Blog Tour: The Nightmare Affair - Mindee Arnett (Review and Giveaway)

 

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Title: The Nightmare Affair (The Arkwell Academy #1)

Author: Mindee Arnett

Release Date: March 5th, 2013

Publisher:  Tor Teen

Genres: YA, Paranormal

Pages: 367

Source: For review/blog tour

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.

 

THE NIGHTMARE AFFAIR was one of my most anticipated debut paranormals of 2013 and I was dying to get my hands on it. While it wasn't quite what I expected or hoped, it was a still very fun and humorous read that I think a lot of YA paranormal fans would really enjoy!

 

Okay first, I really just want to say bravo to Mindee Arnett because seriously, the idea that the main protag is literally a Nightmare? Pretty genious, if you ask me. I thought this idea was very unique and just creative! I was thinking, why hasn't this been done before? LOL. But yeah I loved it and it's one of my favourite parts of the book because this whole Nightmare thing kinda sets it apart from other YA books out there. (I might be wrong and there might be a book with a Nightmare or something like that, but with me, it's the first I've read :) )

 

Dusty, the main character kinda reminded me of the protagonist in Paranormalcy series (Kiersten White), in a good way obviously! Their personalities are quite similar. Dusty is just hilarious and quite simply, lovable and so easy to relate to.

 

I loved Dusty's best friend (she rocks) and I think my favourite character who really, really intrigued me was Dusty's mum. It seems like she's such a multi-layered character with full of juicy secrets that we just don't know yet. I'd love to know more about her. Even though she's kinda a rubbish mother to Dusty, she does love her.

 

Eli was the main love interest for Dusty (I'd get on that in a minute) and while I still liked him enough, I feel like he should have been a bit more developed and dare I say it, more swoon-worthy. Also, I needed more of their chemistry. GIVE ME IT, GUYS!

 

There's a bit of love triangle in this book (yawn!), but is it really a love triangle if it's painfully obvious who's she going to end up with? I hated Paul. I liked Eli. End of story.

 

While the first half was kinda slow, the second half totally makes up for that fact and then the real action and suspense begins. Some relevations truly did surprise me while some I guessed correctly 100 pages ago. Still, it was very fun to find out whether my guesses were right and when I had it sooo wrong, I was like WHATTT??

 

One of the other things I loved? The setting! Oh my gosh, I want to hug the author for the boarding school setting! Who here wants more boarding school setting in books? *raises hand* ME!!
 

Even though I didn't meet a book boyfriend in this book or not a five-goddess rating, I still think THE NIGHTMARE AFFAIR is definitely worth a read and it's one of those books that will make you happy happy happy after you've finished and put it down. :)

 

 

 

 

GIVEAWAY: 2 SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE (INTERNATIONAL)

 

 

 

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