A review by readingthestars
My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

5.0

"I mean come on, boys can do it," I call out to her. "So how hard can it be?"

I went into this book with mixed expectations, and I'm so glad to say that it exceeded all of them. I've read one other book by this author, The Atlas Six under her pen name Olivie Blake, and I wasn't a big fan. I mostly had trouble with the writing, which I found almost too philosophical with not a lot of action. But My Mechanical Romance is a YA book, so I figured I would give the author another go and see if I liked this one any better. And I really did.

My Mechanical Romance follows Bel, who had recently been added to her over-achieving high school's robotics team, led by the intelligent (and rich) Teo. She has to learn a lot about robotics while gaining confidence in her role on the team. And yes, Bel and Teo fall in love. Right before picking this up, I had just finished a long high fantasy story. And while I love long fantasy stories, I found myself needing something quick, fun, and easy to read afterwards, and this book fit the bill.

The plot and subplots hit a little too close to home. As a STEM girlie myself, I loved how this book showed the realities of being a woman in STEM, and how we can inspire the next generation of young girls to also aspire to be engineers and technicians and all the jobs that are stereotypically filled by men. I also really liked how Bel brought a different view to the robotics team as someone who was more creative and thought out of the box. I was a mathematics major but also have a minor in technical theatre and have done plenty of theatre- and literature-related extracurriculars, and I'm a firm believer that being well rounded in not just STEM but also creative pursuits benefits everyone.

The subplot of Teo learning that he doesn't have to put so much academic pressure on himself and how academics aren't the only thing that matters in life is so so important. This is an incredibly important lesson for everyone to learn, and I unfortunately only learned it in my final semester at college. If you're stressing about your grades, your future: it'll be okay. School and grades aren't everything in life and you bring so much else to the world.

This book has plenty of pop culture references (including several Taylor Swift ones hehe), which I normally dislike in books. But I thought they suited this story well. It's rooted in our modern day, so any references didn't feel out of place at all.

My Mechanical Romance made me gasp and tear up multiple times each, and I'm really, really happy I decided to give this book a chance.

Thank you to Holiday House and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book; this review reflects my honest opinion.