BLOG TOUR # 67 - REVIEW & GIVEAWAY - THE COLLECTOR by VICTORIA SCOTT - DANTE WALKER # 1 - ENTANGLED PUBLISHING - @VictoriaScottYA - (@NereydaG1003

Today on Novels On The Run I have my review of THE COLLECTOR by VICTORIA SCOTT. 

I had such a blast reading this book. Victoria Scott is clever and witty in her approach to show us a bad boy like Dante. I am looking forward to The Liberator. 

Blog event is hosted by YA BOUND

By: Victoria Scott
Published By: Entangled Teen
Released : 2nd APRIL 2013
Details : Digital Review Copy, 352 Pages

RATING : 4.25 DANTE DOES PEACHVILLE STARS!

Blurb: 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.



BOOK REVIEW by Michelle: 

I am Dante Walker

I am not merciful.

Today I’m playing my part on Team Hell like a heavyweight. The game works like a gas gauge. On one side is hell, on the other is heaven. That little orange bar tips back and forth between the two, depending on who has the most souls. Collectors are Boss Man’s insurance policy that Big Guy ( a.k.a., lord of the heavens) doesn’t win, but he should chillax. No one ever gets the upper hand. If they did, it’d mean the gates of heaven -or hell-would spill open onto earth. Or some fairy crap like that. 

I love reading a character like Dante. He makes absolutely no excuses for his behaviour. He will assault you with his brash, rude, egotistic, opinionated, manipulative, lying personality.

He OWNS it. 

He WORKS it. 

Pow! Pow! 

I turn to Charlie and place my hand on her head like I would a dog. “Be a good girl and wait in the hall for me?”


“Ain’t no one do bad like I do.”

How can someone be cruel to this chick? It’s like picking a fight with a chipmunk.


A waitress who clearly ate a water buffalo for breakfast waddles to our table.


Dante Walker is a 17 year old Collector and he wants his promotion ...bad! Soul Director is the position he wants to fill. No more time in Hell, he can work it on Earth. Boss Man has an assignment for him to complete in 10 days.

Can he do it?

Well this is Dante Walker, the guy that knows how to run his mouth. I laughed a lot at Dante’s dialogue. He is very witty and intelligent. Dante has been a Collector for 2 years. He is one of the best at what he does. Putting seals on souls, keeping the scales balanced out. 

I look like a movie star and move like an athlete. That didn’t change when I kicked the bucket. It’s okay to be jealous, to covet me. It’s a delicious sin--tastes like chicken. But don’t envy my success as a collector. I earned it.

Charlie Cooper is Boss Man’s special assignment.

I loved what Victoria did with Charlie. She is not your typical female protagonist.....for a reason. 

The girl spins around. My eyes widen at the sight of her. This is the girl Boss Man is after? She looks like a porcelain doll...beat three times with an ugly stick.


My God, it’s like she stepped straight out of an 80s movie. Her wavy hair falls to mid waist, and I think how she looks better this way. From the back.


Charlie rambles at Mach speed. She’s nervous. And she should be. I doubt this girl has ever visited first base...or even been to a game.


She’s as happy as a Care Bear, and I’d love to say she looks like a beauty queen , but she doesn’t.


Charlie and Dante both find themselves evolving.... in different ways.

“Get on out here, girl.”

“What? No.” She laughs. “I’ll pass, but thank you.”

She’s turning me down because she’s afraid. Because she’s so used to saying no, she can’t imagine saying yes.


I’ll never understand the friendships Charlie has. Friendships where it doesn’t take cash, or hook-ups, or saying the right things to stay in the circle. No, Charlies friendships are different. She tries to protect her people, and they in turn protect her.

....My friends weren’t like her friends, which makes me wonder if I ever had any at all.


Victoria wrote both her characters well. She gave herself the space to play with them and let them grow and change in this book. I always know when an author writes a character bad boy, we will be in for surprises... eventually.

I love the initial perception we have of Dante. He has such a great voice. He delivers the bad boy who is on Team Lucifer very well. He walks the talk very well. This I loved and appreciated. He really pulls it off.

Then I waited.......

I really like the side kick Max. He is 6 years older but acts such a goof.

I spin around and see Max running toward me in a gray Armani shirt. “Dante. Oh, Dante. Seal me! Seal me so hard!” He grabs my hips and pumps his toward mine. “Oh, Dante! You’re so hot when you seal souls.”


Max smiles with his entire face. “There’s the guy who trained me, you sexy-son-of-a-bitch. I knew you could do this. I told the Assistant, I said, ‘Do you even know who you’re dealing with here? Pfft. Pfft.’”

“You definitely didn’t say that.”

“Nope. I sure as hell didn’t. That woman would’ve cut my junk off. And I need my junk. 

Annabelle and Blue are wonderful friends to Charlie. I loved watching Blue. He saw Charlie 1.0 from the very start. 

No. No way. That name is reserved for females with grace and elegance, not this girl. This girl is ... beastly. “Annabelle,” I say. “It suits you.”

Annabelle laughs deeply and tosses an arm around Charlie, who I can only imagine is being crushed by the weight. “Yeah? ‘Cause I always thought Godzilla was more fitting.”


Blue is holding two movies and a pizza box. His pinched expression looks like he just smelled his own asshole.


Grandma is an intriguing character. Hmmm.... I will leave it at that.

In fact, I bet if the woman so much as spotted my tattoos-- the dragon covering my back or the tree tatted from my elbow to shoulder--she’d flip her shit.


Grams opens the door after I’ve knocked only once. I guess she was expecting me. Her eyes drink me in, and a smile finds her mouth. “If I didn’t know better,” she says, “I’d think the devil just showed up on my doorstep.” 

Victoria has a lot of fun with her characters, especially Dante. After reading lots of sad contemporary’s, this is what the doctor ordered. But, in saying that, there would appear Dante went and grew a conscience and the boy has some layers he lets Victoria peel back.

This was a great start to this series. The Liberator is # 2.

Dante Walker will have you wanting more of his...personality. He wears Team Hell very well. He will have you busting his chops for being so darn rude, but then..... 

I had such a blast reading this book. Victoria Scott is clever and witty in her approach to show us a bad boy like Dante.

Bring. On . The Liberator.

CLICK FOR

TOUR STOPS

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13449677-the-collector

Add The Liberator to your Goodreads shelf: 

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16479479-the-liberator

About 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. 

Website / Blog / Twitter / Goodreads / Dante’s Website

GIVEAWAY TIME

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Bad boy, meet bad girl.

Dante has a shiny new cuff wrapped around his ankle, and he doesn't like that mess one bit. His new accessory comes straight from Big Guy himself and marks the former demon as a liberator. Despite his gritty past and bad boy ways, Dante Walker has been granted a second chance.

When Dante is given his first mission as a liberator to save the soul of seventeen-year-old Aspen, he knows he’s got this. But Aspen reminds him of the rebellious life he used to live and is making it difficult to resist sinful temptations. Though Dante is committed to living clean for his girlfriend Charlie, this dude’s been a playboy for far too long…and old demons die hard.

With Charlie becoming the girl she was never able to be pre-makeover and Aspen showing him how delicious it feels to embrace his inner beast, Dante will have to go somewhere he never thought he’d return to in order to accomplish the impossible: save the girl he’s been assigned to, and keep the girl he loves.

DUE FOR RELEASE

AUGUST 27TH 2013