High school is a turbulent time. Teens are expected to have everything on lock: where they're going to go to college, what they want to to do with their lives, and second and third fallback plans. It can feel like your entire future hinges on those last few months of your pre-college academic career. And when you aren't entirely sure what you want to do with your life, things can get terrifying.

Fortunately, dreams and love can bloom even on the robot battlefield.

My Mechanical Romance came out just under a year ago, telling the tale of Bel and Teo. Bel's not sure what she wants to do with her life beyond generally surviving it; Teo has expectations to live up to. In the era of the hot nerd, Teo is just that: athletic, charming, and the big man on the robotics team. The last thing Bel—quirky, creative, and somewhat adrift—is thinking about is a relationship, especially with him. But the two find themselves thrown together when Bel betrays a knack for engineering.

When a well-meaning teacher transfers Bel to a new science class and volunteers her into robotics club, things start to change for her. It's a rocky start at first, as she has the raw talent to make a difference without the vocabulary to make herself heard. Teo eventually recognizes her talent and helps her move forward. But their blossoming romance, set against the background of their own respective family issues, is about to turn as rocky as one of their robot fights.

My Mechanical Romance has a lot of things going for it—chief among them being the fact that neither Bel nor Teo is "the bad one." It's a pleasant surprise to see both halves of a romance, especially a YA romance, be equally valid and equally flawed. They both have things to teach each other, and they both have things to learn, stemming from understandable influences in their lives.

Also nice to see is a relatively legitimate view of being a high school girl into science. It was refreshing to see that, while the presence of a bias wasn't ignored, it wasn't all-encompassing. Irrespective of gender, there are people out there who are welcoming of anyone anywhere, including women in STEM. Some of the antis, granted, were almost comically over-the-top. While making for a good target to laugh at, they weren't quite as representative of the more casual, matter-of-fact pushback I recall from my own time as a high-schooler in male-dominated fields. (In fairness, it's been 20 years since I was in high school. Perhaps people are a bit more on main with their feelings these days.)

While Bel and Teo's turbulent adolescent romance was fantastic, the most compelling relationship in the book was actually between Bel and Neelam: another girl in robotics club who finds herself regularly steamrolled (metaphorically) by her teammates. Sadly, this is a conflict that has gone on for decades, and will likely never blow itself out. But it's well-depicted and solidly explored. Women in STEM aren't a monolith, and feelings get complicated. Watching their conflict develop in the background, eventually with resolution, was such an important inclusion.

The only small quibble I have with the book (very small, at that) is that the author seems almost apologetic about writing a heterosexual romance. Perhaps the times have changed that much since I was a teen, but seeing Bel and her friends' dialogue peppered with lampshaded nods to how stereotypical the boy-meets-girl story was took me out of some frankly adorable moments. It didn't feel like the characters catching themselves so much as the author catching herself. It's a shame; given how healthily Bel and Teo's relationship is approached, there's nothing to apologize for here and everything to be proud of. Perhaps if the nods were kept to one character, they wouldn't have felt as odd.

Of course, as an adult reader of a YA romance, I will fixate on one major thing: how the ending is handled. To quote Mystery Science Theater 3000, "College is gonna change everything," and that's always in my mind whenever I see teens falling in love in fiction. Credit where credit is due, this is actually the bulk of the third act of My Mechanical Romance. As reliable Teo attempts to prove that his relationship with Bel won't derail him on his path to greatness, Bel catches herself operating according to dreams and goals that aren't hers. The epilogue is so satisfying, and upholds all the positive lessons this book brings to bear.

My Mechanical Romance is enchanting and empowering for That Certain High-School Girl. The one who quotes Shakespeare and is trying to find her style, the one who enjoys getting her hands dirty but can't seem to focus, the one who wants love but figures she's not the kind who will receive it. Equal parts wish fulfillment and healthy lessons about what to expect (and what to ask for) in life and love, it's a must-read for the teen in your life.