My Mechanical Romance: An Opposites-attract YA Romance from the Bestselling Author of The Atlas Six

Product Information

It reminded me that I am not the only person with divorced parents and that every negative and positive experience that comes with it, and any emotions I may feel about any of it is valid. Overall, this was a super fun read and I would totally recommend it if you're a looking for a cute romance set in academia. This book has both Bel’s and Mateo’s POVs and the way Mateo talked about Naleem was in my opinion, disgusting. This was my first book by Alexene (I didn't knew Alexene was Olivie Blake's pen name for YA contemporary romance books 😭).

My Mechanical Romance is not just a love story but also a coming of age story about teenagers finding their ways in life and a tale of resilience and self-discovery. But I swear there must be something in the water, because his hair looks so soft and when he’s designing something he gets this kind of squinty, concentrate-y look on his face and he smells like clean laundry and summer and I hate it. But as the nights of after–schoolwork grows longer, Bel and Teo realise they've made more than just a combat–ready robot for the championship: they’ve made a connection themselves.

If you, however, have twenty-seven (or even one) daughter to foist this on as an embarrassing parent, I strongly encourage you to start foisting. Back in high school, I was in love with a nerd, the dude was hot and he was aware of it, but I didn't like him for it: it was because he was a fucking nerd, he was funny and cleveR AND OH MY FUCKING GOD, HE WAS AMAZING AND CHARMING WITH ME. When Bel’s talent for engineering leads her to join the robotics club at school, she meets Mateo Luna - captain of the football team and the robotics club.

I wish I had, like, twenty-seven daughters I could give this book to, although I’m pretty sure they’d refuse to read it because their embarrassing dad had foisted it on them. From the beginning I was cheering her on and hoping she would finally fight back and stand up for herself and when she did, I felt proud. Bel was so annoying at times in the book, starting unnecessary conflict and just being irritating to other characters. I’m afraid the hero, Teo, didn’t come across quite as successfully to me: he’s very charming and I got the broad outlines of his character (he’s the son of a very successful tech billionaire, who puts a huge amount of pressure on him to succeed) but, even though the book is told in dual POV between him and Bel, his emotional arc felt less coherent.I think the fact that it’s about a pretty niche hobby and the fact that everyone besides Bel takes it so seriously is hilarious. Secondly, I only publish reviews of books in the subgenre where I’m best known (queer romcom) if they’re glowing.