Series: Dante Walker #1
Author: Victoria Scott
Published: Apr 2nd 2013 by Entangled Teen
Format: ebook
Source: Received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Synopsis:
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.
My Thoughts
There was a lot of
hype last year for the release of Veronica Scott’s debut The Collector.
Naturally I was super excited for Dante the book.
Speaking of
characters, Dante is the ultimate bad boy. When I say bad I mean BAD. For the
first half of the book at least there were no redeeming qualities in him
whatsoever. If you look up egocentric, shallow jack ass you’d probably find
Dante Walker under it.
I found myself getting seriously pissed off at his
blatant disregard for other people’s feelings. There’s a fine line between
being bad-boy and being a total jerk. Sadly, Dante falls into the latter
category. A bad-boy is HAWT but a jerk? Not so much. Nevertheless he was
entertaining because he grows on you.
When it comes to
Charlie the only thing I felt was indifference. It was almost as if Dante overshadowed
her character. There were a few moments when I did like her but in the end she
just was not memorable enough.
Don't get me wrong-I didn't hate her! She was just bleh.
Don't get me wrong-I didn't hate her! She was just bleh.
The romance was
sudden and progressed way to fast (on Dante’s side) for my liking. I wouldn’t
call it insta-love but it definitely wasn’t believable.
Rating The Collector was NOT an easy task. I
loved the concept-It had the potential to be a kick ass read. I felt that the
author concentrated way too much on the main character, Dante and not enough on
the rest of the characters (especially Charlie). And Dante’s change of heart
towards the end was sudden and unbelievable. If the change had been more
gradual and less sudden it would have been believable. The ending wasn’t too
much of a cliff hanger.
But the real question is “would I read the sequel?”
Yes, I think I might
pick it up some day. Because despite its shortcomings The Collector was a fun
read that had me laughing out loud.
My Rating
I was definitely one of those people who got caught in the hype of The Collector. I really wanted to like this book, but it wasn't my cup of tea. I agree with you about Dante some of the things he said. Half the time I was thinking how do you get away with saying things like that.
ReplyDeleteWhat bothered me even more was the fact that Charlie needed a complete transformation for Dante to realize how great she was as a person. I was definitely not pleased with that message. I probably won't pick up the sequel, but like you I thought the idea was really great. Just executed poorly.
Great Review!
Cheers,
Savindi
I think I can tolerate Dante as long as he makes me laugh, and the romance is not taken too seriously. The bad boy good girl romances are never believable for me anyway ;)
ReplyDeleteNice review. Seems like an interesting story, but I don't know if I can tolerate a complete jerk. So we'll see :)
ReplyDeleteI love your gifs! I've heard that how you feel about Dante will pretty much determine how you feel about this book, so it's nice to hear that he did grow on you, even if his feelings for Charlie developed a little too quickly.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the buzz for this books before, its not until I heard that Dante's personality did I get much more interested, but then I heard about his really really BAD personality. I don't think I'll enjoy it because I just hate jerks. Period.
ReplyDeleteAwesome review as always, Nuz! :D
~Jules @ Jules Bookshelf
I've also seen the buzz about this book and I have mixed feelings about it. One day when I'm in the mood for some hunkyness I'll think about this one and if I want to read it.
ReplyDelete