My Mechanical Romance: An Opposites-attract YA Romance from the Bestselling Author of The Atlas Six

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I love Bel’s quirkiness and snark and she can roll out some comical (and often self-depricating) humor that doesn’t feel forced and the pop culture references feel earned and honest (I kind of loved the teacher holding up a sign with a Beyonce reference as it feels sort of dated in a way that shows the age gap between the characters). Enter Mateo Luna, captain of the club, who recognizes Bel as a potential asset—until they start butting heads. a majority of the quotes were such long paragraphs that went on and on which got annoying and boring bc it seemed to get lost in the writing. You might think “oh Naleem is a bitch” but when you read her story and see how Mateo and the other guys treat her, you see why she had to grow a thicker skin. When Grace saves his life in a kayaking accident - if it was an accident - and Evan's troubled son arrives to stay, all three are drawn together in a way that forces a reckoning with their personal traumas and draws them back into society.

One of the tourists is Evan, taking an enforced holiday from his family and work in Belfast after breaking down after the death of his daughter in infancy. Bel's and Teo's relationship progression was literally the most fourteen year old teen romance progression i have ever seen. Bel's indecisiveness about herself, her abilities, right down to her glistening fashion was such a fun thing to read.But this book also really addresses how our perceptions of others are often biased based on initial reactions to them and as we learn more about these characters our own perception of them changes.

The characters and their friends just had such great connections with each other, and it was interesting diving deeper into the side character's lives. There’s a bit near the end where circumstances force Teo to let go of his ruthless control of everything and accept that his team can support him as well as be supported by him but that’s … like … one incident? I mean let’s be honest I feel like a lot of women would react similarly after so many years of fighting and not being respected. She hasn't left the village since a traumatic stay in London as a young woman at the end of the 1980s. And to be quite honest, I liked Neelam better than Teo and Bel combined, even when she was incredibly rude to everyone.

It’s actually a pretty accurate depiction of how hostile nerd guys are towards women in “male dominated fields,” it’s just this throughline is thrown to the wayside and glossed over in the third-act.