Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - My Mechanical Romance

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My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

5 reviews

_persephone_'s review against another edition

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

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

whatjasread's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

2/5

I will preface this by saying I'm not a young adult, so definitely didn't expect to love this, but I had gone into it thinking it'd be... better. Considering we've seen what Follmuth can do in The Atlas Six (Olivie Blake being her pseudonym for adult works), this reads very much as an amateur piece of work, but that could just be me. I think the premise and the overarching message of the book are great - we always need more women in STEM, bonus points from me if there's a romance involved - but the execution was very far off the mark.

I didn't like any of the characters - Neelam was just plain annoying and I don't like a women v women story arc; Bel grated on me with her constant umm-ing and ahh-ing, and I think the quirkiness just wasn't for me; Teo was an asshole and nothing could've redeemed him for me.

The book touches on themes such as divorce and figuring out family dynamics thereafter, and it was those elements that really heightened the experience for me. But the romance lacked any kind of chemistry for me and I just wasn't convinced by the book at all, unfortunately.

TWs: divorce, alcohol consumption (underage), reference to sexual content, adultery (before book)

Tropes/rep/themes: filipino-american fmc, latino american jewish mmc, women in stem, enemies to lovers, found family

Content Warnings

frantically's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

4.0

I received a free early copy of this audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very pleasant surprise! The story follows Bel, a senior in high school, who joins Mateo Luna's robotics club, in order to make up a bad grade and finds herself enjoying it a lot more than she expected to.

As someone who's fresh out of school and just getting started in uni, I could relate so much to the personal struggles and questions relating her future Bel had to deal with and it was a way better representation of secondary school experiences than other books I've read.

I'm not personally a woman in STEM but I love a lot of women in STEM and I really appreciated the depiction of the prejudices women in STEM have to face on a daily basis.

The audiobook narrators were nice to listen to and they were able to get me soo excited and enthusiastic during important scenes.

Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot and would love to read from this author again!

Content Warnings

staysunny's review against another edition

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inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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

My Mechanical Romance is a YA contemporary romance that follows high school seniors Bel and Teo after Bel transfers schools and joins the robotics team. Teo is an only child, star student and captain of the robotics team; Bel is the youngest of three, smart, has good building sense, and a little directionless at the start of the book. While told in dual POV (which I love seeing and wish was more common!), I felt that we were following Bel’s story more than their story.

I do wish we had gotten to see more the bots in action and would have liked to know more about the technicals or mechanics of the actual building of the bots. This is one thing I personally look for when a romance or rom com has a more niche topic featured. Since the story had more of a focus on Bel we also saw how she handled being a young woman exploring a STEM field. I thought this was handled very well, especially because it could have been so easy to fall into a “not like other girls” rhetoric. I appreciated getting to see how Teo thought of Bel and how people treated her, as well as how Bel was experiencing things firsthand.

Storytelling-wise, I found the narrative a bit repetitive and slow at times, and I had a few issues with how close Bel and her friends seemed to become in such a short period of time. In contrast, the way the teenage characters spoke with each other felt very natural, which is not always a given in YA contemporary stories.

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