The Warrior (Dante Walker, #3)

by Victoria Scott

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.

• ISBN10: 1517614384
• ISBN13: 9781517614386
• Publish Date: 6 May 2014
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 21 April 2016
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[lizarodz]

Find the original review and current giveaway here: Reading with ABC.

Pow! Yep, that’s how awesome the conclusion of the Dante Walker series. Dante, how shall I miss you!

I really love this series guys!

Dante Walker is an awesome character. He is conceited, a bit selfish, handsome, over confident, but also loyal, loving, and tries really hard to do the right thing. Dante’s mind is an awesome place to be for sure (you can find some quotes at the end of the review as proof.) Since the story is told in the first person, from Dante’s POV we get to experience him in all his glory. I think that over the course of the series, he has grown and changed a lot, without ever loosing himself and his awesomeness.

Charlie is the foretold savior, and she is trying to come to terms with that and what she must do. She is keeping secrets (even if it is justifiable) from Dante and didn’t like it one bit. She was mopey, misleading, and somewhat depressed and didn’t share anything important with him. Dante and Charlie’s relationship is so amazingly sweet. I mean, Dante is SO in love that we would do anything for Charlie.

There is an incredible cast of characters that expand from Annabelle, Blue, Aspen, Lincoln, Kraven, Max and Valery, which we’ve met before. We get to meet the ‘human’s that work at the hive and other characters, the more colorful was Oswald. Since the full blown war we were expecting does happen, we lose some characters, and I have to say that I was very sorry to see them go. I really can’t explain a lot more without giving a lot of the plot away.

The Warrior is action packed and full of twists and turns. There are some things that I didn’t see coming at all, and they made the story a lot better. Can I say again how much I love Dante? Well, that wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for Victoria Scott’s writing. She is amazing! (Not only with this series, but with her Fire and Flood book as well.) I loved the epilogue, and I’m just putting it out there *I think there is room for another series based on Dante* just saying (and wishing!)

Overall, The Warrior was the perfect ending for a great series, and as I said, I’m very sorry to see you go Dante *sigh*

Some quotes for you (from the ARC):

“I made you dinner with my own two man hands.” I cup Charlie’s chin. “So you need to prepare yourself for the mind freak that is my culinary skills.”
“Should I call Wolfgang Puck?” she asks, smiling.
“And tell him he’s out of business? Yeah, you might want to give him a heads up. I’d be the honorable thing to do.”


“A dude as old as air shuffles into the room. He’s got tufts of white hair sprouting from every part of his body, and his arms are way, way too long for his torso…But the most amazing part of this dude is his ears; they’re as big as my palms. Many old people are hard of hearing, but I bet this guy could hear a beetle fart from six hundred miles away.”

“You always wear plaid?” I say.
He laughs. It’s too loud for what I said, and he seems to realize it. He coughs into his closed fist. “I love the stuff.”
“Why?” I ask.
Charlie elbows me again.
“Woman,” I say. “You are getting way to close to my precious”

[bookishzelda]

The Warrior is the third novel in the Dante Walker series by Victoria Scott. So beware of spoilers for the first two books.

As we know the books have been leading up to an ultimate war. How could things not end that way with the how they have been escalating. We spend about 60% of this book preparing for it. Although there are scrimiches and fact finding missions intertwined. Plus a traitor in the mix but you have to figure on that. There are characters we have known from the beginning and characters that are new to group. To be honest even though I had my guesses it’s kind of like the who done it crime where everyone could have a possible motive. No matter how well you think you know them.

With that being said I have to tell you how unpredictable the ending is. I’m not talking about who prevails and who doesn’t, it’s the little things. The things that are written in the scroll that can sometimes seem obvious and sometimes not. Some of my guesses were wrong, some were right. It had that element of surprise in many ways and I think that Victoria did an absolutely fantastic job with it. Not only that, I was so happy that all this anticipation of a battle lead up to a real battle. Not just one big epic push that you feel unsatisfied with but things that happen to bring it all together. I was super happy with the ending. I thought it played out so well and made perfect sense. It was a great climax to this story. There is some definitely sad things but they had to happen in order to bring us to the happy things.

Dante is as always interesting. The thing that I have loved about him in this series, which has endeared me to him even when he is full of himself is that even though he has developed and learned. His basic character is still the same. The changes that happen to him, that he makes for his life are not far fetched or out of character. He stays true to himself, his basic self. When we finally meet the end game Dante it’s still Dante. Just the pimped out version.

I’ve never been strongly attached to Charlie. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s because it’s not in her point of view. The thing that has been interesting to me in all 3 books is how Dante mentions things he misses about her original self, before the contract. Like he’s not fully happy with the changes she’s made. Which I think is something important to take note of. Dante thinks any version of Charlie is beautiful. She is a strong tough girl and even though her distance from Dante because of what happened with Aspen makes me sad. She really fits into her role perfectly. I might not be overly attached to Charlie but I like how she influences Dante. How her importance to him helps shapes him.

Of course there are so many other great characters. If Dante and Charlie were at an awards show their list of...I would like to thank… would be pretty long. I don’t want to delve too much into them because I don’t want to give anything away about their stories. I can tell you that the characters that you thought were kick ass, quirky and annoying are still as enjoyable as they were before.

One thing I was thinking about with this book is that it’s a battle between Heaven and Hell, and how as I writer I imagine it’s hard to address. You don’t want to focus on one religion so that’ it’s relatable so you have to strip it down to the basics. Heaven, Hell, Angels, Demons and redemption. I really liked how it was done with this series. It’s unique with it’s soul sealing and collecting and it’s one of my favorite things about the plot.

I really enjoyed this conclusion to the Dante Walker series and I will definitely miss him. I’m not sure how my life will go without him telling me how awesome he is.

[Ashley]

Nose Graze — Book reviews & blogging tips

The Warrior was an intense end to a great series! A lot of things happened that I honestly didn't expect like Charlie "dying"! In hindsight it seems like it could have happened all along, but I didn't actually expect it.

The first thing I thought when I started reading The Warrior was: "Oh, Dante, how I've missed you." I can't think of another character that has as much personality as Dante. He's so hilariously cocky, full of himself, and yet such a nice guy. He really stands out! He's one of those few unforgettable characters.

"You really don't have to treat me like I'm some supreme bring. But you can call me Jesus if you want."
Dante Walker

“What’s your name?”
“Frank,” he says.
I slap his back. “Oh, man. That’s incredible. It’s so close to fart.”
“It’s not really that—”
“It is, Frank,” I say. “If you think about it, it really is close.”
Dante Walker

Bahahahaha

I think my favourite part of the book was the tension between Kraven and Annabelle. They had so much sexual tension and it was awesome to read about! It really had me wanting a separate series dedicated to Kraven. I feel like Kraven had such an interesting history, but it wasn't fully explored. I'd love to learn more about him! He's definitely the strong, silent type.

I think my main criticism would be that the book wasn't all that memorable (other than Dante). Maybe I'm just in a funk right now, but I read the book, and a few days/weeks later I felt like I barely remembered what happened. It didn't stay with me that long. Some parts of the book felt a little too organized and not epic enough. By "organized" I mean like: we're going to go to battle on this day, at this time, and then that's going to be the battle. It was too planned. For some reason it didn't feel like an epic, climactic, showdown. When it was over, I wasn't sitting there basking in its glory and thinking "That was amazing". I just kind of moved on without that "basking in awesomeness" phase.

But whatever. It was a fun read and I have fond memories of this series. Especially Dante and his hilarious lines that had me laughing out loud!

[Angie]

The Warrior is a solid ending to this super fun series, but it didn't capture me the way the previous two books did. Dante, Charlie, and the gang are still at the Hive, where they're training for the upcoming battle and trying to decipher the rest of the message on the scroll. Dante is also having nightmares about Aspen, but they seem too vivid and real to be simply dreams. Is she trying to tell him something? Meanwhile, collectors and sirens are surrounding the compound, doing everything in their power to weaken the liberators and their allies. But there's a traitor in their midst, and Dante can't protect Charlie from them forever.

I really did not like Charlie in The Warrior. I loved her in The Collector, but now, she just kind of faded away. This made me not enjoy the romance as much either, since Dante came across as a love sick puppy who's being ignored by the object of his affection. Charlie says she loves Dante, and they share some smooches, but I just didn't feel it. I know she's worried about her part in the prophecy, but it seemed more like she lost all personality and became a background character despite everyone fretting over her safety.

I also had issues with a few minor plot points, mostly regarding the traitor. I think it's super obvious who it is from the beginning, despite some tactics to make us look at a specific character as the culprit. I can't fall for this, since whoever the protagonist waves their finger at, is never the one. There's always someone else who is supposedly on their side, and yet complains a lot, who is the real traitor. Needless to say, I wasn't surprised when they were revealed, and I was also annoyed at their little speech about how they didn't think Charlie would actually get hurt. Um, this is a war! Did they really think that they'd whisk her off to Hell and then sit down and have a tea party?

Now that I got all of that out of the way, onto what I did like about The Warrior. When he's not pining after Charlie, Dante is still the loveable, foul mouthed, bad boy that I've loved from the beginning. There is no lack of laughs, even when the situation gets more intense, Dante finds a way to crack a joke or poke fun at someone. The airport scene, with the fanny pack is hilarious! I also loved Annabelle's love triangle. It had the tension and passion that I was missing from Dante and Charlie.

Of course, being the final book, The Warrior has an epic battle scene. Unlike other finales, it doesn't just take one chapter at the end, and then everything is swell. The battle has several phases and spans a good chunk of the book. There's lots of violence and a few twists, and it definitely kept my attention! There is a cute, moderately cheesy epilogue, but I thought it worked given the nature of the series. I'm going to miss Dante! Pow!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.