The Collector

by Victoria Scott

Dante Walker, Book One

Book Description

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: 3 OUT OF 5 FLEURS DE LIS

The Collector by Victoria Scott

I’m going to give this a verrrrrryyy reluctant 3 stars.

There was so much hype for like a YEAR leading up to the release of this book, of course I had to request it on NetGalley! The hype was mostly centered around the book’s protagonist (?) Dante Walker, and how he was so much of a bad boy that you’ll hate to love. Oh I hated him alright, but it never even came close to the love part.

Dante is cocky, egotistical, and just plain mean. He’s a Collector of souls for the bad guy downstairs, so essentially a demon. His job is to corrupt people and make sure their souls go where they need to go after death. He’s really good at his job and has become the bad guy’s favorite…until he gets an assignment to collect Charlie.

Charlie is unattractive, clumsy, and lacking self confidence, which is pretty much everything Dante hates in a person. Yet for some reason, he is inexplicably attracted to her. As she gets closer and closer to having her soul collected, Dante begins to think that maybe his job might be worth giving up for her.

As I said before, I’m not one of those girls who was charmed by Dante’s attitude and uber-coolness. For essentially the first 75% of the book, he said and did so many things that turned my stomach, I almost quit reading several times. He’s dead, but still so shallow and vain…I would have thought dying would show a person what was really important in life. He actually calls Charlie ugly and worse, albeit not straight to her face.

I also didn’t get his feelings for her. It wasn’t insta-love per se, but it was fast nonetheless, happening in less than ten days. It’s a bit unbelievable to me that someone as vain as Dante could have fallen so quickly (or at all) for Charlie…though I’m sure the wishes she made to make herself more beautiful helped him balance things in his mind.

So why did I give the book 3 stars at all? Well, it barely made it. The premise of Collectors and Liberators is an original one, and I like it when I can come across something new in paranormal YA. And although I have a strong dislike for the main characters, there are secondary characters that are way more interesting…Valery, for example. The end was pretty unexpected but still good, and I feel like a showdown is coming.

Hopefully Charlie will change Dante, because if he stays the same, I don’t think I’ll be able to read any more Collector books. Here’s to change.

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