I finished listening to "My Mechanical Romance" by Alexene Farol Follmuth, and I gotta say, it's a real gem! This book is like the cool, nerdy friend who's always full of surprises.

So, the story is about Bel, a girl who's all about art, not engineering. But life throws her a curveball, and she ends up on the robotics team with Mateo Luna, the resident genius and total robot nerd. The catch? They couldn't be more different. Bel’s new to the whole tech scene, while Mateo’s been in it for ages. But hey, sparks fly in the most unexpected ways, right?

The narration is super engaging. The way the narrator brings out Bel's artsy, sarcastic charm and Mateo's passionate, slightly awkward genius is just spot-on. It's like they really get these characters, making you feel every awkward moment, every joke, and every bit of the budding romance.

Alexene Farol Follmuth has a knack for writing characters that feel real. Bel and Mateo aren’t just cookie-cutter YA characters; they've got depth, dreams, and doubts. The dialogue is sharp, funny, and feels totally natural – like you're overhearing a conversation at school or a coffee shop.

What's cool about this book is how it mixes up the typical high school story. It's not just about falling in love or fitting in. It’s also about finding your passion, breaking stereotypes, and the whole chaos of figuring out who you are. The robotics backdrop is pretty awesome too – it’s not every day you get to dive into the world of competitive robot building!

The pacing of the story keeps things interesting – just the right mix of character moments, robot-building action, and those sweet, awkward bits of romance. And the themes in the book – like challenging gender norms and following your own path – are handled in a way that's both thought-provoking and super relatable.

Overall, "My Mechanical Romance" is like a breath of fresh air in the YA scene. It's a feel-good, smart, and heartfelt story that’s perfect for when you need a break from the usual drama and want something that feels new and exciting. If you’re into stories about finding your place, with a side of robots and romance, this audiobook is totally worth a listen. It’s like hanging out with that cool, nerdy friend who always has the best stories to tell.

Check out this adorable cover. This one was so much more than a romance. It is also about how hard it is to grow up and decide what you want to do for the rest of your life by the time you graduate. Bel has no idea what she wants or what she is good at or interested in. College applications and extracurriculars are alls o daunting to her. Then one of her teachers forces her to join robotics. That brings its own set of problems. First one being a girl in STEM. Bel and the other girls in robotics show their team that they are just as important to the team as the boys. Mateo is the opposite of Bel in the best way. Their romance is cute. I loved this book and am a fan of this author. Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 stars.
The narration for this book was done really well but ultimately this story did not keep my attention. I find it a bit hard to pin point the age range this book is best suited for, some parts felt more middle grade, some parts were handling more mature YA issue.
I do want to praise the way this book handled and put a focus on young women in STEM. I also really appreciated the subversion when a side character "called out" the main character for assuming she would automatically succeed in an area that takes most people years of hard work to get to where they want to be.

This was such a charming and enjoyable rom-com about first love, exploring what you love and want from life, and working as a team. The book's pace was pretty good, and the narrative was really captivating. I adore the characters, particularly Bel and Teo. I adore Bel because she is imaginative, intelligent, persistent, and kind. Bel had a huge personality development which is a must and I genuinely felt so proud to see her go by the end that might or might not be tearing up. Teo, who is incredibly ambitious, intellectual, kind, charming, and trustworthy, has my heart. We love smart men in this house, ESPECIALLY THE ONES WHO LEARN THE ENTIRE TAYLOR SWIFT DISCOGRAPHY.

Obrigada, NetGalley por me proporcionar ouvir esse livro tão gostosinho.

Será que os opostos realmente se atraem? Aqui, neste romance YA, vamos conhecer Bel. Ela preferia morrer a pensar no futuro. Aplicativos da faculdade? Você é engraçado. Extracurriculares? Sem chance. Mas quando ela acidentalmente revela um talento para engenharia na escola, ela é basicamente forçada a ingressar no clube de robótica. Pior ainda? Todos os meninos ignoram Bel - e Neelam, a única outra garota do time, também não parece gostar dela.

Em sua estreia na YA, Alexene Farol Follmuth, autora de The Atlas Six (sob o pseudônimo de Olivie Blake), explora os desafios que as garotas negras enfrentam no STEM e a vulnerabilidade do primeiro amor com sagacidade e honestidade infalíveis.

Adorei a temática trazida e a profundidade em que os assuntos foram trabalhados. Alexene soube envolver, encantar e surpreender. Espero poder ler mais livros escritos por ela.

This is a beautiful read. It is slow paced, fluffy and all together feel good. It is a very cute read. The only thing I didnt enjoy was the unresolved family tension.

Really enjoyed the narrators.

4.5 stars but we're going all the way. This was a delightful read (listen). I enjoyed the narrators, I enjoyed the characters, I enjoyed the story. It was fun and sweet and girls in STEM! STEM is the opposite of my whole being, I'm an English girl, but I can absolutely respect and root for women in STEM! Not just women but BIPOC women yeah! I didn't know robotics could be so fun!

I LOVED this YA novel. It has been a while since I’ve read any YA books and the ones I had read were all 10+ years old, so I was excited to dive into this one. The main character Bel, is so likable. She is move to a private school for her senior year of high school after her parents split. Bel now has to navigate a new school, new friends, college applications when she has no idea what she wants in life, and she has to figure out her role in her changed family.

Enter: the catapult project. Bel forgets about the project until 30 minutes before it’s due, but what she comes up with launches herself into a world of engineering and robotics. While finding her footing, Bel quickly learns that some people don’t want to make room for women in STEM.

This book gave off such “smash the patriarchy” vibes and I loved that. I immediately texted my old Assistant Principal and told her she needs to preorder this for her teen girls who love anything STEM related. All high schools should have this book in their library!

There is a lot of diversity in this book which I truly enjoyed because it didn’t feel forced, it just felt like it was a book about the actual melting pot of a world we live in.

And I can’t forget about Teo Luna, the adorable and attractive popular nerd. I just wanted to hug this kid and tell him he didn’t need to have his entire figure mapped out, and that he didn’t need to give everyone a part of him which left nothing for himself. Luckily, Bel does just that for us.

The Filipino rep was treated as something to be laughed at, and I found that revolting. Can't stay silent on this the way the author stayed silent on the Philippine elections.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, RB Media, and Recorded Books in exchange for an honest review.

Who run the world? GIRLS! Going in to MY MECHANICAL ROMANCE, I wasn't expecting all the Feels, but there were a few times where I got emotional and teared up over "women in STEM" moments happened. I am grateful for the author for providing a YA romance that heavily features high school kids with robotics... ESPECIALLY giving us Bel and Neelam. The romance is cute, the overall plot is entertaining, and the author captures the teen voice very well. But what makes this a 4 star read is the plot point of what women have to go through to be taken seriously in science and tech fields.

I hope this book finds its way into the hands of so many young women who don't think they have a place in STEM fields and that Bel and Neelam show them just a little bit of why they are NEEDED in STEM and how they have just as much right to be there as the boys do.

The one big downfall for me was the audiobook performance, I didn't love some of the voices that Amielynn Abellera and Christopher Salazar chose to use for some of the characters. Abellera's Dash voice was particularly distracting.

This book was a cute high school love story with some coming of age elements, all completely age appropriate. I loved the robotics theme and the enemies to lovers romance trope. There were some areas that fell flat for me, like the family drama plot, but otherwise it was an enjoyable read.

This is not a genre I find myself enjoying too much, but I keep giving it a shot hoping for something like this. Young adult/teen romance does not always have me invested in the outcome, but the characterization here, as well as the entire atmosphere around the core story, was so brilliant that I am sure the author has had personal experience.
To give a little background, I studied computer science as an elective in my final years of school. Even with the large number of girls who end up taking it in higher studies (post Engineering), my class had nine girls and thirty boys (yes, our class sizes usually average that range if it sounds new). It did not make much of a difference most of the time since almost all of our teachers were women themselves, but sometimes even we felt the difference. This repeated itself in some small form or the other in Engineering as well, where the ratio was not much better. This time, the computer science batches had the better ratio, but I was in the Electrical and Electronics elective where the same thing happened. Again, for the most part, this is not as dramatic as it appears, but sometimes things stick with you. Like the mandatory mechanical lab one year where we had to do soldering and sawing, the prof automatically assumed I would not enjoy it(I loved it!) and gave all the girls in the class a blanket offer of assistance even before we started. If we had been struggling, it would have made more sense.
I gave such a comprehensive background because it coloured my experience with this book. There were so many moments that rang true even with these kids(I think by now I can call eighteen-year-olds that) being based in a whole other country, culture and almost two decades younger.
Bel is not a driven girl. She likes tinkering but does not see it as a skill that she could actually capitalize on. Mateo, on the other hand, has been trained to excel at robotics, with his father being in the same field. He has been provided with the right push from a young age, but that has him shouldering a lot more than he realizes. This is the story of how they help each other and take a look at their own lives with fresh eyes. I will not go any more into the story aspect since that forms the bulk of the book.
The author has written female characters in the engineering field with a lot of variety. They are not any one type. Liking robotics does not mean one does not like "girly" things, but on the other hand, it also does not mean that an individual female is a token representative of the 'pink team'. This was very satisfying to watch. I kept looking for the author to slip up, thinking she is going to typecast someone or the other, but the variety of these California tech-loving teenagers (almost adults) was highly entertaining.
The book could have been slightly shorter, but the courtship did seem more realistic given the length of their time together.
It was filmy in certain scenes, but given the pressures in the narrative, it was not hard to imagine the scenario just as described and move on. The friendships and the straight-talking amongst people were well done. It is the kind of book I would recommend to someone who wonders what life for children in specialized coaching looks like.
The narrators did a great job in voicing these people who straddled the threshold between being responsible, independent adults and still being the children who school who crave parental hugs. This last part was the second most important reason for the rating. Normally with books like this, I feel like the characters feel too old for the plotline given to us, but here the note felt just right.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own listening experience.

Amielynn Abellera and Christopher Salazar narrate Alexene Farol Follmuth’s My Mechanical Romance about high school seniors Isabel Maier and Mateo Luna discovering first love and unexpected truths about themselves while balancing differing approaches to designing/building battle robots. This lighthearted romance explores competitive high school teen robotics with vibrant descriptions and relatable, authentic characters. Fearing the future, Bel avoids thinking about or planning for it. With no idea where she wants to go to college or what she wants to do afterward, Bel is uninterested in filling out college apps or participating in extracurricular activities. However, seeing her talent for engineering, her teacher makes her join the robotics club. At robotics tryouts, team captain Teo sees Bel’s innate potential to help the team win and supports her membership. Unfortunately, the team’s boys ignore her, and Neelam, the only other girl on the team, doesn’t appear to like her either.

Meanwhile, Bel and Teo’s start is antagonistic because of personality, ideas, and style conflicts. Teo’s obsessed with preparing for Nationals, but Bel, not so much. However, working together building robots, they become friends with the promise of more.

Narrators Abellera and Salazar bring Follmuth’s engaging novel to life with lively narration that differentiates the characters by giving them distinct voices with emotional expressiveness, cadence, and pitch. Abellera’s narration perfectly captures Bel. Salazar’s narration for Teo is fine —though he initially sounds too old. The narrators appear to take different approaches to the character’s personalities. Salazar’s narration portrays Dash, Teo’s BFF, as a fellow teenage male. But from Bel’s POV in Abellera’s narration, he comes across as sweeter, more sensitive, hyper cute, and less silly.

Falmouth creates characters rich in individuality and diversity of interests, cultures, and ethnicities, taking her time exploring their lives and cultures with a down-to-earth, natural, warm, and familiar tone. I love Fullmoth’s lively, humorous, candid dialogue and character interactions, excellent world-building, and the empowering and sincere relationships Bel shares with her BFF girlfriends. With nuance, Follmuth honestly and straightforwardly depicts the sexism, misogyny, racism, and unfairness that young girls/women of color experience in STEM education/careers. It starts in schools with how teachers and classmates treat girls, which society reinforces. Lastly, the robotics competitions are exciting and so much fun.

Bel’s sarcasm, authenticity, free-spirited nature, sense of style, and tendency to lie at the drop of a hat make her a fascinating character. Her innate ability to make things work efficiently without necessarily having the scientific and mathematical foundations is remarkable and admirable. Most importantly, Bel’s uncertainty, lack of confidence, and inability to view her ability through the lens of science and math is something with which many readers, especially teens, can relate. Also relatable are Bel’s uncertainty about the future and what she wants to do with her life just yet. Initially, she’s uninterested and struggles with being part of the robotics team. Nevertheless, despite herself, she’s captivated by the robots and the mechanics/process of building robots. She develops helpful designs and strategies for building and improving their robots.

Bel and Teo’s humorous and sweet banter and interactions further the development/transition of their relationship from antagonistic to friends to romantic. And their relationship is life-changing for both. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re capable of until you’re pushed out of your comfort zone and challenged. Having someone believe we can do amazing things is just what we need to encourage us to take risks. But ultimately, Bel has to believe in her own capabilities and realize she doesn’t need Mateo to be strong, capable, confident, and successful. However, it’s only one step on her road to success in STEM if she chooses to go all in and pursue it.

Bel helps Teo—neither particularly kind nor noble—grow as a person. For much of the novel, he’s superior, dismissive, controlling, and unkind to people he views as beneath him or unworthy of his time or attention—particularly Neelam and, at times, Bel. But being with Bel, whom he respects and whose opinion matters to him on a deeper level, makes him question himself, who he is, and his perception of himself concerning the world and others’ views and treatment.

A sweet, engaging, enlightening, funny, rivals-to-lovers/enemies-to-lovers YA romance, My Mechanical Romance is an entertaining audio listen with a creative and compelling storyline and an inclusive, diverse cast of excellently developed, relatable characters.

Bel would rather die than think about the future. College apps? You’re funny. Extracurriculars? Not a chance. But when she accidentally reveals a talent for engineering at school, she’s basically forced into joining the robotics club. Even worse? All the boys ignore Bel—and Neelam, the only other girl on the team, doesn't seem to like her either.
 
Enter Mateo Luna, captain of the club, who recognizes Bel as a potential asset—until they start butting heads. Bel doesn’t care about Nationals, while Teo cares too much. But as the nights of after-school work grow longer and longer, Bel and Teo realize they've made more than just a combat-ready robot for the championship: they’ve made each other and the team better. Because girls do belong in STEM.
 
In her YA debut, Alexene Farol Follmuth, author of The Atlas Six (under the penname Olivie Blake), explores both the challenges girls of color face in STEM and the vulnerability of first love with unfailing wit and honesty. With an adorable, opposites-attract romance at its center and lines that beg to be read aloud, My Mechanical Romance is swoonworthy perfection.


How can I not love a book whose female protagonist is a girl in STEM?
I know it's a YA romance novel but the way the author described how girls in STEM are treated by their male professors and colleagues/classmates is not far from reality.

It was a cute story with a strong message and I loved it to bits!

looooved this! this book was cheesy at times but it called itself out so it's fine! i love teo and bel with my whole heart and want them to thrive eternally. alexene, as always, has a way with words and romance and i enjoyed reading another stellar of her work. just love!

- thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC in exchange for an early review.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read My Chemical Romance by Alexene Carol Follmuth in exchange for my honest feedback.
This book was a lot better than I expected. Bel has no idea what her future holds however, she finds herself stuck in better classes and in Robotics?

I love a STEM focused novel, and this was a great example. I flew through this, and really enjoyed the inside look at a high school robotics team (especially since my school was too small to have anything like it!). Seeing the innate talents vs hard earned skills was also really interesting, and led to some conflict and power dynamics within the team.

I'm left with a slightly icky feeling because Naleem was done so dirty throughout this whole book - it almost felt like this book strives to fight the patriarchy for Bel, but leaves Naleem in the dust. After years of fighting her way through a male-dominated field, she's shoved aside for Bel, inexperienced in robotics and love interest of the team captain. I'd be salty too.

The writing was pretty good, and everything flowed really well. The narrators did a great job, and fit the characters really well.

I enjoyed this book, but honestly wish it was about Naleem instead! I don't need romance, I just need women in STEM.

At first, I was quite hesitant of the plot, but Alexene Farol Follmuth, aka Olivie Blake, did not let me down. I am so happy that I adored this book with all of my heart. First off, the plot is quite intriguing; it's definitely not just a romance, as I had anticipated. The story regarding academic validation also amuses me a lot - as I relate very strongly to several of the characters in this area. Additionally, despite a rocky start (at least for some readers), AFF wrote the events in a very fluid succession that makes reading much easier. The characters and their evolution were next, which should come as no surprise. Every character starts off with some sort of defect, and it's rather enjoyable to watch them all grow out of those flaws and see how their relationships assisted them in doing so. Although the growth could be regarded as "rushed," I am not upset because the book is brief and generally quite consistent. The romance comes last. It's a "chef's kiss," as would be expected from the one and only Olivie Blake. I adore how their relationship developed and how the ember of the longing stage persisted even after they started dating. The rivalry of a traditional "academic rivals to lovers" arc, the tension, the longing... Every detail was amazing.

Something about this book went tinkering around in my heart because apparently it's feeling things again.

This is one of the rare contemporary YA novels that sank its cute little claws into me from page one and never let go. It is so sweet and thoughtful and smart and funny that I genuinely couldn't have hated it if I tried. I was fortunate enough to receive an early audio copy from the publisher and absolutely loved it. The narrators could not have done any better and made this such an enjoyable reading experience.

The book is told in dual POV from Bel Mayer and Teo Luna, two students on the same high school robotics team with very different ideas of the future.

Bel is a new transfer student to a fancy high school after her parents' divorce and has no idea what to do with her future. Every time someone asks her what she'll be doing when she graduates, what she'll study in university, she panics. She hasn't yet found the thing she wants to spend the rest of her life doing, and how are you supposed to have everything figured out at age 17? She's very smart and funny, but faces a lot of adversity in the STEM field for simply being a girl, and even more so for not really having to try to get on the team.

Teo is the complete opposite of Bel and has everything figured out. Soccer, robotics, MIT early-acceptance--nothing is out of his control, and that's part of the problem. Being the son of a tech CEO, there hasn't been room for Teo to be anything but what his Dad wants to see from him. That doesn't mean he doesn't love engineering, but there's little grace for him not to do well and reach the same heights. He is on top of everything and everyone, and the boy needs to let go just a little bit and let other people help him out.

Together, the pair are absolutely adorable. I mean, I wanted them to work out so badly because they seemed to complement each other really well. They come from entirely different backgrounds but share a unique passion that lets them get to know the other and understand the struggles they each face. And the epilogue? Be still my beating heart because I nearly died from the cuteness and utter satisfaction of how their story panned out.

I am loving seeing so many more books with a STEM focus, and this was no exception. High school robotics is not something I ever considered, but it creates such a fun premise for the characters to live and grow within. Do I understand much of the specifics when it comes to physics and such? Absolutely not, but I still enjoyed the heck out of this. And of course, with most STEM-centric books, there is the feminist angle of women trying to fit in with the boys after so very long of being excluded to shield their fragile masculinities. Which means we get some great kick-ass scenes of boys being allies to girls that wipe the floor with those doubting assh*les.

I absolutely recommend this one if you're looking for a quick but fun and smart read!

This was so wholesome. I absolutely loved the women in STEM rep. Especially since I am a woman in STEM and I could really relate to alot of the things talked about. Although, I went in thinking this would be in a University environment so I was little disappointed at first when I found out it was set in High school. I do prefer reading romance between adults, but that's completely my fault for misreading the blurb. But, I do not regret reading this! It was really cute and the characters are all so likeable (yes, even Neelam).

And I just want to point out that, no it is not an enemies to lover, or rivals to lovers, or whatever you want to call that trope. It is simply a strangers to lovers which, in my opinion, is the best trope.

There was something else that really surprised me. And that was the fact that this is written by the same author as The Atlas Six. Which is just mind-boggling. I couldn't help but compare the writing style between the two books. The writing in The Atlas Six is so rich and complete, but in comparison, My Mechanical Romance seems so shallow. The dialogue and description was sometimes repetitive. I just feel like of the book had a few more revisions it would be perfect. Because I know for a fact that author can do better.