Book Review: Our Fault by Mercedes Ron

Our Fault is the third and final instalment in the Culpable trilogy. I enjoyed the first book in this series, My Fault, rating it four stars. But the second one, Your Fault, had me wanting to burn paper. It only scraped a two-star rating from me because I somehow managed to finish reading it. So did the final novel in the saga make up for the sins of the second book?

BOOK SPECS:

Number of pages: 512

Format: Paperback

Genre: YA Romance, Billionaire Romance

Tropes: Forbidden Love, Stepbrother, Unexpected Pregnancy, Billionaire Romance

Original language: Spanish

SHORT REVIEW:

The Culpable series started as a great promise. Unfortunately, book three wasn't much better than book two and the whole series, albeit having a satisfactory ending, just didn't do it for me.

HEART RATE:

SMUT SCORE:

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FULL REVIEW:

Plot

While this book was better than the second, I’m afraid it was only just. The biggest issue for me being its chauvinistic “women must be virginal while men get to do as they please” narrative. Particularly ironic if you take into consideration that it’s largely aimed at female readers.

Not sure where I'm coming from? Essentially, the whole story revolves around Nick’s ability to go around bedding anything that moves and getting himself a new girlfriend, while Noah is barely able to go on a date. Keeping herself “untouched” until she’s reunited with him.

Despite repeatedly saying he doesn’t want her back and dating the woman Noah had an issue with on the second book, Nick also gives himself the right to play the offended lover and intervene in Noah’s love life. And to close it with a golden key, they even have a conversation about how she hasn’t been with anyone else since what happened. Just to drive the virginal nail home and inflate his male ego that little bit more. Pun 100% intended.

Characters

Noah continues to blow hot and cold, and be pushed from pillar to post, with an uncanny ability to ignore red flags that are being bashed into her head. She begs Nick to go back with her, then when he decides to do so, she tells him he’s going too fast and making impulsive decisions. What now?!?!

She also does something that absolutely boggles my mind – she goes back to Michael’s house. Yes, you read that right. She goes back to the house where her rapist lives and where she was manipulated into having sex with him. Can someone explain to me why on Earth she was unable to meet his brother at a coffee shop? Or why she wanted or needed to explain herself to his brother anyway, bearing in mind he was a minor character and barely made an appearance in the second book? I couldn't even remember his name to write this review!

Then we have the whole thing with Michael, who as a therapist commits the greatest of sins but, despite messing with a family of lawyers, walks scotch free with an extra £10K in his pocket. Noah, as a victim, is also hellbent in ignoring his presence and his behaviour. She doesn't even entertain the idea of making him accountable for what happened.

And don't get me started on Noah’s mother. She would definitely NOT win the Mother of the Year Award. Do I sound judgmental? Good. That’s only a pinch of what I really feel about that character. If my daughter almost died on the first book and got raped by her therapist on the second, I would at least try to get her some help. Rafaella is very proactive at getting Noah an expensive wardrobe and car, but completely useless about her daughter’s mental health, even when events blow it to the public domain. Thick as pig shit, as we say here in Northern England.

Writing

This novel still reads quite fragmented to me. Ron's foreshadowing doesn't quite work and, similar to its middle sister, the whole thing ends up full of events and subplots that feel like an afterthought - broken plotlines that are just thrown in there as an excuse for bigger story arc beats, but don't actually go anywhere. Things that mattered are mentioned in passing, and things that didn’t matter seemed to drag for miles on end. As a result, the reader is on a constant stop and start. I’m still trying to figure out if the pace was fast or slow.

SPOILER: jump this paragraph not to read it – For example, at the end of the second book there is a big showdown in between Nick’s parents and several truths come to light. But none of it is addressed in the third novel and everyone seems to just get along following all the drama. The age gap between Nick and Maddie no clearer than in the second volume, but Maddie offers a convenient excuse for Nick and Noah to spend time together. The same thing happens to the two people painted as the villains in the story. Briar, by the time she reappears, is an unnecessary character and the subplot that comes with her equally so. Michael is one of the important things that is mentioned in passing, but makes a big comeback at the very end of the book as a major problem. You can’t help but feel that Ron could have done better at building Michael as a more cohesive villain, rather than going off on all the tangents. The whole thing just lacks refinement for me.

And finally you have the ending, which quite frankly could have come 40 pages earlier than it did. It was a satisfactory happy ending but it dragged for longer than it should, becoming anticlimactic and cheesy. We know they're already adapting the rest of the trilogy into film for Netflix, but I wonder if they will take creative license and depart from the original or tidy up where the books didn't.

In case you're wondering, no. I don't enjoy pulling other people's work to pieces. Look... Mercedes Ron doesn't need my opinion. Her books have been translated in different languages and adapted into film. The girl has done great and should be super proud of her achievement! This is the kind of success I hope my novel achieves once published.

But I read these books as a writer and aspiring author. I look to them as guidance for what the market wants and improving my own work. And what I learned from Ron is that, when you start with short stories, you must take extra care to make sure your 400+ page novels flow nicely, rather than feeling fragmented, like you have pulled a series of connected short stories together. Having less subplots that are watertight with your main plot is also sometimes better than having a lot going on.

Nevertheless, what she did worked for her and her audience. So maybe all the things I keep on being told are necessary to get signed as an author are not really the key. Ron gained her fanbase through her Wattpad short stories. Maybe for her fans, the fragmented storytelling is a signature they recognize and are ok with. Maybe it's where your fanbase originated and what they expect to see that is the key to literary success. What do you think?

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