My Fault by Mercedes Ron is the first book of the Culpable trilogy and it’s Noah and Nick‘s story.
 
Noah is from Canada and her family situation is not the best. It gets quite intense in this book and while it added a lot of drama, it was pretty heartbreaking at the same time. Her mom found a new husband and they are therefore moving to California. Noah is not very happy about this and especially her new stepbrother Nick is getting on her last nerve. The way these two can push each other’s buttons is the best banter if seen in a long time. Noah is pretty badass, and a strong heroine and I really liked her.
 
And Nick is just book boyfriend perfection. He seems like a spoiled and annoying stepbrother in the beginning, but the more I saw of him, the more I loved him. He is not afraid to show feelings and that was amazing. He can be bossy and super sweet, and that combination was everything. Nick also has connections to the underworld and that added a lot of suspense.
 
This is the type of book that has strong characters and an engaging plot. I couldn’t put this book down and every page made me fall more in love with the world. Even though my Spanish is not that great, I’m seriously considering getting the rest of the books in the original language because I just need more from this world.
 
Overall, I’m just obsessed with this book and My Fault is a new favorite. 5 stars.
 
(ARC kindly provided in exchange for a review.)

DNF at around 30%.

This book just wasn’t for me and I decided to not finish because it wasn’t something I could get into. The writing style wasn’t bad and the characters were developed just not my story line.

Noah Morgan's life is turned upside down when her mother announces that she is marrying wealthy businessman William Leister. His life is in Los Angeles and he expects them to leave behind their quiet life in Canada for the glitz and glamour of LA... which is something that Noah is none too thrilled about, but has no choice but to go along with. Upon her arrival she learns that now has a step-brother to contend with, and Nicholas is someone she plans to avoid at all costs, he is the kind of trouble she wants nothing to do with... or does she?

The pages of My Fault hold a captivating love story between two people who probably shouldn't be together, but can't seem to stay apart. Noah and Nicolas have a complicated union, one where age, familial lines, and their distaste for one another come into play, and often create problems for them. Their love is complicated, messy, riddled with lies and secrets, but even with all that at they still love one another and want to find a way to be together. And I loved watching them find their way!

I enjoyed this one, the raw emotion was easily felt and the words tore at my heart, it was the perfect kind of torture. I do recommend you read with caution though as this one deals with some tough subject matter. I think readers who enjoy darker romances that push boundaries will absolutely enjoy this one, highly recommend!

I requested an advanced copy of this title from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving my honest and unbiased opinion.

This book is a new adult romance that centers are Noah and Nick. Noah is the innocent and sweet high school senior who has just been forced to move to California from Canada to live with her mother and new step-father. Nick is her twenty-something step-brother - who is the stereotypical "bad boy". This novel is originally from Wattpad and was super popular on the platform, something I am not super familiar with but after researching this does make sense.

Overall, I found the book not the most well-written but the story did keep me hooked. It was like one of those magazines you read and enjoy at the beach. The fact that I was hooked and could not put the book down is why I am giving the book 2.5 stars. BUT....this book is somewhat controversial, I did not love the age gap nor some of the topics. So I suggest looking into the trigger warnings before reading.

Both Nick and Noah had very little depth to me and the character development went from literally Nick is a horrible guy to next page Nick is now a completely reformed person. Also, there was several inconsistencies throughout the book. If looking for excellent literature this is not the book for you. But a quick beach read to pass the time....this book was alright.

My Fault definitely felt like a Wattpad romance, but I admit I kind of was looking for that vibe when I picked it up, so I can’t fault it for that.
I expected something a little darker, but much like the After series, the dramatic and dark portions of everyone’s lives was more domestic and less shocking than I expected.
Overall, the whole stepsibling thing was pretty downplayed with them being newly introduced and with Nick already being an adult, so that was good. I admit that I wasn’t a huge fan of the age gap and didn’t see a reason why Nick couldn’t have been like 18 or 19 instead of 22 and if he was 22, then I don’t see a reason why Noah couldn’t have been 18 or 19 instead of 17. There was just no reason for it imo and I felt that was a bigger issue than the whole stepsibling aspect.
If you’re looking for that enemies to lovers Wattpad trainwreck romance, My Fault was fun and entertaining and I definitely recommend it. If you’re looking for something with some more meat or something that really plays into the taboo spice factor, this isn’t the book for you. I had a lot of fun with it and it was exactly the kind of book I was looking for when I picked it up!

A taboo romance, a cross country move, a deadly secret, and rebellion. When Noah's mom marries a billionaire her life will change forever. Can she adjust to living away from her life, her friends, and her boyfriend in Canada and moves to California? What will happen when she finds herself attracted to her stepbrother?

Nick is not interested in playing nice with his new stepsister and he's quick to let her know. When Noah discovers his hobby, he needs to keep her from telling his father. What will happen when she gets him into more trouble than he realized? Can he give in to the feelings he has for her without getting them both into trouble?

When a stalker enters the picture and Noah doesn't reach out for help, it takes a strange dark turn. I feel mislead from the book synopsis "A delicious and angsty enemies-to-lovers romance in which Noah falls for her new stepbrother, the boy who's leading a hidden double life under their family's nose."

This step-sibling attraction, opposites attract, dual POV, and a slow burn for Nick and Noah that borders on creepy at times. Readers note that there are multiple scenes with date rape drug consumed, abuse by parent, as well as an age gap for main characters.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️🌶️.5

I adored this book!

If you're looking for a book with:
• angst
• secrets
• car racing
• found family
• forced proximity
• enemies to lovers
• age gap (17y - 22y)
• forbidden romance (step-siblings)

Please give this one a shot, it's totally worth it!

Pour information, la série inspirée par ce livre va sortir le 8 juin sur Prime Vidéo et il y a une réédition française prévue également!
Les éditions Bloom ont décidé de rééditer les livres de Mercedes Ron avant son adaptation et comme je ne les avais pas lu à l’époque, je me suis donc lancée dedans…
Nous suivons Noah, 17 ans doit déménager de Toronto en Californie, laissant ses amis et son petit copain mais elle le fait pour suivre sa mère qui vient d’épouser William Leister, un riche avocat. Elle rencontre aussi son nouveau demi-frère Nick, qui dès la première rencontre lui fait comprendre qu’il ne veut rien à voir avec elle et surtout il ne veut pas que Noah se mêle de ses affaires…
Dans ce livre, on est sur plusieurs tropes : enemies to lovers, stepbrother/stepsister, grumpy sunshine… tout pour me convaincre mais qui malheureusement n’ont pas réussi à me convaincre. J’ai trouvé que le livre était très long, que certaines scènes étaient assez redondantes, le comportement de Nick qui rejette Noah pour ensuite la reprendre et encore et encore m’a un peu énervé. J’ai eu du mal à m’attacher aux personnages que j’ai eu envie de secouer à plusieurs reprises comme Nick pour lui faire prendre conscience de son comportement mais aussi de ses sentiments ou Noah car elle a parfois des réflexions déroutantes ^^
En bref, un livre qui ne m’a pas convaincu mais dont je suis sure pourra plaire à beaucoup mais je me lancerais par curiosité dans la série!

This is unfortunately a DNF @ 33% for me.
I struggled alot with the Nick’s outlook and especially his perception of women. I feel as though this was meant to come across as somewhat of a “bully” romance, but it just read extremely misogynistic. I tried to push through all his red flags but felt there were too many with no real intention.

I have no issues with step sibling romance and have enjoyed them in the past, however this one is not it for me. The rest of the tropes, including the “bad boy” vibes felt stereotypical with no real depth.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloom for the opportunity to read and review. All thoughts are my own.

Sorry, but I loved this book. Nick is definitely an asshole but it didn't really bother me and he changed by the end so. They aren't perfect but Nick and Noah are so good together. They just light such a fire in each other. I loved watching them slowly open up to each other.

I received an arc through netgalley.

This book was quite disappointing and not what I expected at all. This book was a step-sibling which should have been my first sign that I just wouldn't like it but I feel like there was quite a few problems with the book. Firstly, the MMC was just not it - mood swings, problematic possessiveness. I feel like the pacing and the writing style of the book seemed quite immature - after reading I learnt it was a wattpad book so that kind of makes sense. All in all I feel like the author tried to be like the after series which I believe didn't quite work -just made the book slightly problematic. I would like to highlight that this book is translated from Spanish so some of its elements could have been lost in translation. Additionally, after reading and researching the author I have heard that the author has made some controversial comments in the past that I do not agree/believe in. Thank you to Netgalley and bloom books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book was an amazing, fast pace, forbidden romance. This was my friend step siblings romance...and I am in love! The fact that there was street racing involved just made everything better. I love this book and will be recommending it to people. However check triggers due to the domestic violence involved and almost rape. But over all LOVED!

This book was fantastic! It had so many of my favorite tropes... enemies to lovers, forbidden romance & who did this to you. And who am I kidding I always have a thing for the grumpy bad boys and boy did Noah fit that bill.

I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. There were points that I really enjoyed, but some parts of the storyline seemed gross. I didn't LOVE the male main character. I also wish the main characters were slightly older. I think overall I'm just not the audience for this book.

Thank you Netgalley and Bloom for providing me with this ARC.

I really wanted to shed tears about how bad that book is.

The boy Nick has some big mummy issues. His mother left him and his father and now he is „scarred“ and cannot have real relationships with women besides, of course, having sex with them.
I quote: „Women were only good for one thing. If you let it go past that, you’d have problems. I knew what I was talking about from experience.“ - Alrighty, then.
The 21 year old man child, who thinks it’s funny to set his dog on the FMC but gets angry when she tries to defend herself, still lives at home in spite of his bad relationship with his father. Nick is extremely misogynistic and acts like he has a say about how women should behave in his presence and towards him.
He’s some gang leader or whatever and acts super violent towards other people, punching them just to set an example or whatever. Ah yes, and he races cars were people randomly pull guns on each other, not forgetting the illegal boxing fights he participated in, too.
Every typical bad boy behavior one can think of - Nick‘s your guy.

The girl, Noah, acts extremely immature and impulsively. Their is no reasoning behind a lot of her actions but to spite either her mother, her stepdad or er new stepbrother.
One time she gets roofied by one of Nicks friends and instead of taking her to the hospital immediately, Nick is only concerned with his dad not finding out. He even made her call her mother to tell her everything is fine and she’ll be home late. Absolutely incredible - in the worst way.

All of a sudden, Nick realizes that he’s not hating Noah anymore but instead needs to protect her. He rescues her from some precarious situations (Noah gets a stalker btw) and then they declare their love to each other. There is no real built up, just getting frisky here and there, but then they always remember that they don’t actually like each other and, oh, are STEPSIBLINGS!

Unfortunately, if I could, I would rate this book zero stars and I cannot wait to not watch that movie.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Was not a bad read overall. Really liked the story line and found it was interesting and easy read! Would recommend to other readers.

2.25 stars

My Fault is a book that will definitely find its audience… I just don’t think I am said audience. I think this is due in part to the fact that some of the phraseology and punctuation is, quite literally, lost in translation. In my opinion, the translation to English needed to be much tighter, as did the editing.

This book was written a few years ago, at the height of the stepbrother trope, so now it feels kind of dated and formulaic instead of fresh. I also did not love the fact that the female protagonist is 17 and the hero is 22. Perhaps if she were 18 and/or he was a few years younger, the story would be more palatable. But you kind of forget how old Nick is because he acts younger than his age, and so does Noah. I also did not enjoy how much OW/OM stuff is kind of thrown in there. It kind of felt… juvenile in a way. Like this is what a teenager would write to try to depict a dramatic relationship, but it doesn’t quite land.

There’s also the mention of “gangs,” but kind of a strange stereotyped/romanticized version of them. They’re kind of just dropped in there in a weird way to serve the plot for a minute. I think this might be another element of the story that was lost in translation.

When I discovered that this story originated on Wattpad, I wasn’t surprised. By that I mean that it is written in a way that is longer form and more serialized. There’s a lot of repetition of scenes that happen in one POV and then again in the other POV. I know that a lot of readers enjoy this form of storytelling, but it doesn’t work for me once the work becomes a published novel. I want editing and some of the more superfluous/repetitious bits to be trimmed down. Not all Wattpad works are like this, but this one would have definitely benefited from some content culling.

The setting, too, feels kind of peripheral, and the story never feels rooted in a place or time. Which I think hurts the overall story.

In the end, it wasn’t my cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be yours. And there is a film adaptation in the works that piqued my interest. Because there are some good ideas here.

Thanks to Bloom Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. All opinions are my own.

Rebellious. Intense. Gut-wrenching..
Noah its been through a lot and now she has to endure her mother decision to remarry and to move in on the new husband's mansion and share the space with the new stepbrother living together in a new city. This story is full of twists and turns .. with a lot and I mean a lot of drama and adrenaline moments. A perfect enemies to lovers with steamy moments.. secrets doesn't keep hidden for so long
Neather true love ..

My Fault by M. Ron, published by Sourcebooks Bloom Books, is the first book in the Culpable Trilogy.

A n angsty enemies-to-lovers romance that will give the reader all the feels.

Noah Morgan lives a quiet life with her mother. Then the mother marries a wealthy lawyer from California.

Noah finds herself moving to LA, leaving her old life behind. Upon arriving in her new life she meets her new step brother, Nicholas. Nick is a college student and seems the typical jock.
Noah doesn't want to know about him, doesn't want to have to do anything with him, but there's still the attraction between these two and when she discovers Nick's big secret, all bets are off.

An intriguing read that had me in suspense from start til the last page. I read the book, cover to cover, in one sitting. A great read, 4,5 stars.

🌷My Fault - Mercedes Ron🌷

Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Book and NetGalley for the ARC.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars
🌶️🌶️.5 spice

This book was a great quick read! It was fast paced, straight into the story and provided plenty of chaos.

I would have preferred if both main characters were adults, not one tipping the age of 18.
Noah’s life is uprooted when her mum marries a wealthy man. Leaving her boyfriend, friends and hopes for a senior year to remember, Noah is forced to move in with her step father William …. And new step brother Nick. It’s not doubt their chemistry is explosive.

🌷Enemies to lovers
🌷Forbidden love
🌷Trauma
🌷Adult step siblings romance
🌷Grumpy sunshine
🌷Bad boy
🌷Who hurt you

*This book is step brother/sister taboo romance. Please ensure you read the trigger warnings before reading*