The Nightmare Dilemma (The Arkwell Academy #2) - Mindee Arnett [Review]

Title: The Nightmare Dilemma (The Arkwell Academy #2)

Author: Mindee Arnett         

Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy

Publisher: Tor Teen

Publishing date: March 4th 2014

Pages: 384

Rating

★★★☆☆

Past reviews:

The NightmareAffair

Hello! Today I’m finally reviewing the second installment in the Arkwell Academy trilogy.

This trilogy revolves around Dusty Everhart, a Nightmare (creature that can enter in people’s

dreams and feed off of them). She and her crush Eli Booker are dream seers. Dusty can predict the future by analyzing Eli’s dreams. In this book 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. 

The beginning of the book was really interested as it settled the mystery and established a

The cover of the first book.

dangerous vibe. It really got me interested in the story. Sadly, after some chapters the mystery became a bit boring and was overshadowed by the teenage romantic conflicts, a thing I wasn’t very fond of.

My biggest issue with the book was the romance. I understand they’re teenagers, but Dusty had horny thoughts a lot and that made me feel a bit uncomfortable, I don’t remember being like that when I was her age. Also, Dusty is in love with Eli, but turns out they can’t be together thanks to a prophecy or something like that and I found it really unnecessary, it only worked to introduce the love triangle, again. There is a love triangle between Dusty, Eli and Paul (Dusty’s ex-boyfriend), which I feel was very forced and unbelievable after the bad things Paul did in the first book. It didn’t make sense to me.

I didn’t like this book as much as the first one, it was slower and the pace didn’t pick up until nearly the end, and also it felt like a standalone. I still want to read the final book thou.

If you are looking for an interesting light YA magical mystery, you should pick up the first book in the trilogy and if you like it, read this one.