatural circumstances bring them back together for some long-suppressed feelings to come to the fore, and Cassie and Seth's love story ended up being really heartwarming. I truly came to believe that these two characters were destined to find their way back to each other.

I also wanted to mention that this book is structured and written in an interesting way; it almost feels like the story unspools as a stream of consciousness discussion between our two main characters. Both Cassie and Seth have an endless desire to talk their way through the story's main events and their respective feelings as events develop, and while I enjoyed the feeling of working through things just as they did, I can imagine that this style of writing won't be everyone's cup of tea. In some ways, this reminded me of the writing style found in Charlotte Stein's previous book Never Sweeter. All that being said, though, I really liked this book and I'm looking forward to future books by Charlotte Stein!

I received an ARC for this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review; all opinions expressed here are my own.

This had so much potential. It was a trainwreck to read after shaun leaves his note under the note. From there on out the book was just uncomfortable to read, and there was nothing holding it together.

This book was amazing and I devoured this book in just a few sittings! I loved the character development and how the story progressed.

This book is incredible; from the first page I was hooked. The writing style is easy to read, the characters are interesting and likeable, and the world is built very naturally. There was much more world building and magic development than I had expected in this cozy paranormal romance and it worked so well with the story.

i wanted to love this, but it wasn't a favorite. i thought the plot was a little slow and while unique, it took several long chapters for me to get through it. the writing style wasn't my favorite and it overall was just a little bland, which was surprising as i normally love paranormal romance. i wish i enjoyed this more because i was really excited about it, but i couldn't relate to the characters & style.

It was ok.

I had trouble reviewing this…I found myself having trouble finishing it. It’s written in third person POV, and only from the girl’s point of view.

My problem was i wasn’t able to feel anything from the characters. Cassies narrations gives zero emotion or lack of it. I didn’t feel any chemistry either between our leads.. It was like two empty souls just saying words to each other and doing things… but it didn’t give me any feels.

Cassandra Camberwell never wanted to step foot back in the town of Hollow Brook after a traumatic experience at her high school talent show. However, she comes back to clean out her grandmother’s old home, with weird items hidden away and squirreled away. But the most disconcerting thing is that her ex-best friend, Seth Brubaker, keeps coming around the house, for increasingly unbelievable reasons. The final being that he is a werewolf and needs her to brew a potion to help him reconcile his beastly nature with his human one, because Cassie is actually a witch.

As they work together to better understand Cassie’s rediscovered magical abilities and help Seth’s werewolf nature settle, their friendship reunites and develops into something deeper. With a couple of interesting twists and surprises along the way, the two of them undergo an adventure worthy of the movies they loved as children.

Both Cassie and Seth are loveable dorks. Seth has golden retriever energy and is an unbelievably earnest individual while Cassie closely guards her heart after the betrayals she has experienced. Partly due to their close childhood friendship, Cassie and Seth’s personalities are very similar to one another. They both tend to "word vomit" their thoughts out into the open but are hesitant to be vulnerable with one another. They will also hide their feelings in a lot of “almost” statements, qualifiers, and joking. This can cause situations that are overly dramatic and frustrating due to the lack of clear communication.

This book is written in 3rd person POV from only Cassie’s perspective. Because Cassie’s new to the magical world, this choice is great for introducing us to the world building of this paranormal romance. However, Cassie’s perspectives of Seth are highly biased for a large portion of the story which causes the relationship between them to feel very hot and cold. Additionally, Cassie was an unreliable narrator. There was a lot of information about the external conflict and Cassie’s relationship with Seth that were twists that were withheld to make the 3rd act of the book more dramatic. These writing style choices made it feel disjointed and unenjoyable for me personally but result in a really great reading experience for people who enjoy a “gotcha” moment.

One other thing I will mention, is that this book does have quite a bit of cultural references for movies and TV shows in the paranormal and horror genres. As someone, who is not up to date with these references, I do feel like they took me out of the story.

Tropes:
-Friends to Enemies to Lovers
-Fated Mates
-Second Chance

Trigger and Content Warnings:
-Bullying
-Fatphobia
-Grief of a Loved one
-Werewolf changes (including ones that don’t go perfectly)

When I saw the description, I thought I would love this book. It gives cozy paranormal vibes and that’s right up my comfort alley. However, there was a lot of fat shaming and bullying in the beginning and that put a bad taste in my mouth. This, following the pick-meisms was just a little much. I wanted to really enjoy this story but I did find that those things put me off of it. I can’t give it the 4 or 5 I wanted to, but it’s ~2.5 for me.

This book wasn't for me, but I'm sure there are many people who would enjoy it. Over the course of 350 pages the author had the main character discover her witch powers and fall in love, and there just wasn't enough world building for me to buy the fantasy aspects. She almost immediately becomes a superpowerful witch with very little effort on her part, I assume so we can get to the romance. For me, it made it unbelievable and made it hard for me to be emotionally invested.

I will say the ending was really sweet, and I liked the way the author brought the story full circle.

I was initially drawn to this book by its "What We Do in the Shadows meets Gilmore Girls" description, expecting a cute, cozy paranormal rom-com. The first half delivered just that, with a charming blend of humor and supernatural elements. However, midway through, the plot took an unexpected turn, veering off course from what I had anticipated.

Beyond the jarring shift in tone, the writing itself could benefit from more editing. The dialogue felt forced, with every line attempting to be a quippy one-liner, making it hard to take the main characters seriously. Additionally, some of the writing was noticeably fatphobic, which was disappointing and detracted from the overall experience.

Despite these issues, the book had potential as a paranormal friends-to-enemies-to-lovers, second-chance romance. It had moments of brilliance, but overall, it felt disjointed and left me with a bit of whiplash. Nonetheless, there were enjoyable aspects, especially in the first half.

I really tried to like this book but I just couldn’t. I love a good paranormal romance but this isn’t one of them. The writing was ok. But the girl was very pick me and the dude is a jerk. I know it’s supposed to be grumpy/sunshine but I can’t get past the female main characters personality. I connect with characters when I’m reading and I didn’t connect with these characters at all.

This book was so freaking good! I was so excited to get this and was immediately sucked in by the story, I read the entire thing in one sitting. It was so cozy and easy to read. The main characters Seth and Cassie were so cute and I loved the tension between them! Definitely a slow burn but when the spice started it was spicy! This book was wonderful and I hope this is a series! I need more supernatural romances!

Such a fun and enjoyable time was had while reading this book. Any werewolf is a good one even a grumpy cinnamon roll one. I loved this story and I hope I can read more books from this author as soon as possible.

My official rating for this story is 2.5 stars. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I expected and hoped to. I liked the cozy atmosphere of it and did find myself laughing out loud at some parts (I really liked Seth's intrusive thought moments). However, I found myself not feeling attached to the story or what happened to the characters. I enjoyed the fantasy elements and did like Cassie as a main character, but I found it hard to get past Seth's actions towards her in the beginning of the book. I didn't find myself rooting for them.

I did really enjoy the writing and thought it was beautifully done! I'll definitely read more of Stein's work.