Book Review: Our Fault (Culpable #3) by Mercedes Ron

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“Our Fault” is the final book in the Culpable trilogy, a forbidden romance between step-siblings. Since their breakup, Nick and Noah have mostly been apart this last year, but fate brings them back together as their best friends, Jenna and Lion, are getting married.

Buy “Our Fault”

In the grand finale, “Our Fault”, Nick and Noah must decide if their love is worth fighting for. They are ultimately pushed by proximity and desire to uncover if their love can overcome their past lies and betrayals. Most importantly, can they forgive and trust each other once more?

“Our Fault” was, simply put, a huge disappointment. As the trilogy progressed, things got worse. Conflict resolution got sloppy, and the character growth was thrown out the window. It’s so unfortunate to witness because the first Culpa Mia movie was thrilling, intoxicating, and addictive to watch.

Could I stop myself from reading the train wreck? Absolutely not.

Am I terrified for the third and final movie? Yup.

Here are some of the elements of the story that gave me a fucking headache:

Nick is now a billionaire, but he is barely 24 years old and has the maturity of a toddler. Great. And his useless father doesn’t even step in? Even better. What happened to the controlling father who cared about their family and company image? He disappeared, apparently. Poof!

So the parents just don’t care anymore? Everyone’s forgiven? They let these two barely adults do whatever? What did I expect from two irresponsible cheating parents? Seems like cycles of betrayal repeat themselves!

What truly filled me with rage was a 19-year-old Noah getting the unplanned pregnancy subplot. Great! Just what the story needed. That’s sarcasm in case you didn’t catch that. Nick & Noah act like immature teenagers, and now they’re supposedly parents, well, at least unplanned pregnancies are similar to life… we all know these types of people exist and ‘work it [their toxic immature relationship] out for the kids’ even if they can choose a safe abortion. But hey, at least Nick is rich, so anything goes, right? Right?!

Also, it was still never fully addressed that Noah was coerced in the previous book. Nick just tortures her and guilts her throughout the third book without putting himself in her shoes for a single second. This was 400+ pages of Noah (pathetically) begging Nick, while she was the one taken advantage of, and while Nick still controls her, doesn’t hear her out, uses her body, and destroys her plans to move to NYC. Nick does get shot [thank God, lol] towards the end, so I guess it’s all good now. By the way, that’s sarcasm again.

I don’t believe in their romance. Even the After series had better conflict resolution and a believable romance.

I don’t know how they’ll adapt the 3^rd book into a movie… If we didn’t consistently get Nick’s point of view in the books, this guy reads as a villain [hurting and using Sophia like he did with all the girls before Noah] and a toxic ex-boyfriend with zero to no redeeming qualities.

Additionally, I read this book after watching the ‘My Fault: London’ movie, and the difference is appalling. There might be a chance to redeem the series on screen by changing the future storylines in the London movie series…

You can read my reviews for “My Fault” (Culpable #1) and “Your Fault” (Culpable #2).

That morning, I ended an important chapter of my life. A chapter…but don’t forget, a chapter isn’t the whole story.

Because misery and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart—you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine. So much the worse for me that I am strong. Do I want to live? What kind of living will it be when you—oh, God! would you like to live with your soul in the grave?

⭐