Book Review: The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett

The Nightmare Affair
Author: Mindee Arnett
Series: Arkwell Academy (Book 1)
Publisher: Tor Teen; First Edition edition (March 5, 2013)

Description: The Nightmare Affair is the first in a gripping new urban fantasy trilogy by Mindee Arnett.

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.

My Thoughts: THE NIGHTMARE AFFAIR was a fun story with some interesting characters. Dusty Everhart is a Nightmare. She has just recently come into her power. Because she is Halfkind with a human father and a Nightmare mother odds were good that she would never develop her magic at all. When she did, she found herself at Arkwell Academy which is the boarding school for magickind. She is just learning magic and sometimes her spells don't work quite the way she plans.

Because she is a Nightmare she has to feed from ordinaries while they sleep. One night she sneaks into Eli Booker's house and something strange happens. Eli goes to the same school as Dusty did before she knew she was magickind. She has always had sort of crush on him because he's the tall, dark, and handsome sort and also nice. Dusty learns that she is a special sort of Nightmare called a Dreamseer and Eli is her partner. Since the first dream they share shows the death of another student at Arkwell after she was murdered, they quickly get involved in trying to find out who killed her and why.

Eli is transferred to Arkwell which he really resents because he doesn't have any magical talent himself. And, as an athlete, transferring to a school with no sports teams just adds to his resentment. He and Dusty spend a lot of time being snitty to each other. But that's okay with Dusty. She has a boyfriend in Paul Kirkwood who is the son of a prominent magical family but doesn't have any magic himself.

Dusty also has to deal with cryptic warnings from her mother as she investigates. Dusty's relationship with her mother isn't easy both because she feels her mother abandoned her and her father when she learned that Dusty didn't have magic and because her mother has a bad reputation for the way she uses her magic.

The world of magic in this story was well-developed and filled with interesting characters from sirens for roommates to werewolves guarding the campus. I thought the mystery was well developed too with both clues and red herrings scattered throughout the story.

This would be fun for students who like paranormals, boarding school stories, and mysteries.

Favorite Quote:

"You can stop pretending," Eli said. "I can see your eyes moving behind your eyelids."

I peered over at him. "It's not called Rapid Eye Movement for nothing."

He smiled. "You must be feeling better if you're being snotty already."

This one came off my TBR mountain. You can buy your copy here.