The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett Tour Stop: Review and Giveaway

The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett
Publishing Company: Tor Teen
Genre: Young Adult—Paranormal, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 367
Release Date: March 5, 2013
Goodreads

Summary
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

A copy was provided for review purposes
Review
Managing to pull in both a mystery novel and a paranormal novel into one neat little package, The Nightmare Affair gets you all hyped up for more of Mindee Arnett's books!

Destiny "Dusty" Everheart, a type of magickind creature called a Nightmare that has to "dreamfeed" (simply put, to live people's dreams with them) on other people to get their power, is your normal girl, who's insecure, sarcastic, and a social outcast. What I immediately latched onto while reading was Dusty because Mindee gave her such relatable character traits. Any real life person's going to be insecure, alone, or sarcastic during periods of their lives, which is something Dusty managed to be throughout The Nightmare Affair, which not only gave her room to grow as a character, but also gave us somewhere to relate to her as a person.

Dusty and Eli Booker, when put together, created sweet and intimate scenes between them. I was practically salivating for more moments between these two characters, and was disappointed to discover that what I originally anticipated between these two characters was an inaccurate estimation. The Nightmare Affair didn't focus on the dreamfeeding aspect as much as the mystery aspect, and while I enjoyed getting a front-row seat on the action, I wished more of the mystery-solving could have been done in this new world that Mindee created for us. When Dusty dreamfed, she was basically going into the dream with Eli, and that created a lot of potential as to where the story could go, although I felt that the aforementioned potential wasn't used to its full extent.

However, The Nightmare Affair's shining spot was its plot. (Hey, that rhymed!) I found it to be engaging, exciting, and extremely entertaining, because one thing led so smoothly into another, and soon the plot was rolling fast down the hill all by itself without any other support. Albeit slightly predictable, our plot focused mainly on these string of murders, and how Dusty and Eli pieced together all the clues they'd unearthed earlier in the story. Given the circumstances, focusing all your attention on the mystery was a very good idea, and not on the romance, which while it could appease some people, it would bore even more.

The Nightmare Affair is a thrilling, sweet, and intense ride, and not only does it capture you, it also will make you fall in love with the characters, the plot, and the writing.

About the Author

Mindee Arnett lives on a horse farm in Ohio with her husband, two kids, a couple of dogs, and an inappropriate number of cats. She’s addicted to jumping horses and telling tales of magic, the macabre, and outer space. She has far more dreams than nightmares.

Find Mindee:

Website | Twitter

Giveaway
This giveaway is international! Please note that this is a tour-wide giveaway and does not in any way reflect my opinions/views. Any lost/stolen items are not liable to Singing and Reading in the Rain

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