[aerohead]

I'm in the middle of a dated, however very comprehensive journal paper on the above.
So far, there are no such things as nova 'stars', or 'dwarf nova stars', only variable binary systems, which contain a main-sequence star like our Sun, orbiting a white dwarf star, donating mass, via an accretion disc of matter.
And it is a 'hot spot' on the accretion disk itself, between the two stars, where the 'nova' luminosity actually comes from, not either of the stars themselves.
When 'nova' and 'mini-nova' were mentioned awhile back, I couldn't wrap my head around the concept. This paper is connecting the dots which led to my intuitive reaction.