Grape Vine Crew

This is another tearjerker from Erin Trejo. I wasn’t sure I wanted to read a book about bullies, but wow, was I wrong. All the young characters in this book have been raised in horrific circumstances. Layla has been abused and used her entire life. Acen’s childhood was not much better, but he creates his own family, the Grape Vine Crew. The beginning of the book was tough to get into, but after about the 1/3 point, the book moves quickly and has great twists and turns. I so want the rest of the crew to get their HEA, they deserve it. Great read!
I received an ARC from Booksprout and this is my honest review.

Grape Vine Crew is my first book by Erin Trejo, and I’m so glade I chose this one to start.
GVC is a dark we twisted delight that left me craving more.
I highly recommend GVC

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

In every aspect of her life there were bullies. Her home life was a wreck, her life in shambles and still she took one step, one foot at a time, one in front of the other. Her list was growing and so was her need to run. She thought she knew everything. How she fit in, what she needed to do, what she was worth, she was wrong. Meeting them was the catalyst she didn’t know she needed. Together they would . . .
A painful story of love not given, of abuse and neglect, of tearing the soul out of a person and making them watch you burn it up. She was so much stronger than they ever thought. She wouldn’t let them dim her fire. His crew ruled it all until they met her. She would change them all, they just didn’t know it yet. Freaking awesome. Now to go and recover.

Well I’m a bit torn with this book. I read it in one sitting, devouring it page by page. It has a very interesting, fresh and realistic yet gritty story line. The author didn’t hold back on anything. It’s also very depressing and sad, with a moderate redemption and a HEA. Overall the story is dirty, filthy, bold and certainly unforgiving.

The characters are interesting and different. They are a no holds bard gang. It read like they lived in a rough neighborhood where they were used to violence, drugs, crime and sex. The steamy scenes were hot (and there were a few almost MFM.)
However, there were also some major issues I had with the characters and the story line that admittedly are more about the author’s choices rather then the substance of the story.

1) the story line was a bit choppy and inconsistent.
2) the characters (Laya and Acen at least) were inconsistent in their personality.
3) this is a breaking point for me, Acen spouts about how he has grown up in a gang, he knows violence and danger, anger and abuse, yet he doesn’t recognize why his love interest was abused in front of his face.
4) the ending… it was like an after thought. Things had been building and building. I learned some significant facts then… it was over with no action, no drama, no real explanation. Just, a semi sweet (but pretty guessable) fact and epilogue.

Having listed all that, I did enjoy the bones of the story. It has some great moments, and could be a very spectacular story. I could possibly see myself reading more in this world. 2.5 stars.

I really enjoyed the premise of this story and the twists and turns in it. Layla was strong and beautifully broken while Acen and the crew were alpha and badass. The story had to grammatical errors, but not too many that I made it hard to read. The biggest problem was that the writing didn’t seem to flow effortlessly like I would have hoped it did. I found myself really having to think about how we got from one chapter to the text or why the character was doing that they were sometimes. There are still some parts that confused me enough that I’m not sure they were necessary to understand the story, which overall was very good. The story had some elements of RH scenes, which made me almost wish the story was a RH. I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future.

I don’t typically read bully/high school romances but when I found out this author was doing that I jumped at the chance to read it. I was so NOT disappointed in this book, so if you don’t typically like this trope you still need to read this book because this author will blow you away! This is a gritty and emotionally charged read. Layla is the new girl in town and she brings with her lies and secrets that Acen, the head of the GVC, wants to solve even if it kills him. Fast paced, full of twists and turns deliciousness!! I can’t wait to see with this author comes up with next!

If you know Erin Trejo and her stories, you know she normally does MC romances. So take that darkness and throw it into a bully romance and you have an explosive combination. I was sucked into this story like no other. It’r dark, gritty, sexy, and not at all what you think. There are some twists and turns along the way and you may even get frustrated with characters at times; but that just made me love them even more. You don’t regret this!

Holy crap! My emotions were all over the place with this book. I’ll be honest, 15% in and I thought I can’t finish! It’s dark and brutal and I wasn’t sure I could go there. But then, something changed, the story took a turn and then continued to twist and turn into something I didn’t expect! What I thought I was going to read was not at all how this book went! It’s haunting and heart wrenching. It’s cruel yet full of an unusual kinda of love! Amazing book!!

Wow!!!
This was my first bully romance book. I loved the angst and raw emotions in this book.
The characters are in high school, but this is NOT a teenage high school love story. This is a brutally, honest, real life look at the other side of the glitz and glamour.
A tight knit gang run the school and town. Hard, tall walls protect them from any outsiders and unwanted emotions. Until, the new girl shows up.
She brings her own demons and secrets along with her.
This story takes you through a gut wrenching journey that will leave you thinking about it for hours after you finish.

I have read a number of this authors books from her MC series to her Mafia story. This book is one of her best yet! It’s a bit of a darker story but still has all the feels. It’s a story about four close friends that run their town from the trailer park they live in. Nothing happens unless they say. When a new girls shows up and they start to push her around she stands up to them. This throws them off their game and they want yo know more. Intrigue, mystery, passion, loss and possibly love are mixed in this story.