I read Charlotte Stein’s How to Help a Hungry Werewolf earlier this year and was very surprised by how much I liked it. The basic description isn’t something I’d normally vibe with (women falling for men that bullied them due to werewolf mating shenanigans is kind of an ick), but it was actually Emmalita’s review that piqued my interest in reading it. I’m glad I did, because it wasn’t at all what I expected and something about Stein’s writing (it’s very dialogue heavy) really worked for me. I’ve been wanting to try some of her other work, so I was happy to recently get an ARC for the next book in the same series, Dealing with a Desperate Demon (obligatory disclaimer: opinions are still my own, hasn’t affected my review, etc.).
We met Cassie’s friend Nancy (and potential fellow witch) in How to Help a Hungry Werewolf, and she takes center stage here. Nancy’s generally a nice person, so when it comes to her attention that town weirdo and general angry person Jack Jackson (yes, that’s his name, but in his defense, he probably picked it himself and he’s not that good at pretending to be a real boy) needs help wooing a girl to break a Beauty-and-the-Beast-esque demon curse, she feels obligated to help.
Much like the previous book, this was a lot of fun! It’s funny in parts (I particularly liked Jack’s sentient vehicle) and has some cute moments. It’s definitely not perfect (I didn’t love the ending, it felt a little rushed), but I had lots of fun reading it.
I’ve been a little bit on the fence about trying some of Stein’s non-fantasy works. I’ve read the descriptions of a few and not been super enthusiastic about the plot description, but based on my recent experiences with the author, I think I like her writing style enough to give them a try.