Mindee Arnett

At Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for "magickind," sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart, a magical being who feeds on human dreams, and her dream partner Eli Booker fall in love and are sent on a dangerous mission to obtain the Death's Heart.

The Nightmare Charade

Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for "magickind," 16-year-old Destiny Everhart feeds on the dreams of others and works with handsome human student Eli Booker to find a killer.

The Nightmare Affair

Savindi Jinasena

Cover Gushing Worthiness: The cover of The Nightmare Affair is probably one of my favourite bookcovers of the year. I like the colours, the setting and the silhouette of a girl. It reminded me a lot of the cover of Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan. Last verdict: The cover is visually appealing and hats off to the cover designer because I can’t think of a reason not to pick up the book after looking at the cover.

Review: I don’t remember exactly how I came across The Nightmare Affair, but I suspect I saw it when it popped up on my goodreads recommendations sidebar. The plot seemed fun and interesting. So I was thrilled when I was approved to read an ARC of it on netgalley. Now I’m not sure if I’ll pick up the sequel.

Let me start off by saying the plot of The Nightmare Affair, especially the idea of a living breathing Nightmare in the flesh was original. In a way it reminded me of the plot of Unspoken which I described as “one of a kind” in my review for it. However with the idea of the nightmare that is where my amazement ends in regards to this book.

The plot of The Nightmare Affair had a lot of potential, but its predictability is also its failure. I think one of the problems for me apart from its predictability was the immense similarities between this book and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I don’t have a problem when books remind me of other books, when they are too similar then I do have a problem. The second half of this book, especially the last part was just so much like The Philosopher’s Stone and I can’t say that it was a good thing. Apart from that I thought Arnett’s inclusion of non-magic folk devices in a magic school was a nice addition. The integration of magic kind into the ‘muggle world’ was refreshing in that it was different from Harry Potter where Wizards and Witches don’t really attend post secondary muggle institutions. Personally I found the ending to be surprising since my villain prediction failed. Some of the spins on magic-folklore were also positive factors in the book.

One of my biggest complaints for this book is the love triangle. As long as a love triangle is done properly; complete with emotional tugs of the heart and well-developed characters I’m pro-love triangle. However if a love triangle exists solely for the sake of having one, then that is when I start to throw up my hands and just sigh in defeat. Unfortunately as you can guess The Nightmare Affair falls into the latter category. I failed to see the point of the love triangle in this story since it was so obvious from the beginning who Dusty would end up choosing. In that sense the love triangle was unnecessary and rather juvenile.

In regards to the characters themselves, they were all rather stereotypical and cliché. They were fun characters, but they were not brilliant or amazing in any sort of way. Personally I wasn’t emotionally attached to any of them, but I did like Dusty’s siren best friend Selene. I liked her because she knew she was beautiful and she didn’t try to disguise it. Instead she wished people would see beyond the magical beauty and appreciate her as a person. Yes I know she’s another one of those “I’m beautiful but I can’t help it” characters, nevertheless I liked her, end of story. In some ways Dusty reminded me a lot Kami Glass from Unspoken. I wasn’t a big fan of Kami, but I liked Dusty a bit more. I liked her sense of humor, but I don’t think she grew as a character by the end of the book. Eli as a hot young love interest was also likable. There really isn’t much more to say about them.

Overall The Nightmare Affair was a fun read. The plot could have been so much better than what it was and I hope Arnett’s writing improves for the sequel, along with the characters and storylines. I just couldn’t get past the glaring similarities between this and The Philosopher’s Stone. 

My Rating: 3/5

Would I recommend it? Maybe. If you like fluffy, light-hearted urban-fantasy esque books then sure.

This copy of The Nightmare Affair was obtained from Netgalley. Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Teen for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Carley Whitehead

Maria

Cindy Lee

More of my reviews at Secrets of Lost Words.

Rating: A

This one is a must-read. The first sentence sucked me right in to the story. You have the scene of Dusty breaking in to someone's house and you see her dream-feed. No better way to show us what she is by seeing her do her thing. I laughed a lot through the first chapter. It couldn't get more embarrassing than sitting on a half-naked hot guy's chest while invading his dreams, no? LOL :D

I literally cannot put this down! I read it in one sitting (which is almost impossible for me cuz of my busy schedule). But I ignored my Shakespeare reading assignment and read on like there was no tomorrow.

Being inside Dusty's head was amusing. She has a retort for everything haha! Solving the murder was fun too! I had no idea what to think. No one was really suspicious to me except Paul Kirkwood who is her boyfriend (kinda). And my suspicion turned to be.. True? False? Nah, not gonna tell you ;) I was completely clueless about where their whole investigation was going and I had no idea who the murder was the entire time! Like, when we actually find who it is.. WOW.. I had no idea it was him/her. Like, no clue. I was like, wait.. what just happened?

So that whole thing definitely took me by surprise.

Then there's the whole sorta-there romance between Dusty and Eli. Dusty like Paul and I was completely against that. Paul rubbed me the wrong way. Just didn't like him from the beginning. Eli, on the other hand, was with Katarina. He couldn't exactly help his attraction towards because of Katarina being a siren and all. (Yes, Eli, I forgive you for not being head over heels for our dear Dusty) But they were so cute together at the end :') That alone made me satisfied.

All in all, The Nightmare Affair is definitely a must-read! Don't hesitate to pick this beauty up! Along with originality and well-balance plot, the Nightmare Affair is a keeper that will keep you guessing at all times :)

16-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she's a criminal. No, she's a Nightmare. Literally. Dusty is a magical being who feeds on human dreams. 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, not to mention the crazy events of the past year. Dusty may have saved the day, but there are many days left in the year, and with an old foe back to seek revenge, she'll need all her strength to defeat him and save her friends. Mindee Arnett thrills again in The Nightmare Charade, the stunning final installment in the Arkwell Academy series. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Risti Auliya

The Nightmare Affair is the first in the gripping Arkwell Academy 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.

The Nightmare Charade

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