Reviews with content warning for Sexism - My Mechanical Romance

I'm not going to lie, I picked this book up because it was £2 at The Works, if it was on Amazon or Waterstones at full retail price, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up. However, it was a cute read.

This book has two points of view. The first is Isabel, but she prefers Bel and she has accidently revealed a talent for engineering whilst at her new school and now she is being forced to try out for the robotics club. Bel has got too much going on at home, with her parents recently splitting up, joining a new school, her older brother being Mr. Perfect and then her oldest brother just quitting college. Her parents have pushed Bel to try and get into a decent college, but she doesn’t know what for until she discovers the robotics club where everyone believes she is there for the “Diversity” quota. The second point of view is Mateo, but he prefers Teo, he is perfect on paper – captain of the football team and the robotics club and his parents are celebrities with his dad being a CEO and his mum being an influencer. He just wants to be himself and try and get through senior year so he can finally be him at M.I.T not Harvard like his dad wants. Teo sees Bel as a potential asset, but they couldn’t be more different and as the nights of after-school work grow longer, Bel and Teo realise they’ve made more than just a combat-ready robot for nationals, they’ve made a connection. But with graduation approaching, their differences and what they want for their futures, threatens what they’ve built together.

It was a very cute and easy read. I didn’t need a lot of brain power to read it and felt like it was very fluffy. The storyline was predictable but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it; it just means I knew exactly what was going to happen. Dash saved this book as well; he was so funny throughout and just reminds me of every single sidekick that people love more than the MC.

I didn’t like how quick it changed from enemies-to-lovers; it could have been so much more. The characters were very two-dimensional and expect for them both hating being at home and that Bel was “weird” for how she dressed, and everyone fancied Teo. That was it really. Teo became like his dad with trying to force Bel to be the perfect girlfriend when they have only been dating for weeks. The men in this book (Mr Luna and Mac) hating on Bel for no reason except that Teo was hanging out with her drove me nuts especially Mac like you are a teacher that looks like the robotics club surely you would be pushing all your students and not just your best student. I would have preferred a bit more of the academic rivals' side, it was like one minute they had their differences due to Bel calling out something with Teo’s robot and the next Teo’s like I can’t stop thinking about her.

I feel like this book would have been better if it was a bit longer, the epilogue just jumped straight into two years, but I would have liked to see Bel and Teo progress through college.

Content Warnings

_persephone_'s review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring 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

3.5

Okay so I'm not going to pretend like this is some sensational profound book, with it's romance or it's feminism, but for a simple YA romance, this was definitely a favorite of mine. 17 year old Bel moves to a new school senior year after her parents get a divorce. She has to navigate an entire new world, in terms of academia and home life. She was never really interested in much in school, didn't know anything about her future, but that changes when she gets into her new school's robotics club. While this book has a huge focus on romance- It is a romance book after all- in my opinion, it has an even bigger focus on feminism. On the struggles of being a woman in STEM, or just being a woman in life in general. This book was obviously a teen book, and if you don't like when teen books use a more- for lack of a better word- adolescent way of speech, in both internal and external dialogue, then you may not like this book. But still, this book is for everyone. While certain parts may be more relatable to women in STEM or women in certain places in their lives, this book shows an accurate portrayal of any woman in any workfield or place in their life (or as accurate as a fictional YA novel could be). I love how it showed many different women with many different personalities and goals all struggling with how being a woman in a man's world affects their lives. And though this book seemed to have the stereotypical 'mean girl' character, Neelam, here it shows her in a different light, it humanizes the the teenage girl that everyone seems to hate so much,

Bel and Neelam, even end up really good friends by the end, who support each other

. Now as much of a feminism I am, at heart I'm a romantic, so onto Bel and Teo. I ended up liking them a little less then I probably should have for one simple reason, this book was marketed as an academic rivals to lovers. Now, was this just that? In a way, yes. But when you think academic rivals, what may come to your mind, and what came to mine is two people, which most likely have known each other for a while (or at least before the start of the book), who have competed, and actively compete with grades and other school activities, they also probably heavily dislike each other (or at least pretend to). While in some ways, that description fits parts of the book, it doesn't with most things. Seeing as it's a new school, Bel and Teo had never met before the start of the book. They don't really compete with anything, their are parts where they do but they are so minor that they are practically non-existent, they are even on the same robotics club, the theme of which is basically just 'Teamwork'. And the only part that really fits is that there is a part where they dislike each other, in a way, anyways. At the beginning Teo thinks Bel is "weird", which in my opinion doesn't count as dislike, especially when he was also admiring her the entire time. Then there was when Bel "challenged his masculinity" which is as a close as we get, as Teo then becomes uncomfortable around Bel and sometimes did 'dislike' her. In the beginning you could also say that Bel disliked Teo, although I would say it's more indifference then dislike. Although all of that gets turned around pretty quickly and they are then pretty friendly with the other. While going into it wanting and thinking it's an academic rivals to lovers made me not like them and this book more than I should have, I still did love Bel and Teo. Teo did start out not truly understanding what it was like for Bel and his other female classmates, and even being somewhat misogynistic himself sometimes (on accident of course), but he definitely made up for it by actually listening to what Bel said and changing his point of view on it all, and siding with her over their vaguely sexist male teacher, as well as many other small action that heavily redeemed him over the course of the book. They were very sweet together and though

there was a third act breakup in this book, like most other romances, which I didn't really enjoy

I thought it was at least somewhat well done, and I liked how it wasn't just done to create conflict, it actually furthered and developed Bel's character, and

it made her someone, even without him around

. All in all this book as pretty amazing for what it was, a contemporary YA romance, with themes of feminism and women in STEM.

Representation:
-Half Filipino (WMC)
-Mexican (MMC) (It is implied that he his mixed, but it doesn't actually say)
-Jewish (MMC)
-Indian (Two side characters)
-Women in STEM
(There is also references to some girls liking girls or some guys liking guys, but there weren't any actual characters, at least openly, who were queer, which was disappointing)

Content Warnings

ems_rxlibrary's review against another edition

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emotional 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

4.0

Content Warnings

laurao's review against another edition

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emotional informative lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

viselik's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It was alright, the constant mentioning of things like sexism did annoy me but I understand why they are there. This book is about women in STEM, and women in STEM jobs do get treated like this very often.

Content Warnings

chronicacademia's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Content Warnings

amberinpieces's review

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adventurous emotional inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

takarakei's review against another edition

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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

3.5

Battle bots x YA romance
Women in STEM!
Dual POV

This was a very cute YA contemporary romance. I don't think that's really my genre... but if it is I think you would really enjoy this! I did love Bel's journey of finding her path into young adulthood.

Content Warnings

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