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.
Series: The Arkwell Academy #1
Author: Mindee Arnett
Publisher: Tor Teen
Release Date: 5th March 2013
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy
Format: eGalley
Source: via publisher on NetGalley
The Nightmare Affair was a great read and a fantastic beginning to the series. I really enjoyed the writing style and characters created by Mindee Arnett and can’t wait for book 2 in the series, The Nightmare Dilemma, due for release next year (2014). This reminded me a little of the Mythos Academy series by Jennifer Estep and even Phoebe Pope and the Year of Four by Nya Jade. These both have academy settings and mysteries to be solved. I am really enjoying academy setting books at the moment, as you can see. :)
Destiny (Dusty) Everhart is a 16 year old and has a Nightmare Mother, Moira. Dusty lived with her Father up until her magical abilities turned up not long ago. Since they arrived, she had to attend a new school, Arkwell Academy. Arkwell is a school for magickind, where they learn to use their abilities. But life at school isn’t easy for Dusty with the history her Mother left behind.
A Nightmare is a darkkind, which means they have to get their power from living people. Dusty has to feed off dreams from humans and this one particular night, Dusty went dreamwalking and picked Eli Booker. Eli was the quarterback at high school where Dusty used to go and she wasn't really excited to see his dreams, but did anyway. This dream was very different for Dusty, very vivid and was of a dead girl from Arkwell. It was all very strange really and Eli somehow found Dusty in the dream and grabbed her arm. When the dreamer and the Nightmare touch in the dream, it automatically kicks the Nightmare out. The funny thing is, when Nightmares jump into dreams, they have to position themselves on the chests of their victims. So when Eli and Dusty were out of the dream, she fell off Eli and started shooting spells at him, but for some reason the spells bounced back off. What is going on?
Dusty is captured by the Werewolve Police and taken back to school where she finds the crime scene she just witnessed in the dream. Now she is really confused.
Dusty and Eli is a dream-seer pair, which is rare and exciting. Dusty and Eli have been tasked with finding the killer and preventing any further people from dying. In their dreams they could find clues to what is going on and try to prevent it from happening.
Since their bond has started, they find themselves becoming allies and with the help of Dusty’s roommate, Selena, they all embark on an adventure to find the culprit and discover the secret behind the Keepers.
Can Dusty and Eli interpret the dreams to find clues to the killer? Will they accept they have a connection that goes beyond the dream-seer dreams? Can Dusty forgive her Mother from running out on her when she was little?
I found this book very intriguing and a fun read. Having betrayal, action, mystery, romance, paranormal creatures and teen angst, I really enjoyed the world Ms Arnett created and the fun quirky characters.
 | | | |
About the Author
Mindee Arnett lives on a horse farm in Ohio with her husband, two kids, a couple of dogs, and an inappropriate number of cats. She’s addicted to jumping horses and telling tales of magic, the macabre, and outer space. She has far more dreams than nightmares.
