by Victoria Scott
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: April 2nd, 2013
Format: Paperback, 352 pages
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.
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.
I think I should make a habit of reining in my excitement every time a new book that has been garnering exceptional reviews comes out, and perhaps try to not expect too much from those books. Why? Well, it seems most of the books I’ve been incredibly excited for this year just happen to become the most disappointing ones. The Collector is one of them. My FB homepage and Twitter feed were spammed with how amazing Dante Walker is (and I developed a tiny crush on him before I even got my hands on a copy!) but the truth is, Dante Walker is a narcissist, and egotistical to the point I could not tolerate one more word out of his mouth.
The Collector is a story we’ve read many
times; we have a bad boy, an innocent girl, a mission gone wrong and the two
fall in love. But add in heaven, hell, soul-collecters, a male POV, and
viola!The Collector is born. The first couple of chapters were pretty good;
Dante had a strong voice, he was humorous (albeit up himself, but it was fine),
the writing was decent and I was enjoying it. Then we met Charlie. And the
story went downhill from there.
This is just me, but I’ve never been able
to tolerate characters who are too “good”. They’re too fake, in my opinion. Too
bland. Too one-dimensional. (In her defense, she did show a wild side once or
twice, but I’d stopped caring by then). Dante made her seem fragile, angelic and from what I gathered, weak. The girl drove me nuts. So did Dante after 100+
pages of his arrogance and hearing him praise himself. I never cared for the
other characters either. Charlie’s two best friends were sweet, loyal and
protective but I just couldn’t develop a liking to them. They were just…there.
This would’ve been a DNF but since I had loads
of free time everyday on the bus/train, I skimmed the last quarter or so. I
won’t be coming back for the next book, but I sure hope Dante will fall for the
‘bad girl’. (Yes, I’m not being very nice but I bet the new girl will be much more
interesting than Charlie. But of course, Dante will remain faithful to
Charlie.) *sigh*
I wasn't planning to read this book from the moment I read the blurb, but I'm sorry that it was so disappointing. I always hate when that happens!
ReplyDeleteMel@thedailyprophecy.
Aw, I was quite excited about reading this but it's a shame you didn't like it. It's so annoying when books don't live up to your expectations. Dante sounds like such a jerk - I can't stand people who are too up themselves either (but he does have a hot name). Charlie seems a little boring too and it sucks that the story goes downhill once you meet her.
ReplyDeleteI think I might give The Collector a miss. Thanks for the great review, Shirley!
Sucks that you weren't able to love this one as much as everyone else. I haven't read this one yet, but I do agree with you. I'm totally bored of the bad boy good girl scene.. it's just too boring now. I can see how Charlie would drive you crazy, her just being so "innocent" and "weak" would piss me off as well... Thanks for your honest review!
ReplyDelete- Farah @ MajiBookshelf
Disappointing Shirley! That's exactly what I was worried about with this one and just why I haven't picked it up yet. I expect so much from the bad boy characters - I want them to be a bit cocky and over the top, but not too much, and I want to be charmed by them and snort at the size of their egos, but again not to the point where it just gets ridiculous. Dante seems like he crosses into ridiculous territory and that takes all the fun out of him. I think I'll pass on this one, there are plenty of other bad boys out there just calling my name!
ReplyDeleteOh, that sucks, Shirley! I hate when you have to force yourself to keep reading. It just feels torturous, you know? Ugh. Well, I do appreciate your honest review on this one though because I've heard some pretty spectacular things. I'm not even sure Dante is for me ;)
ReplyDeleteWell I'm glad I'm not the only one who was underwhelmed by this! I did find it quite entertaining to begin with, and I liked Charlie better than you did, but it ultimately fell quite flat for me too. The plot was probably the weakest aspect for me though. Sorry that this was such a rough read for you, Shirley. I hope you next book is better!
ReplyDeleteMy expectations for this were so high because of the hype but it really failed to wow me unfortunately. Charlie was likable to me but Dante drove me crazy!
ReplyDeleteI just received a copy of The Liberator so I'm curious to see if it gets any better.
A wonderful, honest review! :)