Special thanks to Holiday House for providing an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Goodreads: My Mechanical Romance
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 31 May 2022
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Panda Rating:
(4 pandas)
Opposites attract in this battle-robot-building YA romance from the NYT best-selling author of The Atlas Six.
Bel would rather die than think about the future. College apps? You’re funny. Extracurriculars? Not a chance. But when she accidentally reveals a talent for engineering at school, she’s basically forced into joining the robotics club. Even worse? All the boys ignore Bel—and Neelam, the only other girl on the team, doesn’t seem to like her either.
Enter Mateo Luna, captain of the club, who recognizes Bel as a potential asset—until they start butting heads. Bel doesn’t care about Nationals, while Teo cares too much. But as the nights of after-school work grow longer and longer, Bel and Teo realize they’ve made more than just a combat-ready robot for the championship: they’ve made each other and the team better. Because girls do belong in STEM.

I buddy read with this Leslie and Julie who also had ARCs of the book and I’m so glad that we read this together! The topics and characters generated some good discussions between us that really helped me to figure out my thoughts/feelings about this book!
TL;DR: It took me a while to figure out how I felt about this book but ultimately, I think it was a great YA contemporary debut. This wasn’t just about girls/women in STEM but it covered complex biracial family dynamics and it had a sweet first-love romance between two characters from different backgrounds. Even though this wasn’t perfect, I liked how the author brought up what girls/women and POC in STEM experience, and I think it has the potential to generate some really great discussions amongst its readers.
Continue reading “ARC Review: My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth”