The Collector
(Dante Walker 1)
Author: Victoria Scott
Publisher: Entangled Teen, 2013
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD
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.
Dante Walker is the best soul collector on Earth. His job is really simple, every time a human sins, they get a seal. And no one does bad like Dante does. Then Boss Man calls with an offer, he gets a promotion if he collects the soul of Charlie Cooper in ten days. Piece of cake, right? Dante thought so, until he met Charlie, the girl with the purest soul ever. Feelings he’d though long dead slowly resurface and Dante has trouble remembering Charlie’s just an assignment.
The Collector is sinfully good! Dante Walker certainly is another YA Crush Star!
Dante is the most arrogant, conceited, red-obsessed, cocky bastard I’ve ever met. It can get annoying at times, but luckily he has some redeeming qualities, like he hates bullies and he develops a thing for defending Charlie against them. The scene at the party when he goes searching for her was really unexpected and so full of emotion. It went a long way to endearing me to him. After that, I was a lost cause. Dante Walker had bagged and tagged me. I did wish his sudden change of heart had been less…sudden.
As for Charlie…I didn’t care that much for her. In the beginning she’s clueless, starved for attention, and no match for Dante. Then we get to know her and she’s this super good girl who really cares about people. But her naiveté was really off putting for me, and it’s a trait she carried throughout the whole book. Her friends weren’t that impressive either, except for Blue. Now him I wanted to know also, unfortunately that’s no longer possible…
The ending was a surprising whirlwind of intense emotion, something completely unexpected given the flippant tone of the first half. A lot of twists in those last two chapters and so many consequences for the actions taken there. I’m eager to follow Dante into the next story, The Liberator.
Favorite Quotes:
~Black Amex~
She nods and tells me it’ll be $140.89, and I hand over my limitless Amex Black. The cashier raises an eyebrow and takes the card from me like it’s made of explosives. She turns it around in her hands, and I have an urge to throw my arms up and scream, “Pow!” Some people say the Amex Black card is a myth. Those people are also referred to as poor.
~Pfft. Pfft~
“Max?”“Yeah,” he says way too loud.
“I’m going to bring this girl in. I don’t need the contract.”
Max smiles with his entire face. “There’s the guy who trained me, you sexy son-of-a-bitch. I know you could do this. I told the Assistant, I said, ‘Do you even know who you’re dealing with here? Pfft. Pfft.”
“You definitely didn’t say that.”
“Nope. I sure as hell didn’t. That woman would’ve cut my junk off. And I need my junk. Especially tonight. What with all the Peachville honeys I’m trotting with.”
