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.

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

The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett

Series: Arkwell Academy (bk. 1)

Genera: Paranormal Romance

Subjects: Nightmares, supernatural, dreams, magic, murder boarding schools, magical creatures

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 367 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: TorTeen

Summary/ product description: “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.”

My Rating: êêêê

My Review: Even with the cliché boarding school for magical being, this book managed to be a unique, fun story. Other than in the Soul Screamers series, there really no other YA books about Nightmares. The main character is the Nightmare/mara in this book, even if she’s half normal human. Dusty is nothing like Sabine from Soul Screamer. Dusty is stubborn, and good. Her mother’s the real Nightmare. Her mother left her and her dad when she was a baby, and didn’t really show up until Dusty got her abilities. Her mother likes to bend rules, and she doesn’t have much of a relationship with Dusty.

A the beginning of the book Dusty already knows what she is and has be attending Arkwell for about a year. She’s dream-feeding on Eli and finds out that she and him together can see the future in dreams when together. I really like Eli. He seems like a great guy. His dream is to be an FBI agent. It’s not his fault he got thrown into this. Lucas, the other guy that Dusty dates, I don’t like so much. He seemed like a fake to me. I’m happy to admit that I was right, but not in a spoilery kind of way. Selene was an awesome friend to Dusty. And she’s a siren who doesn’t want sirens to be seen as sex objects. Yeah, she’s awesome.

A big part of this book was a murder mystery that Dusty was trying to solve by dream seeing. It was awesome and different. I’ve read so many murder mysteries and most characters just go for the snoop and stalk method, looking for clues and such. Dream detective? Awesome! And I never guessed who it was! There’s this whole mythology aspect of this book that has to do with the Arthurian legends. Wizards and such.

I recommend this book if you like the Hex Hall series, the Mythos Academy series, other boarding schools series, and books about dreaming like the Wake series.

Cover Art Review: Very vector based. I like the hand rendering on the title. It’s very customized. This book’s cover makes it look fun, which it kind of is. There’s a silhouette of the girl and a Phoenix in a grave yard.

 

~Haley G