ARC provided by Netgalley. 
Rating: 4.75/5 stars

Let me begin this review by saying: this book was absolutely adorable. The writing, characters, relationships, and banter all had me laughing in the middle of the night, and the romance made me want to scream at the main characters to kiss already. It wasn't perfect, but it was really really good.

My Mechanical Romance followed the stories of Bel and Teo. Bel is just trying to get good grades and graduate (though she has no clue what she wants to do after that), but after revealing her talent for engineering, she's coerced by her teacher into joining the school robotics club, led by Mateo Luna. Teo, on the other hand, has <i>big</i> plans--win the national robotics competition, graduate with stellar grades, and get into a fancy college to become an engineer. 

As the robotics team works on their robots for Nationals, Bel and Teo face many problems--rocky friendships, high expectations, sexism, stress about their futures, family struggles, and, of course, growing feelings for each other.

This book was really good in so many ways, but the best part of the entire story was the characters. Unlike a lot of teenagers represented in books, they weren't perfect. They made mistakes. They got into arguments. They had flaws, but they weren't annoying or irritating. They were just messy and confused and trying to figure life out--which is exactly what people are like, especially as high schoolers. 

Teo and Bel were also really close to my heart in many other ways. The stress that both of them felt (to do all the work, to get good grades, to win the competition, to have their whole future planned out, etc.) was incredibly relatable and felt so <i>real</> to me. I feel like a lot of teens feel that pressure, from their parents or their schools or even just society, and Alexene Follmuth captured those emotions so well.

I appreciated the relationships in this book. Not only was their an ADORABLE romance that made me want to giggle and kick my feet in the air, but there were other well-depicted dynamics as well. The friendships were so freaking cute, and I loved all the scenes that showed them--especially when the entire robotics team was hanging out together. The family relationships were also really well written, because there was a great variety in the way the characters acted with different parents, or different siblings, which felt very realistic to me. I especially liked the bond between Bel and Neelam (the other girl on the robotics team) because it was complicated and confusing, and it changed over the course of the story. A+ for character development.

The other really wonderful thing about this book was that it addressed several really important issues. Not just the pressure that teenagers experience, but also the sexism and racism in STEM. It was very cool to read about that, particularly through Bel's perspective as she struggled with the rest of the robotics team ignoring her ideas and opinions, and even Teo's, as he realized some of the mistakes he was making and grew from them. (Again, the character development in this book was fantastic.)

The only major flaws I have with this book are that (1) the ending felt a tiny bit rushed, especially the last chapter/epilogue, and (2) the characters complaints were a little bit tiresome, specifically in the first few chapters. But neither of these greatly impacted how I felt about the book, and I honestly really liked it. I definitely recommend My Mechanical Romance if you're a fan of cute contemporary romances, and especially if you like robots. <3