#my mechanical romance

[yourfavebooklrsfavebooklr]

Some books by Asian authors to read this may!

Edit: thank you @linkedsoul for letting me know that I misused the term AAPI in the original post. I’m very sorry about that, and have changed the title to accurately reflect what this list is.

[olivieblake]

hi i just finished my mechanical romance (the audiobook which is BRILLIANT) and then i found you on tumblr and i wanted to say your book is glorious and hit me in such a deeply personal way.

im also biracial and a mechanical engineer. like teo, i was insanely competitive in high school and had a close relationship with a physics teacher who's definitely a bit sexist but trying his best. like bel, i wasn't sure i fit in engineering and i love building things and got rejected from MIT. like neelam, i was a mean and moody teen and constantly fighting to get robotics guys to take me seriously. this book threw me back into every horrible group project i had in college, especially the tiny pool filter baby i made for senior design with a team of guys and one woman who didn't like me. every deep conversation in a car, i felt like i was there, having it with myself or my sister or my best friend.

i don't often see myself so directly reflected in books. i wish i had something like this in high school. im so glad to have it now, and even happier for all the kids in high school that get to read it now.

also you're really funny and teo and bel are adorable

omg!!!! I love this. not just you saying I'm funny (although thank you very much). I am so honored to have written something that spoke to you in this way. I'm so touched that it felt that real and right to you. I'm so glad in general that you enjoyed the book and thank you so much for sharing this, because I know there's a lot of the old me in there too and I'm happy we could share it asynchronously together in the ether like this

[richincolor]

YA Romance Reads by Adult Romance Authors

With the popularity and success of Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert, I've been keeping an eye out for Adult Romance authors making the jump to YA Romance. While my main reads tend to be SFF and YA lit, I love picking up a romance book once in a while. Talia Hibbert is one of my favorite authors, so when I heard she was making her YA debut with Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute, I was over the moon. (And ICYMI, we're posting a group discussion of Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute on 3/8 -- hope you'll read along with us!)

I can't help but sit up and take note when I read about Adult Romance authors coming out with YA books. And yes, I've been compiling a list. Here's what I have so far:

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert [Out now!] From the New York Times bestselling author of the Brown Sisters trilogy, comes a laugh-out-loud story about a quirky content creator and a clean-cut athlete testing their abilities to survive the great outdoors--and each other.

Bradley Graeme is pretty much perfect. He's a star football player, manages his OCD well (enough), and comes out on top in all his classes . . . except the ones he shares with his ex-best friend, Celine.

Celine Bangura is conspiracy-theory-obsessed. Social media followers eat up her takes on everything from UFOs to holiday overconsumption--yet, she's still not cool enough for the popular kids' table. Which is why Brad abandoned her for the in-crowd years ago. (At least, that's how Celine sees it.)

These days, there's nothing between them other than petty insults and academic rivalry. So when Celine signs up for a survival course in the woods, she's surprised to find Brad right beside her. Forced to work as a team for the chance to win a grand prize, these two teens must trudge through not just mud and dirt but their messy past. And as this adventure brings them closer together, they begin to remember the good bits of their history. But has too much time passed . . . or just enough to spark a whole new kind of relationship?

While You Were Dreaming by Alisha Rai [Out March 21, 2023] This YA debut from powerhouse romance author Alisha Rai tackles undocumented immigration against the backdrop of viral online fame, fake dating, and a love triangle. A must-read for fans of Nicola Yoon or Sandhya Menon.

If Sonia Patil had her way, she’d be attending her local comic con instead of covering a shift for her boss’s daughter. Since Sonia’s mom was deported and her sister, who never claimed deferred status under DACA, had to forgo college to support them, Sonia’s had her hands full with work, school, and pretending everything is okay at home.

Then Sonia, in homemade superhero cosplay, stumbles into saving her crush James’s life. When a video of the daring rescue goes viral, she—or, rather, a mysterious masked savior—is thrust into the spotlight. Now she’s hiding from TikTok detectives while trying to connect with James. And while she’s drawn to his friendly but oblivious nature, she can’t deny her escalating chemistry with another awkwardly charming boy. Juggling crushes and a secret identity might just take superpowers. Will Sonia be able to hide in plain sight forever?

Her Good Side by Rebekah Weatherspoon [Out May 30, 2023] A swoony, heart-melting YA romance from beloved author Rebekah Weatherspoon about two awkward teens who decide to practice dating in order to be good at the real thing. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Jenny Han.

Sixteen-year-old Bethany Greene, though confident and self-assured, is what they call a late-bloomer. She's never had a boyfriend, date, or first kiss. She's determined to change that but after her crush turns her down cold for Homecoming--declaring her too inexperienced--and all her back-up ideas fall through, she cautiously agrees to go with her best friend's boyfriend Jacob. A platonic date is better than no date, right? Until Saylor breaks up with said boyfriend.

Dumped twice in just two months, Jacob Yeun wonders if he's the problem. After years hiding behind his camera and a shocking summer glow up, he wasn't quite ready for all the attention or to be someone's boyfriend. There are no guides for his particular circumstances, or for taking your ex's best friend to the dance.

Why not make the best of an awkward situation? Bethany and Jacob decide to fake date for practice, building their confidence in matters of the heart.

And it works--guys are finally noticing Bethany. But things get complicated as their kissing sessions--for research of course!--start to feel real. This arrangement was supposed to help them in dating other people, but what if their perfect match is right in front of them?

And here's a bonus book -- while Olivie Blake is a Fantasy author, not a Romance author, I do think it's notable that Olivie Blake (pen name for Alexene Farol Follmuth) has a really cute YA Romance out right now:

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth [Out now!] 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.

In her YA debut, Alexene Farol Follmuth, author of The Atlas Six (under the penname Olivie Blake), explores both the challenges girls of color face in STEM and the vulnerability of first love with unfailing wit and honesty. With an adorable, opposites-attract romance at its center and lines that beg to be read aloud, My Mechanical Romance is swoonworthy perfection.

[noveltyreads]

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really should've known better than to judge a book by its cover, but I really couldn't help that this book looked so cute. 

This book is a romance book, yes. But at its core it's more so about STEM and empowering women to go into science, tech, engineering and mathematics based fields. Bel doesn't think she has what it takes to do engineering. She enjoys it but she can't imagine doing it as a job or what she could do in the future. This book was quite empowering, showing that girls do belong in STEM. I loved the steminist message. 

But while I loved the women's empowerment in this book, a few things fell a bit flat for me. For starters, it took me a while to get into this book. I mainly blame writing style for this and I felt like I got used to the writing style too late to really absorb the story. Not to mention, the physics and engineering jargon. Because Bel and Teo talked (and flirted) in engineering and robotics terms, I struggled to understand a lot of things due to my complete and utter lack of understanding of anything physics related. 

I think it was mainly due to the physics banter that it took me a while to get into the relationship of this book which was a shame because this book got me cheesy grinning at the end. There were times when I was questioning if I was shipping them or not because there were things Bel and Teo were doing that I sort of raised an eyebrow about. I'm glad they communicated and helped fix things together. 

All in all, a cute book but the writing style got the better of me at times.

[annelisreadingroom]

Have you read many books in February? I haven't counted but My Mechanical Romance is one of the books I read this year. It's a story about two high school students who meet when they both become members of the robotics club at school.

[bugonmywindow]

- My Mechanical Romance

[bluryyyblu]

Facts.

[illustration-alcove]

Jacqueline Li’s illustrated book cover for Alexene Farol Follmuth’s My Mechanical Romance.

[good-books-to-read]

Reading My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

And one of the characters is called Teo Luna and my brain keeps autocorrecting it to Tuna

[alvodra]

Apparently there's a book called My Mechanical Romance that has nothing to do with My Chemical Romance? Then why is it called that? I'm so confused

[bidoofenergy]

i get why people don't like neelam but i can't say a bad word about her because i WAS her and honestly sometimes still am

[yourfavebooklrsfavebooklr]

Ms Voss is such an angel, and I really hope bel does end up thinking abt engineering seriously! Also rlly hoping that teo expedites his whole actually-listening-to-bel thing lol 😅

[olivieblake]

Hi Olivie!!

So here is part 2 of the praise that I owe you hahah. Again I will try to keep it as short as I, a rambler, possibly can!

Spoilers for Midsummer Night Dreams and My Mechanical Romance included

Midsummer Night Dreams:

The Wish Bridge: NILE AND LILA MY LOVES!!! They were adorable like I’m actually obsessed with them. How he said “no matter what happens i’ll just keep finding you” and he always did. BUT THE ANGST OF HER ALWAYS HAVING TO LEAVE UGH INCREDIBLE. Then how he wished to take her place because he knew she wanted to get out and live. But when she’s out she tries to find ways to be close to Nile and learns he was always chasing a river to find the bridge he always talks about (and how he always talks about a girl with lilac eyes). How the bridge and her were his favorite place and how his smile makes her stupidly happy. They just make me 🥺🥺🥺. My babies now I’m claiming them. Also the little murderesque love rectangle? between the side characters cracked me up hahah thank you providing humor with the angst you the best.

Avalon: Just know the quote: “Wherever he was, it amounted to undefinable bliss in her presence. She was a magic of sorts, a drug, a fire and a food all her own, and she diminished him wholeheartedly to blissful panic, to heavenly fear, to breathlessness and wonder, all with the spellbinding cruelty of her smile. With her, he felt he could see directly through to his future, and for each glimpse of it that he stole, he imagined it to be a gallery wall, filled to the moldings each time with portraits and landscape of her.” has permanently been in my head since I read it in this story. Him resetting after he finally met her killed me 😭

The Twelve Huntsmen: Soffia is a boss ass bitch I love her so much and this story really showed girl power. I am so incredibly happy she realized she deserved better than Steffan and got to be with Arnor in the end. Also Fridrick and Ragna together felt like a win for me I was hardcore shipping them throghout the story.

How to Dispel Friends and Curse People (Letters From An Aspiring Poet to the Village Witch): This one was my favorite of the collection! I swear every single page of this story is tabbed the quotes were everything. Can you plese write more poetry it was so good. Like this was filled with so many bangers like “you look lovelist when you’re curing me” “And I’ll see you tomorrow so we can do it all again”“if I can make you laugh half as well as you can then i think I’ll probably be happy enough with that” “the magical thing about you is how you are both these things at once” “I would dig up bodies for you if you needed it.” THEN WHEN HE GETS TAKEN SHE COMES TO THE RESCUE AND SAYS YOU CAN’T HAVE HIM THAT’S MY IDIOT (I SCREAMED),and “but I made you happy so we both win.” LIKE TRULY ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? This story was amazing. I still have not stopped thinking about it daily and I read it in May/June. Thank you for this story.

Sucker For Pain: I think this is one of the few love triangles in existence that I don’t have a preferred ship haha I loved Nora and Edmund in one way then loved Nora and Ives in another (plus Ives is a vampire so like he really did not have to try hard). I was very shocked she turned Edmund into a vampire. I was not expecting that but I’m very thankful because now she gets to keep both! P.S thanks for all the vampires in some of your books from a girl who will never be out of her vampire era.

This one was so fun I really enjoyed all the stories!!! I’m looking forward to finally reading The Lover’s Grim soon!!

My Mechanical Romance:

I really want to say thank you for this book, as a woman in STEM (although more the bio/chem side of STEM) this book would have beens so important for little Amanda to read before starting college (I mean it still meant a lot now but I think the impact would have hit even harder then) but I’m very happy it exists for young women today. I definitely have dealt with the same interactions and thoughts as Bel and Neelam and the little girl moments when she comes up at the end to them was very emotional for me (so did the acknowledgements 😭😭😭

However, I also really related to Teo a lot and reading his POV really felt like I was looking through a mirror to when I was younger and in ways my present day self. We both have fears of failure, fears of disappointing others, feel the need to be the responsible role, and fix everyone else’s problems before our own. I like how you said in an interview that he has to redefine his version of failure in this because it’s so true for both him and me. I really learned how to do that and how to focus on myself more in college, although it's always a work in progress. There’s very few characters I relate to in the same ways as Teo, because we share so many insecurities, but it was really interesting and introspective to get to read his POV for that purpose.

Love my teammates with tension TeoBel forever. Love how supportive they were of one another always. I seem to remember an interview I watched where you said Neelam would be good with a fake dating trope sooooo when is that 👀 (I’m kidding kind of).

I’m also hoping to go to the Boston Book Festival while you are there as Alexene to come say hi and talk about the book! So hopefully see you then!

So I wrote out the rest for the last book I’ve finished but it’s really long sooo I’ll stop here and just make a part 3 so this isn’t super super long!

-Amanda ❤️

I’m really happy I got to see you in boston this fall!!! and so excited to hear MMR means that much to you. that YA panel was great—I haven’t had many opportunities to talk specifically about that book and what the characters mean to me (bel’s identity and teo’s fear of failure, specifically) and it makes me really happy you were there for that particular talk

the poems to the village witch are my favorite, too. I always credit that particular anthology to the point where my romantic leads took a shift from broody masculine lead to… well, the poet? and nile, beloved nile. the wish bridge is mr blake’s favorite story of mine, which is the most significant proof I have of him being a cancer

[ismahanescorner]

My Mechanical Romance | Book Review

Author: Alexene Farol Follmuth

Genre: YA Contemporary

Publisher: Macmillan 

Release Date: 23/06/2022

Rating: 3.75/5 🌟🌟🌟💫

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:

TW//: misogyny

I quite enjoyed this novel, but in all honesty it isn’t anything to wax on about! It is your typical run of the mill contemporary YA coming of age story with a romantic side plot!

I like the fact that the story for the most part focuses primarily on engineering and robotics than the romance. I also liked the honest depiction of female friendship dynamics, and that it wasn’t fodder for the “not like the other girls” trope! The “slow-burn” camaraderie between Bel and Neelam was so heartwarming to witness!!

Overall, it’s a very short, sweet, and wholesome story about a girl navigating her way through stem (and love)!

nb: I listened to the audiobook and the narrators did a phenomenal work. definitely recommend checking out the audiobook if that’s your preferred reading choice/if your library has it!

[annelisreadingroom]

Here is the book I got last month from my book subscription package. Have any of you read it?

[nhura]

QUICK NO ONE'S LOOKING

(See readmore for thoughts, cope, bonus, etc.)

Anyone else up thinking about Ratio's big, strong, secure arms and how warm and all-consuming they could be in a hug or embrace. :/ Anyway

I just wanted to draw them being cute and seizing a sliver of a moment where they could have some PDA silly time without actually having any eyes on them. They're public figures and working adults with very clear boundaries between public persona and private life (to varying degrees of "in a sad way"), so while it may be in Aventurine's nature to constantly blur lines for various agendas and self-preservation (read: play "the flirt" without an aligned goal), I believe that in an actual relationship they'd be fairly private.

It's kind of fun to break your own rules, though! Ratio would be more upset about the consequences, though. He's a little bit of a hypocrite, which is devastating for someone of such discipline, but nobody's perfect.

I'm of the mentality of, "If you're tired of working on it, then just post it!", so here are some fun peripherals that I didn't feel like adding:

Some staff in the background sweeping up to evoke a blended sense of fragile privacy and liminal time.

A laptop on the aquarium/bar/counter because there's something fascinating about seeing people on their work laptops in public.

The rest of their clothes (casual friday)