Author: Mindee Arnett
Pages: 400 (softcover)
Synopsis:"The Nightmare Affair is the first in the gripping Arkwell Academy trilogy by Mindee Arnett.
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."-Goodreads
The Nightmare Affair was a fun and quick read that I started with low expectations. The book is quite underrated, and I can honestly say that I found a gem.
This book is written in an overly simplified style, but it got the job done. I was actually scared that I wouldn't be able to enjoy the book because of how simple the style was because I'm use to more poetic writing styles. Though I didn't really care for the simple writing style, it quickly grew on me and I forgot about the simple writing and got lost in the story.
The characters were one of my favorite aspects of this book in particular. I found the cast of characters to be really interesting and unique. Some of them felt a little 2 dimensional at times, but others felt really fleshed out.
Ex.) Dusty was very fleshed out with a personality that really connected to me. She was sassy and held her ground regardless of who told her not to. She stood up for what she believed in and she had fears but pressed on. She was brave and believable.
On the other than, Dusty's best friend with a name I have forgotten, was not. She was a side character and that's all she felt like. Just another person with not much of anything to make her stand out from everyone else. She didn't feel like a character, but more like a cardboard cutout.
Lastly on the characters, I want to talk about the relationships in the book. I won't say specifics because that would be spoilery, but the romance towards the end of the book was one of the better slow burn romances I've seen in a while regarding YA books and it was also one of the most well handled romances from both characters. There was no force to ask for a title or to understand what happened. They were just happy with what happened. That may sound really annoying to some because they don't admit their dying love, but I adored it because it drove in the punch of how realistic it was.
I want to lastly talk about the concept and world. The school setting is one of my least favorite settings to read in, but I didn't actually mind it in this book. The thing that really made love the story was the unique twist on the magic and creatures. This was a book full of different and unique creatures like Nightmares, Demons, Sirens, Wizards, and many more magical kind. Watching Dusty discover her magical abilities was one of my favorite parts because she is coming into her own.
Though this book is full of immature drama that is bound to come with teenagers and that kind of setting, I do have to say it was done realistically even though it didn't suit my taste. I liked this book a lot, and I would love to continue the series at some point.
I read this for the Cover2Cover Bookclub. Did you join in?
No comments:
Post a Comment