ARC Review: The Nightmare Affair

Title: The Nightmare Affair
Author: Mindee Arnett
Genre/Category: YA, Paranormal/Fantasy
Release Date: March 5th


See it at Goodreads


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.


I didn’t find The Nightmare Affair particularly memorable once I finished reading, though the story itself was cute. I went into this title with extremely high expectations due to the blurb sparking so much interest in this idea of a Nightmare. It was a unique idea to say the least, and I really liked the unusual addition to the paranormal/fantasy genre here.

Unfortunately, some of the characters did fall a little flat and I wasn’t all that interested in them at times. I enjoyed Dusty a lot though. She was spunky, and often determined. She was a fun character to read. My overall biggest nitpick was that this was such a fresh concept/unique-sounding idea, that I guess my expectations exceeded it a bit. I went into it with different thoughts, and instead found that it still had many of the same things a lot of the current trending YA plotlines seem to have--only with a slightly fresher feel with the whole Nightmare thing. But it is a good story, and I do recommend reading it for yourself if you’re interested.

All in all, I really don’t have much to say negatively on The Nightmare Affair. It’s an easy, entertaining read with some unusual characters. Though you might find the somewhat typical clichés in YA (boarding schools, etc.), I’d recommend it if you’re looking for something different and fun and cute. It’s a fast-paced read and was hard to put down. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Arnett’s work in the future. :)