The Collector (Dante #1) by Victoria Scott

I got to meet the author of this book and get a copy at the RT Convention this past May.  I'd been following the author, Victoria Scott, for awhile, I believe on Twitter?  On her blog and such for sure.  So I had to get this when I saw her.  Now, it sounded like a really interesting story, and I was excited to read it.  But, and this is the only bad thing about it, when I got started reading, I had a bit of trouble getting into it at first.  I just didn't think I'd like this cocky, arrogant soul collector named Dante.  But, as I had lots of time to read this on this past Saturday, enough so that I read the whole thing in one day, you can guess that eventually, and actually, pretty quickly, I was hooked.  I liked the way this Dante was pretty honest about what he was doing, and it wasn't like a "love at first sight" even though she was really dorky he could tell she was really cool and perfect for him.  That happens so often in books that it gets old really quick.  In fact I recently had to give up on a book that started like that.  This book was true and honest to what the characters would be like in my opinion.  And how totally dorky Charlie Cooper is?  Just perfect.  I actually felt a real connection with her, as I know I was that dorky in high school.  So, here is a summary of the story:
Dante Walker is a soul collector, one of only 6.  Basically he goes around putting seals on people's souls and once they get so many, he can collect the soul and they have no choice but to go to hell.  But people who have souls that aren't quite so full of the seals that come from sinning get a choice when they get there, and can often be chosen to go to heaven.  Dante has been given 10 days to collect the soul of a teen girl named Charlie Cooper.  This is something new, and Dante can't quite figure out why in the world his boss, guess who that is, would want this girl so bad.  While he's there working on her, he notices that some of these people are getting these pink sparkly seals on their souls, seals he's never seen before.  And not only that, he has this strange feeling that another Collector is stalking him.  And word from his best friend is that if he doesn't complete this job, the one that will also get Dante a promotion, one that will keep him from ever having to go back into hell, that there will be literally "hell" to pay.  The circle that Dante described as being made of ice.  Now Dante was a cool kid when he was alive, and so of course he can see how this Charlie is treated like she is by the other kids at her school.  But for some reason, he begins to feel protective of her.  He justifies it by telling himself that she is his to corrupt, not these other people's punching bag.  He at first thinks the pink sparkly seals must somehow be coming from Charlie, but soon learns that there are more mysteries in this world that his boss never let him in on.  And he had thought he was the right hand man.  As his 10 days draw to a close, Dante finds it harder and harder to want to complete this assignment, especially as he learns more about what the reasoning is behind it, and also gets to know Charlie and her friends and family more.
As I said, I read this in one day.  Yes, I did end up with lots of time to read on Saturday, but normally I might be interrupted by playing on the computer, watching tv, etc.  Not with this book though, any time I had, I read.  Anything on tv was background stuff.  I highly recommend this book if you haven't read it, and I can't wait to read on in the series!
And because you know I have to share, below I've got my picture with the author, as well as her autograph in my book.