While both Bel and Teo both rubbed me the wrong way in the first two chapters, Follmuth does a really good job expanding on those qualities and shows you why they think that way. Dash is definitely my favorite character with his sometimes over the top love for food. Not to mention the WOC and women in STEM representation. Follmuth does a great job showing the struggles of being a girl in a male-dominated extracurricular. It was a really fun and easy read that got you invested in the world of high school robotics.

Thank you to Holiday House for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Since this is Alexene's debut YA, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I love a good YA contemporary, especialy with girls in STEM!

I thought this was cute, and once the story picked up, I really enjoyed it! I did think that it dragged a bit in thebeginning, which means I struggled to get into it, but I stuck it out because I LOVED The Atlas Six! I think my problem with the beginning is that it was difficult to see the difference in characters because it took some time for their personalities to really pop, but once the characters were established, I did really enjoy it!

I thought it was sweet and realistic, and the ending really reminded me of my own choices with college and the difficulties one might experience going to school with a wealthier crowd. I also loved to see girls persuing engineering. All in a, a great YA debut!

4.5 ⭐️
I loved the book it did feel a bit slow at times some moments but it was so worth it. I was super excited for this book because it was academic rivals to lovers, and for the STEM romance .It was a great YA romance. I loved Bel and Teo’s relationship so much
Thank you Netgalley for the arc!!

Meeting the possible love of your life in the robotics team? yes please, him being Teo Luna? absolutely yes.
This book was amazing, it brought me the bad memory of being good in maths but having no one to push me in the field, so I really hope this book could give the girls the push they need to become part of any field in STEM. I was hopping for more info about Teo's relation with his father, but that doesn't make the story less good.

It’s a solid 4 for me it’s a cute wholesome read with a little rivals to lovers even though it’s describe as enemies to lovers. Though I think the term rivals works better in this case than enemies. I knew I was going to like the main character when she was describing things she liked and being right was one of them

Really cute YA romance. I liked this book because it was a fun and easy reading.
I read it all in a couple of hours and would recommend it if you like this genre.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc.
Enemies to lovers? Check. WOC in STEM? Check. Adorable cover? Check. MC realising her full potential and gaining confidence in herself and what lies ahead of her? Check. Complicated family dynamics? Check. Cute, awkward and wholesome interactions between the love birds? Check. WHAT MORE COULD I EVER ASK FOR????? I LOVE THIS!!!!! NO WORDS ONLY TEARS AND SWOONING!!! Being a woman in STEM, i am so inspired by both Bel and Teo, especially Teo given how he was never given the chance to have a childhood and only tried to please his parents. Although the plot was a lil bit too slow for me, i never lost interest and ADORED the romance. This book got me out of a reading slump and i am so so grateful<3

There is something so refreshing about ya romances. The writing was amazing, the characters were lovable and complex on their own and the plot behind it all was adorable and meaningful. I hope teen girls read this and know that they can make it in male-dominated industries. I really hope the author considers writing more of this genre in the future.

Guys, this romance was super cute and fun! The STEM enemies to lovers was so good! I loved reading Bel and Teo realize they have feelings for each other! I enjoyed every oh do I like them? moment and it made me smile. They were such a first love/high school romance thoughts and it was cute. I also found Bel and Teo very relatable. Maybe because I was both of them at different points in my life.

As a woman in stem I really appreciated how being a woman in stem was talked about. I enjoyed seeing that there’s not just one type of stem woman. Like Bel and Neelam had two very different personalities, but both were super smart successful women and I loved it. Also Neelam deserved better from every guy in that school! I loved Ms. Voss and how she pushed Bel to be better.

Overall this was a good, cute story that I enjoyed! Would recommend!

Academic rivals to lovers???? Dual POV??? POC main characters??? POC side characters???? Women in STEM??? SIGN ME TF UP!!!!

I just know this book will be very popular. The diversity, the story, the talks about real issues that women go through on a daily, ESPECIALLY in STEM. It showed friendship, trust, and family (in a way ish).

This book was like a breath of fresh air. I absolutely loved it. I was hooked from start to finish. It was cute, it was funny, and it was sweet.

Teo and Bel are complete opposites but they still make it work with their robots. It was nice to see how in the end, they rediscover themselves in a sense, the character development was amazing for both.

Overall, this book delivered and gave you more than just cliches!!

4/5 🌟
I really liked this book. It was a sweet ya, where also heavier themes were included like to be not good enough or not to know what you want to do with your life after school. It was sweet to follow the two mc with their blooming first love, they were just too cute 🥰.
I can just recommended when you are in a reading slump and need something to get you into reading or if you just want something which you can devour in one setting

(DNF 25%)
I know I might not be the target for this book since I'm in my late 30s but I usually enjoy some YA, however this one sadly I didn't. It was filled with clichés all the way through. Starting by the romance between two opposite characters and ending with a tournament which results were foreseeable.

Ahh my heart is snatched!!

First I'm extending all my love to Netgalley and the author, Alexene Farol Follmuth for this eARC in exchange of an honest review. This glorious book will be released by the end of May, and I'm crossing my fingers hoping that it would gain the brilliant recognition that it deserves.

And on the rant we gooo!!

I am positively floored, explicitly stunned at how exceptional this book is. Enemies to academic colleagues to lovers done to perfection (note that I'm so grinning typing this up). It's sweet, witty, empowering, and stupid cute!! Truly I couldn't fault one single thing. I'm all beaming and grinning like a fool having just finished it. And may I say, I wish it's way waaay longer. Why must great things come to end so quickly.

My Mechanical Romance (even the title is a touch of genius!) is a radiant example of contemporary romance done so so right. It's realistic, every single reaction between the characters are written so organically that nothing feels amiss. The climb towards romance for Bel and Teo was steady, it wasn't rushed nor forced. Their relationship made sense, their trials were relevant. Girl meets starboy, ended up considered as mere distraction trope, finally done right.

"Like... you're new, you know? You're this new color I didn't know existed and now I see it everywhere and I'm like, thank god I see it now."

I never knew robotics club is so worthy of such fictional romance!! I have to say lovers in STEM setting always hits differently, mostly because it's so close to home. But also seeing nerds doing adorable nerdy things together. Made my day, month, year!!

"I've always believed that there's a possibility for everything in the world to collide for a single perfect moment, and that sometimes, if you're lucky, you get to have one for yourself."

Another huge cookie point goes to the highlight on women's struggle in academic setting, particularly in such male-dominant field such as mechanical engineering. The way this book talks about the never ending frustration women have to endure in such setting, the constant belittling despite probably having more qualification than other male colleagues. Its so grounded in reality that it boils my blood just reading about it.

"It's a lot to ask of anyone to succeed when most people in the room are waiting to see you fail."

Reading this has been wildly entertaining, and I'm so damn glad that I came across it on Netgalley. 5 shining, brilliant stars for My Mechanical Romance!!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5

This book follows both Bel and Teo in alternating POVs as they are classmates in the same highschool. Bel wants nothing to do with her future, but when her ability for engineering is discovered she is thrown into the Robotics Team, where she gets to know Teo better (he is on the team with Bel but wants nothing to do with her because she challenges him when the others would just agree).

While reading the first few pages of this book, I was a little confused by the courses Bel was taking as a senior.

As a current Junior myself, taking all advanced courses, Bel taking ‘civics’ made no sense to me (I took it in my 7th grade year). As well as her taking ‘statistics’ which would either be an advanced Junior or a Senior who took that route instead of AP Calc. At other schools in my area, that are working at actual grade level unless the student chooses advanced classes, they wouldn’t be taking Stat, they would get up to Pre-Calc. Unless you’re my friend, also a junior, who is taking both Stat AND calc if that’s what Bel is doing. (I might have just been really lost with this)

Obviously that means nothing, but it made me stop for a second and think about what her schedule was LOL.

I was really happy with this book because it lived up to my expectations of a cute and fun read. The banter between Bel and Teo was great and I was totally shipping them while reading. I also really liked how the author showed a lot about their home lives and how it affected them.

Overall, a great book and I will definitely recommend this to my friends once it’s published, as well as read the author’s future books.

This is my first time reading something by this author and I really enjoyed it. The story caught my attention from the beginning and held it all the way through. This is a fun and romantic comedy and I enjoyed every minute of it. The characters were wonderful and felt so relatable, I couldn't help but fall in love with them. The storyline had a nice smooth flow and the romance was wonderful and there were plenty of humorous moments that had me laughing out loud or just generally left me with a smile on my face. Enemies to lovers is always such a fun trope and add the element of STEM - simply wonderful! I enjoyed reading The Love Hypothesis, and this gave me a similar vibe. The author did a nice job with describing the scenes and characters and really made them come to life. I felt like I was experiencing their thoughts and emotions right along with them. Bel and Mateo were just so nerdy and cute, I loved them!
And the chemistry was definitely there. This was a sweet, fun, and entertaining story and I am glad to have had the opportunity to read it.
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

Ah, this was a lovely and quick read. It was easy to read seriously. Bel and teo's romance was sweet and cute. I also loved the friendship between Bel and Jamie and how this book showed that female can be engineers too.
Thank you Netgallery for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of the most difficult book reviews I have ever had to write - not because the book was that bad, but because it was that good. I am struggling to find the words to describe what this book meant to me, and what it will mean to young girls all over the world.

Growing up, it's so difficult to be a woman interested in STEM. Whether biases are conscious or not, it's practically a given that a man's perspective is deemed to be worth more than a woman's. This book exposes the difficulties of being a woman in a male-dominated field, and it shows how these blockages can be overcome. As women, we can inspire each other to do and be better, and show men that we are just as worthy as they are.

Bel is a force to be reckoned with, and I definitely want to be her when I grow up. She's strong, resilient, smart, funny, and learning what it means to take up her own space. She's flawed, of course she is, but her journey is a beautiful exploration of what it is to reach your full potential, while being open and receptive to the feedback of others. Watching her grow from not knowing what she wanted to do with her future to being a successful woman in the engineering field was beyond inspirational. Her story was one I could easily see myself in.

Teo was also an extremely relatable character, and his growth was also amazing and realistic. His relationship with Bel was natural and lovely. He spent a lot of the book learning, and that was an important role to have in a book like this.

Their relationship blossomed and was beautiful and textured. Seeing them open up to each other was emotional and wonderful. It's difficult to call any book relationship perfect, but theirs was as close as it comes.

The other characters, like Dash, Jamie, Neelam, and Ms. Voss were brilliant. I could happily read about any of them, and I sincerely hope we get a book about Jamie's future in law, or Neelam's experiences at university.

I still don't think I've done "My Mechanical Romance" justice in my review. This book is something I will cherish and return to many times. I strongly urge you to read it. It may be classed as a YA romance, and it is, but it is also so much more.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Holiday House for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review. And thank you to Alexene Farol Follmuth for writing this book.

I’ve been a fan of Follmuth’s writing and reading works under her pen name (Olivie Blake) for a few years now so I was excited to get into this one! I’m not the biggest YA reader (I can’t even think of the last YA Contemporary I read) but I do enjoy it from time to time and this was a cute read. I’ve been seeing an increase in women in STEM stories as of late and I love that it’s spreading to the YA genres as well. The characters are well fleshed out and relatable, although the story did drag a bit for me at times.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Holiday House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is everything to me. I went into it expecting academic rivals-to-lovers robotics nerds, and it gave me so much more.

Bel’s struggles as a woman of color in a male-dominated STEM club resonated with me a lot. From her initial hesitation in joining the robotics team to her discomfort about voicing her opinions when no one would take them seriously, the book really managed to capture the oftentimes isolating feeling of being one of the only women amongst a sea of men. Especially in engineering, it can be difficult to get your male colleagues to take you seriously; they may not be receptive to your suggestions, just as Bel was brushed off by Teo initially for trying to correct him.

Neelam’s dislike of Bel was also really well explored- more often than not, women in STEM end up wary and overly critical of each other in an attempt to prove their worth in a field with so little space for them. I appreciated the depth to both girls’ characters and the communication between them.

Bel’s struggles with college applications and figuring out her future were also deeply relatable, and as a senior in high school, I saw much of my own experience in Bel’s. There is this huge expectation to have your entire future figured out the moment college apps start, but for many people, that isn’t the case. I thought the ending was very realistic considering Bel’s situation.

As for Teo, his character growth was lovely to see, and his relationship with Bel felt very natural and realistic to me. Their banter was everything! The dual perspective was amazing because it gave me a chance to see his thoughts and perspective. He internalized so much for a good part of the book, and it was great to see him open up later to Bel.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and it’s a must-read for anyone who has ever struggled to be seen in a male-dominated field. Also I normally don’t like epilogues in contemporaries, but this one was just absolute perfection- I adored it!

Thank you to Netgalley and Holiday House for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

I absolutely loved this! It was such a refreshing, colourful yet realistic and relatable story♥️

Some of my favourite things:
🤖I think I've been hugely deprived of both MC's being POC for too long because this was soo nice to read. We get little tidbits of Filipino and Mexican culture in a natural way. I could relate to both MCs and their worry and pressure of feeling like they need to do well and live up to their family's expectations.

🤖 We got awesome female students and teachers in STEM. Alexene shows the harsh reality and struggle of what it's like for women and women of colour trying to make it in male dominated subjects. I also really appreciated how she didn't give Bel an unrealistic, female MC free-pass of being perfect at using the software better than others, or automatic Harvard and Yale scholarships like every Netflix female lead (apparently it's that easy 🙃).

🤖 The back and forth between the couple was adorable.Their friends were so sweet and supportive..and I loved the whole Holi scene 🥹❤️ We also got dual POV (yay!) which I think really helped us understand their behaviour and mindset.

🤖I loved the robotic engineering and robo fight details. It gave me 'Big Hero 6' and 'Real Steel' vibes in the best way!

I think it's been a while since I enjoyed a Teen, YA romance this much.. I loved how they weren't whiny teens wallowing in issues I can't relate to. This was a smashing debut for Alexene in the YA market...and I can't wait to read more from her! 🤩

Thank you so much Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this arc ❤️