The Collector by Victoria Scott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Blurb:
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.
An e-ARC of this book has been provided to me by the publisher.
Review: Dante Walker, I'm totally, irrevocably in love with you. Marry me!!
No, seriously. If there's one protagonist that can make girls swoon over him, regardless of his obnoxious attitude, it's Dante Walker. He's hot, smart, bad-ass and a completely self-absorbed guy. The world revolves around his fingers and he knows it and makes sure everybody else knows it too. That is, until he meets Charlie Cooper...
Yeah, believe it or not, my version of Charlie was freakier than this. My imagination tends to run a little too wild at times. Anywho, the minute he sees Charlie, he....he....he......is repelled. By her. Can't say I blame him though. Bright pink room, pimples, fuzzy-buzzy hair, crooked teeth and with a limp, Charlie wasn't exactly someone whom a stranger or even a non-stranger would call "pretty". Especially if it's our gorgeous, bad boy Dante.
Regardless of the fact that he was enchanting from the start, it was still annoying to see him so...focused and cold over his mission. His over-confident, egoistical nature was meant to get on your nerves, I think. His thoughts about Charlie were crude and downright awful at times.
He was awful most of the time.
Despite that, the way Ms. Scott showed us little glimpses of his good side were enough to make your heart beat faster.
When he actually started to fall for Charlie, not caring about what was outside and after full-well knowing the HUGE risk he was taking, all I could do was....
The story's execution was done in a way where you might not like either Dante or Charlie in the beginning. If one was horrible from outside, the other was god-awful from inside.
And yet, as the story unfolded, it was like watching them both bloom out of their negative traits. What one lacked, the other completed.
Together, they felt like two puzzle pieces perfectly fitting with one another. That..metamorphosis of both their characters was amazing and at the same time intriguing to watch-or rather read-and I felt enchanted, compelled to turn the page to see what's gonna happen next.
Charlie's character was strong and wonderful. Even though, honestly, I was a little disappointed to see her not the way I expected. I thought this girl was gonna be drop-dead gorgeous, snappy and capable of bringing Dante to his knees. One thing I did not expect was
her being the one doing that. Yes, she faced-off Dante pretty well but there were also times when I thought, WHY CAN'T YOU SEE HE'S PLAYING YOU? in the beginning.
Her compassion and selflessness made up for her too-trusting-to-be-smart nature. Her circumstances should have made her bitter like Dante but they didn't faze her. They taught her to be a better person and my love for meaningful stories which actually make you believe that the world is more than Bellas and Evers and Noras stands actually just below chocolates, which, I guess says alot for itself.
Overall, this story is absolutely ah-mazing. It makes you swoon, cry, love, hate, swoon some more and in the end sigh for everything turning perfect in the end. Well, almost perfect. The Collector is a book worth reading at least once.
