Title: City of Nightmares

Series: City of Nightmares #1

Author: Rebecca Schaeffer

Gotham meets Strange the Dreamer in this thrilling young adult fantasy about a cowardly girl who finds herself at the center of a criminal syndicate conspiracy, in a city where crooked politicians and sinister cults reign and dreaming means waking up as your worst nightmare.

Ever since her sister became a man-eating spider and slaughtered her way through town, nineteen-year-old Ness has been terrified—terrified of some other Nightmare murdering her, and terrified of ending up like her sister. Because in Newham, the city that never sleeps, dreaming means waking up as your worst fear.

Whether that means becoming a Nightmare that’s monstrous only in appearance, to transforming into a twisted, unrecognizable creature that terrorizes the city, no one is safe. Ness will do anything to avoid becoming another victim, even if that means lying low among the Friends of the Restful Soul, a questionable organization that may or may not be a cult.

But being a member of maybe-cult has a price. In order to prove herself, Ness cons her way into what’s supposed to be a simple job for the organization—only for it to blow up in her face. Literally. Tangled up in the aftermath of an explosive assassination, now Ness and the only other survivor—a Nightmare boy who Ness suspects is planning to eat her—must find their way back to Newham and uncover the sinister truth behind the attack, even as the horrors of her past loom ominously near.

Ness lives in a place where your worst nightmare can literally come to pass just as you sleep.

Because of this, Ness is permanently frightened, a self-confessed coward, and as this can happen to anyone at any point, I really can’t blame her at all!

A routine trip for the Friends of the Restful Soul (it’s not a cult!) turns Ness life upside down and makes her question everything, including herself.

I’m here again to toot my horn for the main man! Sometimes I think why am I like this? Why do I fall for every leading man?! But then I shrug and carry on loving them! Vampire, Cy stole my heart. He was everything. I love him!

This was a really great read. A bit dark, a bit weird, totally original and fabulously written. Now I need a physical copy because I’m in love with that cover!