The Nightmare Dilemma (Arkwell Academy)

Dusty and Eli have a special relationship. Dusty is a Nightmare, who feeds on dreams. Eli is her partner, and through his dreams they can predict the future. Dusty and Eli, and Dusty’s friend Selene, attend Arkwell Academy, where teenage magic users and monsters go to school. Ever since Dusty broke The Will, there has been unrest between the different factions of magickind. The naturekind are upset about pollution and the environment, and the darkkind are tired of being villainized. Dusty and her friends try to figure out who is spreading the contention, and also if the evil warlord from the last book is coming back, and they interpret the dreams that both Dusty and Eli have been having, all while trying to survive tempestuous high school conditions.

This has the lamest excuse ever for keeping people apart. It is a totally contrived plot device – a prophecy that they can’t love each other. Despite this prophecy, Dusty and Eli manage to fit in plenty of emotional angst. But then it is made into a love triangle with Dusty’s ex-boyfriend, who is now out of jail and back in school, as hot as ever. Tedious. I think the plot, when it wasn’t angsty, was enjoyable, but the afore-mentioned reasons brought my rating down to three stars.