As the senior year starts, Jill Jekel finds herself settling into her classes. Life seems pretty normal with the usual problems with her best friend and the other kids at school. In some ways, that is a little surprising since, over the summer, her father was found dead in his car, slashed to death with some sort of knife. To make matters worse, Dr. Jekel spent all of Jill's colelge savings on the mysterious research project he had been working on. Everyone new about his secret experiements, but nobody really knows what they are involved. No one really knows what happened.

As she starts senior-level chemistry, she finds herself with her best friend Becca. They are also joined in the class by Tristen Hyde, a British immigrant who shares her talent for the scientists. It is their skills, as well as that of Darcy, that brings the three to the attention of Mr. Messerschmidt, their teacher. He knows that all three of them will have a chance of entering and winning a local science contest that will result in a $30,000 payout, something that would really help with Jill's future. They would do even better if two of them paired up.

Darcy is more than happy to go it alone, but Jill really likes the idea of a partner if it improves her chances. With Darcy out of the way, she decides to try and team up with Tristen. The problem is that he admits to being too lazy to put that much work into the project. After hearing Jill's story, Tristen is a little bit more open to the idea.

Part of winning Tristen over is a little secret that Jill knows. Her father had been working on a project based on ancient experiment notes from the 1800's. This box of documents actually were related to the experiments on which the real Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was based. Her family had the box because they were descended from Dr. Jekyll.

Tristen decides to share some familial secrets in return. It turns out that his family was descended from the original Mr. Hyde, making them distantly related. As a side affect of that ancestry, each of the Hydes has a genetic tendency toward violence and anger. It is this interest in gaining control over his own violence that makes Tristen hopeful for success in their research ... so much so that he is willing to promise Jill that he will let her keep all the prize money if they win.

Thus starts a series of late night visits to the high school to work on their experiments. They are basically walking through the creation of the original series of formulas that were created by Dr. Jekyll. As they continue to work together, they find a growing friendship and, maybe, something even more.

The problem is that Tristen is troubled by incredibly violent nightmares in which he sees himself attacking and killing young women he knows. This leads him to question how save it would be to really admit to his growing feelings. Jill, who has little experience with guys, is not sure she is up to Tristen's standards, particularly in light of his reputation as a ladies man.

All of this is made more and more complicated as Jill's mom falls back into her depression, which really started after the death of Dr. Jekel. Jill is thrilled when Tristen's father, a renowned psychologist, is willing to take her on as a patient. At the same time, that brings about other concerns when considering his lineage.

The story builds into what could be the expected climax, but it does so in very surprising and interesting ways as the relationships between Jill and Tristen and their friends and family. I know that I couldn't put the book down and really wanted to see what was going to happen for Jill and Tristen. The author does a great job of playing on the "coincidence" of their names and ancestry, paralleling the original story while also adding some fun and creative twists that are sure to keep today's readers interested. This one is definitely worth a try!