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The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett
Release date: March 5th, 2013
Publisher: Tor Teens
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12411635-the-nightmare-affair
Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

Description via Goodreads:
16-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare. Literally. Dusty is a magical being who feeds on human dreams.
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. The setting is Arkwell.
And then it 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.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Words cannot express how sorry I am for being MIA since early this year. My daily routine includes chopping sheep organs and working with radioactive substance for my Honors year. Wish I have more time to hang out here and read more. :(

Anyway, The Midnight Affair was a lovely surprise because I didn't expect to feel this entertained when I was expecting something entirely different from a book. I don't know why but I kept expecting a darker and a more depressing tone of the story even though the cover and the blurb kinda hint that this is more like a chick-lit fantasy YA novel. Probably because my infatuation with lucid dreams LOL!

Initially, although the premise of Nightmare as a person is very refreshing, I couldn't help but to feel like this is another Harry Potter/Hex Hall wannabe. It doesn't help when Dusty, the protag reminds me a lot of Sophie from Hex Hall due to her sassy plus awkward persona. But somehow it worked? I agree the first half was not substantial enough but strangely it didn't deter me from reading more. I was quite entertained with the wide range of species in Arkwell Academy such as the werewolf police, the hag, the siren - they all inject a little something to the story with their distinctive personalities.

The second half was intense LOL! The myth isn't entirely original but the spin put on to it was believable and well-developed. I have a feeling that there were indeed some plot holes, but because the story was so enjoyable at this point, I didn't bother to scrutinize anymore. Yes, it was also predictable but not too predictable, if you get I mean? LOL! You'd know that obviously these guys weren't the bad guys but you're not entirely sure if the good guys were truly the good guys?

Anyway, the ending put aside, Paul is the ultimate swoonworthy guy! I also liked the best friend, Selene, the rebellious siren. I was somewhat entertained by the pranks war between Dusty and Lance. Lance is this scumbag, popular guy who likes to assume the Joker persona. Extra brownie points from me there because I just love the Joker!

So overall, I thought this book wasn't bad at all. It's not spectacular, mind you, but if you're looking for a light read then this fits the bill nicely. :)

**The ARC was provided by Tor Teen in exchange for an honest review.

Me gusta! A four-star!

View all my reviews

Author Lisa Voisin’s THE WATCHER will be releasing exactly one month from today, on March 4th, 2013 and we’re super excited to be able to share with our blog’s readers a short excerpt from the book and to be a part of the book’s awesome trailer reveal!

There is also a giveaway for a pre-order copy of THE WATCHER for US/Canada residents. So be sure to enter below.

THE WATCHER is author Lisa Voisin’s debut novel and is a book Eileen Cook says, “…is sure to keep readers turning the pages late into the night.”

And after having read both the excerpt and the book’s description, we couldn’t agree more! But we’ll let you decide for yourself. They’re both included below. As is the book’s wicked cool trailer!

With some gothic techno beats, super cool images and a description that is meant to tease, this trailer totally sets the mood for this story. What do you think?

About the Book


Title: THE WATCHER
Author: Lisa Voisin
Publisher: InkSpell Publishing
Publication date: March 4, 2013
Pages: 508
Format: Available to pre-order in Paperback
Find it: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Inkspell | Kobo

Millennia ago, he fell from heaven for her.
Can he face her without falling again?

Fascinated with ancient civilizations, seventeen-year-old Mia Crawford dreams of becoming an archaeologist. She also dreams of wings—soft and silent like snow—and somebody trying to steal them.

When a horrible creature appears out of thin air and attacks her, she knows Michael Fontaine is involved, though he claims to know nothing about it. Secretive and aloof, Michael evokes feelings in Mia that she doesn’t understand. Images of another time and place haunt her. She recognizes them—but not from any textbook.

About the Author


A Canadian-born author, Lisa Voisin spent her childhood daydreaming and making up stories, but it was her love of reading and writing in her teens that drew her to Young Adult fiction.

When she's not writing, you'll find her meditating or hiking in the mountains to counter the side effects of drinking too much coffee.

She lives in Vancouver, B.C. with her fiance and their two cats.

Find her: Twitter | Facebook | Website | Blog



Instead of saying more, he brushed his fingertips along my cheek, and his halo glimmered. I could hear the waves slapping the rocks behind us, the wind driving them in. That same wind whipped against my skin, but the touch of his hand on my face was all I could think about. It sent a current through both of us and filled me with longing for something I wasn’t sure I understood.

“I’m sorry.” He stepped back and shoved his hands into his pockets as the light around him faded. “You don’t know what it’s like. Being near you now, remembering those moments we had…” His hair blew into his eyes, but this time he didn’t move. I wanted to brush it back, but I didn’t know how he’d react. Would touching him be bad?

“You want to know who you were?” he asked. “You may look different, but you’re the same. I look into your eyes and see you.” He took in a deep breath, fixing his attention on the horizon. I’d seen and heard so much now that the logical part of my brain had long since given up arguing with me. I could feel what he was saying was true. All of it.

• ONE pre-order copy of THE WATCHER by Lisa Voisin open to US/Canada.
• Must be 13 or older to enter.
• ONE entry per household.
• Winner will be announced in the Rafflecopter and contacted by email.
• Winner will have 48 hours after notification to respond or another winner will be chosen.

Enter below... a Rafflecopter giveaway

In a changed world where the sky bleeds red, winter is hotter than hell and full of sandstorms, and summer's even hotter with raging fires that roam the desert-like country, the Heaters manage to survive, barely.
Due to toxic air, life expectancies are so low the only way the tribe can survive is by forcing women to procreate when they turn sixteen and every three years thereafter. It is their duty as Bearers.
Fifteen-year-old Siena is a Youngling, soon to be a Bearer, when she starts hearing rumors of another tribe of all women, called the Wild Ones. They are known to kidnap Youngling girls before the Call, the ceremony in which Bearers are given a husband with whom to bear children with.
As the desert sands run out on her life's hourglass, Siena must uncover the truth about the Wild Ones while untangling the web of lies and deceit her father has masterfully spun.

When I’m sixteen and reach the midpoint of my life, I’ll have my first child. Not ’cause I want to, or ’cause I made a silly decision with a strapping young boy after sneaking a few sips of my father’s fire juice, but ’cause I must. It’s the Law of my people, the Heaters; a Law that’s kept us alive and thriving for many years. A Law I fear.

I learned all about the ways of the world when I turned seven: the bleeding time, what I would hafta do with a man when I turned sixteen, and how the baby—my baby—would grow inside me for nine full moons. Even though it all seemed like a hundred years distant at the time, I cried for two days. Now that it’s less’n a year away, I’m too scared to cry.

Veeva told me all ’bout the pain. She’s seventeen, and her baby’s five full moons old and “uglier’n one of the hairy ol’ warts on the Medicine Man’s feet.” Or at least that’s how she describes Polk. Me, I think he’s sorta cute, in a scrunched up, fat-cheeked kind of way. Well, anyway, she said to me, “Siena, you never felt pain so burnin’ fierce. I screamed and screamed…and then screamed some more. And then this ugly tug of a baby comes out all red-faced and oozy. And now I’m stuck with it.” I didn’t remind her Polk’s a him not an it.

I already knew about her screaming. Everyone in the village knew about Veeva’s screaming. She sounded like a three ton tug stuck in a bog hole. Veeva’s always cursing, too, throwing around words like burnin’ and searin’ and blaze—words that’d draw my father’s hand across my face like lightning if I ever let them slip out of my mouth like they’re nothing more’n common language.

In any case, everything she tells me about turning sixteen just makes me wish I didn’t hafta get older, could stay fifteen for the next seventeen or so years, until the Fire takes me.

It’s not fair, really, that boys get to wait until they’re eighteen ’fore their names get put in the Call. I’d kill for an extra two years of no baby.

David Estes was born in El Paso, Texas but moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was very young. He grew up in Pittsburgh and then went to Penn State for college. Eventually moved to Sydney, Australia where he met his wife. A reader all his life, he began writing novels for the children's and YA markets in 2010. He´s a writer with OCD, a love of dancing and singing (but only when no one is looking or listening), a mad-skilled ping-pong player, and prefers writing at the swimming pool to writing at a table

Genre: NA Paranormal Fantasy Romance

Expected release date: May 15, 2013

Age Group: New Adult

Cover Designer: Stephanie Mooney 

Wonderlander, Neverlander, Unicorn-chaser, enchanter, musician, survived a coma, & totally awesome. Sometimes I tell stories. Always luv the little monsters. I write young adult paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and science fiction mostly. The Grimm Diaries series is a seven book saga that deals with retellings of fairy tales from a young adult POV - it connects most of the fairy tales together and claims to be the truth about fairy tales. I live in San Fransisco and seriously think circles are way cooler than triangles. Website / Goodreads /Facebook / Twitter