The Make-up Test automatically appealed to me due to two of my favorite tropes, second chance and rivals to lovers, plus the main mc is a plus-size individual. Allison Avery and Colin Benjamin met each other as undergraduates and they ended up breaking up for a mysterious reason to the reader. This reason comes to light when the two end up meeting again in graduate school. The two of them are vying for the same spot under the mentorship of a Medieval literature professor.

Allison has gone through a lot to get to this point in her career. Not only is pursuing higher academic degrees difficult, but she also has a rough family life with an emotionally abusive father. He constantly criticized her career path and her weight. As a plus-size person, too, I loved how Allison was comfortable in her own skin where it is a part of her, but it does not define her. On the other hand, Colin was an interesting character as I believe the intent was, that he was “bad” before and now changed, but I did not quite see it. Other readers may have a different opinion, but I just did not quite see the core part of him changed.

As for their competition, there is a lot of telling and not showing. Colin is assumed to be a slacker in his studies and he does not work hard yet wants to get ahead. He does, however, excel in the classroom where the students love him. This is directly contrasted to Alison who works incredibly hard behind the scenes but cannot seem to gain the respect of the students. There are moments where it seems that readers are supposed to sympathize with Colin throughout this process, but I just could not understand it even a little. In fact, the more I read about Colin, the more I disliked him, and then I ended up not liking Alison for even pining for him.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed the author’s writing style as it was easy to follow while also remaining interesting. There are some nice descriptions where it was easy to follow along and there was a nice mix of simplicity the complex. Stacey Glemboski did a great job narrating the story and I liked experiencing a new-to-me narrator. She portrayed Allison and the events of the story well and I look forward to listening to more of her books in the future. I enjoyed Allison’s internal growth, but I am not fully on board with her relationships with others, her father, her best friend, and Colin as I do not connect to how all of these played out. Colin as an individual never redeemed himself for me and just was not for me. While I did not enjoy this solely as a romance, I did enjoy experiencing this new author and would gladly read more from her in the future.

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and OrangeSky Audio for the opportunity to read this enjoyable novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

I really wanted to love this, but the romance itself fell flat for me. THE MAKE-UP TEST is a academic rivals-to-lovers, second chance contemporary romance between two grad students competing for the same PhD mentorship. The book includes great fat rep, complicated family dynamics, found academic family, cute pets, nerdy banter, sexy scrabble, and plenty of fun medieval literature puns.

I liked a lot about this book and I really look forward to reading Jenny L. Howl’s future books - especially as they continue to have fat main characters. That said, I HATED the hero in this book. Colin wasn’t redeemable for me and I don’t think he deserved Allison’s forgiveness at any point. This was supposed to be a book that explored sexism in academia, so it didn’t make sense (to me) to have the love interest be a white man who steals ideas, diminishes accomplishments, and is competitive to the point of toxicity.

I liked a lot of aspects of Allison’s personal journey, but the disappointing romance unfortunately made this story fall flat for me.


Content warnings: fatphobia, emotional abuse, death of a parent, cancer, dementia, alcohol, vomit, intellectual theft, disappointing male romantic lead

Thank you to @netgalley and @Stmartinspress for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @macmilliam.audio for a free download of the audiobook.

While this book was billed as a second chance romance, I feel it would be better labeled as Enemies to Lovers…the lovers just happen to be together in the past. There is a lot of animosity from Allison on the way the relationship with Colin ended during their undergrad years. Surprise! They are now in the same PHD program vying for the same TA position. They are both working through family issues and learn that they still have a lot to learn about each other.

The relationship between Allison and Colin seemed immature at times, and there is a lot of missed or non-communication going on that I’m not a fan of. The timing of this book also threw me off. The pandemic is mentioned a few times, but it references it being 4-6 years ago. Not sure if that was intentional or an oversight.

The narrator of the audiobook was great!

3.5 stars rounding to 4 for Goodreads

This book was so cute! I absolutely fell in love with this academic setting that Jenny has created for her characters. Who doesn't love a good grad school romance? This novel had a great mix of coming of age romance but also second chance romance between the characters. It is so different from anything I've read which I think makes me love it that much more! It's got the characters going from lovers to enemies to rivals to lovers again I could hardly keep my head straight which I absolutely loved. Definitely a contemporary romance novel that was sweet and silly. An easy read with cute banter!

This one is hard for me to rate. For most of the book I didn't love it, but also didn't hate it. The characters weren't particularly likable, but I could tell that they were making an effort to be better. Also, there were a lot of references to medieval literature which does not interest me, so I thought maybe this book would be enjoyed more by someone who is interested in that.

However, everything went downhill for me when we got to the dreaded third act break up. I am not a fan of these in romance, but can usually excuse that authors feel some form of conflict is needed. In this case, all the conflict did for me was prove that these two characters hadn't actually changed much and they probably would not make it in real life.

The narration itself was very well done and I would absolutely listen to more things by this narrator in the future.

Considering how promising and excited I was for this book, it was a huge let down. The premise, the body rep, the second chance romance, academia setting. It was a book I was most looking forward to. So while all together it isn't much, I feel personally attacked by how bad it is.
The FMC was childish and had a strong "not like other girls" vibe. Outside of her strong self-confidence she had no other attributes of being an adult, let alone in an advanced academic program.
The MMC was toxic and not in a good way (the way one might like their fictional men to be). He was obnoxious and undeserving of a second of my time. The way it reminded me VISCERALLY of the men in my own history grad program was not the fun time I had expected when I sat down to read a romance. And also especially considering the medieval history world is one really messed up, toxic place, this was not the reality escape Howe thought it would be.
That's not even mentioning how much this dragged needlessly. And I LIKE the boring history aspects. But this was just not a good time.

I listened to this book that’s only 11 hours an a half… but those may have been some of the longest hours of my life. I was so ready to be done with it and I was sure I was at least at 75% and when I checked I hadn’t even made it to the half point mark!?

Here’s why I was so bored and I thought of DNFing many times (but didn’t because NetGalley):
•Within the first chapter the author already used the word “normal” to refer to a straight sized person versus a plus size person which was cringy
•The FMC is so immature I’m not sure what she’s doing in an PhD program!
•The MMC is the most obnoxious cishet white dude you’ll ever reas about. He was even compared multiple times to the obnoxious know it all so I don’t know how that wasn’t a red flag. He was also a shitty person in the past and continued to be a shitty person in the present no matter what the author tried to tell me otherwise.
•Without spoiling there were some redemptions that were unnecessary and I hated and made this annoying.
•Honestly had this been in a high school setting it would have been less annoying and more believable… also you wouldn’t have missed the spice because there’s barely anything here.
•Oh and one more thing: the FMC uses the word shrink (and narrator made it sound just as bad) when someone said they go to therapy, so big ew.

I did enjoy how much the FMC loved herself and her body, although I’m not sure why being fat was a bonding thing with her best friend (that also I have no proof is actually a good friend or viceversa).

Also there’s dog so yay, and I did cry so I obviously felt something else besides dread.

I wanted to love this book going on but sadly it was a huge miss for me…

3.5 ★
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this book was enjoyable enough following two academic rivals in an enemies-to-lovers romance. The premise was one thing that I enjoyed most. i loved the academia setting and found it so incredibly comforting and cozy. i was never really able to fully connect to the characters, unfortunately. Still, I loved how much heavier topics were incorporated into the story such as fat shaming and emotional abuse.
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overall this book was an enjoyable romance to read
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thank you, NetGalley, and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Lovers to Enemies to Rivals to Lovers, Academic Romance, English Nerds, Dogs, Body Positivity.

This was a fun, nerdy romp that took me by surprise. Allison is a strong-minded Ph.D. Student in Medieval Lit, trying to sort out her life as she faces change in all aspects of her life including the unwanted appearance of her Ex, Colin into her program. This book checks all the boxes for a great rom-com, fantastic tropes, witty fun writing, a sassy and smart heroine and the not-so-perfect knight.

There are two aspects of this great debut novel that I loved the most, first was that she, as a larger woman was comfortable and confident with her body. Yes, the romance was all romancey and fantastic but what I really loved was that Allison’s journey was not about her body but rather about her mind and heart. So often the story about main characters with larger bodies is focused on their road to loving and accepting their body, this was not the case, which was amazing! The second was how she dealt with her father and their relationship. I won't go into much detail here for fear of spoilers but she did all the right things and I just loved that she held strong to what she needed to be happy and healthy.

This was a great debut academic, lovers to enemies to rivals to lovers, rom-com depiction of a strong, smart, plus-sized heroine and a knobbly Knight who must prove himself worthy. I highly recommend this read/listen.

Shout out to the narrator, Stacey Glemboski, you did a wonderful job.

Special thank you to #NetGalley, #JennyLHowe and #OrangeSkyAudio for sharing this digital copy, these are my honest thoughts on #TheMakeUpTest. Also, a thank you to narrator #StaceyGlemboski.

For the first 80% or so, this was mostly a cute but standard rivals to lovers / second chance romance story. I absolutely loved the grad school setting and how Allison was navigating her insecurities within and outside of school.

What really stood out to me was how much I disliked Colin, yet still liked Allison and Colin together. That doesn't happen to me often- usually when I dislike one character in a romance, I dislike the whole book, so it really felt like a testament to Howe's writing that I was still enjoying the book despite my dislike of Colin.

And then that lecture happened.

Without spoiling anything, I really hated how that entire situation was handled. It felt really immature and unhealthy on the part of both of the characters, and I went from liking Allison and Colin together to rooting against them. It was frustrating how much more quickly things could have been resolved with basic communication- was Colin really that oblivious?

Somewhere between a 3 and a 4, but I'm rounding down just because the ending was so unsatisfying.

Despite the ending, I was very engaged in the writing, so I'd be interested in reading another book by Howe.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orange Sky Audio for an ARC of this audiobook. This is an academic rivals second chance romance. Allison and Colin were in a relationship in their undergrad years, but broke up when Colin dumped her. Two years later, they are in the same Grad program, completing for a spot to work with a professor. There's some academic jargon that better describes this, but I can't remember. This is more of a women's fiction story than romance.

*SPOILER (mild)
CWs abound and I can't say what you may need a heads up on, but there's a some fat shaming, misogyny, family illnesses and death. Not an exhaustive list.

*MORE MILD SPOILERS
The story was kinda weak and I felt like there were some holes. The university in the book supposedly has a very prestigious program in medieval literature, and Allison is super proud of getting into this tough program. Colin struggles with getting into any graduate program, but they both got in? Also, they seem to have started at the same time, but Colin has taken two years off and Allison hadn't. I think I probably missed something, but I didn't want to reread.

END SPOILER*

This was not a book for me. I am disappointed it didn't work for me because I love a second chance (fictional only! 😂) and this one has a lot of potential. I like the care the author put into describing their prior relationship and talking about the characters growth during their time apart to help support how this second chance might work out.

Unfortunately, I didn't like the FMC, Allison. ugh, I hate when that happens, because I don't like putting down even fictional women, but I didn't vibe with how she handles any of her relationships. She's angry and judgy and so, so selfish. I typically like an imperfect character, but there wasn't much growth to put Allison's behavior in context.

Short list of Allison's BS:

Angry @Colin for winning a prestigious academic award Allison felt entitled to win. Technically, she's mad he didn't tell her he entered, but she's also mad he won. There are so many references to the award being "stolen" from her and I just can't fathom it.

Angry at BFF for "distance" but makes no effort to bridge said distance. Sofie (BFF) tries to include her in plans, and adjusts to what Allison wants. Rudely drinks her sangria, but is also there for her at all times. Allison also excludes her from trying to meet her friends and lies (by omission) about her relationship with Colin.

Angry at Colin 2.0 for wanted the academic fellowship thingy they are both working toward. Actually tried to shame him for going after it bc she wants it more. Also gets upset when he leaves to help his grandfather and doesn't text her back.

Angry at Evil Dad - irredeemable bad guy dad. Ugh, I hate this device. So lazy. She hates him and blames him for all her life choices - even the good ones!

Things I liked where the supporting characters Sofie (the BFF) was cool and funny and honestly lovely. Wendy, Allison and Colin's professor, Mandy the new BFF was also sweet and the sweary cross stitches were funny. The dogs! How can you dislike a dog, amirite?

The book has so much potential and I truly wish there was more critique or discussion of academic peers being pitted against each other. It took until 90% and then it was one line from a character who wasn't in the story. The audio performance was good. Some of the reading was a bit melodramatic but otherwise the pacing was good and voice was consistent.

#NetGalley #TheMakeUpTest

A charming sweet second-chance romance with a lot of heart. I really enjoyed how this book moved through the world of academia and love in such a nuanced, simple, and kind way

I think a lot of people will enjoy The Make-up Test by Jenny L. Howe, but for me, it was just meh. The Make-up Test is a second-chance romance set in academia. Allison Avery is living her dream. She's in a Ph.D. program at Claymore University, studying medieval literature. She is shocked when her ex-boyfriend, Colin Benjamin, is also in her Ph.D. program and is also co-TAing with her the professor that Allison has admired for many years. Allison and Colin have always had a competitive relationship. Can they coexist?

It was hard for me to like this book, because I really did not like Colin. Allison also comes across as a very confident woman that knows what she wants, but then she does these stupid things that completely contradict that. I found their relationship way too toxic to believe they should be together now or in the past.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced digital reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

I got through about 80% before I just had to put it away. The first half was so good, I was feeling all the emotions, especially anger towards Colin. But after they got together, things just felt off. I can’t really reconcile their active rivalry with their rekindled relationship, especially when they both have everything to gain and everything to lose. I hope I can come back to it and finish but it won’t be soon and it was honestly stressing me out. Even Allison’s relationship with Sophie was nerve wracking to read about.

I did however really like the narrator. Her voice let me actually feel something positive about Colin in the last quarter of the book.

I am between the stars this time. Anyway I enjoyed the book, it made me smile a lot. I was never skiny so this is something in common I had with the main character. I can not immagine an enemy to lovers, second chance in real life. But this was really somwthing to enjoy and listen not to be bored. Maybe the male character made me scream sometimes of pleasure or angry but that is ok. Life is never just fair. So I am really thankful to the publishers OrangeSky Audio and Netgalley.com for this alc.

Thank you to Net Galley for the audiobook!
*Spoliers*
While I was super excited initially for a plus-size romance book I was not the biggest fan of this. One of the things I really do not like about academic or work romance is when the woman is constantly undervalued and taken advantage of in that situation. I personally thought that Allison was ignored and underappreciated the whole time with very little discussion of the sexism that she was facing. I think this book could have done a great job of pointing out the issues that women in academia face and also connecting how plus-size women face separate struggles as well due to their weight. However, there was no connection or broader understanding brought into the book to even point this out.
The relationship was also not great as I did not want them to end up together. Colin even though technically he didn't steal her idea completely he was still using her for her ideas and stole her title for a very important project. The idea that he stole her title and idea to make her work harder and create new ideas is ridiculous. As well as the idea that she apologized to him at the end for not trusting him when he did in fact steal the general idea of her project and title. This really wasn't the book I thought it was going to be and I don't think the message that it ends up saying is the best either.

2.5 stars. The characters in The Make-Up Test veered too far into toxic territory for me to feel satisfied with the resolution, but lots of readers will enjoy this more than I did. Recommended for readers whose interest is piqued by the academic setting with a quality discussion about the field (medieval lit) or by a romance about a confident, fat woman who is represented as such on the book cover.

I look forward to reading future titles by Jenny L. Howe.

Pros:
-Grad level medieval lit discussions were really interesting and made me want to read some of the titles being analyzed
-Really good fat representation! Allison loves her body and confronts the people who try to fat-shame her. Her best friend is an aspiring fashion designer who creates plus size clothes. I was pleasantly surprised since the book description made a comparison to One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London, one of the most upsetting romances with fat rep that I've ever had the displeasure to read.
-realistic depiction of friends who have started to drift apart
-Colin's medievalist grandfather. Can we get a prequel for Charlie?
-Monty the dog
-Allison and her mother's coming to an understanding about the father, Jed
-narration by Stacey Glemboski who handled some difficult language really well

Cons
-The relationship between Allison and Colin is so toxic mid-book that their reconciliation felt like a mistake.
-Allison lies many times about her teaching skills purely to make Colin feel inadequate and then to avoid confessing to her lies
-Colin turns everyone else's accomplishments into occasions to whine about his own feelings of inadequacy
-The story leans on ridiculous miscommunications to prolong the will-they-won't-they drama.

Thank you to Netgalley and OrangeSky Audio for providing a review copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The Make-Up Test by Jenny L. Howe is an academic sweet second-chance romance with some fatshaming and fatphobic awareness (which was handled wonderfully). I really related to the main character and her development through the book was great. The romance-to rivalry-to romance banter and chemistry was believable, slow burn and after getting to know the characters you find yourself really rooting for them.

Thank you to Orange Sky Audio and NetGalley for this ALC!

I enjoyed this 2nd chance romance a lot. It was fun to see the main character struggling with teaching and growing and improving throughout the book. I enjoyed the tension and was begging for the characters to get together. It was fun trying to see how they were going to comeback to each other.

A sweet second chance romance set in the world of academia? Yes please.

Allison and Colin dated in college until he suddenly ended their relationship. However, when they end up in the same Ph.D program AND end up as TAs for the same professor they become rivals. That rivalry is taken one step further when the professor shares she can only take on one of them as an advisee. However, as they work together, they remember more and more why they dated in the first place.

I appreciated the author’s note prior to reading this about her intentions for including heavy topics to include fat shaming and fatphobia, and I thought those topics were handled beautifully. While reading Allison’s experiences, especially with her father, were challenging to read at times, reading the author’s note made those scenes feel so important and impactful. Allson was such a strong main character who managed to overcome so much trauma. Her growth throughout the book was incredible and I loved how she really found herself and came into her own here. I thought the romance was believable - it took a while for Allison and Colin to shift from rivalry to really trusting each other enough to try their relationship again. I appreciated the slower burn here because it felt needed. Overall, this was a great debut and I look forward to reading more from Jenny Howe.

Thank you to SMP Romance and OrangeSky Audio for the advance copies.