Reviews

The Nightmare's Kiss by Skyla Gray

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unhallowed_eve's review

medium-paced

1.5

This book started strong - the writing style was easy and engaging and it did a good job of quickly evoking Mara’s personality and her small hometown with the mysterious facility nearby.

The main problem is that the book tries to be a few things but it doesn’t satisfactorily meet the expectations of any genre. It is not good as a romance because there isn’t nearly enough relationship development between Mara and the Nightmare. There isn’t even any conflict between the two to resolve (also, despite his name the Nightmare is not very scary). Mara reasonably assumes at first that the monster in her dreams is a figment of her anxious mind, but when she learns that he really can enter her dreams she almost immediately trusts him (despite plenty of reasons to be wary) and from this point on their relationship gets boring. Here Mara also comes across as naive and foolish, because she takes the Nightmare at his word even though she doesn’t actually know him (or what he is). She has evidence of what the Nightmare is capable of, and while she has good reason not to trust the managers of the facility, she is happy to ignore warnings like “it will remember the things you reveal and it will use them against you if it can”. This situation could have been used to build some great tension and conflict (Mara not knowing who to trust while being swept along by her feelings) but that did not happen. If this story wasn’t a romance, the same series of events could have sensibly led to an ending much more like a horror. The lack of relationship and character development would have been more forgivable for erotica, but it’s not that either because the sex scenes make up a very small proportion of the story and there are instead plenty of descriptions of the job, the colleagues, and Mara’s investigations.

A major focus of the book is Mara's efforts to free the Nightmare and uncover the secrets of the Facility, but this is not done well either. Mara’s plans are haphazard and require a lot of luck, and again her naivety is apparent when she expects

the management to be compelled by proof that the Nightmare is a being with equivalent sentience and intelligence as humans. Does she truly expect them to just take the Nightmare on his word that he isn’t dangerous?

There is major a continuity error in this storyline:

Mara uploads files to the Cloud using the burner phone hidden at the Facility despite it being previously established that the Facility was a communication dead zone with no wifi or data connectivity.

It becomes nonsensical in the end:

Director Ramsey apparently lured Mara into the facility to “get rid of her” when there would have been much cleaner and safer solutions for an institution with so much power and influence. When Mara finally confronts Director Ramsey who is pointing a gun at her, Mara is shocked that he takes the shot, thinking “I didn’t believe that he would actually shoot me, so there’s nothing I can do except flinch, shut my eyes, and brace for the pain”.

Another example of her credulousness. And there are saccharine and corny declarations like “Dreams are more powerful than you think”. The final showdown between Mara and the Director is all a bit ridiculous -

the Director reminds Mara about the Nightmare having slaughtered a bunch of people in the eighties, Mara gives one last speech about love and power and trusting someone to keep your heart safe, and the Nightmare bites the Director’s head off.

leilah_m's review

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adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

swoodson's review

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3.25

Loved the premise but I wish there was more build up in the relationship

luannarennhack's review

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

ginnylee's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

I love monsters and I love the ethics of some sort of facility holding monsters. The premise is great, it reminds me so much of that movie Cabin in the Woods. I always wanted to know more about that facility and the monsters inside and this combined that need with romance. There were inconsistencies, it could've used a finer toothed comb when it came to the editing but it wasn't anything logic breaking. I also wish there was more in it, it felt a little shallow at times; but the concept is definitely something that would be great to be explored deeper and expanded on.

fr4n_m's review

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

beknoel's review against another edition

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2.75

I love a monster romance- and I was excited when I read the summary of this book. Unfortunately, the romance lacked depth. The relationship between the FMC and her monster MMC was mostly based on sex. The author "told" us that they liked one another instead of "showing" us. I liked the concept but I wish the author gave us more.