Thank you, Holiday House, for the advance reading copy.

This book turns out to be a surprise!

I find the writing quite adorable and the characters quite relatable. I just love these nerds!

If you feel like you haven't read a good young adult romance in a while now, don't think too much about it. The right book is here! I mean who can deny this adorable cover!

The story exactly lives up to the blurb which I find pretty damn satisfying.

This is the story about Bel and Mateo Luna who are basically thrown together in the same college by fate (sigh! This should happen more in stories. I know it happens all the time but I just need more of this you know!).

And then the drama begins (psst! You cannot take sides okay?!). Enemies to lovers? Who would have thought about it when their characters are so different. Bel and Teo have to work together to win the Nationals. Their nerd talk is everything for me!

I feel the characters are developed so well. You just cannot ignore even the side characters. You will know what I mean.

You will get to see their struggles (you know more adults need to read such books to know what the young have to go through at college and uni).

This would have been the most ultimate perfect read for me if I didn't feel some parts did drag in between. Otherwise a fun engaging nerdy read!

you know that feeling when you start reading a good book but it’s really late at night and then you can’t stop reading the book because it’s so good and before you know it, it’s 5am?

yeah. so that happened with this book. it was SUCH a good time!

my mechanical romance follows bel, a teenager who has recently moved schools and is essentially forced to get involved with her new school’s robotics team. but nothing can ever be simple — although the leader of the team, teo, selects her as a new member, they are put in numerous head to head situations as the team prepares for nationals. what ensues is a fun, science driven YA contemporary, filled with great humor, cute moments, and a love story you can’t help but root for.

i really enjoyed this book. bel and teo were multi-dimensional characters, and their struggles and personalities added so much to this story. their moments together were so cute, and their banter was perfect. i also really enjoyed the STEM aspects of this book. having been in the same position while i was in high school (a nerd) like these characters, it was refreshing to see a contemporary book from this point of view. i had no choice but to binge this book in one sitting, because i loved it that much. 4.5/5 stars!

thank you so much to publisher, who provided an arc through netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher, Holiday House and Netgalley for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review

The moment I saw this book, I knew I just had to read it. Let us all just take a moment to appreciate the gorgeous cover. It’s pink, the character drawings are on point, and it perfectly represents this story. This book is academic rivals to lovers, features a woman of color in a STEM field, and is just a cute romance overall. And I want to mention that the author is also known as Olivie Blake, the author of the Atlas Six, a very popular book right now (and rightly so!)

My Mechanical Romance follow Bel, who joins the robotics team after one of her teachers notices a special talent and potential for engineering. She’s really good at finding errors in the team’s robots and finding solutions for them but the team leader and driver, Teo, doesn’t like it when someone corrects his ideas. So obviously they don’t see eye-to-eye but as they spend more time together, building the perfect bot, they start to realize that the other isn’t soo bad.

50 pages into the book, I knew it was going to be 5 stars. No matter what. I loved relationship between all the characters, you could really feel the friendship through the interactions they had with each other. I had a soft spot for Bel, as she is half-Filipino and I love any representation in books. I think a lot of young adults and teens will be able to relate to Bel and her struggle to figure out what she wants to do. I could also relate to Teo in the way that he was kind of a perfectionist and felt that he had to find a solution to every problem, including one’s that weren’t his own. The romance between Bel and Teo was exactly what I was looking for. It was cute, there was tension, the banter between them was amazing, and the Taylor Swift references were squeal worthy.

Read more on my blog.

This books starts with Bel switching schools because her parents got a divorce and she had to move with her mom, she’s a senior in high school and doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life after it, on the first day her teacher encouraged her to join the robotics club to try something new she accepts and that’s where she meets Teo Luna that helps her change the perspective of what she wants.


I added this book to my reading list under the impression it was academic rivals but it is not and i know some people added it to their lists thinking the same BUT it was a really cute high school romance book totally worth reading , i loved the way he compared her eyes to things from the outer space multiple times, i think if you love high school romance books you would definitely like this one.

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

- academic rivals to lovers
- POC rep
- women in stem

I was sooo excited when I saw this on NetGalley. I'm a HUGE 'the atlas six' fan, (counting down the days to 'the atlas paradox'), so back when this book was announced I was intrigued to see Follmuth's reading style translate from Fantasy to YA.

She did not disappoint.

We follow Bel and Mateo, Bel is on her journey through the last year of high school- managing career direction confusion and college application stress, along with being thrown into robotics club with all boy members, except one other girl-Neelam. Mateo, is the captain of said robotics team, with drive and the advantage of knowing what he's wanted in a career for a while.

We see Bel deal with being ignored constantly by other club members, club teachers and even Neelam. She struggles to find her voice, even though she knows her stuff.

So much of this book was relatable. I'm not a #women-in-stem, but a lot of these same gender biases can be translated beyond the field of science and tech. That being said, Follmuth did a wonderful job portraying the characters as real teenagers, as well as the reality of being a woman in a male-dominated field.

The character dialogues were engaging and well thought out. I laughed and screamed and made weird faces all throughout this book. It pulled strings. Bel's "I don't know what to do with my life" senior year crisis was so relatable- finding your path so young is hard. I loved Ms. Voss's advocacy for Bel. She really pushed her out of her comfort zone, even when she didn't want to be pushed.

The most thought-provoking part is seeing Bel's advantages grow as she grows closer to Mateo. It really pivoted the way I was viewing certain characters and brought a lot of conversations up at relevant times. I was scared this book was going to be "the boy saves the day!", but it wasn't.

I love academic-rivals-to-lovers. My favourite YA troupe. It's always amazing. It doesn't miss. This book included.

4.5 stars!

It’s been a minute since I’ve ventured into YA and I can honestly say I’m happy to return to the genre with this book! Although I occasionally got lost in the technical talk, these characters were so much fun. I lol’d at quite a few parts, Bel and Teo have fantastic banter, and their friends hold their own. It was tough connecting with Bel at first, but I think that’s just part of her character’s development, as we really watch her find herself and her voice. I liked that the author didn’t try to make the drama between Bel and Teo too “adult”. It was perfect for a couple looking to find themselves in their senior year of high school.

I’d absolutely recommend this book for anyone looking for YA read with some light romance, great friendships, and character growth.

This book was really cute from beginning to end! The author did a great job at describing the experience of a young girl interested in STEM and I really liked how Bel stuck up for herself in situations where she was treated differently than the male students. The romance in the book was sweet and I loved the enemies to colleagues to lovers progression. This was a great novel and I can't wait to read more from this author!

first of all, this book was amazing! it wasn’t hard for me fall in love with it considering it served one of my favourite tropes which is academic rivals to lovers and this trope was done so well that i could literally reread this book right now and not be bored.

<i>my mechanical romance</i> follows bel, who is forced to join the robotics team after her teacher notices her potential and talent for engineering. bel was honestly the perfect protagonist and i think many young people could relate with her struggles. her relationship with her teacher ms. voss reminded me of one of my favourite teachers in high school and those moments were personally some of the most heart warming ones. we could use more teachers like that in our world.

the plot of the whole book was also very interesting and i’m so happy that stem inspired romance books are getting more popular these days. i really liked reading about the robot fights since i also used to be really into science in high school.

when it comes to romance i’m just gonna say it’s one of the most adorable ones i’ve read about in a while. teo and bel were the perfect couple and i love how they understood each other and always tried to be helpful and considerate. their issues were also resolved in such a nice way and i was so relieved that there was no drama. all the other characters were lovable as well.

this book was one of the shorter ones and fast paced but it still captured all of the emotions perfectly. <i>my mechanical romance</i> managed to both be cute and funny and explore really important themes in life which is one of the reasons i loved it so much.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

This was such a sweet and refreshing book to read. It had me grinning all the way through! It was so easy to fall in love with both Teo and Bel as they’re such relatable characters despite both being so different. The plot was also very easy to get into, and I loved the themes that the book explores. Even the side characters were written wonderfully (so much so that I would have even loved to delve deeper into the arcs of characters like Neelam and/or Dash because they seemed like really complex characters and I loved what little we did get of them! ) I wasn’t really a fan of the prose in this book and that’s why I ultimately ended up giving it 3.5 stars instead of 4, but otherwise, it was perfect!

This is a solid YA romance book! Prior to reading this, I have already devoured this author's published works, so I had so much expectations for this. To say that I was disappointed will be too much, but I guess I just wanted more from this book. Nonetheless, this was cute and highly entertaining!

I enjoyed Bel and Teo's relationship and dynamics. I love how they complemented each other so well. I specifically related to Bel, of her identity crisis, and how she's still figuring things out when everyone expects her to. I also related to Teo in a way that he's too uptight and serious because of all the expectations he's burdened with. I love how they navigated through their struggles both as individuals and partners. Overall, I would've enjoyed this if I was younger, still, it didn't stop me enjoy this. It was cute afterall.

I really enjoyed reading this book, I loved reading about the representation of women in stem and the twist on the academic rivals to lovers trope. Overall I thought this book was very unique and a cute quick read.

my mechanical romance is a book i picked up thinking it would be a cute romance and that’s it, but i found myself relating to these characters a lot, which is why this gets a 5 stars from me. it wasn’t perfect by any means and bel annoyed me a bit at the start, but she’s grown on me as the story went on.

i simply love books with characters in STEM and this delivered. the talk about robotics were so fun – i was never bored for a second. the author did such a good job with the group of friends in this book, they were all very interesting characters and their interactions were so freaking cute. the romance was adorable. i simply love teo and bel and how cute their relationship was. i also loved how well-paced their story turned out to be.

besides the romance, which is done wonderfully, the book also talks about the struggle of finding out who you are when it seems everyone else has it all figured out, about the burden of expectations and how damaging they can be. i truly loved how well the conversation around women in STEM was handled – it was a nice addition to the story. it’s also why i related to bel a lot, which was unexpected, truthfully. besides this topic, the book also delves into privilege and family struggles and, even if it’s got some deeper parts, it still manages to be light-hearted and extremely fun to read.

the writing was undeniably good with some really funny parts and some quotable lines, but it’s not as overly lyrical as her other novels are. the writing style fits the genre perfectly and i couldn’t stop reading after the 10% mark. it was that good of a book.

so, my mechanical romance is one of those books i’d suggest to anyone that wants a light-hearted book because it’s got loveable characters, a fun plot and some very interesting conversations on self identity and one’s place in the world.

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was HOLY CUTENESS. I read it in one day, I was hooked. First can I say I love that it initially comes off as rivals trope but fades into slow crush!! Super innocent high school romance cute.

The robotics theme was super unique and different from most books I read however as I am a robotics and STEM nerd, I definitely geeked out hard.

Teo and Bel are honestly relationship goals; they pushed each other, and worked out their issues (even though they had a few teenagery spats, which made it more realistic for their age).

Definitely adding this book to my comfort reads!

Thank you again for the opportunity to read this ARC!

So a little short storytime before i give my review for this book, i was just mindlessly scrolling in my netgalley looking for books to request and I saw this beauty being ready to read it’s called “My Mechanical Romance” and i saw the blurb and it completely sold me out.

I defenitely had zero expectations and zero knowledge when I read this so imagine my surprise when I found out that Olivie Blake and Alexene Farol Follmuth were the same person (I know!). The pacing for this book is excellent I actually read it in a day and it’s perfect summer read I think any teenager or anyone who feels lost somehow in this world can relate to Bel our main character. Teo Luna is *swoon worthy* especially when he likes to memorize Taylor Swift songs just to make his girlfriend smile, that part literally wished that I had someone like Teo around when I was in high school.

But other than that I love it, the chemistry between these two was off the charts and I love that even if they did have feelings for each other they **still** kept on challenging each other and was basically each other’s competition which for me is the complete reason as to why I **live** for academic rivals to lovers.

One of the characters that I did not fully expect to love was, Neelam. She is such a headstrong and a goal getter that she does not care what happens as long as she gets to do what she loves which is to build robots. I love how Bel and Neelam were able to form a friendship and to support one another, I wish I could get to read more about her because she is such an interesting character. I love that throughout the book she gets to be understood as to what it feels like being a woman of color in a field full of men and seeing that she gets to prove them wrong was so satisfying for me to watch. I love my strong and independent POC STEM women.

I love seeing the Filipino rep! I have always love it when my culture and language is being seen in the books that I read, it kind of pays homage to the fourteen year old me who desperately wanted to read more books with our culture in it.

And speaking of the fourteen year old me, I wish this book existed at a time where I had such difficulty taking up my space in this world. I wish I read this when I was fourteen so that I can feel comforted in the fact that it’s okay to not know what you want to be in the future right now and eventually you’ll figure it out just like I always do because I may be a slow learner but I do learn.

Also, I can imagine so many little “Bel”s, “Neelam”s, “Jamies” and “Lora”s reading this book and going “Hell yeah, I can build robots” because girls can! (while looking fabulous might I add).

Thank you so much Netgalley for making this book available to read. I made a TikTok video about this and a short version of my review in my instagram!

I really enjoyed this book! I'm not particularly a fan of STEM related discourses but I still found myself getting curious the more I get to know the world of our main characters. The writing is also easy to follow and engages the reader leaving them wanting for more.

I absolutely loved it , im a huge fan of this author and this is her ya debut but what and amazing book to debut with .
i'll give an indepth review closer to the pub date

One of our main characters, Bel, is navigating a male dominated field and dealing with the frustrations that come along with that whilst simultaneously making friends, finding her place in life and falling in love.
We get dual POV’s of Bel and Teo and go along as they finish their last year of high school, building robots and deciding their futures.
This book does such a good job of showcasing the struggles women (in stem) face when dealing with men who refuse to view them as equals. Bel feels like she’s constantly having to fight for her voice to be heard on the robotics team.
The romance and friendships in this book were adorable, probably the cutest I’ve read in a long time.
Bel’s friendship with Jamie and Lora and Teo’s frienship with Dash (a truly A+ character) were not only beautiful, but also very believable.
I loved the writing style of My Mechanical Romance, it was very fast-paced and upbeat, the perfect book if you just want something cute and easy to read (but still with an important message—especially for the young adult audience it’s intended for.)
I admit, some parts of the dialogue and thoughts of the characters were a little pretentious at times, but I actually think it makes sense as this is a YA book and all teens are at least a little pretentious anyway (I know I used to be).
Overall, I had a great time reading this and recommend everyone who likes these kinds of stories to give it a chance.

I requested this book without knowing much about it. I just knew that the author is most known for her pen name, Olivie Blake and she owns my soul so I had to read this.

My Mechanical Romance follows a team of high school STEM students as they finish their senior year and all that entails.
Our main female character, Bel, is new to the school and just trying to fit in but when she is unexpectedly placed on the robotics team, her life begins to change drastically. I found Bel to be a very believable high school character. The issue I have with most YA contemporary is that it feels like the characters are either written too young or too old for the age they are supposed to be but this felt more like my personal high school experience than anything else I have read.
Bel is dealing with being a female in STEM, which isn’t easy to begin with but is especially difficult for someone in high school. I feel like this book tackled the struggle in a way that is absolutely reflective of real life. Teo, the main male interest, seems to be somewhat oblivious to how his female teammates are treated. I also love the way Teo’s character is portrayed in this book. The expectations that are put on his shoulders are so heavy because of who he is. I just loved the way the author was able to balance every conversation she put into this book.
This is going to be such an important book YA but especially for young women. I know that this book will inevitably be compared to The Love Hypothesis and I feel like that can be a valid comparison. Both books tackle what it is like to be a female in STEM on a way that feels honest. So I would say if you enjoyed The Love Hypothesis for that discussion, you would enjoy this book. But this book is very much geared towards younger audiences. The romance in this book is very sweet and innocent so just know that going in. But this is easily a book I can see myself buying and holding onto for my daughter to read in high school.

This book was everything. It was so, so, so cute. I loved all the characters and the plot. It never fell into stereotypical tropes. Bel and Teo were so perfect together. The ending worked so well and it was a little corny but I think it fit.

My Mechanical Romance was a five star read from the first page. The MC, Bel, is snarky, smart, a female, and Filipino. Teo is also amazing. He is smart, snarky, and faces different challenges than Bel. I have so many thoughts for this book. Here are the things I love: the diversity is here, but not in your face or strongly pushed, I love how Bel faces challenges as a female wanting to go into STEM. I’m going to major in biology as a female. Bel really learns what she wants and she goes with the flow. She grows into herself. The book is fast paced and is never boring. I was speechless when I finished. Creating the robots and just growing into her own person and learning how to be assertive while navigating family life was something everyone can learn from. I love the girl power and how it also wasn’t in your face. It was there and important but wasn’t annoying. Another important thing was how the family relationships were normal. Bel and her brother had normal sibling dialog. I also loved how really high school was. There wasn’t mean girl or weird stereotypical ideas. One of my favorite quotes was “enemies to academic colleagues to lovers” that’s such a cute quote. Teo was very relatable and I loved how he grew. He’s another favorite book boyfriend now. I could go on and on about how amazing this book was and I can’t wait to preorder this!