Review: The Nightmare Affair

Author: Mindee Arnett

Format: e-ARC

Print Length: 367 pages

Publisher: Tor Teen

Published: March 5, 2013 

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. 

My Opinion

The Nightmare Affair was an interesting read that will ensnare your imagination almost as quickly as Dusty captures the essences of a nightmare.

Dusty is a halfkind, her momma a famous Nightmare and her daddy, an ordinary guy. Nightmares- well feed off of nightmares so the rest of the magic world looks at them kinda badly. She has only been at the Academy for a year as it was thought that she had no magic. That year has been a tough one for Dusty- people keep judging her based off of her momma and well to be honest, her magic kinda sucks. Then one night as she is dreamfeed, she sees a murder occur. Turns out she is a dream-seer, she can see the future though dreams but only with Eli. Eli is an ordinary from Dusty’s old “normal” school. He is not happy about this apparent partnership. But he comes to the Academy anyway- as well the magical world now needs him.

Dusty has truly had it rough. Doesn’t matter that her momma did not raise her, she is still facing the ramifications of her momma’s actions. Teachers, magic policy and other students still blame her. She and Eli have to dream-feed often to try and help catch the killer. Will they be able to in time?

Dusty is honest and refreshing. She tries not to be fake which is nice. Paul is her love interest but I wasn’t feeling the love really. There was more tension with her and Eli. Speaking of Eli, holy hotness batman. His only fault- his choice in friends and his girlfriend. He is too nice for them, but for some reason he hangs out with them anyway. I enjoyed the fact that even though he was a “normie” he had to take all the same classes as the others.

I look forward to reading more of Dusty and Eli’s adventures as this is the first book in the series.

My Rating 4 out of 5 stars

Favorite Quote “Nah, I just like to randomly hold hands with strangers.”

Other Characters

Katarina- Siren, mean gal also Eli’s girlfriend
Selene- Siren, Dusty’s bestie which means she is pretty awesome
Lance- Wizard, Eli’s roommate and well a big jerk
Paul- Not sure what he is, but he is interested in Dusty
Mr. Marrow- teacher at the Academy, kind to Dusty