Review: The Nightmare Affair

The Nightmare Affair
by Mindee Arnett

Plot 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.

Review:

This story starts off very quickly - with information behind the magickind community dropped in along the way.  And though it did keep the story moving, my initial thoughts on the world-building was that it didn't seem very believable.  That did change as I kept reading though! The power of the Nightmares was gradually revealed, and I loved that this features such a new and different paranormal being. I think this is one of the great draws of this story, because it is a such an original take on paranormal YA.  Dusty does have a great snarky side to her and some very funny lines, but I didn't feel a great connection to her character or even to the sort of love triangle romance.  The story moves fast, and does not really delve deep enough into the characters I think to make the story more dynamic.  Even with the unique angle to the world building, the actual construction of it seemed flat.

The school aspect, with all the petty jealousies and school dances, was fun to read about, and really the whole story is fun, and definitely a page turner. I was curious to see how everything would be resolved, and I was happy to learn more about Nightmares. The mystery aspect of the story was a little labored, especially as I didn't seriously consider the people that seemed suspicious to be the actual culprit.  I could have used a little more suspicious, believable evidence.  Though the story is very readable, in some ways it is not memorable, so if you are interested in a fun quick read, this is a great story for you.

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