Title: The Collector (Dante Walker #1)
Author: Victoria Scott
Genre: Urban Fantasy, paranormal, demons
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publication Date: April 2013
Pages: 368
Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis (from 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.

My Review:

Dante Walker is so bad he’s good. Good at his job working for the Boss Man ‘downstairs’, good at training fellow collectors and good with the ladies. He gets in, gets the job done and gets out. Until Charlie Cooper. With her gawky smile and limping leg – it shouldn’t be a problem to get her to be bad with him. Ten days to claim her soul? Piece of cake!

Except Charlie is nothing like anyone Dante has ever met before. She’s just so… good! The challenge gets even tougher when Dante starts falling for the plain jane and Dante is faced with a dilemma more difficult than anything he’s faced in life – or death.

I’ve been hearing a lot about Victoria Scott’s Dante Walker for a while now. The man’s man, ladies man, man about town whose swagger is to die for. He’s one of those characters that grew on me. At first I thought he was entertaining but about as deep as dishwater. But the more I read and the more involved I got with Dante and Charlie’s story – he surprised me on a number of levels. This character has a lot going for him – and not just the sex appeal and charm that he is oh-so-well aware of. He’s got heart.

Charlie Cooper. I’m a fan of alliterative names and Charlie is one character that I was shocked to like so much. She’s one of those people who are perfect. Perhaps not physically (and lets face it flawless appearances are a bit of a turn off for me so many be that’s another point in her favour) but she’s a all-round do-gooder. There’s no one she wouldn’t help even if it was at a disadvantage to herself. She’s just that nice! When tragedy and adversity had the chance to make her bitter and twisted, Charlie took the high road and tried to be the best person she could be. Sounds like she could be sickeningly sweet but when meeting and getting to know her through Dante’s eyes – she’s just adorable.

Plot wise – there’s a lot going on. Some twists I expected, some I never saw coming but they worked well with the rest of the drama unfolding. There were a few surprises and I have to admit the ending has left me so very curious as to where Scott is going to take Dante, Charlie and the rest of the crew in the next instalment of the Dante Walker series.

Purchase the novel from:

Amazon / Book Depository