Book Review: The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett

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.

Title: The Nightmare Affair
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.

4 GREAT FUN BOOKS

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.

~ Website ~ Goodreads ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~

Book Review: Supernatural Freak by Louisa Klein

Goodreads Summary: When paranormal expert Robyn Wise is offered an outrageous sum of money to cure a boy who is turning into a dead tree, she's very sceptical. A politician ready to pay that much to make his son stop growing branches instead of hair? Come on! She's more likely to be abducted by aliens. This is a trap. Or much worse. And, of course, it's much worse.
The child is turning into a dark portal, created by a powerful entity determined to absorb Fairyland's power. This means that not only queen Titania and her court are in danger, but the very balance of the magic fluxes.
Robyn'd rather stick a pencil in her own eye but. to learn how to destroy the portal, she has to sneak into the Wizardry Council, a place full of wizards who are hiding something—though it’s certainly not their dislike of her.
There, she discovers a terrible secret that could help to overthrow Fairyland's enemies for good, but puts her in the midst of an ancient and deadly war, and not as a bystander, but as the main target.

Title: Supernatural Freak
Author: Louisa Klein
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: 9th August 2012
Format: e-galley
Source: Author for review - Thank You!

Supernatural Freak is a fast paced, action adventure novel that all has it all. This is a unique story involving a lot of different kinds of paranormal creatures and the imagination of Louisa Klein is just awesome. The creatures are so strange, but their descriptions so vivid that you can picture them so clearly in your mind.

Robyn (Rob) Wise is a “Supernatural Freak”. She has the ability to see ghosts, werewolves, faeries and witches and she can secretly speak the Faerie’s language (but don’t tell anyone). Strange things start to happen to Rob after she is booked to help heal a werewolf. From that night on, she is attacked non-stop and doesn't know why. Opening a cereal box, 3 dark genies pop out, not granting wishes, but trying to kill her.

Walking to meet a Detective friend, she is awoken on the footpath by a stranger asking if she’s alright. Apparently she passed out; Rob has been having visions and strange dreams and this is another one in broad daylight. A strange man in a bowler hat keeps appearing in her “dreams” and trying to show her things, puzzling them out, Rob is annoyed that she can’t piece everything together.

Rob receives a mysterious briefcase from a very famous politician; it contains strange items and an even stranger request. His son is in trouble and his hand is turning into a tree.  Not sure what is happening, Rob is going to investigate and this all seems to be part of the mysterious attempts on her life.

With the help of her friends, a witch, a wizard, a shapeshifter,  a ghost and her Uncle Terry, plus Rob herself, the Supernatural Freak, they start their adventure into the unknown and to find out who is behind the killings, kidnappings and attempts on Rob’s life.

Will this motley group be able to solve the mystery? Save Rob from being killed? Save the little boy from turning into a tree?

This was a fantastic read that has everything, action, adventure, humour, fantasy and paranormal creatures. There is a touch, just a tiny one, of romance, but it’s certainly not the centrepiece. Robyn is such a strong woman heroine and the hilarious way she carry’s on with her friends, is fantastic. The colloquial conversations used are such fun and so enjoyable to read that it is a definite page turner. I am extremely excited about this being a 4 book series and cannot wait for Supernatural Fog to be released.

One of my favourite passages from the book:

“Good Lord darling! How on earth do you manage to get yourself in such embarrassing situations?” Hey says, destroying with a ghostly spell an arrow on its way to sticking in my head.
~ loc 417

Tune in later this month for a interview and giveaway with Louisa Klein.

4 FANTASY BOOKS

About the Author

Louisa Klein is 25, lives in the UK but was born in Germany and brought up in Southern Europe by a German dad and an Italian and French mum, which made her a little confused at first. She has a degree in Medieval Studies and a postgraduate one in Marketing. She’s been working in publishing on and off since she was 17 and currently is a freelancer and an Urban Fantasy writer. At night she puts on a mask and fights British crime. She gets very little sleep.

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