Title: The Collector (Dante Walker #1)
Author: Victoria Scott
Publication: April 2, 2013 by Entangled Teen
Pages: Paperback, 352 pages
Reviewed by: Isalys
Reason for Reading: ARC of e-book provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review.
He makes good girls...bad.
Dante
Walker is flippin’ awesome, and he knows it. His good looks, killer
charm, and stellar confidence have made him one of hell’s best—a soul
collector. His job is simple: weed through humanity and label those
round rears with a big red good or bad stamp. Old Saint Nick gets the
good guys, and he gets the fun ones. Bag-and-tag.
Sealing souls
is nothing personal. Dante’s an equal-opportunity collector and doesn't
want it any other way. But he’ll have to adjust, because Boss Man has
given him a new assignment:
Collect Charlie Cooper’s soul within ten days.
Dante
doesn't know why Boss Man wants Charlie, nor does he care. This
assignment means only one thing to him, and that’s a permanent ticket
out of hell. But after Dante meets the quirky Nerd Alert chick he’s come
to collect, he realizes this assignment will test his abilities as a
collector…and uncover emotions deeply buried.
This is one of those books that lands on your lap and you think, "hmm, seems interesting" and then you end up devouring it!
Dante is your quintessential bad boy! He had looks, popularity and money to spare and he lived his life accordingly...which incidentally is how he ended up with the gig as Satan's Numero Uno Collector, aka a demon! He is up for a promotion and if he earns it, then he gets a one way ticket out of Hell and he can roam earth among the living. In order to seal the deal though, he has ten days to collect one wittle soul. Being such a badass, he's totally got this! Right? Charlie, whose soul he must reap is nothing like he expected. She's perky and uber-nice and likes to do volunteer work and is not cute! He can't understand why "Boss Man" would be interested in her soul, but then it's not his place to question. Now, he has to work overtime to corrupt her because her soul is sparkly, squeaky clean!
Dante and Charlie are opposite in every way and yet it's because of their differences that you like them both so much. Dante is cocky, sarcastic and brutally (sometimes painfully) honest.
He's the boy that you love to hate and hate to love (not unlike Daemon from Obsidian)! His narration is unmistakably male and I thought Victoria did a very good job of capturing that "guy" mentality. For a moment or two, I thought Victoria sneaked into my head in the middle of the night and stole my words. Not because I think I'm a dude (lol), but because his snark is something that I related to. I personally liked him far more than I disliked him. While he was arrogant to the point of being obnoxious, it didn't bother me because 1) it came with the demon territory and 2) it made his character development that much sweeter.
On the flip side, Charlie is
'average' yet kind, forgiving and compassionate. Charlie will immediately endear you to her because she's real. She doesn't have the perfect body or perfect hair or perfect friends. She's a normal teenage girl with acne who wears glasses and is a nerd! Perhaps a bit too trusting, you can't help admire her willingness to see the good in everyone, even a demon! You nor Dante could resist falling in love with her.
I do have to say that the plot takes a backseat to the main characters! Charlie is caught in the middle of a potential war between Big Guy (God) and Boss Man (The Devil) and as Dante realizes that Charlie is so much more than he gave her credit for, his alliance begins to change. Dante finds allies in the secondary characters which were interesting & entertaining, but not nearly as captivating as our hero and heroine.
It was Charlie & Dante who stole the show with their "shake my fist at them" or "made me all melty" moments. Victoria did an excellent job of making you invest your emotions into their complicated relationship!
With a delicious bad boy, a sweet heroine, romance, some action, and a pinch of hope,
The Collector by Victoria Scott delivers a unique story about love and redemption with characters that could not be more opposite nor any more perfect for each other!
And if you loveeee Dante [...and Charlie] as much as I do, then don't forget to add Victoria's next installment,
The Liberator (Dante Walker #2) to your TBR pile :)
Note: Click on the image to be redirected to The Liberator's page on Goodreads so you can add it to your "Want To Read" list.
PS: Dudettes, aren't these covers hawt? Just making sure you noticed, too!
Victoria Scott is totes my new BFF (inside joke...at least it is in my head, lol) and is also a teen fiction writer represented by Sara Crowe. She's the author of THE COLLECTOR trilogy (Entangled Teen) and the FLOOD AND FIRE trilogy (Scholastic). Victoria lives in Dallas with her husband and hearts cotton candy something fierce.
