Jekel Loves Hyde

Jekel Loves Hyde Beth Fantasky

Good girl Jill Jekel is entering her senior year with a host of family secrets that are about to explode. Tristen Hyde is hot, British, nice, but with a violent past. Working together, if they can ignore their feelings for each other, they might win a chemistry competition that would pay for Jill to go to college, but even more, save both of them.

The basic premise is that The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was based a real story. Jill's the descendant of good-scientist Jekyll, but Tristen is descended from the monster Hyde, and all of the men in his family carry the Hyde curse.

Jill had a tendency to really annoy me. She linked to whinge and moan about how plain she was and no one would ever like her (not just boys, but friends too.) Part of me was like "of course no one likes you, all you do is think about how unlikable you are!" And she was a little... too good without motivation. There's good girl, and then there's Jill, who's expected to be in bed at 9:30 every night (even though her mom isn't around to enforce this rule and she's a senior in high school. I was a good girl, too. But at 9:30 I wasn't in bed, I was watching ER.) Her parents didn't seem strict enough to enforce these hardcore rules, but they seemed to be there-- a lot of Jill's goodness seemed imposed on her instead of self-directed, but I couldn't see where or why it was imposed...

BUT! THAT SAID! I did really like this one. Fantasky unfolds the dark secrets of Jill's family very deftly-- I couldn't put the book down. Plus, the romance with Tristen is well done, even if it is another weak-plain-girl-likes-monster. And while Tristen pushes Jill away for her own protection, he ACTUALLY PUSHES JILL AWAY. Not the whole 'oh, I love you, but I might kill you but I love you and am being a jerk so you'll come back and I don't have to feel guilty about it.' I have a hard time accepting Tristen as a good guy-- even when he's not the monster... some things give me pause, but... I can't help it, I do have a bit of a crush on him even though my head knows I shouldn't.

Not as good as Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side (mainly because, in order to set up the proper Jekyll/Hyde dichotomy, Jill was a bit of a dishrag and Jessica was awesome) but I still really enjoyed this one.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.