Synopsis:
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.
Review:
My Mechanical Romance has been on my to be read since it was announced and honestly, it was ok. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but it was an enjoyable read.
Let’s start with the romance, as the word is in the title. It was very cutesy, but seemed to escalate very quickly. I get that teen romance can feel very intense as everything is intense at that age, but I don’t feel like there was any type of build-up. It was meet, have an insubstantial argument, find each other attractive, love. This all happens in quite a small amount of chapters and just didn’t feel genuine to me. I can understand why they’d work as a couple, but personally, I feel like they needed more time.
This brings me to my next point. My Mechanical Romance felt both too short but also too long. Generally, this is a short book, but some subplots went on for too long. At some parts, I found it a struggle to turn the page as I just didn’t care about what was happening. However, I will say I loved the parts about robotics – the fights in particular were really fun.
I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if it didn’t have Mateo’s pov. I didn’t like him. He was entitled, stubborn and treated women horribly, well unless he was attracted to them. Most of the men treated women horribly in this book other than Dash, he was lovely and probably a far better option for Bel if you ask me.
Most people probably wouldn’t agree with me, but I really liked Naleem. Yes, she was grumpy and not friendly at all, but considering how the boys on the robotics team and also the goddamn teacher treated her, you can’t blame her. I’m glad that Bel was still nice to her even if she wasn’t very nice back, it was really nice to not see women tearing each other down for a change, even if Naleem made a comment about Mateo listening to Bel because he likes her. She was telling the truth after all.
I did like Bel and she does go through a huge development over the course of the book, but she was just another slightly eccentric girl who is good at science. Is this not the same character in every single STEM-themed romance novel? I have nothing against her as a character, I actually really liked her narrative.
My favourite part about My Mechanical Romance is 100% the cover. They say to never judge a book by its cover but that’s what I did here and it didn’t exactly pay off.
I’m making it sound like I absolutely despised this book, but I didn’t. It was entertaining enough and if you don’t take it too seriously it’s pretty good. I don’t think you’re supposed to hate one of the main characters though.
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