My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth
Release Date: May 31st, 2022
Publisher: Holiday House
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Rom-Com
Pages: 272
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indigo | Indiebound
Synopsis
Nerds are so hot.
Especially battle robot building nerds.
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 built more than just a combat-ready robot for the championship: they’ve made space for each other and themselves.
This sharply funny, academic rivals-to-lovers romance explores both the challenges girls of color face in STEM and the vulnerability of first love with unfailing wit and honesty.
Review
Thank you so much to author Alexene Farol Follmuth and Turn the Page Tours for gifting me with a copy of My Mechanical Romance in exchange for an honest review.
As someone who was in the Robotics Club in elementary and middle school, I absolutely loved this book. It was a cute and fast-paced romance with a WOC who loves STEM. This book is definitely something that I wished I had growing up and I am so happy that so many young adults will get to read this and see themselves in this book. The way that Bel speaks up for herself was so very important and I felt so satisfied to read this happening. I really enjoyed our other MC Teo as well. He had a good bit of character development to do before I really liked his character, but we see a lot of growth in him throughout the story.
I will definitely be requesting this book for my local library!
Giveaway: Winner will receive one (1) copy of My Mechanical Romance
Alexene Farol Follmuth, also known under the pen name Olivie Blake, is a lover and writer of stories, many of which involve the fantastic, the paranormal, or the supernatural, but not always. More often, her works revolve around the collective experience, what it means to be human (or not), and the endlessly interesting complexities of life and love.
Alexene tripped and fell into writing after abandoning her long-premeditated track for Optimum Life Achievement while attending law school, and now focuses primarily on the craft and occasional headache of creating fiction. As Olivie, she has been published as the featured fiction contributor for Witch Way Magazine, as well as the writer for the graphic series Clara and the Devil and a variety of other books. The revised hardcover edition of her cult favorite The Atlas Six releases March 2022 from Tor Books. As Alexene, her debut YA novel, My Mechanical Romance, is coming May 2022 from Holiday House.
Alexene lives and works in Los Angeles, where she is generally tolerated by her rescue pit bull. She can be loosely defined as the sort of person who picked up sparring as a means to improve writing fight scenes. To connect with Alexene online, visit her website www.olivieblake.com or find her on Instagram @afarolfollmuth.
Turn the Page Tours Schedule: My Mechanical Romance
April 24th
Turn the Page Tours – Tour Welcome/Book Introduction
The Clever Reader
Sanjariti Reads
April 25th
Celia’s Reads
Justice for Readers
April 26th
A Court of Coffee and Books
Adventurous Bookworm
April 27th
Southern Belle At Heart
Tea Time Lit
April 28th
Books, Tea, Healthy Me
Lily’s Cozy Blog
April 29th
Books and Bookish
Book Corner
April 30th
Books Are Magic, Too
The Book View
Struck by Stories
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