How to Help a Hungry Werewolf
Author: Charlotte Stein
Reviewer: Jen
Rating: C
What I’m Talking About:
Cassie and Seth were best friends until he started becoming popular and ended up pranking, humiliating, and hurting her in high school. Cassie never forgave Seth and left town after they finished school. Now she’s back years later to clean out her recently deceased grandmother’s home. But soon she discovers that hunky Seth is a werewolf and she is a powerful witch.
How to Help a Hungry Werewolf is an entertaining rom com with a high school feel, complete with an awkward main couple and the popular bully bad guys. I adored Seth who is super dorky. He is happy and wants to make Cassie comfortable and happy. And he’s open and honest while slightly awkward. He is dedicated to earning back her trust and friendship because he knows they had a special bond. Cassie is equally sweet. She easily forgives Seth and longs to recover their bond.
Both Cassie and Seth each clearly has feelings for the another, yet neither will confess it. The story is shared via Cassie’s third person POV, so we only understand her side of the equation. Cassie is so worried that Seth will hurt her again that she constantly puts off any sexual advances as a byproduct of his werewolf hormones and not his true feelings. Without Seth’s POV, readers can’t be sure how he truly feels, but it’s pretty evident he’s also trying to cover up his true feelings out of fear she’ll leave him again.
While this back and forth play is honest and real, the author takes it too far. Cassie and Seth are cute together, and I was rooting for them. But then I just became annoyed with the constant reframing of their desires as something mechanical rather than true feelings. It took entirely too long (and way too many awkward sex scenes) for Cassie to get over her past and accept love. Stein took the warm fuzzies out of falling in love and made it an exhausting chore.
Then there is the magical side of the story. I loved Cassie’s wonder and awe of her new reality as she discovers who and what she truly is. That said, I was also a bit frustrated by how easily magic comes to Cassie. How she just knows what to do. And how she can do anything.
In the end, How to Help a Hungry Werewolf started as a very promising read with an adorably awkward, best friend couple. Cassie and Seth deserve to find their HEA. But the author ruined the story for me by making them so worried about wrecking what they have that it overwhelms and dominates the romance and story to the point of annoyance.
My Rating: C Finished It — Liked some, didn’t like some
Jen
About the Book:
When Cassandra Camberwell returns to her hometown of Hollow Brook to clear out her late grandmother’s ramshackle old house, the last thing she expects is Seth Brubaker on her doorstep. Her former best friend was responsible for the worst moment of her high school life, and she can’t imagine he wants to do anything but torment her all over again.
Until she unearths the real reason this annoyingly gorgeous beast of a man keeps hanging around: he’s an actual werewolf, who’s certain she’s the witch that will ease his suffering. But Cassie just isn’t sure if she can trust him again. So Seth offers a pact: he’ll teach her all about her undiscovered magic, and she will brew the potions he needs. No feelings, no funny business, just a witch and a werewolf striking a deal.
Totally doable. Until they get hit with a do-or-die mating bond. And now the heat is rising, in between fights with formers bullies and encounters with talking raccoons. They just have to not give in. Unless giving in just might be the very thing they never knew they always wanted.
Release Date: October 1, 2024
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Series: The Sanctuary for Supernatural Creatures #1
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Rom-com
Format(s): paperback (368 pages), e-book, audiobook
Book Source: NetGalley
Purchase Info:
Amazon (affiliate link)