Thank you to Holiday house and Netgalley for giving me an eARC to review.

This book is Young adult contemporary and is enemies to friends then slow burn friends to lovers

It has a diverse cast of very smart teenagers and apart from the romance also focuses on the struggles of girls in STEM, family dynamics and the dilemma of being about to finish High school but still having no idea what you want to do with your life or where you want to live it.

STEM subjects pretty much go over my head, high school was a really long time ago for me and I knew nothing about robotics prior to reading but I still enjoyed this book. The main characters and their individual struggles resonated.

The author also writes under the name Olivie Blake and her fantasy novel The Atlas six is all over social media right now. I am currently a few hours into the audiobook of The Atlas six and would have no idea they were by the same author if I had not been told. While both books are about super smart students the two books are very different in tone. My Mechanical romance definitely being aimed at a younger audience.

Adorable, charming, and engaging. A quirky STEMinist romance in the vein of The Love Hypothesis or the Kiss Quotient but for the YA Teen set. The characters are complex, relatable, and grounded. Bel and Teo challenge each other while still bringing out the best in each the other and the world of high school robotics is a fun setting for the plot. It is also wonderful to see how the female characters each handle being rare in the STEM world in unique and complicated ways. All and all a delightful read and I would highly recommend it to any STEM interested teen looking for a little science and a little love on the page.

I can't say I absolutely love or hate this book, it was an average YA romance, a bit cheesier than I would've liked, but I'm aware that's the genre.

I liked the diverse cast and the dynamic of the robotics team, but I have to say, Neelam was the standout character because she was the only one who wasn't in a fantasy world of her own.. This book discussed issues surronding WOC in stem, and I thought the execution was great, it was standard, and puts things into perspective.

The romance was meh. I couldn't care much for it, the banter was okay and entertaining, but I wasn't attatched to the characters. They had typical teen problems, which isn't a bad thing to incorporate into a book, but those problems were only went into at a surface level, and I woulod've liked to maybe learn more about Bel and Teo in order for me to like them more.

The ending of this book felt abrupt, if you're gonna do a final act conflict like in most romance books, then please let it not last 20 pages. The ending was rushed, and it seemed that everything was resolved way too quickly, to the point where it was pretty much Bel and Teo coming to realizations in their internal monologue, and I rolled my eyes when Teo finally realized he was being sh*tty towards some people without understanding their perspective.

Overall, this book was not my thing, but I think people who love cheesy romance will like this one. The themes were great, the romance was not.

Thank you to Holiday House and Alexene Farol Follmuth for the ARC.

4.5/5

This book reminds me of a YA Love Hypothesis, and I am all for it.

Bel is intelligent and independent, and if you are looking for a book with a young female protagonist that involves STEM, this is for you.

Let's not forget the romance. Teo and Bel are adorable, and academic rivals are obviously a plus. I liked how the romance comes in later and allows the character to build a proper relationship first.

My only gripe is that I found the beginning of the book a slow read, but it eventually picked up, and I really enjoyed it.

From the first paragraph, I knew this book would be a good one. I immersed myself into the book from the first chapter and I cannot say enough good things about this book! Honestly amazing! The writing is incredible and the plot is just one to die for. I am absolutely obsessed with this book. My favorite part would have to be the character development throughout the book. Character development is something I look forward to and this book did not disappoint.

This was decent. I enjoyed reading it at times but I wasn’t ecstatic about it. Bel & Teo are two sort of unique characters however I’m not sure I like them all that much. I think Teo’s a tad bit underdeveloped (I don’t think I could elaborate without giving spoilers so just take my word for it) and Bel’s cluelessness about her talent at engineering just annoyed me. I actually think it was my least favorite part of the story. If you’re looking for something light and easy to read this then this would be a great pick!

**This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange of an honest review**

If you are looking for a sweet but yet poweful romance with woc in STEM and a kind of academic rivals to enemies, look no further cause this book has it all. The start is very strong as we are introduced to our great characters and their individual personalities. Bel has to be one of my favourite mc ever! Teo is just wow. The side characters were all very well written and i think this author is my new automatic read/buy. Really enjoyed the representations, and the divorce part was so realistic i felt seen lol. Just yeah, read this book!

“𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑜𝑤 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑎 𝑔𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑏𝑜𝑦𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦, 𝑢𝑛𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑢𝑠, 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑛𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑑𝑜”

An adorable romcom with academic rivals to lovers, this one is the fastest read I’ve had in a while. I could not put it down. I needed to know how this relationship would play out, but also how their teams robotics competition would end.
I can’t tell you how much I wish I read this when I was in high school. Not only it is the center a cute trope, it really nails what it’s like to be a girl in STEM! I found myself getting nostalgic about my own high school as it reminded me how hard it was. She completely nails it when delving into the pressure high schoolers face over the fear that even just one quiz will impact their whole life. Overall, so wholesome. There was also a lot of stellar girl friendships and the most important one was actually a rival girl in the club. If you like The Love Hypothesis, give this one a try. Oh, last thing, I am obsessed with this cover, gorgeous.

Rating: 3.5 stars
When I started reading this book, I thought I would not like it, and I would have to force myself to finish it, but after the 20% mark, I started to genuinely enjoy it.
One thing I really liked about it was the characters – I wasn't sure I liked them at first, but I grew to love how they are portrayed. I like how the author wrote about their flaws and struggles; it was authentic and relatable. The side characters were so fun to read about too!
Altogether, this was a cute and really charming book. It was mostly clean, which I appreciated. If I had read it a few years ago, it would have easily been a 4/4.5 book—I gave it 3.5 stars because I don't think I'm into books like these anymore. It was mostly clean, which I appreciated. If you’re looking for a fun and sweet book that’s easy to read — you’ll like this book.

Women in stem? YES PLEASE!! I enjoyed this book so much! It was fun. Romantic. Quirky. I loved every bit of it.

A solid effort from Farol Follmuth. Great to sit down with something that challenges the status quo in society, while still being witty. I'll be waiting for more!

Thank you NetGalley and Holiday House Books for providing an e-ARC of My Mechanical Romance for an honest review.

RATING: 4.5 rounded up

Teo Luna is the golden boy at Essex Academy. Not only is he a great athlete, he is also super smart! He takes all AP classes and is the captain of the school’s robotics team. He’s the person people can depend on and has his life after graduation perfectly planned out.

Bel Maier is the new girl who would rather do almost anything except discuss her college applications (or lack there of) and future plans after high school.

A mishap with a physics assignment causes Bel and Teo’s worlds to collide at Essex Academy and the result is absolutely adorable :)

I was initially drawn to this book because of its beautiful cover! After reading the book I think it’s even more perfect 😍

When I first started reading it took a little time for me to get into the story. However, once Bel and Teo actually started interacting with each other things really picked up!

I enjoyed the banter and competitiveness between Bel and Teo while they were working together and getting to know one another. Teo was able to be vulnerable with Bel in a way he wasn’t with any of the people in his life. Bel’s refusal to be another one of Teo’s “yes men” is what endeared him to her.

One of the big draws to this book is it’s discussion of girls and women of color in STEM. Alexene Farol Follmuth did an excellent job highlighting Bel’s struggles being one of the few girls in AP Physics and one of the two female engineers on the robotics team.

The character of Neelam was a wonderful contrast to Bel as another girl in STEM. Neelam plays a critical role in getting Bel to see how difficult it is for girls especially BIPOC girls to gain entry in to advanced STEM classes and extracurriculars like robotics. Ms. Voss was a true hero to me in this book! I adored her encouragement of Bel to take up space. She taught Bel to be proud of her contributions to the team as well as the things she created on her own.

The romance didn’t come into play until the second half of the book, but it was super cute! The epilogue was perfect and has me yearning for a sequel with Bel and Teo in college! A girl can dream right?

This is a slow read, incredibly slow, even for me, but it’s delightful when it actually gets down to it. The whole robotics background was a little confusing for someone inept at science, but aside from that it was fascinating when I could wrap my head around it.

I loved Bel, her POV was hilarious and she had the great balance of snarky and sweet. Luna was a little hard for me to connect with. For some reason I kept reading it like he’s a girl - I think because of the last name. Anyway, they were full of personality and they meshed really well together.

Luna had flaws and I realised he could be very arrogant which initially turned me off him, but with bel (and after their initial frenemies situation) he was a lot more open and endearing, very cute.

And Ms. Voss 10/10. I loved her determined character and how she pushed Bel to achieve the best she could achieve.

Overall, I would recommend this for those who are looking for a cute read for the spring/summer months.

Arc review of my mechanical romance
5🌟 read
"Nerds are hot these days".
The pace of the book was a bit slow for me but it never got boring. The author has written it so well. The plot is very investing and wholesome.
There’s a good bit of technical talk regarding the robots and science and the book does a good job of explaining everything.

The characters are full of personality, and they get along so well together. This book follows Isabel as bel the main character as she joins her school’s robotics team by advice of her teacher because she accidentally revealed her talent in engineering. There she meets mateo as Teo who is the team leader of robotics. Teo Luna is a good lead,very bossy, a team leader and captain. In the eyes of people he was a good son belongs to rich family. He has perfect life and accomplished in academics but in real life he is secretly hiding his inner insecurities to meet the social demands and academic pressure. He isn't too perfect, he has flaws which made him endearing.
Bel is insecure of her future and confused. She doesn't know how to make decisions for her future what she wants to become and what to study. She finds difficulty for applying college apps. She doesn't know how to convey her thoughts to others .Their relationship was so perfect and by helping each other from the struggles they went through because they were realistic and were solved in productive ways.
The supporting characters Ms. Voss and Dash are equally well written. Neelam's struggles are shown her behaviour to her fellows was tangy and harsh but we came know her reasons and her perspective towards the end.
All of the characters seems realistic in terms of teenagers today. This book is encapsulated with feelings especially everyone can relate to their own teen-age life difficulties, social pressure and struggles in academia to keep up good grades.

This was such a cute YA romance! I honestly did not expect to love it when I first started reading, but the writing really pulled me in after the first 50 or so pages and I could not put it down!

My top 5:
✔ Girls in STEM!!
✔ Enemies to lovers
✔ Witty banter and funny moments that left me smiling like an idiot at my screen🤣
✔ MC who is unapologetically herself with her own unique style
✔ Duel POV💖

Everyone looking for a cute YA romance needs this book in their lives!
Thank you so much to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful book with a great message! I wish more girls had teachers like Ms. Voss. Someone who would see potential in them, someone who would tell them that girls can be engineers, someone who would take them seriously. Plus, it was great to read about a heroine who doesn't resemble Hermione Granger. A girl who procrastinates and doesn't know what she wants. A girl who doesn't care about college. A girl who makes silly decisions despite being so smart.

All the characters were very relatable, but Dash is my favourite!

Fair warning: I wouldn't define this book as enemies-to-lovers. There is a difference between "don't get along at first" and "enemies".

Tbh when i decided to read this, I didn’t know what to expect bc i was kind of in a reading slump before it? But anyway, here are the things i LOVED about it:
- academic rivals/enemies to lovers
- both of them are in STEM (we love hot smart people)
- POC rep (teo is mexican and bel is filipino! which makes me happy bc im filipino) and the way it was represented was accurate too

Though there wasn’t much romance in this book, it was more about each of their journeys in the STEM field (bc they were still in highschool) so just a heads up! Overall, it wasn’t like a “holy grail” but if you want a cute romance that has all of the tropes that i mentioned, then this is for you :)

I honestly loved this book more then I thought I would. I expected it to be kind of childish, being set in high-school, but it was anything but. It has great representation and includes topics like feminism.

This book was very cute! I definitely wish I knew more about Robotics to better understand the lingo, but Teo and Bel were great enough that it didn’t really matter. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"Nerds are so hot these days"

DUH. Yes they are! This new YA book was so refreshing. I do not typically gravitate towards this genre but I'm glad I did for this one. I found it to be an easy read.

The characters were we so relatable and the nerd talk made me smile. I loved Bel from the moment I met her. Sometimes her communication was so aggravating but I know that's how the author intended it to be.

The enemies to lovers vibe is one of my favorite tropes. Over time Teo and Bel started to warm up to each other. I also love dual POVs.

I think the idea of students in university is always a great topic to write about. The struggles they went through are pretty true to real life (bels parents, the sexism in engineering.)

It was slower than what I am used too which is why I have it a 4 but, it's a great book for YA!