The Courtesan and Mr. Hyde

Catherine Stein is a new to me author and after reading this first book in her new series I will be looking at more of her books while waiting for the next book in this series.

Calliope 'Callie' Finch is only a courtesan so she can earn enough to open a lending library for women to read and study whatever they desire. Dr. Henry "Hal' Jekyll is a doctor and experimental scientist who wanted to separate out and control man's baser urges. The first evening Hal decides he is ready to do human testing on his elixir he takes it himself because he can't imaging harming anyone else he meets Callie. A fun romp with a bit of a mystery ensues and leaves us with a nice happily ever after for our couple.

Is this the end? No, I'm pretty sure we can look forward to books starring Hal's friends from The Mad Scientist Club - Victor Franklin who does experiments with electricity, Nemo who wants to revolutionize transportation and exploration, maybe even the enigmatic, trouser wearing, whisky drinking Miss Majhi.

And even though we have Callie and Hal all nice and settled who is the evil mastermind behind the
mysterious events that threatened them. We got a peek and based on who Hal and friends are I have my guess. I don't consider this a cliffhanger just a piece of story arc to tie the series together.


I received this ARC from NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

I received an ARC from the author via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
Catherine Stein has become an author I can count on for fresh, original romances, so when I saw she was due to release a Jekyll and Hyde retelling, I was immediately excited. The concept of the original always freaked me out, but it is one of my favorite underused plotlines from Once Upon a Time, and I couldn’t help but wish for a different ending for those characters. In a way, The Courtesan and Mr. Hyde was that for me.
Stein is a master of compelling, layered characters, and she really masters the theme of duality here. Hal is fairly straitlaced and socially awkward, and his idea is rather idealistic in terms of separating a person’s “good” and “evil” selves. But he, like everyone else, has some baser instincts he keeps hidden, and it’s a fascinating journey to see him discover him through his experiments…even if it does go too far.
Callie is a woman after my own heart. While I’m not sure how I feel about the narrative of a woman engaging in sex work to survive until she gains means to do something else, the plot and main characters don’t go out of its way to treat sexuality and sex work as dirty or lesser, and actually fights back against those who demean it. And I love a woman who is both beautiful and brainy, valuing books and being able to engage with Hal on equal footing in his experiments just as they do in other aspects of their relationship.
It’s also fun to get glimpses of the other members of the Mad Scientists Society throughout the book, with hints as to what their books will be about. I’m looking forward to more fun homages to 19th century literature to come, and curious as to how these mad scientists will receive the “romance hero” treatment.
This might be my favorite Catherine Stein book to date (although the race is quite close), and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical romance with light paranormal elements or romance retellings of classic novels.

With a fun and well written plot Katherine Stein has taken The jackal and hide story added a love interest interesting friends and the mystery arc that will link future books to the first one and essentially started a great mystery romance series. When Dr. Jekyll is given the bravado from his serum he infiltrates a shindig for the wealthy and meets Card is in Calley. She is not just a high paid friend of wealthy men she is a bookworm and interested in the same science that he is and she finds herself overwhelmingly attracted to him. All she needed was one more benefactor so she could save her money to open the library to feed the minds of intellectually starving women, but as the famous saying goes the heart wants what it wants. this was such an interesting and fun book to read. I cannot wait for the next book and can only hope it’s one of the doctors friends from the mad scientist society who falls in love. They have famous scientist that make cameos at the club and one can only hope that may be the main character in future books. I truly and sincerely love this book and wish I could give it more than five stars. Historical fiction is my jam and I am chomping at the bit for the next book! I received this book from Net Galley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I love retellings and this is the first Jekyll and Hyde retelling that I have read and I really enjoyed it. It was a unique premise and a really interesting read. I read it in one sitting

Wow, I was blown away!! Great book!! Loved the author’s writing style. Highly recommend read. Now I just need to purchase the other books in the series.