The Warrior
Victoria Scott
Series: Dante Walker
Published on MAY 6, 2014
Genres: Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult
War between heaven and hell is coming, but Dante Walker makes it look damn good.
Dante’s girlfriend, Charlie, is fated to save the world. And Aspen, the girl who feels like a sister, is an ordained soldier. In order to help both fulfill their destiny and win the war, Dante must complete liberator training at the Hive, rescue Aspen from hell, and uncover a message hidden on an ancient scroll.
Dante is built for battle, but even he can’t handle the nightmares where spiders crawl from Aspen’s eyes, or the look on Charlie’s face that foretells of devastation. To make matters worse, the enemy seizes every opportunity to break inside the Hive and cripple the liberators. But the day of reckoning is fast approaching, and to stand victorious, Dante will have to embrace something inside himself he never has before—faith.
REVIEW
Dante walker. Oh, how I love thee. You are an arrogant asshole, you are a demon at heart, you are the epitome of what every mother warns her daughters about.
And that’s why I love you so much!
You are perfectly flawed. You have a heart of gold. You are loyal and smart, and handsome, and willing to see beyond the superficial.
Of course you have not always been like this. But even back in book one, I loved you. I loved your hysterical one-liners and your charm. Yes, you are charming.
But I like this new Dante too. I like the fact that you’ve grown into an adult. A man, if you will. A man who has his priorities straight. Who is willing to let go of old preconceived notions and give in to what everyone around you have known for a long time.
You are good.
Victoria Scott hooked me in book one. I fell in love with Dante’s character and even though I was never that fond of Charlie, Dante was enough to keep me coming back for books two and three. Not to mention I loved the plot turns in book two. The whole set up for good versus evil. The twist at the end, ANNABELLE! There is so much in this series to enjoy.
I like the fact that Victoria Scott was not afraid to make Dante rough around the edges. Maybe rougher than most YA heroes, but it totally worked. The Warrior finds Dante contemplating change. Is he good? Will he be allowed to stay a Liberator instead of being cast into silence and emptiness after the final war? Does Charlie deserve him?
Just the fact that he’s wondering about all this stuff. That he’s second guessing his awesomeness… this is enough to know that Dante is so much more than any label people try and pin on him.
I enjoyed the story. As usual Scott hands the reader a twist at just the right time, shaking things up, keeping your attention, and keeping true to her story line. I loved Dante’s one-liners:
“Max nods, but his glassy eyes never leave her yellow nightgown. I guess for him, a redhead in yellow is the equivalent of a bong hit.”
I loved his vulnerability even more:
“As I lead Charlie towards the Great Room, I pretend everything is okay. We need this. What I don’t show her is what lies inside my mind.
You left Aspen in Hell.
You are selfish.
Coward.”
But Dante is trying his best. Trying very hard to come to terms with his… dare I say it… inadequacies?
“I remember a time when I pushed booze into her hands. A time when I encouraged her to perform petty theft and party it up in Vegas. I was the reason she sinned. I was different then. Dare I say I was a douchebag?
I dare not.
I’ve always been awesome.”
Well, he wouldn’t be Dante if he was an arrogant douchebag, now would he?
I loved it. Loved the ending just as much as the first two installments. If you are a YA paranormal reader, you will not want to miss Dante Walker. Truly, truly, one of the best characters I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in a book.
The Liberator
(Dante Walker #2)
by Victoria Scott
Release Date: August 27, 2013
From Entangled Teen
DESCRIPTION
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.
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REVIEW
Dante makes me want to write poetry—of the dirty limerick persuasion. Hey, he’s just a fun guy, he deserves a fun poem. Unfortunately, I’m trying to keep it all PG-13 here for this so I don’t corrupt Dante’s younger fans. So I’m gonna have to nix the limerick.
But I do have a map, because can you believe that freaking Dante was in freaking Denver and he did not even freaking look me up!
However, I will forgive him, because he sorta had his hands full with Aspen and Charlie, and Annabelle, and yeah…
I was having a lot of review guilt over giving The Collector four stars because honestly, Dante Walker is one of my favorite characters, like ever. Like. Ever.
I love him. He’s my kinda guy.
But all my guilt went out the window when I finished The Liberator because this book. This book is five freaking stars. And if I had given The Collector five stars it would diminish how much better I think this book is.
This book has everything. It’s got the mythology/history, it’s got demons, it’s got a KICK-ASS Charlie—whom I did not care for in the first book—it’s got mouthy Annabelle, it’s got another Dude I can’t say because it’s a spoiler, it’s got wings, it’s got a hard-core new girl who kicks even more ass than Dante, it’s got Dante, of course—who is even more awesome than I thought he could possibly be—it’s got sex…fade to black, but still, Dante and Miss Charlie get busy a few times…and it’s got HELL.
That’s right, people. HELL.
We get to take a trip to hell. I loved it. Freaking loved it.
All the characters come to life in this one and I am so excited for Annabelle! I’m like squeeing right now—yes!
I’m seriously in awe.
And let me tell you this, as a writer who has written two Book Twos in a series, it’s not easy to do that and make it better than the first. Readers might not understand this, but characters in a series must have an arc—they gotta change in a series, so Book Two characters need to make progress, but there’s a catch. You see the arc can’t complete until Book Three, so writing a kick-ass Book Two is not easy. Sometimes it’s boring, sometimes readers get frustrated with the lack of satisfaction… all kinds of shit can happen to make the Book Two suck.
But Victoria Scott nailed it.
Her Book Two ROCKS. This book has so much action it’s practically exhausting. Charlie is so much better in this one than she was in the first book. I sorta hated her goody-two-shoes crap in the first book, but in this book, Miss Charlie gets a little dirty. (In a couple ways!) She is so great.
Annabelle was fabulous and she gets a love interest in this book and not only that. This dude is like HOT. Man, lucky, lucky Annabelle.
Max and Valery – hmmm… they are the only ones I really didn’t care too much for, but I think they’ll get a deeper role in the next book.
And the new girl? Aspen? She really didn’t play too much of a role until the end, but when she gets busy, she gets busy. I loved her. She is kick-ass with a capital KA.
And our boy Dante? Dante hooked me on page one, literally, the first sentence with his talk of Man Rules. Dante is a demon in love and oh, how I loved to watch him struggle with this. He’s still bad ass, he’s still mouthy, he’s still arrogant, and he’s still one of my favorite characters of all time. Dante Walker learns some lessons, commits to his girl, makes his sacrifices, and come out the other end intact and badder than ever.
I could seriously go on and on, that’s how good this book is, but it’s two thirty in the morning and I have to post the freaking review and hit the sack. So I’ll just leave it at this—if you haven’t read The Collector, get it, read it, then get this book when it releases on August 27th. In fact, I’m gonna have a big party for Dante for the Friday Night Freebie on August 30th, so stop by and enter to win some paperbacks.
FIVE STARS FOR THE LIBERATOR.
BOOK ONE – THE COLLECTOR
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
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REVIEW
Oh, Dante Walker, you smexy sonofabitch, you! You’re everything girls want in a man, and everything we despise at the same time.
This year I’m definitely into character voice as the number one thing that draws me into loving a book versus liking it. Dante had a fabulous character voice. I thoroughly enjoyed reading him, he’s bad, he’s good, he’s funny, he’s so many things.
A++++ for the character development of Dante.
Dante works for Boss Man, AKA The Devil. His job is to collect souls before people die so they never get a chance to stand for Final Judgment. It’s a clever spin on the whole soul collector theme, which has been done before. (Quite a bit actually.)
Dante loves his job and up until now, he’s had no problem with collecting all the souls he can. Problem is, this nerdy chick named Charlie sorta weasels her way into his heart.
Charlie is a total dweeb and she’s got absolutely nothing going for her except her good deeds and high moral character. And even though we’re supposed to like that about her, I found Charlie to be annoyingly sweet.
She wanted to make me puke. In fact, I sorta hated Charlie. I do understand Dante’s attraction to her, and I was OK with that, but I never felt the same way about her.
Annabelle, on the other hand, LOVED! I wish Annabelle was the main love interest because she was well-developed, quirky, and likeable.
I’m going to reserve final judgment on Charlie until after the next book. I see the moral of the story, it’s practically spelled out for readers, but I’m not quite sure it succeeded. Charlie still got what she wanted and Dante’s mission is to make sure she doesn’t have to pay the final price for that coolness.
I’m not sure that works…right? I mean, how does that work?
This story was fun though, and it kept my attention. It got a little predictable towards the end, and there a huge reveal about Dante’s past that had almost no follow-up, so I think that could’ve been handled better, but I have every intention of picking up the second book, so mission accomplished for author Victoria Scott.
About Victoria Scott
Victoria Scott is a teen fiction writer represented by Sara Crowe. She’s the author of THE COLLECTOR trilogy (Entangled Teen) and the FIRE & FLOOD series (Scholastic). Victoria lives in Dallas with her husband and hearts cotton candy something fierce.
Jen
Mmmm….looks yummy!!!
Lynne Rivet
Looks very good! Can’t wait to read it!
Karin
I can’t believe this is the last of the series and I haven’t read the first book yet ::shakes fist at local library::
Kristy Petree
Thanks for the chance!
Tawnya Bentley
Definitely adding all of the books to my TBR list, why have I not heard of the books before??
Dawn Ruchel
You had me at. “Oh, how I love thee. You are an arrogant asshole, you are a demon at heart, you are the epitome of what every mother warns her daughters about.”
I’m so in…
Happy Reading
Candy S
Definitely on my TBR list
Candy S recently posted…Cover Reveal: Three Little Lies by Melissa Wolff
Megan Stietz
I am dying to read this series!!! Thank you for the giveaway!!!
Shannon Blackwell-Williams
I soooo need these books!!
Wren b.
All of these covers are so sexy, just like Dante.
bn100
Interesting series