5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I freaking loved this book! It was so good!!! GO READ IT WHEN IT COMES OUT
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Bel is a strong woman and she is navigating the world of stem in a new school. It is hard being in a male dominated field where people look down on you because of your femininity. I am not in stem myself but I think this story is so important for girls who are interested in that kind of thing to know it’s okay and you can do anything you set your mind to.

Teo, I just love him, he is a strong male character and love interest! I think him and bels relationship is so cute ☺️ and they definitely will never break up after the epilogue. Teo deals with a lot of pressures from his dad and teachers because of who he is. We see him navigate through dealing with those emotions and learning it’s okay to lose some control and trust those around you.
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Teammates/friends to lovers ❤️
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Set in high school so YA but please go read it so so so good easily one of the best YA books I’ve read in a while

I loved this book so much I pretty much read it all in one sitting. Bel was such an amazing MC, she was not for conforming to any stereotypes and in her own, sweet way she was a total badass. Teo was a great love interest too. His development throughout the book was perfect. Their relationship was like a warm hug to read. I loved the way sexism in STEM was acknowledged and discussed in this book, 100% recommend.

Not only does this book have an enjoyable romance, but it also touches on many important topics such as: complex family relationships, life after high school, friendships, and the misogyny women in STEM face on a daily basis (especially women of colour).

For some reason I struggled to connect with Mateo, which significantly impacted my enjoyment of this book. We didn't really see him have any development, we were just told that he did. All of the other side characters in the book were enjoyable to read about though.

Overall this was an enjoyable read and I'm glad young girls in STEM can see themselves in this story.

THIS BOOK IS EVERYTHING TO ME, ONE OF THE BEST BOOK IS 2022. THIS IS WHAT I WANT IN STEM ROMANCE. AND FOLLMUTH DID IT. THE CHCRACTERS THE PLOT THE WRITING ARE JUST BEAUTIFULLY WELL WRITTEN. okay so the plot is and writing hit me so hard bcs its about a bunch of senior student in STEM wants to make something so they could ended their high school with some memories. Bel and Teo is rivals to lovers. their romance is just top tier. IM OBSESSED. i will never move on from this book bcs its just that good. the build of their relationship and the development is just great. and the side charachters inthis book also did great. UGH i need to reread it again and again.

This book was a wholesome read. I enjoyed the depiction of women in STEM fields. I have minimal experience in that arena as I was not in STEM myself but I feel as though ti gave a solid depiction of what it is like. This book didn't always hold my attention; however, I am not the intended demographic for it as I am in my twenties. Going forward I will most likely drift towards the author's books under the pen name Olivie Blake. I think this is a cute read.

I really loved this book and all of the characters. While I may not understand all of the family dynamic presented in this book, it felt so real. The romance was definitely a slow burn and I appreciated that. I also appreciated the different personalities present in the novel.

IT'S BEEN SOMETIMES SINCE I GOT SO EXCITED ABT A ROMANCE BOOK!!!!
An academic rivals to friends to lovers. I love how it brought the topic about women power in STEM. I love the friendship. THE CHARACTERS DEVELOPMENT.
One of the best high school romance I've ever read. Ambitions, family, and self reflecting. A very ebjoyable ride.

I read this in a day and couldn’t put it down! My Mechanical Romance follows Bel, a new student who joins the Robotics team, and Teo, the captain of said Robotics Team. This is a rivals-to-lovers romance, and I was addicted to their journey. Bel originally thinks Teo is arrogant, but as she got to know him, she found she liked him a lot more. Teo is the perfect love interest! I adored him and was rooting for these two the whole time!

‘Because wherever I am, I want her close by.’

I loved the representation in this, especially shedding a light on the difficulties for women in STEM and how they have to work twice as hard. I never thought I’d care about reading about bot fights, but I was hooked! The characters are incredibly diverse, and I wish we had seen more of the secondary characters. Overall, I would definitely recommend this if you love YA academic rivals-to-lovers!

This book was excellent! If I had kids/teens I would give this to them for sure. The author made sure that readers understood what girls/women and female presenting people go through in many situations because of stereotypes and the assumptions people make about us. This book focused on those assumptions and stereotypes in STEM programs. Though the world has come a long way in terms of progress many people still believe girls can’t be good at science, math or engineering as these are fields dominate by boys and men. The author also pointed out that this mentally can be even worse if the female in question is kind of a girly girl. Bel experienced that because she wears dresses, sparkly shoes, and make up. I really enjoyed the way Fullmuth wrote about these issues and the ways she had the characters fight them. She also made sure to include some of the racial stereotypes people face especially when it comes to stem programs. I love romance books that tackle tough subjects 🥰.

Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for this free ARC in exchange for an honest review! This book was cute from start to finish! I enjoyed so many parts in this, and if you like the traditional rom-com type of story, this is definitely for you!

Many thanks to Netgalley, Holiday House and the author for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The book follows the story of Bel and Teo Luna, 2 brilliantly gifted teenage engineers. The story is narrated in dual POV. Bel, much like any other talented teenager don't really know what next to do with her academic career (been there, done that) while going through her parents' divorce and the need to meet their expectations. She joins this prep school that boasts of excellent students only. Then we meet Teo Luna, a self-possessed, 'the world runs because of me' egoistic teenager who is also both a brilliant football player and a young engineer. These 2 obviously being opposing characters, in every sense don't quite see eye-to-eye. The story that follows is of Bel finding herself while making friends and decisions that will change her life forever. And even though none of her short-spanned plans came to fruition, Bel's character acquires enough confidence towards the end of the book to believe in herself and work towards what she wants.

Now when it comes to tropes, I don’t feel like academic rivals to lovers is really apparent, because the rivalry was really short-lived and underwhelming. The story had a wonderful cast of diverse supporting characters. My favorite was NEELAM, why? Because I saw myself in her, a girl of color in STEM among 'brilliant' boys, yeah, I know how it feels!!

This book started off really slow and annoying for me. But as the story progressed I started seeing myself in Bel and the others. As a female engineer, myself, and having faced so much of the subtle (and non-subtle) sexism throughout my small career, I felt seen in this story. The favoritism, exclusion, microaggressions, invisibility and neglect are all real.

Towards the end of the story Bel meets the little sister of one of her competitors who is inspired by her and "didn't think girls could build robots too", this made brought tears to my eyes!! That was the high point of the story for me. Overall, it took me a bit of time but I did enjoy the book thoroughly!!

I loved this book and all of the characters. I loved how supportive teo was and the representation of the struggles woman face In stem. Bel was strong and driven and I relate to her so much. I loved how in the end her and Neelam worked together and helped each other to win the competition. Absolutely adored this book

Fans of YA will love this high school story about two enemies turned robotics partners turned something more in Alexene Farol Follmuth's debut in the YA genre. Romance + STEM is a formula that is sure to capture many readers, and it's something that I typically love and that drew me into the book immediately. Sadly, I ended up not being able to connect with the characters like I hoped to have, but that may just be due to my age. I think the target audience will enjoy it a lot more and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the genre!

I ended up DNF'ing this novel. I really wanted to like it but it was really slow moving. I understood that it was a YA Romance but its tone was really high school and I found I struggled to stay "in" the novel. The two characters were interesting, but I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between them. I wish it had picked up its pace a bit earlier.

Thanks to Holiday House and NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review!

Where to begin? My rating system has always been about how a book makes me feel. I am not a technical writer, and I’m sure there are hundreds of other ARC reviewers who can nitpick and analyze every part of the story. I simply am not capable of that - but I am capable of explaining how I feel.

This was a 5-star read! I adored each of the main group of characters, and it’s been a long time since I’ve laid in bed and squealed over a story like this. In fact, the last book I remember fawning over like this was the contemporary rom-com about rom-coms, “Better Than The Movies” by Lynn Painter.

I’m an absolute sucker for flawed young characters, and I couldn’t ask for more in a main character than Isabel Maier - or “Bel”. She spends a lot of her life coasting by, and it wasn’t until a teacher, Ms. Voss, saw some potential in her and encouraged her to push herself out of her comfort zone that she discovered her love and passion for robotics. She’s quirky in a way that doesn’t come across as overly cheesy, she has a wealth of life-applicable knowledge (she made a whole desk for herself!!), and she only becomes more charming as her confidence grows. Her family dynamic was sweet, and I’m glad she realizes that she’s only responsible for herself and her own happiness, not her parents. It’s okay to love them both, Bel!

Enter Mateo “Teo” Luna, resident genius rich boy with the inherited burden of perfection. He is the big guy on campus in that he's the leader of the robotics team, as well as the soccer team. Not to mention he’s in AP classes, volunteers with a local soccer team and, magically, still has time to be the leader of his friend group and have a thriving social life. What’s it like to be perfect?? He doesn’t have time to tell us, because every day the pressure and expectations from his successful father (surprise, surprise) weigh him down. He’s responsible. The problem-solver. The leader. The one with the most potential!

I’m going to be honest, I only gave the synopsis a cursory glance before I requested it on NetGalley - the cover art and title are definitely what drew me in - but I sure am glad I went into it unprepared. I wouldn’t personally describe the romantic dynamics as “academic rivals-to-lovers”. The story felt like friends-to-lovers that just so happened to take place in a school. They weren’t academic rivals, so much as they just had clashing personalities. Bel only saw Teo as a spoiled rich kid with male privilege (which he absolutely was, but there were layers!), and Teo just saw her as someone full of criticism (which, again, is totally fair). Once the two actually had a real conversation, they realized both weren’t the caricatures they assumed of each other. They were real people with thoughts, feelings and opinions. Of course, this led to a growing attraction and their eventual romance.

I go feral for the “boy falls first” trope, and the dual POV is really what made this for me. I enjoyed seeing the romance from both perspectives, and the peeks into the two main characters' personal lives that the POV’s afford. For example, Mateo’s interactions with his mum were so sweet, while I wanted to throttle his father whenever he made an appearance. Bel’s feelings of being overwhelmed and sort of guilty about her lack of hatred toward her own father hit me right in the heart, especially when she goes to his place to work on stuff for the robotics club. And, of course, reading Teo slowly fall for Bel was the absolute best part of the story for me!

The side characters and other members of the robotics team were all endearing in their own ways. Neelam was especially interesting to me, and I just knew there was more to her than meets the eye. She certainly wasn’t just “mean” for no reason. The conversation between Bel and Neelam toward the end of the story, for example, really made me feel for Neelam and her struggles as a member of the club for the last 4 years. It also gave Bel the swift kick in the behind she needed to get herself together, which was very much appreciated and what led to Bel finally realizing that if she really wanted something, she needed to put in the work!

Again, this was a 5 star read for me. I love a lovable and diverse cast of characters, and if I was squealing like a 14 year old again, I just know the intended YA audience will enjoy this story. This story solidifies that it’s okay for girls to take up space in STEM, and that when you have a great support system in place, you can try and do anything!

Even though I myself have outgrown YA romances, it is always nice to read one from time to time and I thought this was cute, I love how popular the STEM girl trope is becoming in both YA and adult romance. The relationship between Teo and Bel left a lot to be desired "I dislike you for a stupid reason" trope has been slightly overdone and even though I went in knowing this was a YA I still felt bothered by this. If this was more an academic rival to lovers, that would have been a great read but, it was not. sadly. Although I enjoyed the progression of their relationship, the beginning and rivals part of their relationship felt like it took too long to get through for me personally. I did enjoy the last fourth of the book so that was good. Other than that I personally feel this book was not for me. It was a great entrance to Olivie Blake's YA writing though


Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC copy in exchange for an honest review

This was really cute! If you are looking for a YA contemporary that’s equal parts coming-of-age and sweet romance, MY MECHANICAL ROMANCE is perfect for you. Bel and Teo were charming characters. and a good pair together. I also appreciated Bel’s (very realistic) storyline about figuring out “next steps” after high school. I personally don’t care much for science/engineering/robotics, but I enjoyed seeing Bel find something she’s passionate about. I look forward to reading more books by Alexene Farol Follmuth/Olivie Blake!

I love how so many things happened in the book. I could not keep myself from the book because it was so good

Omg! This book! It was such a great read, I loved it. It made me happy.

This was clever, sweet, cute, adorable and I liked everything about it. The banter, flirting, chemistry everything was perfect and swoon worthy. This had enthusiasm all along the way.

Bel is smart and has a quirky attitude. She doesn't care about her future or college. Her last minute accidentally doing the project gets her into robotics club dominated by boys with one other girl as exception who isn't her fan.

Mateo or Teo does too much in everything, all curriculum, basically an all rounder. He is captain of the robotics club who recruits Bel.

The other diverse casts are equally amazing. I liked their journey, development and excitement. The author shows challenges faced by girls of color or girls in general in STEM. The important topics of pressure, societal norms or expectations, stereotypes are nicely touched in this.

If you like enemies to lovers, feminism, women power in STEM and a bonus epilogue this is for you. Young Adult fans this one is perfect book with amazing vibe. Dual POV is a plus. You all need this book!

Thank you Netgalley for giving e-arc in exchange of honest review.

As a fan of Olivie Blake and The Atlas Six I was so excited to read this novel. As a scientist myself I felt that the undertones of sexism was completely apt, however the outcomes from several scenarios was very optimistic and I am not sure how they would pan out in the real world. This was unexpected from an author that was so accurate in her portrayal of humans and their flaws in TAS. However, I do think I will need to take into account the different audiences that these books were made for.

I think the representation in the characters was amazing and the plot was heart warming. I would thoroughly recommend this book.