When the publisher offered me this ARC, I had extremely high hopes. I’ve spent a decent bit of time in the English literature side of academia, and while I’m now studying a different field, I do still very much miss it. And on top of that, we’ve got an academic rivalry going on! In the end though, while this book does deliver on a lot of what I was expecting from it, it entirely fumbled the ending, and there were also a few writing choices/quirks that kept frustrating me throughout.

For the majority of this book, the only thing that frustrated me was certain aspects of the writing style. The biggest issue I had here was the random use of Covid-19/a pandemic, with references sporadically mentioned throughout the book. It was such a rare occurrence that it was entirely unnecessary to even write the pandemic into this book’s story world, in my opinion, as the only times it was even brought up were to mention that the MC’s junior year sucked due to it, that she still carried a mask ‘just in case’, and that her dad considered it just a flu and that everyone else had overreacted. It added absolutely nothing to the plot and only served to take me out of the story, as I tried to ponder the timeline of the book and the necessity of these references. For other readers, these small lines will be enough to not even bother reading the book (fairly), as it can remind them of the traumatic events they might have experienced during the pandemic. Additionally, seeing a story world that is safely beyond the pandemic can be frustrating for readers, because we ourselves are still stuck in it. It’s better all-around to simply not even mention it if there is literally no point (and there isn’t!) to these small mentions, as a lot of us read romance to escape, not to be reminded of the struggles of our own real worlds. On top of this, there are also many moments where the writing style feels overly opinionated, which serves to push away readers that don’t agree. This might sound a bit like nitpicking, but when this genuinely caused me to put the book down and text the people around me for their opinions, I feel like it’s a valid complaint. (Some examples of these texts: ‘Do you consider Dr. Martens to be boots?? Because this author seems to not?’ and ‘Wait do people generally not like the actor for Anakin Skywalker in the prequels? Because I’d always assumed people generally liked the guy in the Star Wars fandom and yet this random love interest hates him enough to rant during an entire movie about it’). All of these are throwaway lines that add absolutely nothing to the plot or characters in any way at all but occurred frequently enough that I kept being taken out of the story. It just was not something I’d really encountered this frequently in a story like this before, and just kept frustrating me.

Honestly, for most of this book, I was sitting at around 3 to 4 stars rating, 4 when I was feeling nice and enjoying the banter, and a 3 when those writing quirks were just especially taking me out of the book. I was still having a genuinely nice time, seeing all these literary references (even if I was never into medieval lit myself), and watching the characters grow together despite their rivalry. But then, I hit the final 20% of this book and it just, collapsed for me. I think it’s largely due to too much going on that by the end, it was impossible to properly tie everything up in the space left. Most of the side plots suddenly felt like they had a bow stuck on top of them and all was good now (especially true for the friendship and father side plots), and the rush made some wrapping up feel more ridiculous than sweet or cute (namely the romantic plot resolution). The worst part was that all of this was happening at a funeral, the presence of which felt sudden enough on its own, and logically it did not make sense that everyone came to the funeral to wrap up all these story plots. We just kept having a resolution occur only for it to be quickly shoved aside, just so the next thing could be resolved, all the while the MC is accepting condolences? And lastly, I was just extremely frustrated with how the romantic relationship broke apart and was fixed in this last bit, and personally it relied just way too much on the MC just plain ignoring the love interest, and the love interest being, very not smart in the way he chose to do things, even if he’d seen how things had gone down similarly before.

Overall, I had really high hopes for this book, and it just didn’t end up working for me in the end. While there were aspects I enjoyed, especially the academic settings and references + having a fat MC where the focus wasn’t on her losing weight, and she loved herself as she was, they were overshadowed by, everything else. I may give another book from this author a chance in the future, but this one just wasn’t for me!

I did not enjoy this book at al, I guess I have an issue with enemies to lovers, although here it was lovers to enemies to lovers again. I just couldn’t care about Colin and by the time he was redeemed it was too late, specially because it all was a misunderstanding, which I knew it was going to be, predictable.
And don’t get me started with the father situation, why can’t shitty parents just be shitty parents, why does everyone need a redemption, ugh.

A fun, smart, heartfelt romcom about graduate students and rivals who eventually realize that their hatred may actually be something else. This book was such a delight to read, featuring a well-rounded cast of characters who are impossible not to fall for. At the same time, it tackles more serious issues of family, acceptance, and love with grace and ease. What a balm in difficult times!

really enjoyed this 2nd chance at love and trying to find oneself and teaching and dealing with family. Loved her friends and the romance was hot . I loved that she loved books and wanted to teach it to others but was struggling. Loved that they got another chance at love.

Debut author Jenny L. Howe has written a delightful and enjoyable story of exes who end up in the same graduate program pursing the same mentor professor in The Make-Up Test. In her dream graduate program Allie finds herself face to face with the man who crushed her heart in undergrad and then disappeared without a word for years. Now Collin is back and only interested in reconciling with Allie, or as she thinks once again stealing everything she's been working hard for.

An adorably and wittily written enemies to lovers story that is heartbreaking at times {Why won't Allie just stop and hear Collin out?!} and hilarious in others. The book ended too quickly in my opinion, I wanted more!

I really wanted to love this book, which features an academic setting, a plus-size heroine and a second-chance romance, but it didn't quite do it for me. Allison Avery is a grad student in medieval lit whose ex-boyfriend Colin, who dumped her when both were in college, suddenly turns up in her program. The two wind up having to compete for a single position, which Allison desperately wants.

My biggest problem with this book is that Colin seemed to be an extremely mediocre man who kept getting in Allison's way. We learn that in college, Allison spent months applying for an academic award, and Colin, despite knowing how much she wanted it, swooped in and submitted his own application at the last minute, and won. Then he promptly broke up with her. He wasn't even studying medieval lit back then, and now suddenly he's in a grad school program for it, competing with her because his previous field (genre fiction) was "too popular," at a college where his aunt just happens to be Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences?

Other aspects of the plot, including Allison's fraught relationships with her father (who can't stop fat-shaming her) and her best friend (whom Allison fears is growing apart from her) are more successful, but this is a romance, and I just didn't feel the chemistry between the leads. A lot of the time I just wanted Allison to move on, and for Colin to get out of academia and find something different to do with his life.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the review copy via NetGalley!

Received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you like RomCom, Second Chance or situations that have you laughing out loud then this book could be a good fit. Allison Avery and Collin Benjamin are exes who find themselves at the same grad college, competing for the same coveted position. Add in memories and sexual chemistry that she wants to stomps into oblivion because of their checkered past. Does she dare take another chance at love with someone who loved her as she is but also broke her heart into a million pieces? Or does their academic rivalry crush any chance of reconciliation? Time will tell.

I loved that Allison stood up to fat shaming and was comfortable in her own skin. This is a gal where the author doesn't have her being a size I don't consider plus-sized, which I appreciate. The focus wasn't on pounds or size of clothing but on personality, which she has plenty of! At times the academic rivalry was a bit excessive but the author managed to keep it from being too over-the-top. Allison & Collin remind me of Jack Sprat and his wife because of their size differences but this was refreshing in that each found things physically attractive/endearing in the other.

All in all, this was a good read.

4.5

hard to put down! i really liked a lot of things here. the academic setting was great, and using allison and colin’s past to show how they’d grown (especially colin) as people their second time around was beautiful. you can kinda see the third act twist coming, but it still lands with all the oof it possibly can.

#netgalley

Thank you to St Martin’s Publishing Group and NetGalley for the chance to read the ARC of this ebook. It’s a fun read with good characters set at a college as a group of students start their graduate studies. Allison has always wanted to be a professor, even without the support of her father who thinks college is a waste of time and money. She aims to prove him wrong and with the support of her mother and her best friend she works diligently on her medieval studies. I found all the references to medieval literature went right “over my head” but otherwise it had a good storyline. I found Colin to be wishy washy so that stopped me from liking him. I really like Allison’s character and how she develops great self esteem as the story progresses. A nice romance with a touch of humour to prevent it from getting too heavy.

Full disclosure, as I was reading this, I lost my mom. The parallels I was able to draw from this, were a tad bit uncomfortable but all in all, I enjoyed this. Both main characters were relatable, almost too much so. Allison was off putting at times but so was Colin and I think that's what made them human to me. Definitely a 5 star read.

I really liked the idea of a grad school romance and this did not disappoint. While medieval literature is not my thing, I liked the passion that Allison had for the topic and how she was working towards her goals.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Allison has wanted to be a medieval lit professor pretty much her whole life, and is starting grad school to fulfill those dreams. But on the first day, she sees the last person she ever expected or wanted to see there: her ex, Colin, who broke her heart in undergrad and sent her into a depressive spiral so bad she almost gave up on those dreams. She hated him then, and she hates him now, and the fact that they're competing for the advisor she's long dreamed of working with only makes matters worse.
But there's something between them still, no matter how hard she tries to convince herself that everything between them is fully in the past. And when she finds out her sort-of-estranged father is in the hospital, Colin offers to drive her the four hours to go see him, showing, yet again, that he might not be the same person he was two years ago.

I've been looking forward to reading this book since I first heard about it, and it definitely lived up to my expectations. I'm used to romance books-- especially enemies/rivals-to-lovers-- being dual POV, but I LOVED that The Make-Up Test is only from Allison's perspective. It took me on a journey of hating Colin, to slowly getting to like and love him, to absolutely despising him (I genuinely thought there was no way I could root for an HEA at one point, but I was so very wrong), to circling back to liking him. A dual POV would have shown his motivations from the beginning, which would have created a different type of tension, but this was absolutely perfect.
The struggles of academia, the fraught family situations, the friendships that grow and change over the course of the book, and a casually fat MC who loves herself gets her HEA without ever having to prove she deserves it, all combined into a truly beautiful book that I am so excited for more people to get to read.

The Make-Up Test is a sexy, cerebral, slow-burning second chance romance. Jenny Howe's writing is lovely and sharp, and she balances humor and romance with difficult topics like familial guilt and the natural transitions that longtime friendships pass through. Allison's wound from Colin seems so soul-deep that it's hard to imagine how they will have their HEA, but the book delivers. I loved the inclusion of PMDD and the way Jenny writes body positivity, and the way Colin so obviously loves Allison's mind as much as he loves the rest of her. The through-thread of academia and nerdy literary references are abundant but never bog down the story. It's hard to believe this is a debut!

I really, really hope we get some bonus content from Colin's POV someday. I would love to get inside his (perfectly coiffed) head.

Disclosure and appreciation: Jenny and I are friends on social media. Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the early read.

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

CW: fatshaming, fat phobia, emotional abuse/toxic relationship with a parent, sick parent/death of parent, dementia, anxiety, discussions of past depression

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-m/f second chance romance
-academic rivals to lovers
-an adorable corgi
-dorks falling for each other
-grad school romance
-fat rep

This book is heavy and deals with a lot of heavy topics, but it does so with care. As a fat person I love seeing more fat rep in books and this had it in spades. It was difficult to read about Allison's relationship with her father. He bullied/emotionally abused her for so long about her weight, but it was also so beautiful to see her standup for herself. Her relationship with her mom was complicated by all of this and it just felt so real and authentic and I thought handled so well. Hard to read at times because of how true this all is. Please protect your hearts friends.

Honestly a lot of this book felt like Allison overcoming the people in her life that made her feel small. Her father, and in his own way Colin the first time they dated. I enjoyed how their rivalry pushed the other but it also didn't bring out the best in either of them even in the second chance aspect. Second chance romances are difficult. You have two people who have broken up for a reason and then are back in each other's circle and you need to see that growth that will assure the reader this time it will work.

Allison had clear growth throughout the book, leaning into her teaching, finding joy in her program and she struggled as we all do as we get older. What our relationships with our friends look like and what our relationships with our parents will look like. Colin was sweet and I adored their banter and how much of a nerd both of them were. Allison and Colin were similar in a lot of the ways that matter. But the danger with single POV is that its harder too see the other person's especially in second chance POV and motivations for making certain choices. I don't feel like anything was missing by not having Colin's POV but it was harder to see any changes in him or whether he realized what went wrong the first time around and how he was making a lot of the same mistakes again.

It's hard to say that Colin changed in the book and I struggled even more because Alison's best friend clearly did not support the romance either. All of the relationships in the book were messy/flawed in an authentic way, but I felt for Allison and wished she had someone to lean on at what is clearly a turning point in her life. These are two flawed people who hopefully will figure out their issues, with a flawed romance, things are definitely not wrapped up in neat bow. i like to think they got their HFN but I just don't know. I kind of wish we got an epilogue or see what happened after that last chapter. As a fiction read this was an amazing book, but as a romance I'm torn.

Steam: 3 (very light steam, more peek around the door)

Disclaimer: I am social media mutuals with the author

DNF @ 43%. There were things I really liked about this, like getting an inside look into the TA life and some amazingly satisfying boundary-setting by the heroine — I was in awe of her strength to put herself first when it came to some fatmisic and neglectful behaviour from her dad, even when she was getting pushback from her mom and attempts to guilt-trap her because of her dad’s failing health. Just wow — that kind of thing is so important to see yet I imagine really hard to do.

I just didn’t really like what happened when the heroine and hero were together… from what I’ve read so far, what the hero did (applying for and then winning an award the heroine was hoping for) doesn’t sound great, but it also seems like he probably had a reason. (It also seems like it would have been hard to tell her he wanted to apply and she might have steamrolled him, though still not an excuse for poor communication.) And I think part of the heroine’s problem is that he didn’t tell her he was applying until she found out he won, but she keeps talking about him stealing it from her and it became hard for me to sympathize — he didn’t bribe anyone or cheat; he applied for it and won.

Another problem was that present-day Colin is competitive but always friendly, while Allison is not, and that’s what we see as a reader. Her (accidentally but then joyfully) drawing on his cardigan with a pen; lying about her tutorials to their advisor; always trying to one-up him in class. (I was cringing at their debate in front of a class they’re supposed to be TA-ing.) And then there were other little things too, like her lie in Two Truths and a Lie being that she’s swum with dolphins twice (she’s only swum with them once!), and a story about how a goat followed them home from the petting zoo and they just ran from the goat without calling the petting zoo and letting them know their goat was running loose and where he was. There was a lot of academic language (maybe too much for me) and I want to see an intelligent woman who is confident and knows her stuff, but you can do that without being performative and trying to show others up.

The Make-Up Test by J. Howe, published by St. Martin's Press is the debut novel by this author. I love giving new author's a try and I was not disappointed. A great read, some length, but has a captivating stotyline, the right pace for me and the writing is great. 4,5 stars.

I'm not saying that Jenny L. Howe's The Make-Up Test single-handedly warmed my frozen cynical heart... but I'm not NOT saying that, either? OKAY FINE I SOBBED OVER MY KINDLE AT 1 AM WHEN [REDACTED] SHOWS UP IN [REDACTED] AT THE END IS THAT WHAT YOU ALL WANT TO HEAR? IS IT?
And this is my attempt at writing a serious, professional review instead of just *keyboard smash* —that was my first review draft.

Jenny Howe's THE MAKE-UP TEST is the warm, witty, laugh-out-loud delight of my dreams. Allison Avery is whip-smart, heart achingly vulnerable, and permanently residing in my heart. Colin Benjamin is the cardigan clad, self-aware love interest with perfectly mussed hair we all deserve. The academic setting is vibrant and fresh at every corner, the cast wields side-splitting one-liners, the fat and mental health representation deserves a standing ovation, and the themes on family and embracing your path in adulthood are timely and poignant. Howe's words will have you hugging this book and rushing to embroider your favorite lines on a throw pillow. A soon-to-be insta-buy author for all.