Book Review: Your Fault by Mercedes Ron
- Paola Santana
- Apr 26
- 7 min read
Updated: Jun 2
Your Fault is the second book in the Culpable trilogy. It came into being after Mercedes Ron decided that My Fault, the first instalment and originally a standalone novel (read my review here), wasn’t where Nick and Noah’s story should end. Sometimes your characters do that to you.
BOOK SPECS:
Number of pages: 492
Format: Paperback
Genre: YA Romance, Billionaire Romance
Tropes: Forbidden Love, Stepbrother, Billionaire Romance, Emotional Scars
Original language: Spanish
SHORT REVIEW:
When I started reading this book, I had an inkling it would annoy me. And I was right. I really struggled with it.
Your Fault definitely suffers from the second book slum – where the middle child of a trilogy, or the second-born of a series, is the slowest and lowest point in the saga. But that wasn’t the reason I struggled with it. There were in fact six reasons while I scored it a two-heart rating:
Noah – one of the main characters
Plot holes
The rape controversy
Untethered tertiary characters
Sudden subplots
And the fact it’s the biggest marketing spin ever
Read my full review below for more info.
HEART RATE:
SMUT SCORE:
FULL REVIEW:
Plot
While reading Your Fault, you can also see where Ron tried to backfill gaps in a story that was supposed to be a standalone. And the plot has quite a few holes.
The Leisters are a wealthy family. Rich enough to have a Head of Security. But, conveniently, when Noah’s mother and her husband go on a business trip, Noah – the kidnap victim who pissed off a gang in their local rough neighbourhood – is left home alone. And (surprise, surprise) they get broken into. Because, you know… you would leave the weakest link in your family home alone and give the head of security and all your staff a day off. Incredibly convenient for the plot but nonsensical. A gun also makes a cameo in this scene, never to be seen again. Why mention it, if it has no bearing?
And the holes don’t stop there. In the first book, Noah is really conscious of the scar she bears from her father’s domestic abuse, always choosing to wear a one-piece suit. But, in Your Fault, she parades around in bikinis despite being traumatized by the events at the end of the first novel.
If you read any other reviews for Your Fault, you will also note it has received quite a lot of backlash about victim shaming.
SPOILER: jump this paragraph not to read it -- That’s because Nick breaks up with Noah once he realizes she has slept with Michael, her therapist. However, at the time this happens, he doesn’t know she was taken advantage of and Noah does very little to explain what happened. One of the many moments when her feistiness should kick in but doesn’t. By this point in the plot, Nick had also warned Noah about having Michael as her therapist, citing his age and lack of experience as a point of concern. But Noah doesn’t listen, and decides to have as a therapist the older brother of one of her good friends, who is not that much older than her and insists that she has therapy sessions every day, outright stating that “[her boyfriend] is not good for her”. Everyone can smell the coffee, just not Noah – as per usual. But it’s Nick who comes across unreasonable when he finds out his girlfriend has slept with someone else, and he feels hurt and cheated on. His ignorance of the situation painting him in the wrong light, and his hurt at Noah's "betrayal" being ignored because the reader was a witness and is aware of what really happened. Ironically, Nick also kisses someone else. But somehow, this is completely overlooked and excused by Noah. Sure, sleeping with someone else goes deeper than kissing. But if you’re in an exclusive relationship, you're supposed to do neither of those. And in this case, Nick’s cheating seems to go completely unnoticed, despite the fact that both of them react in exactly the same way to the unfolding family drama.
Having said that, this is not even what rubs me the wrong way about this controversy. The issue that Noah was manipulated into having sex with someone is never dealt with. Michael never faces any repercussions, despite the Leisters being a family of lawyers. Noah doesn't even consider pressing charges against him, despite stating more than once that "he was supposed to help her, but he destroyed her instead". In fact, it’s Nick that gets the short stick after giving Michael a well-deserved ass whooping. (Yes, I do think that if you use your position of power to sexually abuse someone under your influence, you deserve a can of whoop-ass. Bite me.) And Noah goes to the hospital to "play nice" and "talk Michael out of it", when in fact, what happened to Noah should pose a massive threat to his career as a therapist, if not outright spell its end.
Worst still, Noah has gone through a very traumatic experience and her mother, who has strong opinions about Noah’s relationship with Nick, doesn’t seem to have any opinions on her daughter seeing a qualified therapist. She also plays host to Sophia, the girl she’s keen to set up with Nick, for dinner on the anniversary of Noah’s trauma. Showing a complete and utter lack of tact. But this is also never addressed, and she’s never really called to account about it.
By this point, you start feeling the plot has a lot of loopholes and loose ends. And as if the whole thing wasn’t already more punctured than Swiss cheese, there are also subplots that appear out of the blue and make this novel feel quite bitty and fragmented.
SPOILER: jump this paragraph not to read it -- The whole plotline with Briar and Nick is superfluous and almost totally irrelevant, as the kiss with Sophia could have done the job and Michael could have been the villain on his own. Maddie and Nick turn out to be full brother and sister but there is a huge age gap in between them, which means Nick’s parents have rekindled their romance at some point after his mother left them and married someone else. None of this is explained in this book or the third. The whole story with Maddie becoming just a device to get Nick and Noah in the same room after their split.
I'm sure by now you can tell I found Your Fault a bit of a grueling read. You could probably lose 200 pages and it wouldn’t damage the core point of the story. The pace is slow and the catalogue of disjointed events just gets on your nerves. But then… Within the last 50 pages, the proverbial poo hits the fan and the story really gets going. And when the 50 pages are over, you’re left high and dry in a bastard of a cliffhanger after feeling frustrated for 440 pages. Not even the early smut scenes manage to smooth that annoyance.
Here you realise the ending is essentially the best marketing spin ever. By this point you are committed. You read two books of over 400 pages each and, although the second novel was disappointing, you’ll buy the third book because you want to know how it ends. The pain has to be worth it, right? A little piece of marketing genius there for you.
Yes, I was angry when I finished reading this book. And I only JUST finished reading it. At points, Noah's stupidity almost made me throw this paperback out of the window.
Characters
Try as I might to understand her, Noah just becomes increasingly aggravating throughout this novel.
She says one thing and does another; never says or does the right thing; and refuses to accept help or take advice, despite persistently landing on her face. To top it off, in this instalment, she is manipulated by at least four people and used by at least one. Which sounds like a good plot, until you realise she’s supposed to be a feisty and strong-willed young woman throughout the series.
Not much better than she did on the first book then, when she almost got herself and her friends killed because she didn't know when or how to read the room.
SPOILER: jump this paragraph not to read it -- A quick example is when her mother, who buys her a ridiculously expensive wardrobe, threatens not to pay for her college tuition unless Noah doesn’t move in with Nick. Noah originally sticks up for herself and calls her mother’s bluff, only to change her mind minutes later and comply with her mother’s blackmail. She’s too proud to accept Nick paying for her tuition, but hey! His dad paying for it via her mother’s hand is ok. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that logic.
The story also hosts a couple of untethered tertiary characters. You know… Those that appear out of nowhere and are gone just as quickly. Yet, their presence, albeit fleeting, supposedly changes everything in the second and even the third book. Nick’s grandfather and Briar are the most obvious.
Sophia is also called Sophie on occasion - maybe a translation mishap - which as you're being introduced to a new cohort of characters, becomes a little confusing. At first, I wasn't sure if "Sophie" was in fact Sophia.
Romance & Smut Score
If there is one thing this novel is not lacking on is smut. Despite their turbulent relationship, Noah and Nick get down and dirty every chance they get. Worryingly, they also treat sex as medicine, consolation and comfort, a trend they started in My Fault, and one that paints a somewhat unhealthy view on intimacy.
Writing
Here I have to admit I was so frustrated with the characters and plot holes that the writing didn't even feature in my radar. The only thing I can tell you is that Ron continues narrating the story in first person, flipping the point of view in between Nick and Noah.
So yeah... A very frustrating read. But I will be reading the third book because now I'm committed.
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