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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
lighthearted
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
"I mean come on, boys can do it," I call out to her. "So how hard can it be?"
I went into this book with mixed expectations, and I'm so glad to say that it exceeded all of them. I've read one other book by this author, The Atlas Six under her pen name Olivie Blake, and I wasn't a big fan. I mostly had trouble with the writing, which I found almost too philosophical with not a lot of action. But My Mechanical Romance is a YA book, so I figured I would give the author another go and see if I liked this one any better. And I really did.
My Mechanical Romance follows Bel, who had recently been added to her over-achieving high school's robotics team, led by the intelligent (and rich) Teo. She has to learn a lot about robotics while gaining confidence in her role on the team. And yes, Bel and Teo fall in love. Right before picking this up, I had just finished a long high fantasy story. And while I love long fantasy stories, I found myself needing something quick, fun, and easy to read afterwards, and this book fit the bill.
The plot and subplots hit a little too close to home. As a STEM girlie myself, I loved how this book showed the realities of being a woman in STEM, and how we can inspire the next generation of young girls to also aspire to be engineers and technicians and all the jobs that are stereotypically filled by men. I also really liked how Bel brought a different view to the robotics team as someone who was more creative and thought out of the box. I was a mathematics major but also have a minor in technical theatre and have done plenty of theatre- and literature-related extracurriculars, and I'm a firm believer that being well rounded in not just STEM but also creative pursuits benefits everyone.
The subplot of Teo learning that he doesn't have to put so much academic pressure on himself and how academics aren't the only thing that matters in life is so so important. This is an incredibly important lesson for everyone to learn, and I unfortunately only learned it in my final semester at college. If you're stressing about your grades, your future: it'll be okay. School and grades aren't everything in life and you bring so much else to the world.
This book has plenty of pop culture references (including several Taylor Swift ones hehe), which I normally dislike in books. But I thought they suited this story well. It's rooted in our modern day, so any references didn't feel out of place at all.
My Mechanical Romance made me gasp and tear up multiple times each, and I'm really, really happy I decided to give this book a chance.
Thank you to Holiday House and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book; this review reflects my honest opinion.
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
: ̗̀➛ 2.75 stars ˚ · .
“We all know the male ego is notoriously fragile. Even the cute ones are a lost cause.”
˚ · .┊ ˚➶ ｡˚ my thoughts ☁️
God gave me eyes and time and I decided to waste them on this 😔✋🏼 I don't know, maybe it's me, maybe it's not the book, but how many times I counted the amount of pages I had left, can't tell you because there were too many. For such a cute cover and such an interesting synopsis it surely did not deliver. And I was so excited to start it, with my heart open, especially after I hope this doesn't find you, but haha no
˚ · .┊ ˚➶ ｡˚ the writing 🎧
THIS!!! THIS WAS ONE OF THE BIGGEST PROBLEMS!!! I hated it. So so much. It was so annoying, it literally made me want to bang my head on the wall. Look, some might find it funny or even like it, say it's easy to read and so on and so far but when you write and I quote "- gulp! -" in the middle of the sentence or ugh every single page, you know you lost me and everything just goes downhill from there. And don't get me started on the fact that it was like "I don't like him. (I'm lying, I'm thinking about him all day.)" all the time with so many parts that could have been written better, to actually make them funny. I could not at all connect with the plot, with the characters with nothing because of it. And it's dual POV, which isn't bad, no, but God it did not enhance the experience. I'm telling you, I read fanfics that had a majestic writing style compared to this, written by sleep deprived high-schoolers and I still would if I had to choose between this book and that.
˚ · .┊ ˚➶ ｡˚ the plot 📷
Did it really had a plot? Kinda. Could I enjoy it? No. So we start with Bel who ✨magically✨ without wanting to gets into the robotics team, the one where you have to give your blood sweat and tears to even be considered to be accepted and surprisingly she is so good at this. But there's Teo Luna, the it boy, captain of everything, super smart, super rich, super beautiful, super popular, super adored. He is intrigued by Bel because she is weird and boom they fall in love and sometimes talk about robots or try to build them. The idea is cute and that's what attracted me, as someone who wants to chose a major in robotics at uni. And it was there, if I could go pass the horrible writing style and annoying mcs, which spoiler, I did not. And everyone, literally every single character, all they did was groan. Once per page you can find the word groan, at least one time. He groaned, she groaned, they groaned, we groaned in unison because we are sick of it 😭
˚ · .┊ ˚➶ ｡˚ characters 💌
𓍯𓂃 Bel - Ah, my favourite girl. Where do I even start? She has the pick me kind of vibes. So she gets transferred to this super prestigious private school and she somehow can keep up with all the advanced things she learns in school that are a lot harder than her ex school, without studying home and has only As, ok. And somehow she transfers to AP Physics which is so easy, basically everyone can learn that without even trying and she's so good at robotics and even though she didn't want to she got into the robotics team because she had a nice sketch. Ok girl, cool, good for you. But she was so annoying about it, like "I can build stuff from basically anything, understand math, physics, robotics, anything without trying, but I don't like it." mhm, wow, amazing. And don't get me started on how weird she was. Besides the fact that she was completely 2 different people during her POV or Teo's POV.
“I mean come on, boys can do it. So how hard can it be?”
𓍯𓂃 Teo - My other favourite character. I get it, the academic and parental pressure of being the best because your dad is the best is real and I don't deny that. But did he have to make his entire personality about that? He was so cocky "this team wouldn't exist without me" "I am the team" "I made the robots" I I. Ok bro, chill, take a deep breath, touch some grass and maybe a person, you need that. And the way he treated people around him, even his best friend and especially Neelam, like she was a fly buzzing around him that bothered him and didn't let him rule everything around. Jeez.
“It makes me feel like she's got some secret internal monologue about how she hates my idea.”
(maybe she doesn't but I surely do and not only about your ideas 😘)
𓍯𓂃 side characters - I absolutely adored Dash, Jamie and Lora, nearly all the scenes they appear are highlighted and annotated because they are funny and cute and I loved them <33. About Neelam, not gonna lie I kinda hated her in the beginning, she was a douchebag, the author made her too mean, too harsh to prove something and it was exaggerated but in the end I liked her.
𓍯𓂃 side characters - I absolutely adored Dash, Jamie and Lora, nearly all the scenes they appear are highlighted and annotated because they are funny and cute and I loved them <33. About Neelam, not gonna lie I kinda hated her in the beginning, she was a douchebag, the author made her too mean, too harsh to prove something and it was exaggerated but in the end I liked her.
“You're this new color I didn't know existed and now I see it everywhere and I'm like, thank God I can see it now.”
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated