Review - The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett

It’s hard enough being in high school, but to be a high schooler who comes into some strange and paranormal powers…life just went from tough to insanely impossible in the span of two seconds.

So let’s switch over to a slightly more magical forefront.  Today’s review focuses on the first book in the Arkwell Academy trilogy, The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett.  Actually I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this first novel!

Right off the bat, you jump into the life of Dusty Everhart who happens to be a sixteen year old Nightmare.  No…literally.  She’s a being called a Nightmare that feeds off of dreams…nightmares.  She doesn’t really enjoy what she does.  She came into this completely blindsided and was forced to change schools and enter into a school that teaches primarily magickind. 

Now Nightmares, tend to be close to the bottom of the social scale.  Others of the magickind look at Dusty as if she’s nothing of importance…it doesn’t help that her mom’s been known for some rather crazy and rash antics.  So you can imagine how popular Dusty appears to be.  Until her whole life is flipped upside down…again.

From the very beginning of the book, you find Dusty sneaking into a house to feed on someone’s dreams.  It doesn’t help that he’s a rather hot “normal” teenage boy that…surprise, surprise…she happens to know from her previous school.  One of the main rules while a Nightmare feeds from dreams is to never get caught by the subject whose dream you are currently in.  Of course being Dusty, she gets caught within this particular guy, Eli’s, dream and is forced out of it.  Cue her taking off as fast as her little feet can take her.

Let’s add in the fact that during the same night, one of the most popular girls in school gets murdered and left on school grounds to be found.  And Eli’s dream?  It happened to be the same exact murder that had taken place.  Once school officials find out about Dusty’s situation regarding Eli, they immediately pull her in for questioning and finally find out that Dusty is a lot more than anyone realized.

Now Dusty has to come to terms with what she really is and the fact that she and Eli now have to stick together in order to figure out the shady goings on around the school.  Can she handle it?  Can she stop another murder from happening?  Can she deal with being around Eli for longer than ten seconds? 

Like I said, this book really surprised me by how much I enjoyed it.  I enjoy Mindee Arnett’s writing and I find that the level of description and emotion in the book, really adds to the hype and intensity of the plot surrounding the characters.  I found myself getting pulled along in the storyline and wanting to find out exactly what was going on!  I ended up giving this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars on GoodReads.

If you’ve read this series, please let me know what you thought in the comments below!  If you haven’t read the series, I suggest you pick up the first book and delve into this magical and mystery based world for yourself!

Thanks guys for taking the time to read my review and, as always, “Spread the joy of reading!  Lives can change with the turn of a page!” 

Halloween is upon us! Be safe! J