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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
thank you so much to holiday house for this arc!
4.25 stars from me!
Whew! This book was truly a refreshing read for me. I recently been getting a little bit back into why a romances and this book reminds me why I love the genre so much. The story is written solo, it’s incredibly easy to follow and the plot is interesting as well. I love the main character, Bel, she is one of my favorite characters I’ve read this year actually. I love her entitle dialogue as well as just who she is as a person. I love that she is not afraid to stand out amongst the crowd and not stay in the shadows for long. Her character growth throughout the story is notable and I really enjoyed it. Teo was a really interesting character for me to read. He’s pretty different than most heroes I read about in the YA genre! He was pretentious to a fault, but he was also very easy to sympathize with and when you learn more about who he is a person he’s very easy to love. The relationship between these two is substantial. I absolutely adored them as a couple and as individuals. I love how the relationship progress throughout the book and how we got to see their feelings develop for one another. The side characters in the book are all lovable except I was not a big fan of Neelam she was not someone I could connect to or really understand. As a woman in STEM, I am used to constantly being in spaces that are filled with men and usually male dominated, so I can understand a distain towards someone who would walk in to a room and get the easy way in. I just felt like Neelam was overdoing a lot of her reactions as well as just her overall distaste for Bel! Overall I really enjoyed this book and that’s why it gets a 4.25 stars out of me
4.25 stars from me!
Whew! This book was truly a refreshing read for me. I recently been getting a little bit back into why a romances and this book reminds me why I love the genre so much. The story is written solo, it’s incredibly easy to follow and the plot is interesting as well. I love the main character, Bel, she is one of my favorite characters I’ve read this year actually. I love her entitle dialogue as well as just who she is as a person. I love that she is not afraid to stand out amongst the crowd and not stay in the shadows for long. Her character growth throughout the story is notable and I really enjoyed it. Teo was a really interesting character for me to read. He’s pretty different than most heroes I read about in the YA genre! He was pretentious to a fault, but he was also very easy to sympathize with and when you learn more about who he is a person he’s very easy to love. The relationship between these two is substantial. I absolutely adored them as a couple and as individuals. I love how the relationship progress throughout the book and how we got to see their feelings develop for one another. The side characters in the book are all lovable except I was not a big fan of Neelam she was not someone I could connect to or really understand. As a woman in STEM, I am used to constantly being in spaces that are filled with men and usually male dominated, so I can understand a distain towards someone who would walk in to a room and get the easy way in. I just felt like Neelam was overdoing a lot of her reactions as well as just her overall distaste for Bel! Overall I really enjoyed this book and that’s why it gets a 4.25 stars out of me
okay so first of all i read this book in 2 days and it only took me 5 hours to read. granted i’m a fast reader but i ate this book up
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
i honestly went into this book knowing nothing about like: nothing about the plot, knowing nothing about anything literally. didn’t really know what i was getting into but i absolutely fell into the story and i loved seeing it happen. i liked the main characters and i think this story was super enjoyable to read because of how it was dual pov and we got to see both of their sides and fell in love with the characters from their own pov but also through how one of them saw the other. im not big on romance books, and im not big on STEM (because i don’t understand it lmao) but it was so enjoyable to read about it and see the romance happen in that ‘universe’. it had very important conversations about how women are seen in that kind of work-life/field of study. anyways i really loved this book! not the best one i’ve read nor my new favourite one but definitely up there in terms of (straight) romance books!
2.5 stars
Ok so I'm gonna be controversial for a minute and say, when it comes to romance books, THIRD ACT CONFLICTS RUIN THE BOOK. I could have all the positive feelings about a romance book but then the third act conflict comes along and *poof* they're all gone. No more butterflies. This is what happened here.
And yes, 3rd act conflicts add to the realistic factor bc relationships have problems or whatever but since when do we read for the realism??
Also, I found the mc's constantly mentioned quirkiness annoying.
Ok so I'm gonna be controversial for a minute and say, when it comes to romance books, THIRD ACT CONFLICTS RUIN THE BOOK. I could have all the positive feelings about a romance book but then the third act conflict comes along and *poof* they're all gone. No more butterflies. This is what happened here.
And yes, 3rd act conflicts add to the realistic factor bc relationships have problems or whatever but since when do we read for the realism??
Also, I found the mc's constantly mentioned quirkiness annoying.
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
Another cute and sweet romance novel. I've read so many YA romances that I can predict the plot from the first few chapters, but I stayed for the STEM stuff in the end.
Cute concept, but not for me. DNF at about 26%, it was too stressful to read about these high school students obsessed with school and competing against each other. Also didn't really buy into the main female character who is just a natural genius who doesn't care about school at all.
I am not going to lie. I went into this book with very high expectations, as Olivie Blake (who went by her real name Alexene Farol Follmuth for this book) is one of my favorite writers, that being said, I know I am in the minority of people who disliked this book, and now I believe we can have a conversation about it. This is my disclaimer that this isn’t a super serious “attack” on the author, nor to the people who like this book, I just simply want to share my own personal thoughts and opinions.
I am not one to be hypercritical of the YA genre. It’s cheesy and it’s childish but the target demographic for these books are oftentimes cheesy, hopeless romantic teenagers. I understand why someone wouldn’t enjoy this book because it “reads like Wattpad” but that is not my main criticism of this book at all.
At first, I was very excited seeing the announcement of this book. The title is an obvious My Chemical Romance reference. However, the marketing for this was very misleading and touches upon another subject I want to discuss about how TikTok has affected the way new books have been published lately.
I would say there was some underlying internal racism from both Bel and the author. The reason this whole rant had come to mind for me to write was due to the fact that reading the words “Luke in particular likes to jokingly call us “dumb Asian” or “jungle Asian” because we’re half Filipino” had me taken aback and had me questioning why no one was talking about how unapologetically racist these two descriptions were.
full review - https://mylastconfessions.wixsite.com/blog/post/how-to-not-write-filipino-characters-a-my-mechanical-romance-review-rant
I am not one to be hypercritical of the YA genre. It’s cheesy and it’s childish but the target demographic for these books are oftentimes cheesy, hopeless romantic teenagers. I understand why someone wouldn’t enjoy this book because it “reads like Wattpad” but that is not my main criticism of this book at all.
At first, I was very excited seeing the announcement of this book. The title is an obvious My Chemical Romance reference. However, the marketing for this was very misleading and touches upon another subject I want to discuss about how TikTok has affected the way new books have been published lately.
I would say there was some underlying internal racism from both Bel and the author. The reason this whole rant had come to mind for me to write was due to the fact that reading the words “Luke in particular likes to jokingly call us “dumb Asian” or “jungle Asian” because we’re half Filipino” had me taken aback and had me questioning why no one was talking about how unapologetically racist these two descriptions were.
full review - https://mylastconfessions.wixsite.com/blog/post/how-to-not-write-filipino-characters-a-my-mechanical-romance-review-rant