Cat Johnson Braves Doll Lil’s Word Association Challenge!

Author: Mindee Arnett
Title: The Nightmare Affair
Release: March 5, 2013
Reviewer: Mona Leigh
Source: Publisher/NetGalley
Purchase: | Book Depository

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 have to admit, this is the first time I’ve ever read about a Nightmare, and I found it both original and interesting. Destiny Everhart, aka Dusty, is one of the few remaining Nightmares in existence. Her mother is also a Nightmare, but her father is human, and because she never exhibited any magical inclinations as a child, everyone figured she was a ‘mule’ – a hybrid with no magic of her own.

When she suddenly comes into her magic, she learns she must steal into bedrooms to feed from people’s dreams. That works well enough until she sneaks into former classmate Eli Booker’s room. Through his dream, she sees a murder scene, and the victim is someone she knows. Unfortunately, Eli sees her in his dream and wakes to find her sitting on his chest. Panicked, she flees back to the safety of boarding school only to stumble across the fresh murder scene she witnessed in the dream.

Because of their unusual dream connection, Eli’s suddenly uprooted from public school and sent to the boarding school to accommodate Dusty’s dream feedings. He’s not happy about it, and before long, he’s cuddling up to a siren – one with an ulterior motive.

Filled with mythical/magical creatures on a collision course with humans, Dusty and Eli must find a murderer and try to keep humanity safe while protecting the things that go bump in the night.

This is shaping up to be a series to follow. If you like YA, you’ll want to get in on the ground floor now rather than play catch-up later. The pacing is brisk, the action is fresh, and the characters are interesting. Because there’s so much action, I found myself reading every word rather than skipping over passages to get to the ‘good part.’

Mona Leigh

Mona's first grade teacher, Mrs. Stanford, gifted her with the love of reading. For that, she'll always live in her heart. But reading took over Mona's life, eclipsing everything but playing sports, and has continued to be a huge part of her life. Although she has always written poetry and stories for her self, last year she decided to try her hand at writing fiction. She is currently editing her first urban fantasy and hopes to have it ready for the agent by summer's end. Besides reading, Mona loves speed in the form of fast cars. The faster, the better! In her next life, she plans to drive race cars (or whatever happens to be their replacement in the future) all while reading and writing. She has also taken up rune reading, and find it to be disturbingly accurate and exciting.

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