Rating: 4/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion.

When Cassandra returns back to her small town to clear out her late grandmother’s house, she finds that not everything was as it seemed with her grandmother and she only figures this out when her former best friend Seth won’t stop hanging around her grandmother’s house. She finds out that he is a werewolf, and he makes a deal with her that he will teach her all about the magical world and she will brew the potions that he needs now that her grandmother is gone.

This was a cute, cozy paranormal romance. It does have spice to this book, and I thought the author did a great job with making it spicy but still a fun paranormal book. I found the plot to be new and fun, with a different magical system that I haven’t read before. I loved that Cassandra was the one that had the fun making potions with her cooking abilities. I loved that you will see a strong MFC and a great MMC as well. There is some bullying in the book, but I loved that you will see the person ask forgiveness and do their best to make up for it. Even with Cassandra being a strong character you will see that she still has insecurities, and I love when characters have flaws because it makes it easier to relate to them. I found the banter between the characters to have been great, because you will find yourself laughing at parts out loud. I love that Stein writes her characters that will stick with you. With Cassandra you will find a curvy, confident woman but who is still not sure about everything and just wants to be reassured. I wouldn’t mind being reassured by Seth though, he is a great character who is trying to make up for his horrible choices that he had made in the past. I liked that he was willing to put himself out there to prove to Cass and I enjoyed watching them connect again after not talking for years.

I read When Grumpy Met Sunshine, earlier this year I knew that I would love any book written by her and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin Press for the opportunity to review this book.

It has been over a decade since Cassie Camberwell has seen former best friend Seth Brubaker – not since he embarrassed her in front of everyone in town and sided with the bullies that had always tormented them. Now Cassie is back in Hollow Brook to handle her late grandmother’s home and who should appear but Seth. Seth who is in worse shape than Cassie had expected to ever see him in…and that’s before he transforms into a werewolf. A world of magic opens up before Cassie and she discovers she’s a witch…which is only the beginning of the possibilities and problems that lay ahead of her.

How to Help a Hungry Werewolf is billed as What We Do in the Shadows meets the feeling of Gilmore Girls and it’s neither of those. Charlotte Stein’s first Sanctuary for Supernatural Creatures book had a lot of potential but was an absolute miss for me.

Let’s start with our protagonists: Cassie and Seth. They are over a decade out of high school and honestly, this book would have been better if it was written as a young adult book because they still act like teenagers. They’re both immature and I think what was supposed to be humorous banter was just cringy and awkward. The romance was painfully awkward and full of so much back and forth that I put the book down numerous times. I’m not going keep going on about it, so suffice it to say I didn’t enjoy any aspect of the characters and their semi-development, nor did I enjoy the romance.

The supernatural world of How to Help a Hungry Werewolf is where the story had the most potential. The sentient appliances and Pod, Cassie’s raccoon familiar, were the highlight of the book. However, what should have been a wonderful world of magic and discovery felt inorganic and flat. There’s a way to write a main character who discovers they have innate abilities, to show that things come naturally to them in a way that feels organic. How Cassie’s magical abilities were described felt like lazy writing. It took me three months to read this book because I kept getting annoyed by the writing. Overall, I just could not bring myself to like anything about Cassie and Seth’s story (except, perhaps, Pod). The intended humor missed me by a mile, but your mileage may vary. How to Help a Hungry Werewolf simply isn’t the book for me and I won’t be continuing the series.

Such a fun read for the fall! I loved the way the story moves from friends to enemies to back to friends and finally lovers!

This was a great paranormal romance. I absolutely loved the characters and their back story. Stein does an absolutely fantastic job at the world building and I would read a whole series set in this world. I'm not a big fantasy reader but I've been reading some more paranormal romances over the past year and I've really grown to enjoy the sub-genre more than I was expecting. This read was the perfect blend of cutesy and spicy and I absolutely loved it.

I really wanted to love this but the characters were a bit flat and stereotypical. It felt a bit immature and the writing just felt juvenile.

Although I didn't finish this book, I did get half way through so I figured I would rate it. The humour wasn't the funniest and the book started with fat shaming and making fun of the woman. I was looking forward to reading this but I won't be recommending it now.

This book was an absolute romp and I loved every second of it. The magic, the small town cozy Gilmore vibes, the last third of it being near nonstop spice… I loved it.

Cassie and Seth are both incredibly funny, sweet, and like ale characters. And I love that while our big trope was the miscommunication trope, which can be sticky, it was valid and well written miscommunication—both Cassie and Seth generally keep things close to their chest.

I loved this one and do look forward to hopefully seeing more in the future from this world!

How to Help a Hungry Werewolf is a witty and fun take on a paranormal romance. Cassandra and Seth are great characters and it was fun to read their story and see them fall in love.

How to Help a Hungry Werewolf is a cozy, quirky and surprisingly spicy read!

Cassie left her hometown after a traumatic high school prank involving her best friend that left her insecure and socially awkward. Years later she is back to pack up her late grandmother’s house as quickly as possible so she can leave again, but Seth, her ex-best friend turned mortal enemy, turns up on her doorstep looking for help. Soon she is swept into a magical world right before her eyes leading her to discover who she was always meant to be, and maybe the things that happened in high school weren’t all that they seemed to be.

Overall, this story has a promising premise with decent world-building and humorous banter, though it felt like the mating bond subplot interrupted the story rather than really furthering it along at times. Another thing that felt out of place in this story was the maturity of, or rather lack thereof, the humor. It definitely made the characters seem younger than they were. Stein’s writing style is very stream-of-consciousness which took a bit to get used to but made her storytelling interesting. I am interested to see what she does next for the Sanctuary for Supernatural Creatures series.

This really wasn’t for me… I didn’t like the writing style or the characters and I had to dnf it about a quarter of the way through.

Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press for providing me a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When Cassie’s grandmother passed away, she ventures back to her hometown with the intention of cleaning up her house to sell. Things get weird when ex best friend turned high school bully, Seth, comes knocking on the door looking for her grandma. This leads to Cassie uncovering her own magical abilities and the truth about Seth’s beastly side.

I thought this book was set up with a cute premise- the witch girl helps out her werewolf ex friend and then they forgive each other and they fall in love. I think the set up with the grandmother passing was a great start to fun mysteries in the book. Cassie having inherent magical abilities with her cooking was such a cute idea that I felt was a clever way to create magic.

The issues in this story start with the many side characters. I think the intention was to create a world with a lot of people so it seemed busy and lively. Unfortunately, many of the characters introduced are only seen once or twice or they have a very flat 2-D personality that isn’t fleshed out or actualized. This leads to many characters that are just “bad guy”, “old man”, or “friend” without motivations or personalities that would humanize them.

Something I found disappointing was the magical world that was introduced. This book promises pixies and vampires and all sorts of magical creatures, but I feel it barely touched the surface of the potential this could have. I understand this is likely to set up subsequent books that take place in this universe, but there is so much wasted potential. Many of the interactions are brief, conflicts are so easily fixed, and a lot of the magic in this story is played off as humor. For a book about magic, there really isn’t as much as there should be.

If you like silly, easy-going romantasy with witches and werewolves, then you can check this book out. I personally did not enjoy it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t!

Charlotte Stein’s How to Help a Hungry Werewolf is one of the horniest books I have ever read. It is incredibly innocent and filthy at the same time. I laughed and I blushed. I also felt like this book was written just for me, which has made it very difficult to review.

Cassie Camberwell doesn’t know she’s a witch until she inherits her grandmother’s house, meets her ex-best friend again, finds a notebook with recipes and brews up a potion. And it turns out that her ex-best friend, Seth, is a werewolf. Vampires are real. Fairies are gross.

As a number of reviewers have noted, the prologue does have a scene where Seth publicly fat shames and humiliates Cassie. It was a hard scene to read, and every reader should take care of themselves. I’ve read enough Charlotte Stein to trust that I’m going to be ok with where she takes the story. And I was. The grovel is very popular in romance, and Stein takes it in a different direction. Seth’s grovel is low key and full of concrete action rather than flowery words. More importantly, he approaches Cassie without an expectation of forgiveness. He needs a potion from her, but he doesn’t expect her friendship. For readers looking for a grand apology scene, they may be disappointed. I loved it and found it refreshing.

Cassie spends a good portion of the book discovering and growing into her powers as a witch. She’s a kitchen witch at that. As she’s brewing potions, her kitchen comes alive. I am not a witch, and my microwave has not developed a personality, but the feeling Stein conveys on the page feels like the obsessive focus I have when I am playing with recipes. Once Cassie accepts that she’s a witch, the book really goes full bonkers with flying vacuum cleaners, a raccoon familiar, and so much masturbation, pining, sex pollen, and general horny nonsense.

I love the way Charlotte Stein runs full tilt at a story. It makes for a joyful reading experience.

I received this as an advance reader copy from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.

This book had so much potential and had so many parts that I really enjoyed, but it also felt long. There was so much going on that it felt like it lost the plot a couple of times and the relationship between the FMC and the MMC was cute in a lot of ways but the way they kept emphasizing open communication but still somehow continued to not communicate anything important physically pained me. I will probably try this author again for future work because I think the potential is there but this one was not a hit for me.

I've tried to read this four times, and I keep stopping like ~20% in each time. I don't enjoy the characters, and despite being super hopeful about the premise as someone that loves wolf and werewolf books, this one just isn't for me. Maybe at another point in time it will be, but it isn't right now.

As many of us who had a Team Jacob Twilight phase, I will pretty much read anything that has werewolf in the title. And after reading Ali Hazelwood's 'Bride' I wanted to get my hands on another werewolf romance. The premise sounded interesting, but it got boring really fast. For the first half we pretty much are only interacting with the 2 main characters. And they seem to repeat the same conversation most of the time.

Here's the thing. For character development I would give this 5/5! The cooking aspect was quite unique. The plot though. Non-existant. Also, the reasoning behind the mfc's reason for moving and not approving of her ex-childhood friend was overplayed. After the fifth time of her mentioning it again (to the same person might I add), I couldn't help but yell "GET OVER IT OR AT LEAST MOVE ON!"

I really wanted to love this, and I do think there are people who will. But I need more than a hot character, magic, and romance. I need a story.

Cute little palette cleanser book. The last thing I read was verrrry heavy and wanted something that made me giggle and kick my feet while reading it and this book did just that

✅ Cassie, 27, doesn’t know she’s a witch & Seth, also 27, werewolf
✅ Seth & Cassie were childhood best friends… until they weren’t
✅ despite their past, Seth is helping Cassie adjust to the new news that she’s a witch and she’s helping him by preparing a potion that helps keep him in his human form
✅ romcom - very farcical things happen
🌶️: yes

Cute; could be a little shorter

I rate this 3.5 out of 5.

I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Brief Summary: Returning home after the death of her grandmother, Cassie is trying to figure out how to move on with her life. Uneasy in a place that left her with so many emotional scars she is not sure if she should keep the house that has always felt like her safe space or move on. However, when her ex-best friend shows up looking for her grandmother, Cassie is pulled into a world she's only ever dreamed about.

Thoughts: I want to start with this, I love Steins' writing. She creates engrossing plots and makes the characters feel complex and real. She also writes witty banter in a novel way. If she has written a book I will recommend that you read it.

Now that I have gotten that out of the way...this book has one of the worst third-act break-ups I have ever read. It completely undid Cassie's emotional work throughout the book. I understand that insecurities are real and can come up in many ways. However, the whole thing felt forced and not in line with all the character development.

We also spent way too much time at the bookstore. Nora and Cassie weren't friends before the book neither do they appear to be friends during the story. Cassie actively tries to hide things from Nora about her possible relationship with Seth. So, why does Nora keep popping up? Is she under a spell of some kind that is going to be dealt with in a later book? Is Nora cursed in some way? Also, why does Cassie need Nora's help with the picture when Cassie has never had an issue developing a potion solution before this point in the story?

Also, we cannot sell this book as having a raccoon familiar. He does not appear until 68% into the book and when he does it's not anything other than some light comedic relief. There is a whole scene where Cassie is trapped somewhere and I expected the raccoon to come and rescue her as he's waiting in the car. That is not what happens.

The steamy scenes in the book were good, but it still felt like a slow-burn romance. It was frustrating at one point because it was unclear where things were going. I understand that it's a childhood best friends to enemies to best friends to lovers romance, but there were so many points where I was like please do something! Miscommunication is not my favorite troupe but it felt like it was beaten to death and then into non-existence. At one point I found myself wishing there would be a therapy session occuring in the middle of the book.

If you enjoy vivid world building you will like this book. If you like spicy scenes this book has its highlights. If you are easily frustrated by characters who avoid emotional issues and conversations I recommend you not read this book.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexism, Blood, and Alcohol

Minor: Death and Torture

This was an average read where it was quick to get through and was entertaining, but it was not world-changing. It felt like the author wanted to write a YA, but their publisher told them to up the rating and add a few adult situations/hints. If this would have been a YA book then I think this writing style would have been perfect. If this truly was meant to be for adults, then there should have been some changes in word choices and the maturity of characters.

The magic system/creatures were cool, but it was a typical interpretation. I think the food magic was something that was on the more unique side, but other authors have used it as well.

I really liked the premise of this book. I think it was just not well written. I enjoyed it but wanted more.