'The Nightmare Affair' by Mindee Arnett: Group Review, Author Interview and Giveaway

The Nightmare Affair

The Arkwell Academy Series Book #1 

By Mindee Arnett

Publication Date: March 5th 

Published By: Tor Teen

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.

You Can Find The Nightmare Affair:

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The Nightmare Affair is the first book in The Arkwell Academy Series by Mindee Arnett. I happened upon this gem while perusing Net Galley one day and was instantly intrigued by the synopsis. I did a little happy dance when I was approved for it.  Then I told Lana about it and she  wanted to read it, too. On a whim, we decided to email Mindee and see if she would like to do an interview with us and BAM here we are with a group review and interview with an awesome debut author. So, thank you Net Galley for setting this in motion. 

The Nightmare Affair is told from the perspective of 16-year-old, Dusty, our main character.  Dusty is a half-human, half paranormal creature called a Nightmare, meaning she feeds on people's dreams..literally. I won't get into the logistics of the process, let's just say it has the potential to be humiliating for her. She takes things in stride, though. Even though her nice, 'normal' life has been turned upside down she makes the most of the hand she's been dealt.  I don't know how you could read this book and not love her at least a little bit. 

Told with both humor and wit, The Nightmare Affair captures your attention from the first page and doesn't let it go. I devoured this book in one sitting, I could not put it down.  There were definitely a couple twists in there I didn't see coming.  Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves YA paranormal. I can't wait to see what Ms. Arnett serves up for us next. 

My Rating: 

While browsing the fields of Net Galley (like a total idiot considering I have about five billion books to read right now....lol) I stumbled across this gem. After reading the summary, I was instantly into it, and when I mentioned it to Mel, she told me she'd already been approved, as fate would have it. I was SOOOO thrilled to receive a copy, and then the genius (Mel) got the guts to email Mindee, and tadah, here we are. You just read that from Mel's PoV, huh? How boring am I? Let's get to the review.

OH. EM. GEE.

This book is amazing.

Dusty is a hybrid-- Half human, half Nightmare, and speaking as a person who has read a crapload of paranormal books, the closest I've ever gotten to this is Wake by Lisa McMann, and even that is not as unique as this (how dare I dis my favorite books omg...). The story is told from the perspective of Dusty, who is witty and hilarious in her own way. I absolutely love her.

UGH how I want to fangirl on the amazingness of this book with you all... It is so good, guys... It has so many twists.... It has so much drama... It's not annoying... It's not predictable... I think I am gonna read it again... Oh so good... Seriously... Stop reading this review and go read this book. You will NOT regret it!

My Rating: 

And now our interview with Mindee Arnett! 

*Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us, Mindee!

Thanks for having me. I’m very happy to be here.

*Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Sure, I’m Whedonite, Whovian, horse crazy , sci-fi/fantasy loving fangirl. 

*When did you know you wanted to be an author?

I wrote my first short story in the sixth grade and haven’t stopped since.

*It seems like authors break down into two groups, plotters (authors who outline and are extremely detail oriented) and pantsers (authors who are more ‘go with the flow’ and kind of fly by the seat of their pants)-which group do you fit into? 

I consider myself a pantser who likes to stop and ask for directions. So I don’t outline at all, but I do a lot of brainstorming along the way. Rather than follow my instincts without consideration about what should happen next in the story, I put those instincts through a series of questions to decide if this really is the right step to take.

*What authors have influenced you & your writing? 

My earliest influences were Roald Dahl, Frank L. Baum, and Walter Farley. Then I moved onto to authors like Jennifer Roberson, Mercedes Lackey, and Stephen King, of course.

*Can you tell us what’s next for you?

The sequel to The Nightmare Affair should be out around this time next year, and I also have my YA sci-fi thriller, Avalon, debuting from Balzer+Bray (HarperCollins) in winter 2014. 

*Again, we'd like to thank Mindee Arnett for taking the time to chat with us! 

Enter the giveaway here! 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

YA Author of THE NIGHTMARE AFFAIR, a contemporary fantasy coming March 5, 2013 from Tor Teen (Macmillan) and AVALON, a YA sci-fi thriller coming Winter 2014 from Balzer+Bray (HarperCollins). Represented by the fabulous Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary. Addicted to jumping horses and telling tales of magic, the macabre, and outer space.

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*We receive NO payment of any kind for our reviews-we review books we've bought, or books that are provided by the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review*