With over 80 million fans (on Wattpad), the Culpables book series by Mercedes Ron is a world-wide phenomenon in the same vein of Anna Todd’s After series and Adriana Godoy’s A través de mi ventana series. The Argentinian author, who Remezcla interviewed, began writing the first book Culpa Mía in mid-2015. By 2017, Penguin Random House in Barcelona had published it in a novel. She followed that up with Culpa Tuya and then Culpa Nuestra. But things really blew up when Prime Video acquired the right to the trilogy and debuted a film based on the first book.
The Culpables series tells the story of Noah Morgan and the forbidden enemies-to-lovers romance with Nicholas aka Nick. Noah is played by Nicole Wallace, who is set to star in Isabel Allende’s La Casa de los Espíritus. And Nick is played by Gabriel Guevara, who is set to star in the upcoming series Mar Afuera. And while it might not be for everybody, it has certainly struck a cord with fans; so much so that hundreds were in attendance at the CCXP 2024 in Brazil to just get a glimpse of the cast and the trailer for the second movie in the series Culpa Tuya.
For Ron, as a writer and fan of romance, she knows why people connect to the story of Noah and Nick. “I think that all stories, that is, romantic novels, are characterized by drama.” And what makes her series different from others series like Anna Todd’s After series and Adriana Godoy’s A través de mi ventana series is that her characters go through big arcs that go beyond them being teens and into adults.
“I think Culpables is very different from A través de mi ventana or After […] because we have a super big arc where we start getting to know the characters when they are super young and we end up getting to know them as adults,” Ron said, before continuing to talk about how the action sets this apart as well. “Apart from all the action that the books have and all the characters that come to make this story more well-rounded. I think that makes people hooked and why they can’t stop watching the movies or the books.”
Even Wallace, who we actually interviewed in Brazil during CCXP 2024, chimed in on the love that fans have for Culpables as a series. For her, it’s about the female lead Noah. “I think there is also a super strong female character who has a lot of character and is super empowered. And it’s something that isn’t always seen in these type of films.”
As for where this all started for Ron and why she started writing in the first place, it has to do with her love of reading. Ron explained, “The truth is that I fell in love with reading. Obvioulsy, writing comes from reading. And I read books so quickly that my mother couldn’t buy me so many because they literally lasted two days.” So she made a decision that changed her life. “That’s when I said, “Why don’t I write my own stories that don’t cost money?”
Now in 2025, she’s got two live-action adaptations for her books at Prime Video and another on the way. Her 2021 book Dímelo bajito is also getting an adaptation on Prime Video. This time around it’s about a young woman named Kamila Hamilton and the two brothers who turn her world upside down. We asked if there was anything she could tease from the adaptation. And during this interview she revealed that filming had finished.
“I can say that filming finished yesterday and I was there a few days ago. I was able to go to the shoot for two or three days because it coincided with the entire Culpables promo. And it looks amazing. They are amazing. I think we couldn’t have had a better cast,” Ron said. She also talked about how different this was to the Culpables series. “Here we have a love triangle. But we are going to have action in another way. We are going to have everything we have in Culpables, but in a different way. So I think it’s going to be a really cool change.”
We can’t wait, especially if it means latinas like Mercedes Ron are getting opportunities with streaming giants to bring their work to life.
Culpa Tuya is now available on Prime Video.
