I enjoyed this book.😊😊 Don't get me wrong, the shaming in the beginning of the book was horrible. More than horrible it's the person that inflicted the pain. Years later Cassie returns and Seth her friend turned enemy needs her help. The back and forth between the two is cute. It's interesting 🙂😅 watching them come to terms with their feelings for eachother....😊

Tropes:
Friends to enemies
Paranormal Romance

Quick synopsis: Cassie’s crush on her childhood and adolescent friend, Seth, came to a roaring halt when he joined in with her high school bullies and fat shamed her in front of the entire school but now she’s the only one who can help him.

I know Charlotte Stein has a focus on larger FMC. As a curvy gal, I love a curvy gal — however, the fatphobia and fat shaming is too heavy in this book. I really enjoyed When Grumpy Met Sunshine, and was able to work through it, but not possible here.
It felt like there were multiple people writing this book; it was so disconnected from paragraph to paragraph. The characters fell flat for me alongside the storyline itself.

I was pulled in because it’s pitched as a What We Do in the Shadows meets Gilmore Girls — and I can promise you it’s none of the above. Incredibly misleading. There was no humor or heartfelt female friendships or mother/daughter relationship.

I struggled to finish this and am struggling with leaving a low rating because I really loved her other book, but I owe it to be honest to all those who access review platforms.

The end of chapter 29 pissed me off. I slammed my phone down. If you make it that far, you’ll know exactly why.

Thank you for another eARC from Charlotte Stein via St. Martin’s and NetGalley.

Cassandra Camberwell has reluctantly travelled to her hometown to claim the little forest cabin (eg: shack) her grandmother left her in her will. As she's navigating harsh high school memories and getting around town, she is quickly forced to come to grips with the fact that magic exists and she is a witch. Then she finds her ex-best friend turned (maybe) nemesis, Seth, trying to break into her grandmother's house! Turns out he's a werewolf and she's the only one who can help!

This romance novel was emotional, hilarious, spicier than I expected, and so so sweet! The bullying was delt with well as well as the healing from it. I enjoyed the mad cap adventures that just kept happening and am excited to read more about this world. I look forward to the next!

This genre has been popping up everywhere and I am not disappointed. I LOVE Charlottes writing throughout the book. The plot itself was witty, comical, spicy and I am here for it!

As a fan of paranormal romance, I was eager to delve into Charlotte Stein's "How to Help a Hungry Werewolf." However, I found the fat-shaming at the beginning of the book somewhat off-putting. If you can move past this aspect, you'll discover a tantalizing childhood friends-to-enemies-to-lovers second chance romance. The witchy and werewolf elements, dropped into the cozy camping vibe, added an enchanting touch that I enjoyed.

How to Help a Hungry Werewolf is a very steamy paranormal romance with a second chance at romance theme. The characters are really likable in this story. Two nerdy best friends torn apart in high school when one of them got cool and helped pull off a prank that bullied the other so bad she went to home schooling. As Cassie is cleaning her grandmother’s house, Seth shows back up as a werewolf who needs help with a potion her grandmother had been making him before her death. And lo and behold, Cassie finds out she’s a witch and Seth is going to introduce her to the world of the supernatural so she can help other supernaturals. The plot pretty much stops here and works its way into a steamy getting it on journey for Seth and Cassie that takes up 2/3 of the book. I’m all for a HEA and second chances but the plot just seems to become irrelevant as the characters play out their fantasies between the sheets. The book is just okay and would be best enjoyed by those that like a heavy dose of lovemaking in their romances. My voluntary, unbiased, and non-mandatory review is based upon a review copy from NetGalley.

2.5 stars ⭐️ So I wanted to love this book! I’m a sucker for a paranormal romance and I’ve been looking for a werewolf romance. This book started with fat shaming in the prologue and then there was the fated mates sex spell part of it. The way the romance was written wasn’t for me. I did enjoy Cassie as a character.

Thank you to Netgalley for an arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

TW: fat shaming

I wanted to like this book, I did. But I have never read anything that leans so hard into the trope of profound obliviousness due to self-deprecation.

The amount of "Golly gee, who, ugly fat me? You like me???" was just too much for me to bear.

I'm 100% sure that this book will find its audience - it's well written, and I like the magic system, and I'm particularly interested in the way her witchiness manifested.

But the ugly duckling storyline went too hard - far beyond any point of believability, and was endlessly repeated. Every conversation was about her self-doubt. I just don't want to read that, anymore. And it didn't make it any better that it was all done in a wacky screwball style.

A bunch of people are going to love this book, but I did not.

I really wanted to like this book. And it's not like I had a bad time reading it, but man were there some major issues that are hard to overlook.

First, the speed with which Cassie not only readily accepts her status as a witch, but how it immediately becomes the solution to EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM that arises? It's poor world building/magical systems. Which, for a paranormal romance I guess I shouldn't have put much weight in...but it could have been executed better.
The "oh god" quip was also used entirely too much by the FMC. It became wholly distracting and a little grating.

Seth was also one of my least favorite MMC's in any of my recent reads. I could tell the author wanted him to have more of a himbo vibe early on, but he mostly came off as either completely juvenile or way too wise about magic. The dirty talk was painful by both parties. Making Seth a virgin was...a choice. The way he spoke, especially about Cassie, felt jarring with that fact.

Also, can we get a "horny" counter? It just felt like the characters shouldn't have been late 20s. Also...why did Seth turn into a jerk in highschool? I know he gave an explanation but it genuinely didn't make sense.

Also, stop using fake tension with Cassie declaring Seth her enemy when she so clearly didn't feel that way. I feel like their point of tension was pretty lame.

The book needs serious editing before being published, one of the rougher ARCs (grammatically) I've read.

DNF

I didn't realize that I've DNF'd a book by this author before, but the one I DNF'd was a contemporary romance and this one is a paranormal romance so I still wanted to give this one a fair try. Unfortunatley, it didn't work for me because of the same exact reasons. The writing style didn't work for me and the characters just felt a bit off and like they needed more characterization.

How was I supposed to like the mmc when the first thing he did was fat shame the fmc??He is ashamed for his past behavior, but still it stuck with me. Getting past that, this was a fun supernatural story. Great tension and I loved the witchy werewolf vibes.

This is you childhood friends to lovers/ enemies to lovers paranormal romance. Cassie goes back to her small town to help clean out her late grandmother's home. While she’s there she runs into her ex best friend Seth who was responsible for one of her worst days in high school. Seth is always hanging around the house and Cassie doesn’t seem to know why. She learns that Seth is a Werewolf and she has magical powers. Seth needs Cassie’s help and now they have to work together.
I really enjoyed the magical aspects of this book. I thought the magical world was really cool and wished there was a lot more of it. The beginning of this book threw me off because of the fat-phobic name calling Cassie receives. It was just way too much. Once I got past the beginning of the book I started to enjoy it. We got to see their relationship arc as they turned from enemies to lovers and how they were able to help each other with their magical abilities. If you enjoy paranormal romances you will definitely like this one.

I’m going to be honest.. I wasn’t sure what to expect for this but.. girl, please stand up. I’ll admit that I sometimes partake in reading romances where the high school bully is the love interest but this just felt… cruel.
And this also felt just too long. I was hoping this would be a fun paranormal romance but this just wasn’t for me.

Cassandra Camberwell has to go back to her hometown, Hollow Brook, to clean out her late
grandmother’s old house. Of course she runs into her ex-best friend, who was responsible for the worst moment of her high school life, Seth Brubaker, and he needs her help! Magic, friends to lovers, a little mystery, finding yourself, and realizing the past isn’t always what you thought it was! A wonderful fall time read!

Oof, this one was not for me. The fat shaming alone was a thread through the entire book that got tiring. I think it would’ve been a richer read had we seen the friendship between Cassie and Seth develop and change as opposed to just being told about it. The rest of the story was just hard to get through and then it suddenly turns into straight monster erotica. Needs more (any?!) content warnings.

Not for me, but that doesn’t mean you won’t love it.

I love the principle of the book! The fat shaming and bullying was intense and was very difficult to get through. There is something that hits right with a mate bond between characters that are trying to help each other. This was spicer than I thought it would be. 3.5 stars!

This one wasn't my cup of tea. As a plus sized girl who loves to read about plus size characters I had one major issue with this book. It gave "I'm ugly because I'm fat" and "I can't believe anyone attractive would be interested in me because I'm just sooo fat" vibes. Its 2024. I'm so over that self depreciating fat girl trope. There are lots of plus size girlies out here who know they are beautiful and worthy of love without some guy having to tell us so. Write more about those women.

I was pretty excited for this one becuase of the synopsis but unfortunately it did not work for me at all. An obnoxious slow burn consisting of the MCs continually stating how the other could actually be attracted to them , it must be just pheromones. It was also painfully long , over 100 pages that could have been edited out. All the steamy scenes were cringy to me . The 2.5 round up to 3 is solely because it had such great potential that just wasn't executed well in my opinion. My favorite part was probably her raccoon familiar 😂

This was an excellent spooky season read: witty, campy, fun and sexy. The world building was original, the prose was smooth, there was plenty of chemistry and intrigue - I enjoyed it thoroughly and hope that this is a start for a new series, as I would love to spend more time in this colorful and enchanting world. Recommend!

This enemies-to-lovers story soothes away your worries as the romance fires up. The first half has cozy vibes with banter between the main characters, but the book then becomes a passionate affair of fated mates mixed with ridiculous magic like a sentient microwave and goblins. For fans of sexy banter and steamy bonds.