Review: My Mechanical Romance

My Mechanical Romance
By Alexene Farol Follmuth

Published By: Macmillan Publishing
Publication Date: May 31, 2022
Date Read: February 26, 2023
Genre: YA – Contemporary Romance
Source: Bought
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 266

From Goodreads:
Nerds are so hot.

Especially battle–robot–building nerds.

When Bel accidentally reveals a talent for engineering at school, she’s forced into joining the robotics club.
Enter Mateo Luna, perfect on paper – captain of the football team and the robotics club – who recognizes Bel as a potential asset, even if they couldn’t be more different. And as the nights of after–school work grow longer, Bel and Teo realize they’ve made more than just a combat–ready robot for the championship: they’ve made a connection themselves.
But with graduation approaching, their differences and what they want for their futures, threatens what they’ve built together.

Can they survive Nationals without breaking their robots – or their hearts?

“The world is not very helpful to smart girls. More often it will try to force you inside a box. But I urge you not to listen.”

When My Mechanical Romance was chosen as the February read for my YA Book Club, I have to admit I was a little apprehensive and on the fence. I absolutely adore YA books… hence why I am in a YA Book Club, but for the last few years I have struggled with YA Contemporary Romance books. Often I struggle with the romance and the HEA’s as I feel like they are just children (yes… a sign that I am getting old clearly). But I adored everything about this book. I did not feel any of that while reading this amazing book and I am beginning to discover that STEM romances… they are my favourite.

My Mechanical Romance is an adorable, quick read. I read this one in a day. It follows the story of Bel, a teen girl who is forced to join the school’s engineering Robotics club. She’s reluctant… but suddenly finds a talent, and a new love… of engineering and the other kind. I feel like part of my love of this book comes from the story of the Robotics club, rather than the romance. It wasn’t super romance heavy which was perfect for me. I love STEM romances, and this is the first engineering based one I have read. Despite me not knowing anything about Engineering, it didn’t confuse me or anything which was a nice plus.

One thing I loved about this book is that it was the female main character who had no idea what she wanted to do. I often find in YA contemporary books it’s always the female who is super focused on University, and her future and is forcing the guy to think about his. Here it is the opposite, and I found that really refreshing. I also loved that we got to see the start of Bel’s journey into a STEM subject. I read a lot of STEM romances, as I said… I adore them. But as most of them are adult books, the characters already have that passion for science, and are already working in their field. Here, it was wonderful to see the start of the passion… where is came from and how the character worked to start her career in that field. I loved that aspect of this book.

My Mechanical Romance was adorable, uplifting and such a fun read. I’ve never read anything by this author before, but I do have her adult books The Atlas Six series on my TBR. Although I know they will be different from this due to being more adult in nature, my love of this book has really made me want to bump the series up on my TBR so watch this space. I really hope Alexene decides to write more YA novels as this was just wonderful!

“He smiles, and I know that win or lose, Teo Luna and I are made of a strong foundation. What he and I have together is the best thing we’ve ever built.”

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