First and foremost, thank you, Netgalley and Holiday House for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

"Nerds are hot."

This one took me some weeks to finished it since, well... I am not really into eARCs and yeah, too busy with assignments to do. But I still managed to keep up with the pace.

My Mechanical Romance followed a high-school student named Bel Maier, who was being forced by her teacher to enter the robotics team. So yeah, reluctantly, she joined the team and there, she met Teo Luna, the rich genius boy and the leader/captain of the robotics team.

My thoughts: I love Bel so much. She's funny, intelligent and kind of that sarcastic girly. She looked like she didn't what she's doing, but don't judge a book by its cover, she's really good in everything she's trying to do. Including designing robots.

And Teo Luna? Okay, this atta boy here made me fell in love with him too. He's a genius boy that was born into a rich genius family (of course) and such a good leader. He knew what he's doing and everyone was relying on him.

Furthermore, I love the way the author described about the real thing that also happened in real life where girls always being judged by the boys when it comes to play extreme sports and e-sports too.

Okay... to be honest, this is my first reading anything from the author; Alexene Farol Follmuth/Olive Black. You know what? Her writing style really suited my taste, so this is a sign for me to start reading The Atlas Six ASAP.

Last but not least, this book is such a fun and light STEM YA romance to read and fast-paced too. I also learned a lot of things about robotics and physics (I'm an accounting student so yeah) term too. There's a lot of funny scenes that will make you laugh out loud.

Will I recommend this to everyone to read this book once it's already out to the world so it can shine? Yes.

If you are a fan of these tropes: STEM cute romance book with robots, enemies to lovers, slowburn and full of POC and diversity characters. I beg you to please pick up this book once it's already out!

Rate: A solid 5🌟
—Feyssa.

Fabulous, YA, STEM, multicultural, romantic comedy

Lovely Isabel (Bel) Maier is ethnically Asian-Filipino, with sleek, dark hair, and a tan complexion. She lives with her mother, a hard-working ER nurse, and feels very conflicted about loving and missing her father, since his infidelity is what led to the rancorous divorce that blew up her family in the recent past. It is her senior year, and she is attending, for the first time ever, an exclusive, private school, the Essex Academy for Art, Science, and Technology (“Essex”). Her mother enrolled Bel in this school as the fulfillment of one of her main financial demands of Bel’s dad within the terms of their divorce settlement. Essex is located in Sherman Oaks, a ritzy area of the San Fernando Valley, in Los Angeles County, about 10 miles away from where Bel used to live before the divorce—and where her father still lives—in a working-class area in Van Nuys. Though Bel routinely makes all A’s in school, she takes that impressive feat for granted and doesn’t realize how brainy she actually is. Her current goal in life is to be as invisible as possible to her teachers at Essex and avoid being railroaded into attending college, since she has no idea what, if any, career path she might want to choose. None of her life-long friends in Van Nuys care about doing well in school, participating in extracurricular activities, or going to college. All they ever do is hang out, both inside and outside of school hours, in a care-nothing huddle. Like crabs in a bucket, anyone who tries, in the smallest way, to escape from the dead-end of their group-think is yanked back down by the others into their mutual bucket of mindless mediocrity. This fate is not only the assumed inevitable destiny of the boys in Bel’s former world, but it is a fate that is practically written in stone for the girls. In addition, Bel’s parents don’t outright discourage, but never particularly encourage, her obvious intellectual giftedness, her superior mechanical-design-drawing skill, or her notable ability at building things, by utilizing the extensive stock of tools owned by her father, a general contractor, which includes, among many other things, a complete set of welding paraphernalia. Bel likes to stick to pursuits she already knows she is good at, because her biggest fear about trying anything new is that she might fail at it and make a fool of herself in public.

For the past six weeks, fellow Essex senior, Jamie Howard, a beautiful, bright, hugely ambitious Black girl, who is on track to be class valedictorian and plans to become a high-powered attorney someday, has been Bel’s Transfer Buddy. Among her many extracurricular activities, for years now Jamie has volunteered to be the assigned guide for new transfer students. In Bel’s case, what might have been just another routine, unimportant relationship has evolved instead into a close friendship. Unlike Bel, Jamie prefers literature to math and science, but she is in AP Physics to pad her application for Stanford. Bel is not currently in any AP classes—which were virtually non-existent in Van Nuys, so they are not something that she has naturally gravitated toward. As a result, she is taking regular Physics with a teacher named Ms. Voss.

As the story opens, school has been in session for three weeks, and it has been two whole weeks since Ms. Voss assigned a project to the class to build a model of a catapult and write an accompanying explanatory report. When Jamie brings up the fact to Bel that her catapult project is due that very day—in exactly 15 minutes when her Physics class begins—Bel suddenly realizes she forgot all about that assignment in the midst of a raft of other overwhelmingly challenging assignments from all her other classes. Rather than just giving up and taking an F—an unthinkable prospect for Bel—she decides to take advantage of the few remaining minutes available to her. Using a pen, a rubber band, part of a tape dispenser she filches from the school library, and two caps she removes from plastic water bottles she scrounges from the school’s recycle bin, Bel “MacGyvers” a working catapult.

In the middle of Bel’s Physics class, Ms. Voss escorts Bel into the hall to talk to her privately. Bel is afraid she is going to be scolded for her careless completion of an assignment that is half her semester grade, but Ms. Voss tells her that her catapult is far and away the best one created by anyone in the class, even though it is obvious to the teacher that Bel threw it together at the last second. She tells Bel that the catapult is amazingly ingenious. Unfortunately, she informs Bel that the best grade she can give her for it is a C, since she did not turn in the required report. A-student Bel absolutely does not want a C and asks what she can do to bring up the grade. Ms. Voss hesitates only a moment before telling Bel there are two things she must do to earn an A. First, she wants Bel to transfer to AP Physics (the same class that Jamie is in). Second, she wants Bel to go to the tryouts taking place in a couple of days for the Essex robotics team. Ms. Voss also strongly suggests that Bel consider applying for college programs in mechanical engineering, since she obviously has a talent for design. She urges Bel to not allow the world, which is universally unfriendly to smart girls, to force her into a box and persuades Bel to take a risk on herself. Then she sums up her pep talk by asking Bel if she *can* do robotics, not if she is *willing* to do it. Overwhelmed by a type of praise and support that she has never encountered before, Bel finds herself admitting that she *can* do robotics and committing to participate in the robotics tryout. However, Bel doesn’t say anything when Ms. Voss tells her that, for the tryout, she has to do a project called an “egg drop,” in which participants create an engineering design in computer-aided design (CAD) software, which requires the use of physics and math to generate a structure to protect a computer-animated egg from breaking when dropped. Bel has never had any opportunity in her previous, underfunded, public school to learn CAD, but she figures it doesn’t matter. She believes she will feel nothing but relief if she fails the tryout and avoids the scary prospect of being on the robotics team. All Ms. Voss requires is that she participate in the robotics tryout, not that she win the competition.

Mateo (Teo) Luna has attended Essex straight through since kindergarten and is in his senior year. His father is a world-famous, billionaire, tech genius, and his mother is a former model and current, enormously successful, social-media influencer. Teo is half Latinx through his father and half Jewish through his mother. He has sleek, dark hair, a tan complexion, and is handsome with a ripped, athletic physique. He is captain of the robotics team and captain and offensive midfielder of the Essex soccer team. He is enrolled in six AP classes and has already submitted his application for early admission to MIT, his dream school. His fallback applications are to Stanford, Caltech, Michigan, Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon. He lives in a gigantic mansion in the Mulholland Drive area of LA where a lot of celebrities live. Teo has been on the award-winning, Essex robotics team since freshman year and, as far as he is concerned, everyone on the team who is any good only joined because he recruited them. Every year that Teo has been on the team, Essex has gone all the way to Nationals, and last year they were the winning team. Teo resents the fact that he is required to recruit a new member for the team, because he absolutely does not want to have one more hassle piled on his already over-filled plate of leadership responsibilities. It will be up to him to train the new member to overcome any, inevitable, robotics-related deficiencies they might have. However, since there is no way to avoid this issue, the factor he will put the most weight on in the tryouts is an already existing ability to do welding.

The day of the robotics tryouts, Teo is bored and just wants it over with. While a bunch of freshmen demonstrate their egg-drop entries in CAD, he notices out of the corner of his eye that Bel has begun busily sketching on a piece of paper. Little by little, everyone in the room starts watching her instead of the tryout demonstrations and, finally, Teo’s own curiosity is roused to such a degree, he leaps up and strides over to Bel. Barely pausing to lodge a perfunctory request for permission, he snatches up Bel’s drawing—and is stunned at the high quality of the design she has tossed off within mere minutes. Casually aborting the current egg-drop display on the computer at the front of the room, with practiced ease, Teo programs Bel’s design into the CAD software and runs the program. As he already suspected from his quick but comprehensive glance at her drawing, the physics of her design work perfectly. His entire focus on Bel, he asks her if she knows how to do welding. When she says, yes, he instantly dismisses all the other hopeful applicants with a negligent wave of his hand and, to Bel’s stunned dismay, informs her that she is now a member of the robotics team.

This book is absolutely fabulous. It is one of the best YA romances I’ve ever read. In every possible way, it is extremely well written. It has an original, exceedingly entertaining setup, which instantly grabbed my avid attention, and the Meet Cute is tremendous. Throughout this novel, there are moments of quirky humor and moments of enthralling poignancy. And each and every relationship of the main protagonists to various subcharacters adds to the story in important ways. No page space is ever wasted on boring fluff.

I am personally a major fan of adult and YA STEM romances between two mentally sharp protagonists. In that regard, Bel and Teo are a superb match, and their personalities are vividly and compellingly drawn. They are both brilliant, both emotionally damaged in their own unique ways, and both have a strong, emotional growth arc. I love the way Bel, over the course of the novel, comes into her own and realizes how talented and intelligent she is. And I was very impressed with the way that Teo learns to become, as one psychologist put it, a “human being, instead of a human doing.” It is truly outstanding the way this author presents the progression of their relationship from strangers, to team partners, to friends, to romance.

I am very grateful that this novel is constructed in the manner of adult romance novels, with the dual point of view of both Bel and Teo. This allows the reader to deeply get to know Teo, who is a wonderful romantic hero. However, in keeping with the conventions of the young-adult genre, this story is written in their alternating first-person points of view, rather than the deep-third POV typical of adult romance.

I particularly enjoyed the fact that this story is completely multicultural. As far as I can tell, there is only one white character. The cast includes the following ethnic groups: Asian-Filipino, Latinx, Jewish, Black, Chinese, Korean, and Portuguese. None of the members of this delightful cast are stock figures. Even the most minor characters are drawn with great sensitivity and depth, especially the female characters.

The writing itself in this novel is smooth and polished and a pleasure to read. I am not someone who typically enjoys it when a novel is written in present tense, as this novel is. But it is so exceptional in every other way, I was able to easily overlook that artistic choice.

I am very much looking forward to the release of the audiobook version of this novel, which will allow me to experience this fantastic story on an even deeper level. This novel is a total keeper, and I look forward to re-reading it many times in the future.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5 stars
Hero: 5 stars
Multicultural Cast: 5 stars
Romance Plot: 5 stars
STEM Plot: 5 stars
Setting: 5 stars
Writing: 5 stars
Overall: 5 stars

Thank you netgalley for giving me an arc for this I enjoyed this book so much. I loved watching the characters grow especially Bel who was forced into the robotics club and seeing her potential grow was amazing. Teo and Bel being the complete opposite in many things where they butted heads a lot. Rivals to lovers being one of my top favorite genres made it such better. It was nice to have an mc who didn’t have their life planned out and was still trying to figure things out.
Women in STEM making this book even better.
I loved the banter even tho I didn’t understand anything when it came to robotics I still enjoyed every moment of this book and think Alexene/Olive did an amazing job and I just know I will love everything Alexene/Olive writes
INSTANT 5 ★

I would like to start this review by say that I do NOT understand anything about engineer or robotics. Now, with that being said, My Mechanical Romance is not just about that, it’s also about romance, friendship, self-discovery, and girl power.

Bel is the new girl in an elite private school. Her procrastination lands her a spot in the robotics team (it doesn’t make sense I know 😅 but it will when you read). We navigate through her journey as a new member of the team, as she makes new friends and enemies, as she struggle in and out of school, and as she experiences love.

We also read and learn about Teo, the captain of the soccer team and the leader of the robotics team. He’s good at everything he does and he knows it, and he kind of uses that to his advance (which made me not like him as much in the beginning). Teo is the opposite of Bel, he loves to have control of everything and to try to fix everyone’s problems.

Overall, it was a very interesting book taking into consideration how I don’t understand anything about engineer or robotics but the author was gracious enough to explain the terminology as we read 😅

I loved how organic Bel and Teo’s relationship was written. As a reader, we notice how they’re obviously attracted to each other in the beginning but the relationship itself, felt very genuine and not rushed. I also loved the secondary characters. The family members were very interesting and the friends were really great.

I would have loved to read more about Bel and her mom. They had such an interesting dynamic and I wanted to read more about it instead of being told what happened.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! I absolutely loved this book! It is a super cute YA romance, but it also explores deeper themes surrounding women in STEM.
I, like a lot of young people I'm sure, related a lot to Bel, not knowing what to do in my future and feeling extra lost when people around you are so sure. I loved seeing her growth throughout the book, from being unsure of her abilities and taking a backseat, to realising her potential and standing up for herself and others and what she believes in. I also loved her relationship with Teo, from when they initially clashed, to when they realised they were better when they worked with each other. Bel wasn't afraid to stand up to Teo and be honest with him which I found really refreshing and I liked that the chapters alternated with Teo so we could understand him better and not just see how how everyone saw him. They were both really mature and took the opportunity to become better people rather than be offended when they did something wrong.
The supporting characters were all amazing as well! I loved Ms. Voss who was such an awesome role model. Dash was hilarious and I liked how he put his friendships above everything else. Neelam was a very tough character to like initially as she is very abrasive, but she's super tough and resilient and I respect her strength. By the end of the book she lets down her walls a little bit and I was glad to start to see her underneath everything.
Really recommend this book, it was a really amazing YA read!

So apparently this book is written by the author of The Atlas Six, just under a different name, and I haven't read that yet, but after reading this, I think that I will gladly devour anything this author writes! This had such a dry wit, I laughed at so many moments, and there was just so much to love about the book. It highlighted the joys of women in STEM but also the problems, because let's face it, there's gonna be, and I thought it showed different perspectives on that really well. The romance in here is just the cutest, I am obsessed, I would die for them, I love them dearly. The pining, the banter, this was peak friends-to-lovers and I am HERE. FOR. IT. Really pleased with this read, and I'll definitely be picking up a physical copy for a reread!

“Some boys still can’t take the idea that a girl in sparkly doc martens belongs in robotics, but I’m always happy to prove them wrong.”

“I need to take up my own space. I need to be my own push”

“I’m in my own space now.”

“I mean come on, boys can do it” … “So how hard can it be?”

“I don’t owe it to anyone to smile and act like I’m happy when I’m not.”

“Life is long, with plenty of chances to start over.” < my favourite quote.

thank you to NetGallery, Holiday House and Alexene Farol Follmuth (aka Olivie Blake) for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review

firstly I want to start by saying this is the CUTEST freakin’ cover for a book I have seen! it’s honestly so perfect, I love it!

secondly, when I heard this book was academic enemies to lovers…in STEM. I was sold. However, the story felt *very* fast paced and the ‘academic enemies/rivals’ part is fast lived and we don’t get to see much of this ‘rivalry’ between the two MCs (Bel and Teo), with only Bel standing up to Teo a couple of times (before and after she joins the team) before they become friends.

As the book feels fast paced, it moves on from the smaller ‘interaction’ bits (such as Teo helping Bel to learn the software after school - something which could have progressed their relationship better and made it easier to understand their relationship) and focuses on the STEM side of things (rather than the romantic side), and included (what I hope) are real facts about how things worked and different aspects to robotics. From this, the book touched on serious matters such as women (and WOC) in STEM and other male led industries and the pressures faced with this!! (I think most of my highlighted parts from this book were to do with this subject)

I did love the dual POV! Reading both Bel and Teo’s POV provided a well rounded story, with their backgrounds and the struggles they were facing both academically and at home were appreciated as I feel this is something that can be easily related to. I also loved the side characters, especially Dash, who I wish we had more interaction with, and Bel’s friend Jamie, Lora and even Neema.

This is exactly the book I wish I had had my senior year of high school when it seemed like nothing was working out for me in my future. This book tackles the issue of what comes after high school in a very relatable way that many YA novels seem to ignore.
I normally don’t like multiple POVs, but it really worked for this book to give different perspectives on what high schoolers see for themselves in the future.
Also, how can I leave out how cute the main romance is! The Holi scene is too perfection!

thank you so much to holiday house for this arc!

4.25 stars from me!

Whew! This book was truly a refreshing read for me. I recently been getting a little bit back into why a romances and this book reminds me why I love the genre so much. The story is written solo, it’s incredibly easy to follow and the plot is interesting as well. I love the main character, Bel, she is one of my favorite characters I’ve read this year actually. I love her entitle dialogue as well as just who she is as a person. I love that she is not afraid to stand out amongst the crowd and not stay in the shadows for long. Her character growth throughout the story is notable and I really enjoyed it. Teo was a really interesting character for me to read. He’s pretty different than most heroes I read about in the YA genre! He was pretentious to a fault, but he was also very easy to sympathize with and when you learn more about who he is a person he’s very easy to love. The relationship between these two is substantial. I absolutely adored them as a couple and as individuals. I love how the relationship progress throughout the book and how we got to see their feelings develop for one another. The side characters in the book are all lovable except I was not a big fan of Neelam she was not someone I could connect to or really understand. As a woman in STEM, I am used to constantly being in spaces that are filled with men and usually male dominated, so I can understand a distain towards someone who would walk in to a room and get the easy way in. I just felt like Neelam was overdoing a lot of her reactions as well as just her overall distaste for Bel! Overall I really enjoyed this book and that’s why it gets a 4.25 stars out of me

This book was so wholesome in so many ways. I love the messsage that girls can do and are capable of anything they want to do.
This book personally hit close to home because just like Bel, I didn´t know what I wanted to do after high school, and got overwhelmed when all of my friends and classmates started applying to schools and planning their lifes when I didn´t even know what I was going to do the next week. And even now that I am in college and studying something I like, I still don´t know what direction to take in my future. So I feel like this book is perfect for anyone who might be struggling with that, and let them know that is okay if it takes longer for you to figure out what you want, and that life is full of opportunities so it doesn´t matter if the first one doesn´t work, you´ll always get another shot.
The character development in these characters is great. We have the boys in this book learning to treat woman as equals, learning that girls are as capable of anything as they are, and I think that is so valuable because even now we still get treated differently in so many ways for these micro things. So watching these girls fighting that and working to show everyone that they are wrong and watching the boys learning these it´s so precious for me as a woman.
I think this book checks every box of what I love in a book. It has been a long time since a book has made me laugh out loud. The characters are so likeable and in a way I felt like they were real, and I wish I could hug them and be their friend.
I really wish I had something like this a year ago, but I´m glad other 17 year olds have it so they don´t feel like there´s something wrong with them for not knowing what te future looks like.
Definitly going to read whatever this author publishes.

The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wanted to read just for the cover and title, but found a surprisingly wholesome young adult romance about a girl of color in STEM! The characters are vivid, the science interesting, and the romance very sweet. Really enjoyed and would recommend!

I really enjoyed this story - way more than I expected to. For a YA in a high school setting, the characters are really relatable. I enjoyed the dialogue and the surrounding cast of characters - how they were woven throughout the whole story and included in the ending so there was a conclusion for not just the two main characters, but the rest of their friend group as well.

The topic of girls in STEM - especially engineering and robotics - is such an important one, and this book handles it beautifully. I honestly was envisioning my daughter in this story (I'm well past the high school / college age). This is such a cute, funny, easy read that is focused on such important topics. It doesn't sugar-coat experiences in this arena, especially for girls. I really appreciated the fact that Bel didn't get everything handed to her at the end. There is an acknowledgement of privilege and how some kids just get lucky that is such an important lesson to learn.

The acknowledgements are beautiful - who this was written for - "the girls that we are and the ones that we were. The women we will be' the many who will come after us and find, if we do our job right, that there is room for them here." I think the author did an amazing job with this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Holiday House & the author for an advance copy for me to read and review!

I loved this book!

Let's start there. It was really cute and after a hard week in my own coding courses it was a really nice refreshing read. I loved the backstory we got about bel's family and how she was feeling about all the recent changes in her life. I loved how we also got to see it from Teo's point of view and how he wasn't a stereotypical a-hole and I just thought he was really well developed overall.

This is a story about discovering what you love, and giving yourself proper credit. Bel showed amazing growth and she was a really amazing main character. I love how Bel is able to realize her mistakes and the way she went about righting them was fantastic.

I also appreciate how the author made me dislike Bel's adversary in the robotics club(Neelam) for no reason but when I found out why they were adversaries I began to understand her and I love that the author was able to make me think about how I myself treat other people.

The sidecharacters were also sooo good, well fleshed out and pretty funny.

The romance coupled with the angst, robots, and overall relatability as a women in stem myself made this book exactly what I needed after a hectic week programming.

The cover was also adorable. I just love everything about this it was so good.

I recommend this book to literally everyone. If you like romance books you will most likely love this one. The characters are multifaceted and the entire book just had me smiling. I just love this book. It was really good and you should go and buy it when it comes out. I think we should petition for a movie as well because I would love that!

When reading MY MECHANICAL ROMANCE, I felt like Alexene Farol Follmuth looked into the mind of my teenage self and written the story I’d loved to have read back then. The story focuses on Bel who is convinced by a teacher to join the robotics club of her school. Enter: lots of self-doubt, engineering shenanigans, and a cast of nerds, led by Teo Luna, who’s not only captain of the robotics club but also the soccer team.

But underneath it all, the story is about finding your passion, about taking up space in an environment that doesn’t grant you any, about friendships that lift you up. Oh, and it’s also about hot nerds and confusing teenage love. I chuckled along with the banter, and resonated deeply with this brainy and empowering coming-of-age story.

Three reasons why I wanted to read »My Mechanical Romance« as soon as it was announced:
I read The Atlas Six (yes, this is the same author) at the end of last year, and I'm always curious when authors write different genres.
Women in STEM: Since I read The Love Hypothesis last September I love reading about women in STEM. Well, this is more girls in STEM, but who cares.
The cover is absolutely gorgeous. I love the colors and the drawing style is so cute. Even though I read the eBook I need this on my shelf when it's released.

Honestly, this is one of these YA books where I wish I could have read this kind of book when I was a teenager. I was one of the girls who hated math and physics, and chem was the worst but I loved reading, and when I read about characters who are passionate about a topic/hobby I always want to do it too. So, yeah, I would have loved this book when I was in school, it definitely would have made me want to be better at physics.

One thing I liked most about »My Mechanical Romance« was that we have a dual POV. I don't read that many YA contemporary books anymore but I don't think that's something we see that often and I appreciated it a lot. Bel was amazing; I loved her from the first page. She doesn't know what she wants to do with her future in the beginning and procrastinates doing school work until one of her teachers realizes she's actually pretty smart and basically forces her to join the robotics club.
Teo is the captain of the robotics club and very, very passionate about it. He's the complete opposite of Bel, who just wants to be left alone and does the bare minimum for school. Teo on the other hand is captain of the robotics club, plays soccer, always wants to help everyone, has good grades... so, obviously he and Bel don't get along that well in the beginning. Which is why I'm so happy we got to be in both of their heads because if we didn't have Teo's POV I probably wouldn't have liked him.

So, we have a rivals to lovers situation here - because obviously they secretly like each other -, women of color in STEM, help what do I do with my life angst and really fun robotic tournaments. Seriously, robotics sounds great, I didn't knew there were championships like that but the author made it sound like it's lots of fun.

I just absolutely adored the book. The writing style was humorous and easy to read, the story was engaging and fun. Both Bel and Teo were lovely characters and I loved to see the character development, especially in Bel. But also in Teo. As I said, I loved both of them.
As fun as this book was most of the time, it also deals with complicated family relationships, navigating relationships and schoolwork, just growing up. It was the perfect mix of fun and more serious topics, while always being hopeful. It discusses how hard it can be for women in STEM, especially women of color, but again, mostly in a hopeful way. And the epilogue was everything, pure perfection. Maybe one of my favorite epilogues ever.

I don't know what else I should say except that I want everyone to read this book because it was so, so freaking good. I read it in one sitting despite having to study (whoops) but I don't regret it. I was just so immersed in the story and needed to know what happens.
If you liked The Love Hypothesis because of how Olive thinks - I personally think she's hilarious - and the women in STEM aspect, please go read this book because it has very similar vibes, even though it's YA.

The first thing that caught my attention about this book was how utterly different it was to other YA romance novels, and not just because it was set in a STEM environment. The main character, Bel, was very unique; and not in the way authors write ‘unique’ or ‘quirky’ characters where that becomes the character’s entire personality. Teo was also an incredibly well written character who didn’t really adhere to the expectations of other YA teen male characters. He was smart, a hard worker and in all rights a nerd who wasn’t ashamed of his ‘nerdiness’. This was a very enjoyable read that I was able to go through very quickly and I couldn’t put the book down! The one issue I had is that the book took quite some time to get going but that seemed minuscule in the grand scheme of things. The secondary characters were also loveable and their interactions and relationships with the two main characters was interesting.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so cute and fun! I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it those much but it was definitely a pleasant surprise. I had a few issues with this book; the pacing was a little wonky and I found the ending quite abrupt. I wasn’t as invested in the main couple as I was in their individual storylines, both exploring family dynamics and pressures/fears young adults have of the future. Nevertheless it was still a very fun and enjoyable read especially for people interested in STEM!

Thank you to NetGalley and Holiday House for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I'm not the biggest fan of YA Contemporary, so I really only picked this book up because of the author, aka Olivie Blake. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading about Bel and Teo! I could feel the chemistry between them; they definitely balanced each other out and brought out the best in each other. I also appreciate that Alexene Farol Follmuth/Olivie Blake brought awareness to the sexism that comes with being a woman in a STEM field, which is something I'm glad that is being brought up more in novels.

Overall this was a book I'd definitely re-read again (which is something I rarely say about any book I read)!

This book was provided as an arc copy by netgalley. This is an honest review and these are my own opinions.

This is a young adult version of a romcom. Enemies to lovers. Similar interests. Club romance.

In this book you will see the struggles in both bells and teos life to figure out who they are and how they want to fit in society. As well as trying to maneuver around social situations within school and friend groups, they have to figure out family issues and grow into who they want to be in person and personality.

I really enjoyed how the author involved the world of STEM and shows that women can do whatever any man can do. Girls in STEM are cool!!! I also like how the book shows what challenges women have to face and the gates they have to pass through to participate in the world of STEM especially women of color face even more hardship and gatekeeping.

This book is full of wit, honesty, trust, weakness, found self worth, and found family.

Do recommend!!!

I received a copy of My Mechanical Romance via NetGalley to read and review.

The story revolves around high schoolers Bel and Teo. Bel transferred to the school and meets Teo when she is coerced to try out for the robotics team by a physics teacher. Initially they do not get along but start building a bot together and the relationship changes.

The characters are witty and smart and are written how I would imagine teenagers to be. This is a very tame romcom which I’m fine with since this takes place in high school. I also like that the author addresses how boys are treated much different than girls in STEM and the fact that boys are often encouraged to do STEM where that’s not usually the case for girls.

This is a great quick read that I do recommend.