Slightly disappointed. I had really high hopes for this one!

So, to begin with, I thought this would be a more mature read. I found it a bit too young - almost middle grade-ish, which was a shame. I just didn't really get the feel of the characters, they didn't get "under my skin."

The worldbuilding had me confused every now and then. I liked how there was so many mythical creatures and stuff, but I didn't really get the explanation if there was any?

The writing style was part of what made this book feel young, I guess. It's hard to point out exactly what it was, but it was just...not my style.

The storyline was okay, but nothing out of the ordinary, and also: it had a love triangle! I didn't expect that, and I also didn't like it. It wasn't at all what I was expecting about this book! It was less about the "dream world," and more about a "world with magical creatures who can do anything you can think of," and so I was disappointed.

This is probably just me, expecting something else than what I got. It's not a bad book, I liked it, but I was just so disappointed. As to whether I wanna continue this series, I'm not so sure. I might, since my copy of the book is so beautiful! ;)

Reviews in 150 words or less...

 

Dusty is a nightmare. Late at night she breaks into houses and feeds on the dreams of the inhabitants. Then she breaks into Eli’s house and immediately discovers he is something different. They are a dream pair. Using Eli as a conduit, Dusty can see into the future.

 

When people start dying at Arkwell Academy it’s up to Dusty and Eli to get to the bottom of the murders and find out what the murderer is after. 

 

The Nightmare Affair has an amazing beginning which settles down into a pretty good young adult paranormal fantasy. It's a little bit Harry Potter, a little bit Monsters Inc. but as an entertaining diversion it works well. 

 

Amazing! :D You can check out my full review here.

"I didn't do anything wrong. I swear."
He grunted. "Like I've never heard that before. Funny, but I expected a little more originality from Moira's daughter."
"Yeah, well, the dog ate my notebook with all my good excuses."

I should have taken notes on The Nightmare Affair whilst reading, but it was so amazing that I simply couldn't put it down to write about my thoughts. I had to read this straight-through. 

The story starts off with Dusty breaking and entering -- well, not really breaking and entering -- into Eli Booker's house to plant nightmares into his dreams. You're probably reading this with a baffled expression like, 'first off, why is this child named "Dusty" and what do you mean by "plant nightmares?"' Hold on to your underwear, please, and let me explain. Our protagonist is a Nightmare -- the kind of mystical 'creature' that, in order to survive, must plant nightmares into a person's head and basically feed off the energy. This is what Dusty has to do, but her 'feeding' totally backfires with Eli's dream because something out of the ordinary occurred and changed their lives for ever.

Dusty is a very witty and sarcastic sixteen-year-old who attends Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for the magickind (i.e., werewolves, demons, witches and wizards, fairies, sirens, etc.). She is the only Nightmare there, so it's really hard for her to fit in. The Nightmare Affair was amazingly written and absolutely hilarious. I found myself wiping the tears from my eyes from laughing hard. This book is oozing with magic and I am very upset at the fact I have to wait a year for book two.

You can tell Mindee Arnett was inspired by the Harry Potter series (in fact, this book sort of reminds me of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets combined). It's not as though this was a rip off to the HP series, god no, but you'll notice Ms Arnett snagged a few ideas from them. You'll know what I'm talking about once you've read The Nightmare Affair. Nevertheless, it was such a fun and charming read. Also, I usually abhor love-triangles; however, I will let this one slide because I enjoyed it. 
There's a few things in The Nightmare Affair that annoyed me: it was too predictable (view spoiler), (view spoiler), and the friendship with Serene, Dusty, and Eli reminded me too much of The Golden Trio



All in all, this book is a solid B. The plot and story line was wonderful and clever. I would most definitely recommend this, especially if you want to read something that gives you this amazing feeling like the Harry Potter series did. (Hey, you guys don't want HP to be over, but unfortunately it is. Never fear! The Nightmare Affair is here! Funny? No? ok.)

Another debut, but luckily it worked out a lot better than some of the debuts I’ve read recently.

 

Dusty seems to be a pretty typical protagonist – she hates her red, out-of-control red hair (she automatically changes it into straight, blond hair whenever she’s in a dream world, which is frustrating and needs to be addressed in a future problems-with-hair-stereotypes discussion post), is quite snarky, hates (unfair) authority figures, and is hated by the resident pretty, popular, and mean girl (who actually doesn’t have blond hair, if I remember correctly, which made me much too glad). She’s attending a magical boarding school, is the school outcast because she has a very unique power, and gets involved in a mysterious murder mystery.

 

This book was a bit predictable at times. I figured out some things pretty early on, but was pleasantly surprised to find that there were more twists that I missed by the end. The book also went pretty quickly and I wanted to keep reading so that I could figure out what was going on.

 

It seems like I was a bit negative toward this book, but I really did enjoy it. It wasn’t an amazing debut, more like a typical paranormal book, but that’s not such a bad thing. I had fun reading it and plan on checking out the second book and hope that it’ll get even better.