Review: The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett

Goodreads Summary:

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.

Publication Date: March 5, 2013

This was a fun book! I loved Dusty’s feisty personality and her sarcasm; some of her inner thoughts were pretty hilarious. The premise was also intriguing and I can’t wait to continue Dusty’s journey in the next book.

I was drawn to this book mainly because of the cover. I really love it! After reading the book, I really feel like it’s a great depiction of the plot. I’ve seen the cover of the follow-up and it has me just as excited.

Dusty is a Nightmare, a being that I’ve never heard about until reading this book. While feeding on the dreams of a local boy, she finds out that she shares a unique bond with him and his dreams can predict the future.

Dusty was great, she was a fantastic protagonist and I loved her courage and feistiness. She has a bad reputation but she doesn’t wallow in self-pity over it. I really liked Eli, her dream seer partner and potential love interest, but would’ve preferred a little more character development for him.

The murder mystery was entertaining and although I solved a part of the whodunit early on, one of the aspects had me surprised. There was also an inclusion of popular mythical characters in the second half that I didn’t expect.

Eli and Dusty make a good team and I look forward to reading more about their adventures. No cliffhanger in the book although there was a lot of loose ends that will likely be addressed in future novels. I’d recommend this book to YA enthusiasts who enjoy murder mysteries with a paranormal twist.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book for review!