How to Help a Hungry Werewolf by 
I picked up How to Help a Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein because I thought the cover was cute and the description sold me on this being a cutesy enemies to lovers romance. Honestly, I was pretty disappointed, which really made me sad because I wanted to love this. A lot didn’t make sense and didn’t care to make sense. Female main character Cassie was practically a doormat and dense as heck. Male main character, surprisingly, also a doormat. All the troubles were of their own making. It simply didn’t flow and didn’t do it for me.
Before I get into what didn’t work, let’s talk about what did. I thought the bits of worldbuilding we received were really interesting. Cassie and Seth visiting those tiny faeries in the woods was so interesting. I loved seeing this tiny little world and their reaction to bigger folks. I loved the relationships between the different types of supernaturals. Hearing Seth talk about how he’s almost a jack of all trades for their little community, collecting and selling things, was fun. I wanted to delve deeper into this. And I bet future books in this series will. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be there to read about it.
Now, I want to start with one of the main gripes I had that hit very early on and colored everything afterward. Cassie is plus-sized and always has been. She was friends growing up with Seth and they seemed to have a bit of a will they won’t they until he left her high and dry for the people that bullied her. Then, after he convinced her to join their high school talent show, he called her a name over the loudspeaker as the talent she prepared (cake decorating – how very 4H) was sabotaged so she ended up with cake and frosting all over herself. The bullying and embarrassment after this became so bad that Cassie finished her senior year being homeschooled. I’ve read bullymances before and I’m pretty on the fence with them, but I can generally get behind them because we get the male POV. Through that male POV, we learn about how the bully is obsessively in love with the heroine and doesn’t know how to express it any other way and how no one else can bully her other than him. We don’t get that here. We get a group of boys being mean to this girl, no real explanation given at the time of incident, and no hint at his true feelings at that time.
We then cut to present day and eventually he does explain, except the explanation makes zero sense. It felt like a cop out. No one is so dumb to not realize befriending bullies will put a damper on your friendship/crush. No one is so dumb that they’ll simply say something their friends ask them to without wondering why at the timing. Where the attempts to explain afterward? No letters explaining or begging forgiveness? No calling or showing up until he can explain? It was like we get hit with this horrible experience that has haunted Cassie her entire life and there’s not a single stitch of groveling. There’s him present day being self-deprecating and pitying himself for having lost her. That is not groveling. Heck, that’s not even acknowledgment of what was done. That’s self-absorbed and narcissistic behavior. If Seth had done anything with Cassie in mind, without himself as an alternative motive or those pointed comments he makes under his breath, I could’ve really liked him. He seemed like he had big, dumb, golden retriever energy.
Then, we have Cassie. Girlfriend can literally not stand up for herself if her life depended on it. She started off semi-strong, wanting to push Seth out. But literally, in the same breath, she thinks about how much she misses him and loves him and wow he’s still so hot. There’s no self-respect, which makes sense because he and her bullies beat her down so low how could she? When Seth tells Cassie the background story for the most traumatizing event of her life, she accepts it and forgives him and moves on. What? Excuse me? The explanation itself never makes sense, but then to just brush it off like it didn’t cost her her senior year of high school and all that encompasses? I’m outraged on her behalf. Having to miss prom, graduation? Leaving her hometown because of what happened, and suddenly it’s all okay? It didn’t make sense to me.
But then again, I wonder if maybe the reason we don’t get Cassie or Seth to develop to a satisfactory level is because the last 25% to 40% of the book is just sex. The spice was nothing amazing and nothing terrible. It was simply all encompassing, which makes sense when you understand the title of the book. But it didn’t feel like we built up the characters, or the bridge between them, enough to get that payoff. It’s the undercurrent of Seth feeling unworthy and hating himself, and Cassie feeling unworthy that makes it just a bit uncomfortable. Cassie acts like she’s taking advantage of him. That he doesn’t actually want her. It gives ick to read because, again, girl, a pittance of self esteem for yourself please.
There’s more I can talk about – the consequences of Cassie’s power, the combat scenes – but honestly? It wouldn’t make a difference. I went into How to Help a Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein expecting a fun, steamy, and exciting paranormal, ex-friends to lovers romance. Instead, I ended up with self-hating characters that never fully develop and sex scenes that feel uncomfortable based off that lack of development. The worldbuilding that showed promise wasn’t enough to excuse the lackluster characters. Not sure if I can recommend this.
