The Nightmare Charade by Mindee Arnett

Series: Arkwell Academy (bk. 3)

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance

Subjects: supernatural, boarding schools, dreams, humor, magic, magical creatures, mystery, mythology, nightmares, sirens

Setting: Somewhere in Ohio (Chickery) at Arkwell Academy

POV/Tense: 1st person, past tense: Dusty

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 380 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Macmillan: Tor

Summary/ product description: “The final installment in a thrilling fantastical mystery series.

Sixteen-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, not to mention the crazy events of the past year. Dusty may have saved the day, but there are many days left in the year, and with an old foe back to seek revenge, she'll need all her strength to defeat him and save her friends.

Mindee Arnett thrills again in this stunning final installment in the Arkwell Academy series.”

My Review:  Another wonderful finale. What started in The Nightmare Affair, and continued in The Nighmare Dilemma ends in The Nightmare Charade. Dusty Everhart is a Nightmare (and half-human). She can enter people dreams and feed off their dream energy known as fictus. Eli and her are Dreamseers (and call themselves the Dream-team). When she enters Eli’s dreams, they can see the future. They are given a task to look into the disappearance of Deaths Heart, which can steal souls.

I really like this series. It’s fun and entertaining. It’s set in a boarding school like a lot of paranormal series I’ve read. This school isn’t like Hogwarts. It’s not only for wizards and witches, but also for Dark-kind (demons, nightmares, sirens) and Nature-kind (fairies, dryads) too. It’s supposed to be in Ohio, which is cool because I’ve been to Ohio, but it’s not like the state setting plays a huge role. It’s where the author lives.

I think the coolest side character is Selene, Dusty’s best friend. She’s a Siren and she has black bird wings and can fly! She can also mesmerize like the other sirens, but chooses not to. She mostly uses spells and decides to try out for the gladiator team. I think it would be awesome for the author to write a spin-off series about a siren. It’s kind of cool to have a non-mermaid siren.

In this book when Dusty enters Eli’s dreams they see something that freaks them out. There’s this curse that Dreamseerers can’t fall in love because one will die. Lady Elaine has warned them and shown Eli her vison of what will happen if they continue their relationship. Eli can’t help that he loves Dusty, but tries to distance himself and tries to join the gladiator team. During the dream-feeding session, a Will Guard puts Eli to sleep before Dusty has a chance to talk to Eli. In the dreams, they cannot touch, which sucks. This forbidden romance is hard on them.

The ending is crazy and full of twists. I never guessed who was behind it all. There’s a lot of things I don’t want to spoil, so I didn’t mention the other plot points. There’s so much than happens in this book. It’s a great ending. I recommend this series to fans of paranormal romance series that take place in boarding schools, like Evernight, Hex Hall and Haven.

Cover Art Review: It’s a vector illustration and looks kind of fun. I just don’t like how the boat was rendered.

The Nightmare Dilemma by Mindee Arnett

Series: Arkwell Academy (bk. 2)

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance

Subjects: supernatural, boarding schools, dreams, humor, magic, magical creatures, mystery, mythology, nightmares, sirens

Setting: Somewhere in Ohio (Chickery) at Arkwell Academy

POV/Tense: 1^st person, past tense: Dusty

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 380 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Macmillan: Tor

Summary/ product description: “The second in a thrilling new fantastical mystery series

Dusty Everhart might be able to predict the future through the dreams of her crush, Eli Booker, but that doesn’t make her life even remotely easy. When one of her mermaid friends is viciously assaulted and left for dead, and the school’s jokester, Lance Rathbone, is accused of the crime, Dusty’s as shocked as everybody else. Lance needs Dusty to prove his innocence by finding the real attacker, but that’s easier asked than done. Eli’s dreams are no help, more nightmares than prophecies.

To make matters worse, Dusty’s ex-boyfriend has just been acquitted of conspiracy and is now back at school, reminding Dusty of why she fell for him in the first place. The Magi Senate needs Dusty to get close to him, to discover his real motives. But this order infuriates Eli, who has started his own campaign for Dusty’s heart.

As Dusty takes on both cases, she begins to suspect they’re connected to something bigger. And there’s something very wrong with Eli’s dreams, signs that point to a darker plot than they could have ever imagined.”

My Review:  As far as sequel go, The Nightmare Dilemma was pretty good. Not as good as the first book, but good enough. I love the narration and the humor. Dusty is a great main character. She’s funny and always saying smart-remarks to people.

This series is riddled with clichés of other YA PNR books about boarding schools. But the humor and twists in the story make it more unique. It’s not a vampire boarding school, it’s more like Hogwartz for all paranormal being. You have the nature-kind: fairies, mermaid, and dryads. Dark-kinds: demon, hags and sirens. Witch-kinds: wizards, witches and psychics. Dusty is a half-kind. Half nightmare (which is a dark-kind). She can go into people dreams. Her and Eli together can see the future in dreams.

Dusty and her friends make a great team. They actually call themselves the Dream Team when they investigate stuff. Eli is very attractive and seems like a great guy. He and Dusty are not really romatically involved, but the dream-seeing thing forces intimacy. Selene is a good friend. She and Dusty act like sisters. They are roomates and it reminds me a lot of the House of Night series with Zoey and Stevie Rae. And Selene is a siren, and she can fly.

The plot was not as interesting as the first book. There wasn’t some huge mystery, but I never expected who specifically was behind the attacks. It wasn’t just one person. The Nightmare Dilemma is still worth reading. This series is worth reading if you like House of Night, Vampire Academy, Harry Potter, Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep, Winterhaven trilogy by Kristie Cook, Legacies by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edgehill or any other paranormal boarding schools. There’re new characters to love and a lot of magic!

Cover Art Review: The vector art on the cove is cute and fun. It fits the story.

Loki’s Wolves by Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr

Release Date: May 7^th 2013

Series: The Blackwell Pages (bk. 1)

Genera: Paranormal/Fantasy

Subjects: Norse mythology, mythology, gods, adventure, magic, South Dakota

Age/Grade Level: Middle Grade/Teen 11+

Length: Arc: 359 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $16.99

Publisher: Little, Brown

Summary/ product description: “In Viking times, Norse myths predicted the end of the world, an event called Ragnarok, that only the gods can stop. When this apocalypse happens, the gods must battle the monsters--wolves the size of the sun, serpents that span the seabeds, all bent on destroying the world.
The gods died a long time ago.
Matt Thorsen knows every Norse myth, saga, and god as if it was family history--because it is family history. Most people in the modern-day town of Blackwell, South Dakota, in fact, are direct descendants of either Thor or Loki, including Matt's classmates Fen and Laurie Brekke.
However, knowing the legends and completely believing them are two different things. When the rune readers reveal that Ragnarok is coming and kids--led by Matt--will stand in for the gods in the final battle, he can hardly believe it. Matt, Laurie, and Fen's lives will never be the same as they race to put together an unstoppable team to prevent the end of the world.”

My Rating: êêêê

My Review: I have not read many middle grade books beside Rick Riordan’s series, so I don’t have much else to compare this to. It’s a lot like his book called The Lost Hero, in the Heroes of Olympus series (and somewhat like the Percy Jackson series too). Except, this is Norse Mythology and not written by Riordan. Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr manage to write it in a style that is very similar. So if you like Riordan’s books, you’ll enjoy this book.

I received this book as an ARC. I requested it because I love Norse Mythology and all of Kelley Armstrong’s YA books (Can’t say the same for Melissa Marr. The Wicked Lovely series was not very good). I almost did not read this because it’s middle grade and I’m general only into YA. But as a fan of Percy Jackson and other mythology related books, I gave it a chance. I’m glad I did. The other great thing about this book was the setting. I love South Dakota. I’ve been there twice. I’ve been to many of the places mentioned in this book. Blackwell isn’t a real town, but it’s probably in the same general area as Custer, the place I camped. I’ve been to Mt. Rushmore, and I’ve panned for gold in Lead. I visited Deadwood and saw the Wild Bill reenactments. I’ve been to Reptile Gardens and remember the dome with all the plant that was in the illustration. I really loved the illustrations. The ARC didn’t have them, but I saw them in the hardcover and they look like graphic novel worthy art. The pictures do the story justice.

As for characters. Sadly Thor and Loki are not in this book. But their descendants are. Basically, the characters are demi-gods, but that term isn’t used. Matt is descended from Thor, and Fen and Laurie are from Loki. Matt uses him hammer amulet to pack a punch, Fen can shape-shift into a wolf, and Laurie has good luck and can fool people through trickery and gets some other powers later on. Laurie is probably the most interesting of the three. They go on an adventure looking for other descendants that can help them stop Ragnarok a.k.a. the end of the world as we know it. Something about the Midgarde Serpent (Have you watched the show Vikings on History? I have. They talked about Norse Mythology on it).

The issue I had with this book was the way it was written. Lots of unnecessary detail in parts. The whole telling us stuff instead of showing it. I’m pretty sure that any bad parts were written by Marr, because I love Kelley Armstrong’s writing. This was written for a younger age group, so it’s not as rich in complicated descriptions or romance the way YA paranormal is. It was different, and that’s okay.

I recommend this to fans of Rick Riordan’s books, the Need series by Carrie Jones, Valkyrie Rising, the Stork series or any other mythology related series. It’s a fun read. Especially for middle-schoolers who can relate to the characters better.

 

Cover Art Review: I like the illustration on the cover, but I don’t like the title with that symbol behind it. I’m hoping that the hard cover both will be embossed and metallic so it looks better.

 

~Haley G

With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent

Series: Soul Screamer (bk. 7)

Genera: Paranormal

Subjects: Supernatural, banshees, reapers, death, afterlife, souls, love,

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 377 pgs.

HC/PB: Paperback

List Price: $9.99

Publisher: HarlequinTeen

Summary/ product description: “What does it mean when your school is voted the most dangerous in America? It's time to kick some hellion butt...
After not really surviving her junior year (does "undead" count as survival?), Kaylee Cavanaugh has vowed to take back her school from the hellions causing all the trouble. She's going to find a way to turn the incarnations of Avarice, Envy and Vanity against one another in order to protect her friends and finish this war, once and forever.
But then she meets Wrath and understands that she's closer to the edge than she's ever been. And when one more person close to her is taken, Kaylee realizes she can't save everyone she loves without risking everything she has....

My Rating: êêêêê

My Review: How do you review the final book in a series? All I can say is that this is an awesome, action-packed, and well-written finale. It’s unbelievable that this series is over. Seven books. I love this series so much and I’ll miss all the characters, especially Tod. I still have to read the novellas and short stories, but the books are done. Unless the author decides to write a spinoff series in which the main character is a different paraonormal being, maybe a female Reaper, or Siren, or maybe an incubus. This was the longest book in the series and had so much packed into it. It took me a week to read because I was savoring it. This isn’t the type of book you want to read in one sitting. I wanted to drag it out slowly because one’s it’s done, it’s done and it’s not like you can re-read it and still be surprised what happens. The ending was happy, but I was surprised by it. I wasn’t sure how thing would turn out after what Kaylee did, but they turned out good.

So, here’s what I can say without being spoilery. At the end of the previous book, Kaylee put Emma’s soul into Lydia’s body. Poor Emma! To see her own funeral, and to feel others emotions because Lydia was a Syphon, that really sucks. But it did make for an interesting conflict. There were a lot of side-conflicts in this book. The main one it Avari trying to get Kaylee to surrender her soul, but there’s others. Like Emma’s sister being pregnant with an incubus. Kaylee meets the hellion of wrath, and help her for a taste of her anger. Lots of crazy stuff, and it makes the story interesting.

And the swoony romance of Kaylee and Tod. Tod is the most hilarious fictional boyfriend ever. He’s a reaper and he have a great sense of humor. He acts like he’s narcissistic, and has a big ego, but that’s all humor. He love Kaylee more than anything, and that matter more than anything. I loved what he said about Hellions not being proper villains. That’s on page 293-294. And there’s a part when he says that he hopes Nash has those grandkids and old man gut someday, wishing him a life of good sex and food. Funniest thing ever. And he says some very swoon worthy things too. I want Tod so bad! Despite him having a name like Tod, he sound awesome. Tod and Kaylee should have been together since book 2, not just the middle of book 5.

So how does everyone else feel about the ending? I looked at the other reviews. So many great series ending this year. It does feel like torture. But it’s still better that being tortured in the Netherworld. Tortured by finale books? I’ll take that kind any day over hellions.

Cover Art Review: Such a pretty golden dress. Wish there was something more paranormal looking, but I love the title typeface.

 

~Haley G