I really enjoyed this YA Contemporary. Rivals/Enemies to Lovers is one of my favorite tropes and I think this one did that so well. I don't have a STEM background but it was so fun seeing how Bel excelled at Robotics and was able to really find herself through the process.

Bel doesn't know what she wants to do after high school but is pushed in the direction of engineering when a makeshift catapult actually propels her into the robotics class. Now she's not only trying to figure out whether robotics and engineering is for her but she's also having to deal with the judgement coming from the others on her team. With the help of Teo she learns that her experience having a "hobbyist" as a father may have actually set her up for a career in engineer.

Teo is under constant pressure to excel in life after growing up with a very successful father who seems to have the intentions of bringing Teo up in the company once he finishes college. Teo doesn't feel like his father loves him more than he sees him as a potential employee. The dynamic between them is felt whenever they encounter each other.

I thought the author did a great job of portraying the tension between the characters. The romance was also well done in it's slow burn between Teo and Bel. The banter between the two was great and I enjoyed how their relationship grew. The friendships and family dynamics also developed well throughout the book.

I recommend this to anyone looking for a great book about women in STEM, friendships, family, and love. I can't wait to read more books by Alexene Farol Follmuth!

I do not read as much YA as I used to but My Mechanical Romance sucked me right in. I absolutely love how women in STEM are becoming more popular in the YA world. These types of books are so important and this story was amazing! Be sure to read this one, we love some feminism.

This book was a pleasure greater than the feeling when you find a full box of your favourite TicTacs in your winter jacket from a year ago.

This book is love at first sight, a box of chocolates, your favourite plush socks and the look of a loving cat all in one!

I love the fact that books about girls in STEM are breaking through into YA, it's one of the best themes in the genre that there could be hype for. But no less important is the fact that the author not only covers relevant topics, but does so in an incredibly epic, incredibly interesting way! From the excellent, humorous dialogue to the vibrant, likable characters (Jamie for president!), everything about this book is the truest, sparkling gold, cocoa and a handful of blueberries!

Highly recommended not only for fans of STEM, robot battles, and immersive teen novels, but also for fans of a spoonful of feminism in this patriachal world of engineers and programmers. This is totally the kind of book I wish I had read when I was 15 so I could have fallen in love with STEM that much sooner. Who knows? Maybe I wouldn't have been as afraid to choose a computer science degree as I was a few years ago? (I eventually chose it, but maybe I would have made that decision sooner? Or I would have started coding after school and fallen in love with it sooner?) An absolute must read this year. Don't miss this opportunity!

I've grown out of reading YA but this book sucked me right back in. What a great read! Bel might me one of my favourite female book characters of all time. She's such a delight! The book was written so well, very fast paced, great character development and YES for females in STEM representation! I couldn't rave about this more if I tried. Absolutely a 5-star read for me.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the author for gifting me an eARC, in return for an honest review.

Before I say anything I just want to thank Netgalley for giving me the ARC for this book in exchange for an honest review!
I know this is going to sound basic but this book was AMAZING. Like everyone else, I had very high expectations for this book and yet it managed to exceed all of my expectations. First of all, I loved how fast paced it was. secondly, this book had everything I mean EVERYTHING you could ask for 😩😩.
- academic rivals to lovers? YES
-WOC in STEM? YESS
-dual POV? ALSO YES
-CUTE BANTER? YES
-cute nicknames? DUHH
-by the author of the Atlas Six? YUPPP
-interesting plot? YES
-lovable characters? ABSOLUTELY

ALSO HE LITERALLY BECAME A SWIFTIE FOR HER?!?!?
I cannot wait to reread this book when it comes out on may 31 and I will be forcing everyone to read this book!!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Holiday House for providing me with an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book.

It has been established. I will read anything and everything by Alexene/Olivie.

This book was absolutely amazing. Bel and Teo mean everything to me and I will never shut up about them. The romance was well-paced, adorable, AND had amazing banter. I mean, what more could you need?? Not only did I love Bel and Teo as a couple, but I loved them both as individual characters as well. I related to both of them so much. At times it felt like some lines in this book was taken straight out of my head. Especially with Bel and her uncertainty about her future. I came here to have a fun time, not to be PERSONALLY ATTACKED.

From not wanting to wear feminine clothing in fear of not being taken seriously, to having your capabilities constantly second-guessed, this book tackled the struggles of being a woman in stem really well. I was really scared that there was going to be a lot of girl-on-girl hate here, but thankfully, that was not the case and it turned out to be all right in the end.

Now, moving on to the side characters. They were all pretty interesting characters. Especially Neelam, who, in the beginning, I did have some mixed feelings about, but ended up loving her by the end. Overall, this book was funny and really fun to read. It is now my latest comfort read and I shall not rest til all of you read it.

I didn't think I would enjoy a high school rom-com but it was not what I was expecting and I finished it in a day! I would say that this is more of an academic rivals (sort of) to friends to lovers as opposed to enemies to lovers but I feel like this trope isn't seen too often which made it more unique and I really enjoyed it. At times the pace was slow but the plot was good and the characters were both likeable and relatable - something I definitely look for in books to keep me wanting to read more. I was pleasantly surprised to see how the author focused on women in STEM and how the other characters were completely oblivious to the issues they faced until later on in the book which made it all the more important to highlight. Dual pov is my favourite thing to see and I LOVED the Taylor Swift references as well! Overall a great light-hearted read if you're looking for something short and sweet.

I had high hopes for this book, but unfortunately I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. I did like the concept of this novel. I thought the robotics team was a fun setting to have characters interact in, and it was enjoyable to read about the tournaments throughout the novel. The commentary on women in STEM was also a good point of the book, especially at the end when Neelam was talking to Isabel about what it meant to be a woman in a male dominated field, and having to face discrimination from peers and teachers.

I think that if you like Rachel Lynn Solomon’s “Today Tonight Tomorrow” then you’ll enjoy this book, due to the same kind of high school academic vibes. However I had the same issues with this book that I did with “Today Tonight Tomorrow” which is mainly that I could not bring myself to like the characters or believe in their chemistry throughout the book. It also isn’t really academic rivals to lovers or enemies to lovers. I think it’s definitely more strangers to friends to lovers. They had like one fight that lasted for a couple chapters at the beginning.

Isabel was a fairly okay character, however I never could understand her motivations for anything and she just felt ungrateful throughout the book. This gets addressed in the book and Isabel realises that she’s never had to work for her spot on the robotics team or really anything throughout her schooling but nothing seems to come of it. In the epilogue she basically gets given a spot in Berkeley after just one year of community college. And Isabel seems to think she’s underprivileged when she reads as middle class to me. Like, she got to go to a rich private school for her final year and she never seems to appreciate it. As Teo said in the book, Isabel is a natural at mechanical engineering which would be fine in real life, but doesn’t contribute to the protagonist feeling very relatable.

I also didn’t really like Teo. Maybe it’s just me and I am being really cynical about this novel, but all his problems were just “rich people problems”. Like I could not empathise with him at all because his issues with being burnt out was all so superficial. He thought of himself as so different to other millionaire’s children because he “worked hard”, but it’s difficult to separate my thoughts towards him and my feelings towards rich kids like him in general. I thought that there was going to be real character development around him and being such a dick to the women in his robotics team, especially Neelam, but there wasn’t even an apology. Teo seemed to accept that he’d played some part in making the robotics team a hostile environment, but his only character arc was helping Bel. Basically the two main characters just weren’t relatable at all to me, a reader who’s the same age and went through the same University process a couple months ago. And characters don’t even need to be relatable to be good! But Isabel and Teo weren’t even likeable to me. If they were to you I would love to hear why!

I also didn’t buy the chemistry between Isabel and Teo. It kinda just seemed like they both found each other attractive and they were in such close proximity with robotics that they decided to get together. I just think it screams first love / high school sweethearts, and I really don’t believe they would have stayed together after they went separate ways to college. As somebody who was just in high school, the students definitely seemed written by an adult and the dialogue could be really cringy at times. Really my favourite and only character that I really liked was Neelam. I would read a book with her as the main character! She was my highlight of this book and everything she said I agreed with 100%. I liked her from the start even when she was kind of a villain because she was the only character who didn’t seem like they were in this bubble of privilege, and she spoke my thoughts exactly.

To conclude, I think the book may have been cute if i just didn’t look too deep into it. It wasn’t for me, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t for you! And I can understand why people would enjoy the novel. I also haven’t read “The Atlas Six” yet but I am going to try it out, and I would probably read another contemporary book of her (especially if Neelam was the main character).

I read an eARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an impartial review.

The robot fights in this book were described so intensely, they came close to the fist fights and wrestling matches I‘ve read about in some mafia romance. 🤖😂

The positives:
↣ We love to see women in STEM thriving despite the men in the field working against them. I‘m not a woman in STEM, but I am a woman at uni and I could certainly relate to mysoginistic remarks and opinions that Bel had to endure and fight just because she was not male. I loved watching her find her place in the engineering world.
↣ The relationship was just adorable. Bel and Teo were really sweet together and I loved seeing them work together at something they both loved, robots. They connected through robotics and soon found out they also clicked outside of the lab. I was rooting for them the entire way.
↣ Diversity points are negative in the context of this book (read it to find out why 🤓), but I did really enjoy the casual diversity in it. The heroine Bel is half Filipino, the hero is half Mexican and half Jewish.

The negative:
↣ This wasn‘t really an enemies to lovers romance, in my opinion. Yes, Bel and Teo got off on the wrong foot, however, they were never enemies or hated each other all that much. They may have not been the warmest to each other, but they sorted out their differences very quickly and became friends. I didn‘t mind it all that much, I‘m quite used to romances being marketed as hate to love and then not really delivering on that.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Holiday House for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I loved this book!!!! You could really feel the main character growing into herself. The book also did a good job highlighting the struggles and stereotypes that women in STEM can face. I really liked the pace and flow and characters. It was a good solid read

THank you to Netgalley for this ARCin exchange for an honest review. FIrst of all, I liked having both Teo and Bel's pov. It kind of got rid of the miscommunication trope that happens a lot in books with only one POV. I think Bel and Teo were very cute together, and I liked all the banter this book had. This book did feel slow and drag at times, but I still think the book on the whole was very interesting with a good plot. I also liked how they talked about the struggles women in STEM face, and to be honest, Bel and Neelam becoming half friends was my favorite part of this book.

I really liked this book. It was so fun to read.

The pace was slightly slow for me and it was dragging at times, but i didn't think it was boring. It's very well written and the plot was interesting (being a stem nerd and all lol). I loved the characters, they worked so well together and they did not blend together at all. There are a few things i didn't really like but they're not substantial.

this is so fresh and funny. i couldn’t put it down. it’s so great that the book came with both of Teo and Bel’s p.o.v. it made me easy to bond with their feeling. i absolutely loved this!!!

"Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

Oh, but this was so good.Smart writing,great plot and the banter,witty,likeable characters..This was so much more than what I expected and then some.I loved it. *chefs kiss*

Feel-good and inspiring, this book was a great read. I flew through the pages, having immediately fallen in love with all the characters, especially Bel and Teo, the two alternating narrators of the story. Even though they come from different backgrounds, they manage to bond while building robots for their school's robotics club, and bring out the best in each other along the way. A cheesy, cute love story about a couple of nerdy teens, and their aspirations to become engineers. In addition to being a fantastically adorable love story, this book also discusses a lot of the struggles girls face when trying to make their own paths within STEM fields, but does so in a way that is reminiscent of Legally Blonde in the best way possible. A terrific option for readers who enjoy mega cute, quick read books, and for all of us who grew up super nerdy. Wins all around.

*Very mild spoilers*
This book was absolutely wonderful. I’ve been in a reading slump off and on for a month or two recently but when I started this book, I couldn’t stop. I am extremely critical and picky when it comes to YA romance, but this knocked it out of the stadium,
Let’s start with the writing. The author’s writing was absolutely fantastic. This book was so well written and so well paced. The writing fit the age group of the characters while still being tasteful. I also loved how you could see the growth of the main character Bel through her speech patterns, whereby in the beginning of the book she stuttered and mumbled her words and by the end she gradually came out of her shell and found her place, a confidence that reflected in her speech.
Secondly, the characters. The characters of this book are developed so well. There are a lot of side characters but not once did any of them get lost in the story. Each one had their own individuality that made them stand out and so wholesome. Dash was the sweetest and most loyal friend to both Teo and Bel whilst providing that perfectly timed comedic relief. Jaime was and will remain an absolute boss at everything she does. Neelam was a character I got so interested in, digging under her shell and understanding her behavior was something I did not expect to feel so connected to. Even Bel’s brothers and Teo’s parents who had very minor rolls stood out in their own ways.
The main characters Teo and Bel were absolutely adorable together. Their relationship was paced so well that it left me smiling from ear to ear when something cute happened. I adored them both and the banter between them was way too good.
The tropes in the book were top tier, academic rivals, enemies to lovers, dual pov, opposites attract. There was a little bit of everything. In addition, the representation and diversity of the STEM field and academics was vividly discussed. The inclusion of minorities and women in particular was something important that was addressed multiple times. Alexene Faron Follmuth did such a spectacular job at packing in so many important diversifying issues, even the simplest things such as Neelam’s explanation of the Holi festival.
There are a lot of reasons to love this book, I’ve listed only a few. If I kept talking about what I liked in this novel I probably wouldn’t stop. I cannot wait for it to officially be published so I can get my hands on a physical copy. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC e-copy.

I was skeptical that a book this short would be able to draw me in as much as it did but I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t feel too short! The author’s voice and style are *chefs* kiss, the MCs were both the perfect amount of flawed, and a book about robots/STEM was super engaging, even as a person who is decidedly *not* a math girl. I would for sure recommend this! I was surprised to learn that this is the same author of The Atlas Six, and because I enjoyed this book so much that one has moved up considerably on my TBR.

There is nothing in this world that I love more than RomComs, Taylor Swift and words written by Alexene Follmuth; and this book checks all three boxes.

I have been an avid fan of this author's work, under the pen name, Olivie Blake, for a few years now (literally wake up everyday counting down the days till the release of The Atlas Paradox) and when I discovered that she was writing a romantic comedy, I knew immediately that I needed to read it. I am so thankful for being sent an arc of My Mechanical Romance, so a huge thank you to Holiday House and NetGalley (I jumped around my room for a solid 30 minutes before I was calm enough to begin reading)! This book was a quick read and perfect for when you're in the mood for a simple and beautiful story.

My Mechanical Romance (gets extra points simply for its punny title) is a hilariously amazing story about Bel who is simply trying to navigate through life. As someone who spent years of my life debating if I really wanted to be an engineer, or hell what I wanted to do with my life in general, I found myself relating to both Mateo and Bel. I used to be an extreme planner, just like Teo, who needed everything to follow a routine... in the last 2 years, I've learned that life is never predictable.
Bel and I are similar in the sense that I truly had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I had hobbies sure, but I found myself feeling a little lost. It was nice to be able to connect with these two characters, though I'm nowhere near as intelligent as them, LOL.

Beyond Bel and Mateo, the supporting characters were also very well rounded and added a lot to the story (Dash, you beautiful human, I love you). I appreciated how diverse and natural the characters and their relationships felt. Neelam is a great, realistic example of how women in STEM are treated. This book continues the extremely important conversation about sexism and how women are overlooked throughout their careers.

I also love, love, LOVE the author's writing style! It's fun, descriptive and keeps you engaged throughout. The way she incorporates the characters' backstories and development is very well done, as this is something I find which irritates me in many YA novels.

Also a little nod to how absolutely ADORABLE this cover is?! Truly probably one of the best covers I've seen in a while, just thought I'd mention it!

In all, My Mechanical Romance is the perfect, fast-paced, adorable read you've been looking for. It's relatable, funny, and overall just a *good* story. Cannot recommend this book enough! Super excited for what's next to come from Alexene Follmuth!

This was such a charming book! The main characters' voices were really engaging and fun, especially Bel's, and the relationship between the two was so sweet and believable. This book made some really thoughtful and compelling commentary about misogyny, without being too heavy handed or preachy, and I thought the ending tied everything up in a way that was satisfying without being formulaic (which is no easy feat, when the primary question of the book, outside of the relationship itself, is whether someone gets into a certain college or not! To resolve that without being either unrealistic or predictable is honestly impressive.). If I had any complaint, it would be that some of the supporting characters weren't fleshed out enough for me to easily keep track of them, but that honestly didn't detract from my enjoyment to any significant extent. On the whole, this reminded me of high school in all the best, nerdiest ways, and it made me smile a whole lot. What more could I want?

The book goes through the senior year of Teo and Bel (canto 😉). A super light hearted, fun, and nerdy read. Bel goes to a new school her senior year of highschool and she is smart. Math and science just comes naturally to her and she gets recruited for the robotics team. There is definitely swoon worthy moments and the epilogue was a nice touch for the finish. Can't wait to see what else Alexene Farol Follmuth produces. Overall, a great read and a nice escape.