🌿BOOK REVIEW🌿

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

“I wish I could say it doesn’t bother me to hear Richardson mock us for being girls, but it’s totally frustrating. Not because it’s wrong- which it is- but because it’s exactly the sort of thing that prevents most girls from trying.”

Bel finds herself being forced into joining the robotics club after forgetting about a piece of homework, and in the club she is faced with reality that women aren’t taken seriously in robotics (and STEM). The boys don’t listen to her opinions, Neelam (the only other girl in the team) constantly gives her a hard time and Mateo (the captain) who was the only person who championed Bel, starts to withdraw when Bel challenges his ideas with her better ones.

As soon as I saw a YA book that champions women in STEM I knew I had to read it! It is one of those books that I hope young girls can read to see that they belong in any industry, and if young boys read this book I hope they can understand the damaging environments created that can prevent girls from wanting to enter STEM.

Bel was a great main character who has her challenges at school and at home, with her parents divorcing and her annoying brothers being home from college. She also has absolutely no idea what to do about college applications, and everyone keeps nagging at her to decide. There were some fantastic scenes that summed up this anxiety young people may experience when thinking about their future as the world seems to messed up and it almost feels pointless trying to make your grand plans.

Mateo was a great character and is almost the polar opposite of Bel, and we learn that he has his own difficulties too. I loved seeing the two of them get closer and begin to compliment each other!

A fantastic read!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

⚠️CW// misogyny

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I really enjoyed this - after some heavier reading material recently it was a breath of fresh air. Addressing the important issue of inclusion and diversity in STEM, particularly for women and girls, it also was a great romp and a fun love story. I also liked that Bel was able to recognise her weaknesses and forge her own path, even after falling for Teo. A solid YA read.

Oh my god! I loved this so much! It was, obviously, so different to The Atlas Six in terms of writing style. I did find a lot of the writing too flowery and hard to follow but other than that, I loved it!

A beautifully written book. Really enjoyed reading this. Thanks to publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read

Thank you to the publishers Macmillan Children’s Books for sending me a digital ARC copy of this book to review.

I loved the Atlas Six, so was thrilled when I received an email asking me to review Alexene Farol Follmuth’s (otherwise known as Olivie Blake) new book.

My Mechanical Romance is a cosy, opposites attract, feel good, ya romance set at an elite high school in Los Angeles. When new girl Bel accidentally shows off her engineering skills at school she is scouted for the school robotics team by its captain Teo Luna. This book explores first love, battle robots, the pressures of high school and girls in STEM.

Romance isn’t a genre I read often and I found this book hard to get into at first, but really enjoyed it. The first half of the book felt a little bit slow and took me a long time to read. Despite being labelled as romance - the romance felt a like a sub plot at times.

Despite the slow start, I really enjoyed this book. Alexene Farol Follmuth writes such realistic characters that it’s easy to forget it’s fiction. As someone who isn’t American, I really enjoyed seeing the academic high school elements of this book.

I loved seeing the story from both Bel and Teo’s perspectives. It was great to see a book about a teenage girl finding her place in academia and I liked how it didn’t shy away from showing the difficulties and sexism girls and women face in STEM.

Overall it was a fun, enjoyable read.

If a comfort blanket was a genre, it would be YA. There is something comforting to me to seek out a well written YA contemporary/romance. Follmouth/Blake has taken Robot Wars (an English 90's childs favourite tv show) and made it into a teen rom-com between Bel and Teo. The two face all the natural tropes of a teen romance, the awkwardness, the learning boundaries and ultimately as with many American romances - the schooling differences. The two years later epilogue was a nice touch as I was wondering if Follmouth/Blake would follow up with another book and make it a series.

Not sure if you’d class it as enemies to lovers or friends to lovers!

My Mechanical Romance was a very VERY cute YA romance that really made me smile. I loved the characters and the story, the quirky and smart Bel meeting all-round amazing jock/geek Teo. Both characters have very different backgrounds but both also have a little bit of a messy home-life, an honest story about life as a teenager! Lovely to see a story celebrating women in STEM too.

Wonderful to see such a different style from this author as I loved The Atlas Six. Likeable characters who you really root for, solid plot and a wonderful read.

I really enjoyed this book! It ended up taking me around 2 sittings to read and that is only because I had work in between them! It was funny, moving and relatable in a way. Yes it was a clique type of relationship but it felt fresh, the characters felt real to me and like they could quite easily come off the page and interact with me.
My only real issue with this book was that it felt rushed at times, I would have loved to seen more of the prom, of the time between prepping for the competition's etc but it was a good read regardless!

A sweet little YA romance that I enjoyed. Not necessarily the "enemies to lovers" trope, but in the same ball park, so would suit anyone who is a fan of that. I liked the niche setting and the STEM elements.

A super adorable and gorgeously romantic story about imperfect characters that brought so much magic to the plot.

Bel is fabulous! She’s unapologetically ‘odd’ and quirky and hilarious! Teo started off more of an antagonist in my eyes (selfish and arrogant) but he did grow on me. The competitions were gripping and narrative was entertaining and fun!

A truly feel good rom com that celebrates women in STEM. Highly recommend.

4.5 stars

My mechanical romance manages to be a super cute coming of age, academic rivals to lovers romance while also exploring some more serious topics. Our main character Bel transfers to a new school for senior year where she discovers a passion for robotics. Throughout Bel’s senior year she experiences the frustrating realities of being a girl in engineering and has to fight to prove herself. The book also highlights the difference in opportunities between state schools and private schools which leads to inequity when applying to university. Overall this book is thoroughly enjoyable with a cast of diverse and relatable characters all dealing with the pressures of school and life.

Bel joins a new school due to her parents divorce and accidentally revel a talent for engineering and is pretty much forced to join the robotics class. However, all the boys and the only other girl on the team ignore her and don’t seem to like her. Mateo Luna, the captain of the team realises her potential, until the start butting heads. They are complete opposite, Bel doesn’t care about Nationals, whereas Teo cares a lot. Once they start to spend the nights together after school they both realise how well they work together.

My Mechanical Romance includes:
-YA romance
-Academic rivals-to-lovers
-WOC in STEM

This book was so adorable. I loved Bel’s character and seeing her challenge Teo was everything. I loved their relationship as they were so supportive of each other and made each other better people by encouraging one another. I also loved the discussions about WOC in STEM.

I haven't read many YA or teens books every so often, but I found this story really interesting and enjoyable.

I guess what I liked most of it was the awareness that not everyone is the same.

And those exact traits that make teens different are the things that I love the most. The years that shape personality and encouragement are the most important things we can do and the characters in this story are just so great at that.

I loved how everything feels so reliable and not sugarcoated. There are moments in the teens’ life that are messy and they aren't taking the easy or right decisions, but that shows how they will deal with those consequences afterwards.

It's a very well written and fast-paced story that many readers will enjoy.

🆓📖Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy

This YA novel tells the story of Bel and how she begins to make sense of herself in a new setting (alongside the obligatory teen love story). The book talks quite honestly about how young women need to find their own voices, their own worth and that making space for themselves in traditionally male dominated areas is hard but necessary. A good addition to a late teens bookshelf or school library

This was a lovely YA romance with a great emphasis on robotics and women in science. I have never read a book written around this subject before and I did get a little lost in some of the robot heavy discussions but that may well be me and not the book.

I did find some of the characters a little irritating but I think this shows how well the author writes kids of high school age!

I will definitely look forward to reading other books by this author under both this name and Olivie Blake.

Firstly, I’d like to say a huge thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan UK for giving me this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I’m in totally awe of this book right now. I knew from the moment I started reading that I was going to love it, but I’m surprised at just how much this has impacted me. The ‘fight the patriarchy’ stance throughout the book was so inspiring, making me feel like I should be taking up my own space, just like Bel. I think now more than ever, it’s important that we teach girls growing up that they are just as important and valued, that they are allowed to want big dreams and to compete alongside the boys, that they DESERVE the chance to earn their place. This book is a shining example of it and I think everyone really needs to read it.

Alexene created such complex, thought provoking and utterly captivating characters. I was inspired by Bel and how she didn’t give up, despite facing many walls along the way. And Teo, who had to be everything for everyone, absolutely broke my heart in the best way. These characters were such real, beautifully written people that I would love to read about forever.

And let’s not forget, it had such a cute romance element to it. Romcom with important conversations? Absolute perfection. It had me laughing out loud so many times, and smiling so big that my cheeks hurt.

I’m so grateful to have been able to read this and I would seriously recommend it to anyone. The underlying theme is to fight for what you want, fight that imposter syndrome, and make your life what you want of it - it’s the important type of novel that everyone should read in 2022.

"Ultimately, the worst part is that life goes on as normal. That everything else is the same, so I have to miss him even though he's right there. On the outside nothing has changed, but somehow, everything is different. The songs we used to like are ruined. The places we used to go are haunted for me now. Do I wish I'd never met him at all, or I'd never joined robotics? Sometimes yes, but most of the time no. I miss him, but I need those things, those memories of how I felt and the way he used to look at me, because without them I just feel empty. I feel absolutely nothing at all." — Alexene Farol Follmuth, My Mechanical Romance.

Today is Alexene Farol Follmuth's book birthday! She releases her debut YA romance My Mechanical Romance in the UK, and I've been delighted to be invited to review this title by MacMillan Children's books.

My Mechanical Romance unfolds around two protagonists: Bel (aka Bel Canto) and Teo (the handsome nerd of school). Where Teo is sure about himself and is the backbone of his group of friends, Bel is struggling with her life as a young adult and a daughter. She doesn't know what to do after high school and desperately tries to cope with her parents' ongoing divorce. She follows the flow. So when Mrs Voss, one of her teachers, sees her excellent abilities in design and creation, she strongly encourages Bel to join the robotics team, and, being completely lost, Bel naturally accepts; she is thrust into a whirlwind of technology, a world with tech boys who refuse to admit girls can do things, others that proclaim themselves the ones having the weight of the whole world on their shoulders, and girls whose only personality is auto-defence. But just among all that, couldn't there be a tiny breach for Bel to discover herself?

I enjoyed this book. I wouldn't say I loved it, but I did enjoy it. Having read The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake (Alexene's pseudonym), I think I had very high expectations for this YA romance. Some themes that were tackled really got to my heart: the divorce of Bel's parents was one of them. I'm sure other books talk about this theme, but I haven't read them. So it was very pleasing to put the feelings that many young adults, myself included, felt during such situations on paper. I could relate a lot to Bel feeling torn between her two parents, and her conflicted emotions towards her dad, whom she cannot consider bad, despite the things he did to her mum. I could also relate to Teo's relationship with his parents, his sentiment of being unwanted or being a weight that has to balance his position not to become a burden to them. The way his dad constantly put distance between them because he wasn't good with children somewhat made me think of my own experience with my dad, and it made me reflect a lot on my childhood.

I believe that, between Bel and Teo, I could identify more with Teo in the sense that he kind of epitomises this idea of not being enough. Or rather perhaps more this idea of 'I'm only good in robotics and in taking responsibilities for things, so if I don't do that, what will I be good for? Nothing.' To this too, I could relate. Bel exasperated me a lot sometimes. I don't know if that's because her speech was so well-written that it reminded me of mine (that is very indecisive and lacking self-confidence) or if I just didn't like her and her personality that much. She develops in a way that I eventually liked her a bit by the end of the book, but still, she won't be a memorable character to me.

Overall, I think the story develops well. Some passages were a bit dragging for me, though necessary to the story. I'm always in awe of writers that have enough logic to write about something related to tech, so hats down to Alexene because, even though I understood nothing, it sounded interesting and beyond my logic haha!
I was disappointed that some characters weren't more involved in the story. We have glimpses of Kai, Lora, and Jamie, without really knowing anything about them, apart from what makes them what they are. I feel like some of them weren't necessary and could have been cut down from the story. However, I loved Neelam! She was the counterpart of Teo, the girl version who struggles because, well, because she is a girl. And having the other version was very interesting to me, especially when we learn why Neelam acts as she does. (Look, I'm trying to avoid spoilers!)

That being said, I liked the feminist part of the novel. I don't know enough about robotics and this world to actually say whether or not there are misogynistic comments made in it, but I'm sure some guys still exist somewhere in the world (unfortunately) and think like that. That was good to tackle this problem in this book, and I hope other authors will do the same in the future, just to change the balance a bit and give space to young girls to dream when they are told not to.

I would totally recommend this book to every young adult who likes tech and robotics or just wants to dive into a very competitive background with feminist heroines.

Thank you Netgalley and Cheyney Smith from Macmillan Children's Books for the early invitation to review this book!

My mechanical romance (loved what Alexene did with the name here, especially as a girl who went to high school in the late 00's) is a cute STEM YA which explores a number of topics which are relevant to young people including Divorce of parents, pressures of school and also application processes for colleges (or universities if your not in America ! )  
 
I loved how Alexene didn't make bel and Teo typical 'Nerds' and also shows the struggles for women to actually be taken seriously for going into STEM careers and colleges. This reminded me so much of the love hypothesis in that aspect which made me love it more. I loved the banter between Bel and Teo and how the attraction built between them. This is a enemies to work colleagues to lovers troupe (Jamie even desribed the romance herself as this ! ) a brilliant read which I think will do very well and be well rated by quite a few !

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth
Genre: YA Contemporary
Pub date: 23rd June
Rating: 19/20

Knowing more and more books like this exist makes my heart glad. My teen self would have loved to have seen girls wanting to enter STEM courses and careers. It also tackles the fact that problems arise so very early on for a female in a male orientated field (these are high school kids in physics class/Robotics club!) And that too is compounded if you are a girl of colour. The author also explores the expectations on teens (whether it is from society, parents or all their own) to know what to study, the careers they want and and pressures put on them to achieve it. Bel and Teo exist on the two extremes of this spectrum and both are suffering. This also makes it hard for each of them to work with each other. Setting the scene for an adorable little opposites attract romance. I thought all the characters were interesting and was pleasently surprised with how complex they were. Bel, with her indecisiveness and lack of any idea of what she wanted to do in life, was particularly relateable. If you had told me that I would be this invested in robot design and competitions I would have said no way. But I actually found it really interesting. And it was a perfect backdrop for the story. If youre looking for an adorable YA romance with lots of nerdy science and insight into what girls/women face in STEM subjects and careers. Also it may interest you to know this author also penned The Atlas Six!