I'm giving this an extra half-star because I'm a sucker for romances depicted in academic settings. (And it's great to see a fat-positive romance in which the main character's weight doesn't lean into martyrdom or encompass the character's whole personality.) I'll also give Jenny L. Howe credit for how thoroughly she understands her subject matter--even if I hadn't read the author's note or acknowledgments, it's clear that she has studied medieval literature. Her references to grad-school life and relationships between one's cohort and one's professors also feel very authentic.

I'm not normally a fan of second-chance romances, but Allison and Colin won me over--they're very sweet! Even if Colin's change of character wasn't totally realistic, I appreciated that he wasn't a trope and that he evolved over time. His support through Allison's struggles with her dad, with her mom, with school, is great, but I am grateful that Howe spends a good chunk of the book on Allison's own reckoning with her dad's abuse and her professional desires.

Things I really loved about this book:

Set in Rhode Island, yay! The main character is fat, yay! It's an academic setting which I always find interesting and intriguing, as that is not my area of expertise, and it's FASCINATING to learn about academia. There are dogs, and cats, and CLEARLY this author is an animal lover. Yay! The animals are named after cheese, ha!

Things I did not like about this book:

The main character loves miniature corn, you know, like you get at a Thai restaurant. Shiver. That small corn freaks me out and I have to remove it from my plate or bowl immediately and give it to my miniature corn loving husband. The animals are named after cheese, hurts my stomach to think about cheese.

This is a great debut novel and I will definitely read more from this author. Solid 3 1/2 stars.

2.5/5

Allison was a great main character, but I found this book to be very boring! I wasn't invested in the romantic plot or even her grad school journey.

I also don't like second chance romance and I thought the reason they broke up the first time (two years prior to the novel) AND the third act conflict to be incredibly dumb.

I was skimming by the end. I will read this author's next book because her writing was solid. But, I think this would've been better as a general fiction book with the focus on Allison and her journey.

I also found Colin to be an annoying love interest and his relationship with Allison and her intellect left me feeling unsettled. I am 100% sure these two do not last post graduate school.

TW: death of a parent, strained relationship with parent, fatphobia (from parent)

This was a very cute Romcom. Our two main characters give all the amazing slow burn tension. Loved this was a challenge between the two. Exes - lovers, second chance romance, that's my vibe I enjoyed this one!

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC

Allison Avery is excited about her masters program. Until she learns her exboyfriend and nemesis Colin Benjamin is the same program. No matter, she's not going to let him ruin her dreams this time, even if he does seem to have changed in the two years since he dumped her after swooping in and stealing the Rising Star Award out from under her. When their TA assignments are with the same professor and it turns out there's only room for one advisee, they're back on familiar ground. Can Allison really trust that Colin's changed, or is he using old tactics to best her again?

The story was interesting. I did not care for the COVID references, I'd prefer them not to be in my fun reading. I was also hoping for more surprises among the famiiar enemies/second chance love tropes. A good debut story.

Thanks to St. Martin's Griffin for an advanced copy of The Make-Up Test. The synopsis of this book has so many things going for it - academia, second chance enemies to lovers and forced proximity but unfortunately the main character Allison is insufferable and immature. I liked the glimpses into grad school life, especially her thoughts around TAing but not feeling confident as a teacher but that wasn't enough to make me like this book. The romance was boring, I didn't like Colin at alllll. Also, didn't need the weird covid scenes, not necessary.

Unless you really like academic settings and an adult book that is written like YA I'd skip this one.

I loved this! It's such a gift to really see yourself in a character and I felt like Jenny Howe had me dead to rights with Allison - her fat, literature-loving, only childness made me feel so seen. Also, I loved that the issues around Allison's body are depicted as problems that are internalized by the people in her life, rather than some cosmic failing on her part - it was nice to see her just living as a fat character without making her experience in her body the only interesting thing about her. I loved the romance in this - equal parts second chance and enemies to lovers, the protagonists had great, extremely fun chemistry rooted in their shared history. The book doesn't shy away from tackling some deep topics and the messiness of just figuring it out in your life, but the story never feels bogged down or stuck by the heaviness of this. I devoured the whole thing in one go + can't wait to share this little world with my people when it comes out!

Made it 35% and had to DNF. I hate not finishing books and I hate even more giving books bad reviews, but I just couldn’t get into this one. I wasn’t invested in the main characters or their romance. And Colin just isn’t likable or interesting and quite frankly he’s too much of a jerk for me to change my perspective to like him enough to want him to be with Allison. I liked the academic setting since I love literature myself but it wasn’t enough to get into this.

The Make-Up Test was a fun read. I enjoyed the writing style and the author's clear passion for medieval literature, and I will definitely be checking out her future work.

However, Colin's actions frustrated me throughout, and I really thought Allison deserved better! I didn't really believe that the two were compatible and would actually work as a real couple. Both 'break-ups' that were referenced in the text (past and third act) could have been so easily avoided if he'd just spoken to her instead of blindsiding her!

Academic Romance That Is Refreshingly Light On Academic Theory. Wait. A book set in Academia that *isn't* hyper preachy about white people and/ or straight men being the epitome of all things evil and a scourge on humanity? That alone makes this work from debut author Howe quite refreshing. Now toss in a fat chick who is comfortable in her own body and who learns to stand up for herself even to those closest to her, and you're getting *really* "out there" in terms of things that simply aren't usually done in novels of any form, particularly romance novels released by Mega publishers. Now we're even going to toss in *actual* academic work discussing the variations and themes of medieval literature? Wow, we're really going on a refreshing romance journey that stimulates the brain as well as the heart! There are a few quibbles here or there with this book, but overall, ignore the people that are hating on it - this is actually quite a departure from the norm for this genre in so many ways, and thus deserves to be explored because of its originality while still being perfectly within overall genre norms. Very much recommended.

Where do I even begin? When I requested an arc for this book, I was hoping to get into some grad school and steamy exes turned rivals to lovers hijinks. Instead, for a good portion of this novel, all I felt was confusion and rage.

The general summary for The Make-Up Test is that Allison and Colin are exes from undergrad that "somehow" find themselves enrolled in the exact same graduate program, competing for one advisee space from the professor they both assist. But the ultimate lesson from it is: subpar men will always find a way to bring successful women down.

Colin and Allison dated for a while in undergrad, and their big thing was competing with each other. So when they end up in the same program, the same discipline, under the same professor, they find out that they’re going to be competing for one slot to be advised directly under their professor. This is a big deal, because their professor is the only one in the school studying medieval literature, apparently. Allison immediately declares Colin her enemy, but there’s a lot of back and forth of rivals to friends to rivals to truce to maybe friends again? To rivals definitely. Yo-yoing over and over any time Colin does something remotely nice for Allison. Colin is the definition of a low standard man.

He’s also completely detestable and deplorable. He skates by as super successful and charming, but lacks the educational foundation that Allison has worked to have for her entire collegiate career. Colin is constantly stealing his ideas from Allison, and Allison is forced to work even harder to undo the damage this causes in her life every time. He swoops in at the last minute and steals a scholarship that would've helped Allison after promising he wasn't entering. He takes two years off school and then enters into the exact same grad program with the exact same discipline that Allison was applying to. He steals a presentation topic without any communication with her. He broke up with Allison to help her "be successful," and when she eventually gains that success, he worms his way back in to feed off of her even more. Allison is clearly better off without him, and the only character that has any sense is her best friend Sophie, who rightfully reminds her that the last time she got involved with Colin, he left her a mess and disrupted her entire life.

Aside from the gross love interest, the plotting feels off. Spoilers below. . . .

The only reason Collin swooped in to steal Allison's scholarship/award is because he didn't get into grad school with his original discipline. He claims this is because he's a "basic straight white middle class guy" and offers nothing unique on his application, perpetuating some idea that cishet white men have it “hard” in academia apparently.. He didn't even get accepted to the grad program at his undergrad -- the very undergrad he just effortlessly and last minute won this prestigious award from? It makes no sense to me that a college would award you a $10k Rising Star award and not accept you to its grad program at the very least. There is also no way a college is rejecting someone for being "a basic white boy." So Colin doesn't get into grad school, spends a little time reading a few medieval texts and decides "Allison and my grandpa like this stuff, so maybe I'll just make a career out of it." AFTER NO PRIOR INTEREST WHATSOEVER FOR 4 YEARS OF UNDERGRAD. Then he decides to steal Allison's future plans and tags right in, once again causing a giant mess for her. What's worse is that he uses his "my grandpa has dementia and is old" trauma to justify piggybacking off of Allison's success. As if Allison herself doesn't have a mother struggling with poverty (who she was going to help with that $10k scholarship Colin stole), a fatphobic, awful father (who happens to be dying), and the possibility of losing her best friend looming over her head. At the end, Colin finally admits that all this stealing was for nothing. NOTHING.

What bothers me the most is that Allison is told at one point that she should just let Colin have her best ideas and move on, create something else. That this plagiarism of an idea she’d spent building on for a large portion of her academic career was okay because it would force her to come up with something better? Some kind of adversity makes you stronger BS that just reinforces that subpar men will succeed with little effort off the backs of smarter women. Not to mention, we later are told that it’s Allison’s fault Colin doesn’t feel just as smart as she is because she’s been competing with him so hard. It’s Allison’s “FAULT” Colin has been stealing her ideas because he’s intimidated by her.

Let's talk about writing: this book is set about 7 years after 2020, in a "post pandemic" world. They pepper that fact in around here and there, and it's incredibly annoying to see a world where the pandemic was just an inconsequential blip. It could have been left out entirely and completely ages the piece. The characters are clearly Gen Z, but they're written like millennial caricatures of Gen Z, throwing around buzzword phrases like "toxic masculinity" and "white privilege," saying things like "your cis het straight male privilege is stinking up the place" and blaming Colin's grad school rejections on being a "basic white boy". There are references to Hamilton and Friends. What Gen Z five years from now is repping Schuyler Sisters merch or calling their partner their "lobster"?

I wanted to really love and enjoy this book. I'm a lover of plus size representation in novels, and I actively seek those books out because they represent my body and lived experience. But not all of them can be winners, unfortunately.

I feel like the author's intentions for this book are so wonderful and the writing is decent, but I just couldn't connect with anything. I found myself getting annoyed by a lot. Colin was not a good romantic lead (or even a good guy, tbh). He was a devil's advocate reddit. I will say I liked how Allison's relationship with her body was written in this book. Overall this story felt like it was meant to be YA but was reworked into a college setting because the characters felt so immature. I struggled to even finish this book. I found it so tedious,

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really had high hopes for The Make-Up Test by Jenny Howe, but ultimately the book just sort of fell flat for me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really get behind either of the characters and felt like both of the characters had a lot of hang-ups and just ultimately a lot of their issues could have been solved if they just communicated with themselves and had some therapy. On a more positive note, the book is really well written, and as a plus size woman I LOVE the representation of a bigger girl in a romance novel, and absolutely appreciated the Author’s Note at the beginning.

I didn't dislike this book enough to DNF, but I also didn't really love it either.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book provided to me through NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Jenny Howe and St. Martin’s Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book!

This book was adorable! I thoroughly enjoyed it from the literary references, sassy crossstitch, cute pets & so much more.

This was a no for me. I didn’t like any of the characters and Allison drove me nuts the entire book.

I thought the medieval literature aspect was interesting but it was referenced a lot and if the reader didn’t have any background it in it was easy to get lost. Personally I’m not a fan of medieval literature so that didn’t help.

The romance between Allison and Colin just didn’t make any sense and the reason for their breakup just left me more annoyed at all the characters

I almost DNF this one but I pushed through and sad to say it wasn’t worth it for me which is disappointing. I usually love books about books or writing but this just missed the mark for me.

The MCs were both cute and endearing, but also both kind of annoying. When I’m reading contemporary romance, I end up thinking, “Could I be friends with this character?” And I’m not sure I could be with Allison and Colin. This book does, however, make me so glad that I never pursued a career in academia.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

I was really torn on this book - as someone who did a PhD, I love the premise, but it also felt way too real and problematic - a guy stealing a woman's ideas and taking credit for them? Backstabbing to get ahead in the academic job market? Yep.
I wanted to fall for Collin by the end, but he was just problematic throughout.
I did like Allison, especially as a plus-size heroine - until she lets Collin 'win', of a sort.
If I wasn't in academia myself, I may have been able to overlook this more.

Unfortunately just couldn't get into this book. I think I came back to this book maybe 3 times after putting it down for another book... I don't know what it is, but it just didn't draw me in. It sounds like a good concept though, and I usually like academic tropes, but I just felt like it was a little bit blah. I'm hoping to come back and give it another shot in the future because other people have spoken so highly about it.

This book was cute, but wasn’t overwhelming. It was not one of those, I can’t wait to read at the end of the day or during nap time kind of books, but at the same time, I did enjoy it. The characters were cute, the storyline was enjoyable and the interactions between the characters were fun. It was an enjoyable read, just not one that I can rave about. Overall a great message about loving yourself, and giving people the chance to grow and change.

Allison is in her dream Ph. D. program after years of hard work. She is on cloud-9 until she discovers that her ex-boyfriend, Colin, was accepted to the same program. When they find themselves working (and competing) for the attention of the same professor, Allison refuses to let Colin win. After a family emergency, she begins to wonder if they would be better off working together - and maybe getting back together.

Thank you Netgalley for my advanced reader copies.

3.5 stars

Profane cross-stitches, dogs, good friends/food & books = so many of my favorite things in one book!

I really enjoyed the FMC, Allison, that she stood up for herself, and was a plus-size woman. She was strong, didn't do what was expected of her if she didn't want to and it was fabulous. However, I really didn't love the second-chance romance with her ex, Colin. It did not feel like he changed at all from their past and the miscommunication!!! Are they in university or high school?!

It probably didn't help that I have no interest in medieval literature and that was a huge part of the book.

All that aside, the writing and narration of the audiobook were very well done. I'll definitely be giving Howe's next book a shot!

Thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press & OrangeSky Audio for advance copies in exchange for an honest review!