Review: Avalon by Mindee Arnett

Title: Avalon

Series: Avalon #1

Prequel novella: Proxy

Author: Mindee Arnett

Genre: YA, sci-fi

Publication date: January 2014

Published by: Balzer & Bray

Source: Paperback ARC for review from publisher

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Synopsis: Of the various star systems that make up the Confederation, most lie thousands of light-years from First Earth-and out here, no one is free. The agencies that govern the Confederation are as corrupt as the crime bosses who patrol it, and power is held by anyone with enough greed and ruthlessness to claim it. That power is derived from one thing: metatech, the devices that allow people to travel great distances faster than the speed of light.

Jeth Seagrave and his crew of teenage mercenaries have survived in this world by stealing unsecured metatech, and they're damn good at it. Jeth doesn't care about the politics or the law; all he cares about is earning enough money to buy back his parents' ship, Avalon, from his crime-boss employer and getting himself and his sister, Lizzie, the heck out of Dodge. But when Jeth finds himself in possession of information that both the crime bosses and the government are willing to kill for, he is going to have to ask himself how far he'll go to get the freedom he's wanted for so long.

My rating: ★★★☆☆

I first read this book about ten years ago and I remember absolutely loving it! I re-read it recently because after all of these years, I still had not finished reading the duology and my recollection of this book was pretty nonexistent 😅

Review: Proxy (Avalon #0.5) by Mindee Arnett

Title: Proxy

Series: Avalon #0.5

Author: Mindee Arnett

Genre: YA, sci-fi

Publication date: December 2013

Published by: Balzer + Bray

Source: Gifted

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Synopsis: Proxy is an action-packed introduction to a world like nothing readers have seen before, and it sets a spark to the powder keg that will explode in Mindee Arnett's sci-fi thriller Avalon.

If you need something stolen from any star system in the Confederation, you need look no further than the Shades. Jeth Seagrave and his band of teenage mercenaries have been making a name for themselves for being able to steal anything—and for disappearing before anyone is the wiser. Their latest job, a jewel heist on Grakkus, should be no different. But when Jeth's boss replaces a key member of his crew just before takeoff, and Jeth discovers a betrayal within his own ranks, he begins to suspect that not everyone is going to be coming back from his job alive.

My rating: ★★★★☆

Man, it has been a minute since I last visited this world. But lately, I’ve been really into sci-fi and I figured I’d try and finish off this duology. BUT I read this like 8 years ago so I was definitely going to need a refresher.

Review: The Nightmare Charade (The Arkwell Academy #3) by Mindee Arnett

Title: The Nightmare Charade

Series: The Arkwell Academy #3

Previous books in this series: The Nightmare Affair (#1) The Nightmare Dilemma (#2)

Author: Mindee Arnett

Genre: YA, urban fantasy

Publication date: August 2015

Published by: Tor Teen

Source: Purchased hardcover

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Synopsis: It’s her junior year at Arkwell Academy, and Dusty Everhart just wants to be alone with her boyfriend, Eli Booker. But fate is literally keeping them apart. See, Dusty is a Nightmare, who can enter Eli’s dreams to find clues to the future, but an ancient curse predicts that any romance between them is doomed to end in tragedy. Dusty and Eli are willing to take that risk, but the authorities disagree—and have assigned a chaperone to make sure their relationship is strictly platonic.

As if that’s not bad enough, they’ve been recruited by the Department of Intelligence for Magickind Secrecy (D.I.M.S.) to use their dream-seer bond to help recover the most powerful object of black magic known to magickind. The Animus Mortem can raise the dead by stealing the souls of the living... which makes tracking it down a genuine matter of life and death.

To make matters worse, one of Dusty’s friends is accused of murder and is counting on her to clear his name.

Dusty has too many dreams, too many commitments, and too many people looking over her shoulder, but a Nightmare seldom plays by the rules. Curse or no curse, chaperone or not, she has to go deep into Eli’s dreams if she’s going to find the truth—and discover a way for them to truly be together at last!

My rating: ★★★★☆

I first started this series ELEVEN years ago, and I’m only completing it now...

Review: The Nightmare Dilemma (The Arkwell Academy #2) by Mindee Arnett

Title: The Nightmare Dilemma

Series: The Arkwell Academy #2

Previous book in this series: The Nightmare Affair

Author: by Mindee Arnett

Genre: YA, urban fantasy

Publication date: January 2014

Published by: Tor Teen

Source: Won paperback ARC in giveaway

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Synopsis: 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 rating: ★★★★☆

It had been a while since I read the first book in this series, I think almost 10 years, but despite that, I decided to not re-read it before going into this book. I love re-reading books but I have actually read The Nightmare Affair twice, so I thought I would be okay. And I was! I had a vague memory of what went on in the last book, but this book also did a pretty good job of touching on the important things that happened in The Nightmare Affair, so I was very happy about that.

Review: The Nightmare Affair (The Arkwell Academy #1) by Mindee Arnett

Title: The Nightmare Affair

Series: The Arkwell Academy #1

Author: Mindee Arnett

Genre: YA, paranormal, urban fantasy

Publication date: March 5th, 2013

Published by: Tor Teen

Source: from the publishers via Netgalley

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Synopsis:

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: ★★★★★
This book was UH-MAZE-ING! It was just great and a very fun read! And I love the title of the book...it's very fitting :)