There was a lot that I liked about this book.

+ Allison Avery is one of my favorite plus-size heroines in a while. As a fat woman, I feel like sometimes fat women aren't depicted as honestly as they could be. Allison reflects a lot of the same feelings I have about my body and how others see it. Body acceptance is a complicated process that never ends and I feel like Howe really lets that idea shine with beautiful honesty through Allison.

+ I loved the overall arc of the story line. The second-chance, rivals to lovers to enemies to rivals to lovers of it all is excellent.

+ Complicated family relationships. Allison has a complicated relationship with both of her parents for different reasons. But I liked the way it shows fat-shaming from two different sides.
Allison's mother has a similar body shape and size to Allison. However, her mom has a poor body image and projects her insecurities onto her daughter. She insists that Allison remain in contact with her father, despite Allison's wishes.
Jed, Allison's father, basically fat-shames her during every interaction and down plays her achievements. He's a bit of a two dimensional character, as you only really see him as this gruff man who doesn't need anything from any body. You see a bit at the very end, but it isn't really sufficient to cause the reader to re-evaluate their opinions on him.

Now for the the things I didn't especially care for.

- I wanted to ultimately like Colin Benjamin - the love interest in this story. I love a nerdy guy in a cardigan most of the time. However, I found I had less and less sympathy for him the more information about him and the reasons behind his choices were revealed. His change in focus for graduate school to the same as Allison's seemed like a weird choice (and no one can tell me that he wasn't aware of where she was going to school. He seems like he would internet stalk her, 100%) - especially since they're attending the same school and she's been into medieval literature all the time he knew her. He needed to be doing about 150% more groveling over the entire length of the book and instead he was deliberately competing with her without communicating with Allison in an effective way - even at the end. He has a weird, sketchy vibe that I am just not super into.

- The ending didn't feel like enough for me. I couldn't enjoy Colin showing up on her porch. There was nothing he did that showed he was actually willing to make a change - especially if he is looking for a third chance, essentially.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for providing me with an eARC of this book in return for my honest opinion.
Jenny Howe gives us an amazing second-chance love story set in the cut throat world of grad school in The Make-Up test. It’s a quick and easy to follow read that not only gives us a redemption love story, but delves into the world of a plus sized protagonist and the relationships she has with her body, stereotypes, shaming and marginalisation that comes with being labelled “fat”. I appreciated that Lowe acknowledged through the protagonist that the initial relationship between Allison and Colin was toxic, and I appreciated more that there was character growth and development so patterns of the previous failed relationships weren’t fallen into again.

*Storyline spoilers*

I also really liked Lowe’s portrayal of the relationship between Jed and Allison, after treating her poorly and trying to shame her for weight her whole life, I appreciated that she didn’t cave to her mother’s guilt trips to create or fake a relationship that wasn’t really there while Jed was sick. I found myself getting frustrated with her mother’s pushiness for Allison to care for someone that had, in Allison’s eyes, never loved her. I do think Lowe did resolve this well with the talk between Allison and her mother after Jed’s death, giving us Allison’s mothers perspective really made this more realistic and easier to understand.

The Make-Up Test is a second chance romance set in the cutthroat world of a medieval literature grad school program. Intense, right? That's how I'd best describe the main character, Allison, as well: intense. She is comfortable in her plus sized body, which I appreciate, and tackles every obstacle with unrelenting passion. The problem for me as a reader was in connecting with Allison. She's supposed to be a recent college graduate who went straight into a PhD program, making her like 22-23. Nobody that age is ever as self-assured as Allison. Like nobody. Even when she's flailing, she is still somehow absolutely sure of herself and seems to get over the issues fairly quickly. The only exception is her relationship with Colin, which has concerns she can't get past so easily. Which brings me to the second thing I had a lot of trouble with as a reader: the romance. There was a lot of reliance on a shared past, and a lot of touting how things were so much different and better now. But the chemistry was never really there for me, and Colin felt like an absolutely inscrutable mishmash of personality quirks. I think I would try another book by Jenny L. Howe in the future, but this one wasn't it for me unfortunately.

*Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book reads well and quickly. The story is easy to follow and the dialogue sometimes funny and witty. The protagonist just rubs a bit wrong though. Often she seems entitled and unsympathetic. In the end, it only works because she gets her way. It doesn't have the same feel good finish, with her self centeredness.

Definitely was not a bad book, but at the end of the day it is not one that I will remember for a long time. I was not really a fan of the romance between the two. I cared about Allison and wanted her to succeed to the point where I think she deserves better than Colin. Honestly, I think Colin should have stayed an ex. I also just feel like we missed a lot of context between Alison and her mom. All we really know is that her mom was with an abusive guy (Allison’s father Jed) and her mom pressures her to have a relationship with Jed. Also, why is there no ending for Sophie?

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Loved the academic setting and that the characters were not your average Barbie and Ken. Didn’t love the obvious agendas or the immaturity of the *phd* student. If a character is consistently critically thinning, why would she not use that skill on her relationship too?

First of all, I really appreciate the author’s note at the beginning that talks about Allison and her relationship to her body as a fat woman, etc. I think it’s really important in a book with a marginalized main character that will involve trauma involving that marginalization to add info to prepare the reader and I appreciate that the author did so here.

That said, this book was so much fun! I always love a second chance romance, but I do get nervous when the original romance had been toxic, which seemed to be the case with our two main characters here. I think it’s really easy for characters to fall back into that toxicity and it not to be addressed as a problem by the author. SO MANY ROMANCES come across as super toxic from an outside perspective, and I was really worried that was going to happen here. However, Lowe did a great job of towing the line in a way that acknowledged when something was bad so that it could get fixed. There was also a lot of time spent away from the romance between Allison and Colin, so the reader got to experience Allison’s life outside of just that one person. From her complicated relationship with her best friend and her parents to her trying to establish a place in her grad program and cohort, Allison felt like a well-rounded character. The competition aspect between her and Colin had a good balance of being fun to read while also making me nervous as to how it’d impact their relationship with one another. I laughed, I cried, and at the end I was so glad that I had the chance to read it!

This was a sweet romance- I like the author’s voice and the way she built her scene. But I just didn’t like our protagonist. Allison was so smart and so capable and so confident- but also so bitter and so cynical and so reactive. It was hard to see her swing between loving and hating so quickly, when her hate seemed to be her defining personality trait. I’d like to read more from this author- I thought her writing was great.

Representation matters and Jenny L. Howe did a delicious job in creating a character who is plus sized and not only accept it, she thrives with body positivity while still maintaining moments of self-consciousness. Allison is a wonderful character, a blend of chic, academic know-it-all, competitive and resilient. Lanky ol' Colin, often misguided but he not only brings out Allison's competitive side, he brings out the best in her. They truly compliment each other. The book is heavy on the literature aspect (which was quite interesting, it made me yearn to sit in on a college course again) and it touches on white feminism, fat shaming and family issues/pressure. Although Allison's competitive nature grated on my nerves at times, knowing her background helped understand why she is the way that she is. For a twenty-something, Allison deals with her family situation in such a mature manner, she is honest, empathetic and learns how to draw a line. The tension between Allison and Colin felt natural and their romantic scenes were much appreciated as at no point do we see Colin fetishize Allison or focus on her weight. Overall, this was a fantastic debut novel!

I have tried at least 3 times to finish this book. Unfortunately, I just can’t get into it. It seemed like a cute premise but it just doesn’t capture me like I was hoping.

The perfect summer beach read! This was a great quick romance read with a love/hate relationship with one of the main characters, Colin. Allison and Colin are past lovers who are surprised to encounter one another again in graduate school. Allison had not seen him since the day he dumped her and is now not so sure how she feels about being in the same class with him. This is a rollercoaster of emotions between the two characters and lots of competition to see who can be the best. I gave this 3 stars because it was a great, fun quick read that I would definitely recommend, however not my favorite fun romance that I have read.

I really loved the premise of this novel! This is the first academic rivals book I've read that's A) set in a college setting and B) also a second chance romance. I loved how the college setting allowed for a different type of dynamic that isn't always shown in teen academic rivals books. The soft academia vibes of this novel were really fun to get into and I loved hearing Allison and Colin talk about all their literary favorites in this book. I think this novel would have been really interesting in a dual-POV, but it still worked well as a single-POV novel. Ultimately, I gave this novel 4 stars because I wish that Colin and Allison's relationship had felt a little more natural and genuine to me. Allison recaps via flashbacks the moments that she and Colin spent together while they were dating 3 years ago, but because the two only dated for 6 months, it was hard to believe at times that they held such strong feelings for each other after all this time (especially given how douche-y Colin acted at times).

This book has everything I love in a fun rom com read. It’s sweet and sexy and fun, but there are added details like conversations about medieval literature and cross stitched obscenities. Reading as Allison navigates her way through relationship rupture and repair as a woman who already knows her value is incredibly refreshing. The author’s note in the beginning of the book sent me into the story excited to see how the main character would be portrayed. We need more writing and characters like this.



I received an advanced reader copy of the book for free. This review is my honest opinion that I’m writing voluntarily.

A big thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ St. Martin’s Griffin for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Allison Avery is living her best life: rooming with her best friend and just started the elite graduate program she's worked so hard to get into. Imagine her surprise when her ex shows up as the other TA competing for a once in a lifetime placement. Being forced to work closely together, will she be able to resist how much he has changed?

Overall, I really liked Allison. She loved herself as a fat woman, and didn't try to make herself smaller (physically or emotionally) to fit in or please others. She was intelligent, confident, and always had a plan for worst case scenarios. However, she suffered from the inability to cope with failure and jumped to false conclusions often driven by her anxiety.

I have mixed emotions about Allison and Colin together, because honestly, their communication was just terrible. Yes, Colin was in the wrong in their previous relationship, but Allison always jumped to the worse conclusions to protect herself without allowing his explanations. Even though I was annoyed by the lack of communication, there were some hilarious and swoon-worthy moments in between it all. (I can't with the cardigans. 😅)

While I didn't love this one, I really did enjoy it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I'm looking forward to more of what Jenny has up her sleeve as an author!

Tropes: second chance romance, rivalry to lovers, forced proximity

CW: fat-phobia, emotional abuse/toxic relationship with parent

The book will be published September 13, 2022!

I love a good romcom! This was perfection. Such a fun read. I also love that the main character is a PhD student! Love a hard working woman.

Finally, a book about a bigger girl that is comfortable with herself and happy with who she is! As a plus sized woman, it’s so nice to feel represented in books. It’s rare that we see a main character who is plus sized, is confident in herself, and embraces her sexuality with no shame and that’s exactly what Allison does. Yes, there are times when her weight is commented on by others. And YES, it does sting at times. But she ultimately doesn’t care because she loves who she is. Colin is the perfect counterpart for Allison. Intelligent, witty, funny.. he’s a perfect match for her. I loved this book so much.

This book was so cuteeee. I genuinely enjoyed every second of it. It was so beautiful and entertaining, I completely lost track of time while reading it.
I love academic rivals to lovers!!! and this delivered in every instance for me!
Can’t wait to read more from Jenny:)

I overall really enjoyed this one, I love when stories take place in an academia setting. I also liked that the characters had real true flaws and I loved how Allison was always willing to put bullies in their place. I know in my own life, I am sometimes afraid to speak up in the moment or I don't know what to say in the moment and later on play it back in my head with what I should have said. I loved how bold Allison was, however I did feel at times she was a bit immature and the book dragged a bit in the begginning.

First, thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the early access copy.

This is not the book I thought it would be at all- in a good way!
It was lovers to enemies to lovers and back again. Jenny L. Howe did a great job of highlighting the flaws in the characters, especially Colin. The many many many character flaws that were highlighted throughout the story made the character development that much stronger. The way Colin (And Allison) are able to see the growth over the corse of the story just made it that much more realistic, and true to heart.

I felt a kinship with Allison. She’s a big girl BUT that’s not a focal point of the story! MINDBLOWING. She’s fat and the author doesn’t mention it every other page?! Incredible. I loved that Howe was able to show the readers that Allison is so much more than a body in a story. She felt like a real person, and one who deserves the whole damn world. Don’t try to change my mind. I’d die for Allison.

I loved the side characters as well. They all had such personality, and added so much to the story line.

The plot was concise and imaginative! I don’t normally gravitate to an academic romance setting but I learned a lot about academic lit, especially Beowulf.

What a wonderful read! I loved the plus-sized main character and of course, ALL the literary aspects. It was a great novel about worth, second chances, and chasing dreams. It would make a great book club read!