[ARC Review] The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett

The Nightmare Affair (The Arkwell Academy #1)

Mindee Arnett

Pages: 367

Publisher: Tor Teen

Source: NetGalley

Format: eGalley

Age Group: Young Adult

Date 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.

I really enjoyed this book! I kind of put off reading it for a while, and I'm not really sure why. It was cute and quirky and snarky and very fun to read. (Plus it has a really cute cover- it makes me think of Unspoken's cover) I enjoyed the characters and the world they lived in. I also liked that it gave Nightmares a better name, since I always think of Sabine from The Soul Screamers, who wasn't very nice even though I did kind of love her.

So, Dusty is a Nightmare, and she's gotta sit on people's chests while they sleep and feed off their dream. The book starts off with her going to this Eli guy's house to feed off his dreams, only this feeding doesn't go as planned. She sees the murder of a girl she knew in his dream, exactly how it happened. Because of this, they bring Eli in to enroll at Dusty's high school for magickind, even though he's totally ordinary. Eli and Dusty have to work together, because they're a pair of sorts and can see things through dreams. Eli ends up hanging with the popular crowd, who subsequently hates Dusty because of some magic misfire she caused (one girl end up a snake for a bit, no big deal). This makes things weird between Eli and Dusty, due to rumors and things that tend to spread when a girl has to spend her nights with some one else's boyfriend (really, it's as awkward as you think it would be). As the book progresses, we meet more magic teenagers and Dusty and Eli get closer and closer to solving the mystery.

The whole story is written from Dusty's perspective, which I had expected to be like sweet and demure and annoyingly perfect, but no. Dusty is ranked up there with Rose Hathaway and Alex Andros in snark factor. Really, Dusty is rude and mean and adorable. I kept picturing her like a mean Clary Fray with her red hair. Needless to say, I really liked Dusty. I was so shocked that she was snarky that she was immediately endeared to me. I also liked her best friend Selene, and Eli isn't awful, but Dusty is really the star of this show.

Overall, I give The Nightmare Affair 4 staches, because it wasn't perfect but I do totally recommend it. It's a quick read that's sure to make you laugh!