The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett – a Review

Description:
Sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare.

Literally.

Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy, is hard enough. But when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder.

Then Eli’s dream comes true.

Now Dusty has to follow the clues—both within Eli’s dreams and out of them—to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target

Review:

The Nightmare Affair is Mindee Arnett’s first YA Fantasy Novel.  The base of the story takes place at Arkwell Academy, a school for the magickind.  Our heroine, Dusty, is 16 years old, and has inherited from her mother the ability to create nightmares into a person’s dreams.

Dusty is just started learning this, and begins to practice on high school hunk, Eli, when he is asleep dreaming, when something terribly goes wrong.  The dream turns into a real murder that takes place at the school, with one of the students murdered.  Dusty is then told that she is more then a Nightmare.  She is now a Dream-seer, someone who can see the future.  The heads of the school arrange for Eli to be transferred to the school, as Dusty and Eli must work the dreams together.  Eli is not thrilled to be forced to change schools, as he does not have any magic, just tied to Dusty as part of her Dream-seer visions.  

Both of them avoid each other as much as possible, until they begin to become more earnest in resolving this murder, as another one happens.  Slowly, and I mean very slowly, you can see a romance building up between them, but first they try to be friends.  Arnett has created some good characters in Dusty, Eli, Selene (Dusty’s best friend), and Paul (Dusty’s possible boyfriend, before Eli); not to mention all the teachers teaching the students the magic, and some of the students themselves. 

I found the story interesting, with the mystery involved as to who the murderer was.  Did Dusty’s Mother have anything to do with the murders?  Will Dusty and Eli realize they are meant for each other besides sharing dreams?  What happens to Paul? 

I enjoyed the magic stuff, and there was a lot of danger and tense moments.  I thought it was a light read with humor, and at the same time, kind of scary.  A few times I did think some things were a bit silly or childish, but overall I enjoyed this story, as it was different, and a fast fun read.  I will not spoil things, as there are a number of twists, surprises & violence, as well as a very exciting ending. 

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher through Netgalley