Sunday 7 April 2013

Blog Tour / Review: The Collector (Dante Walker #1) by Victoria Scott

I am so pleased to be able to participate in the ‘2013 Belongs to Dante’ blog tour, hosted by YA Bound.


Today, I will be sharing with you my review of The Collector, the first book in the Dante Walker series by Victoria Scott.


The Collector (Dante Walker, #1)
Series: Dante Walker
Pages: 352
Source: YA Bound
Publisher: Entangled Teen
The Collector - Amazon B&N : TBD

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

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.

Contact Victoria Scott: Twitter – Website – Blog Goodreads

Review: 3 out of 5 stars

The Collector has been high up on my wishlist ever since I first glimpsed the smexy demon on the cover and read the amazing synopsis. But I always get nervous when there is so much hype surrounding a book; I am pleased to say though that this one lived up to my high expectations, it was fun and a very big surprise.

Dante Walker loves his job as Soul Collector – it’s something he enjoys and is very good at, his latest assignment from the Boss Man downstairs is to tag Charlie Cooper within ten days, he thinks she’ll be an easy target and in return he’ll be promoted to Soul Director with a one way ticket out of hell but when he meets the angelic and nerdy Charlie, his work is certainly cut out for him.

Charlie is a character who I thought was amazing! There were so many nasty descriptions to describe her looks which seemed at times to outshine her unbelievable kindness and sweet nature. She was put down and humiliated and despite Dante’s snarky attitude and trying to lead her astray, she stood tall and held strong. It was nice to see the relationship between Dante and Charlie change, I wouldn’t have thought she’d be able to tame this bad boy but she did a pretty good job of it – it was the perfect case of opposites attract.

I think I may be one of the very few people to read this book and not instantly love Dante Walker! He was cocky, smexy and he knew it, overconfident and full of attitude that just didn’t endear me to him right away BUT in saying that, as the book progressed so too did my opinion of him.

I adored each of the secondary characters, especially Max who is also a Collector and an absolute classic! I loved the comic relief he provided; Charlie’s best friends Blue and Annabelle were so wonderful, their kindness and the way they protected her was really sweet and I found Valery the liberator to be quite intriguing. Victoria Scott has created a diverse range of characters which complimented each other well.

The unique plot, the tension, and the shockingly sweet romance all had me captivated, I was amazed by the many emotions this book evoked as well as the few twists thrown in which kept the story entertaining and the pacing flowing well, it was a tale that was filled with many surprises - of love, hope and redemption with a great cast of characters that you can’t help but cheer for and I really enjoyed Victoria Scott’s take on Heaven versus Hell, it was interesting.

Overall, if you are after a book that shows great character progression with a story that is written well and creative then I would highly recommend The Collector. Book 2, The Liberator has an anticipated 3rd September 2013 release date.

Thank-you to YA Bound for the opportunity to participate in the '2013 Belongs to Dante"blog tour.



Add The Collector to Goodreads / Add The Liberator to Goodreads

Inline image 1About the Author

I'm a YA writer represented by Laurie McLean. Author of THE COLLECTOR (Entangled Teen, April 2013) and THE BRIMSTONE BLEED (Scholastic, 2014). I have a master's degree in marketing, and live in Dallas with my husband. When not writing, I can be found munching cotton candy and snuggling obese cats.

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3 comments:

  1. Aaah I love your review, I bought this and hope to sneak it in soon!

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  2. Can't wait to read this one! I've been eyeing it since the moment I saw the cover and read the synopsis. :)

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  3. I'm glad you liked it! I have this one and I decided it's going to be a pleasure read, no reviewing it, so it's fun to see what everyone else thinks. I wondered about all the hype too. :)

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