Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. This was a sweet and lighthearted read with an easy-to-follow plot and a charming premise. I did find myself wishing for a little more depth and growth from the characters, as well as a touch more complexity in the storyline, as the conflict felt a bit rushed. The emotional intelligence on display led to plenty of open and heartfelt conversations, though at times these became slightly repetitive. The overall tone and style felt more YA than New Adult, which may suit readers in the mood for a gentle, low-stakes romance with a wholesome feel.

This is my first book by this author and I really enjoyed it!
The plot was structured well, and the pace was great.
A slow-burn, cute, heartwarming read.
The characters are really well developed and I loved the chemistry between them.

This story is a slow-burn romance about two young people trying to navigate college life with a lot of personal challenges. The move to a new campus and college schedule is difficult enough for most kids. What makes it more tricky is Penny has EDS that makes it necessary to use a motorized wheelchair and CJ is battling with depression after the sudden demise of his beloved grandmother.

I love the fact that Penny and CJ are shown as two regular people who have good days and bad ones and different levels of energy throughout a day. The attention to detail was amazing!

Highly recommend 👍🏻

This is a lovely, hopeful and caring book. Penny is in a wheel chair and doesn’t believe in herself despite being clever and articulate and a great friend and daughter. CJ is lost since his gran died and can’t get himself into gear and trust himself to get out there again. The book covers the romance and so much more. It covers the day to day difficulties that the world puts in the way of people with disabilities or in a wheelchair chair. It makes this a normal part of the world that Penny and CJ inhabit and the practical issues one of the worlds and not theirs. The kittens that feature heavily are the cutest things ever and make this such a kind read alongside the romance,

Thank you to Montlake for the advance reader copy of The Chemistry Test by Georgina Frankie.

At the beginning of the story we meet Penny as she is leaving home and starting college. When she gets to college, Penny meets CJ, who’s an actor and is in the same course as her. The two develop from friendship to more as Penny navigates chronic illness and CJ navigates grief.

I really enjoyed how the relationship between Penny and CJ developed. Both are navigating factors in their lives and I found their conversations to be so authentic as their relationship continued to grow from friendship to more. These two did have an instant spark with each other and I adored them - and of course the cats!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I had a great time with it nonetheless.
It's a very sweet coming of age dual POV romance where we follow Penny and CJ negotiating the challenges of student life and the boundaries of their relationship. They're both dealing with some significant challenges beyond the typical ones - Penny is living with EDS and POTS, and CJ is struggling with grief and depression, as well as managing dyslexia and a secondary career.

This seems like a very heartfelt and personal piece of writing for the author, and it definitely comes across in the writing. The disability representation feels very earnest, for the most part it's a very organic part of the story but there are one or two times where it felt like the author had a message she really wanted to convey but couldn't get it to flow naturally.

Although there is a thread of relationship building and romance that runs through the story, it's not purely a romance. Personally I like this approach, and it feels authentic to the experience of being a student, even if you're falling in love during your first year you're going through a million other things as well. While I appreciate the broader scope, it's quite a short book and while I wouldn't say the story feels rushed, there are definitely elements that could have been given more time to breathe or expanded upon.

It does seem like this is a conscious choice by the author to keep the narrative accessible to a wider range of readers and audiences, and while I personally might have wanted something a bit more I do appreciate why she wrote in the way that she did.

Overall this was a solid debut, if imperfect, and I'm definitely curious to see what she comes out with next.

A cosy, wholesome read... perfect for fans of The Pumpkin Spice Café!

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for giving me this arc to review!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Chemistry Test by Georgina Frankie, and can't believe this is her debut novel! It's a quick and easy read, that gives the same cosy and wholesome vibes lovers of The Pumpkin Spice Café might be yearning for. I was about to give Penny the credit on being courageous and having so much wisdom, but I feel as though this is Georgina speaking through her main female character. It was a pleasure to read Georgina's writing, quoting some of the inspirating words within this story. I love how it goes a step deeper too, challenging you on the biases you might have disabilities (I admit that I had them too!) and causing us to take away learning from this story whilst it is in the forefront of our minds. The only thing I wondered whether could be different was the pacing to not be as quick, to get to know all of the characters (even Amy and Ro!) a little deeper. I'm excited to see what Georgina does next!

This was a delightful little coming of age romance.

This book has a dual POV of Penny and CJ. Penny is going into her first year of uni with a chronic illness, CJ is a student and actor who is also dealing with his own struggles, like grief. They both had a lot of personality and I found their relationship very believable. I always like when the characters in romance novels have things going in their lives besides the central relationship and both of them surely did.

Another little thing that I loved is that CJ is cat obsessed and fosters kittens, cause I too adore cats.

While this was a lovely YA romance, I don’t know if it’s a book I will come back to very often. But would definitely recommend if the synopsis sounds interesting.

“The Chemistry Test”, by Georgina Frankie, is a sweet romance between two young college students, each facing challenges and obstacles while trying to navigate changes in life, new realities and love.
I liked the main characters, CJ and Penny, and how their friendship turns into love.
Writing a heroine with a serious chronic illness and a disability is remarkable. The depiction of Penny’s condition is realistic and the way she deals with it seemed authentic, too. Penny’s positive attitude is also admirable.
CJ is such a sweet, thoughtful hero. The grief over his grandmother, the tenderness and care with the kittens show such goodness.
I thought the story dragged a bit and could be shorter.

The Chemistry Test by Georgina Frankie is a sweet, heartfelt debut about Penny, who lives with a chronic illness, and CJ, an actor coping with grief and dyslexia. It’s a slow-burn, friendship-first romance with authentic disability representation and emotional depth—perfect for readers who enjoy gentle, character-driven love stories.

I don't know how, but it's like Georgina wrote this book for me. I see myself in both Cam and Penny. It's not very often that I connect with both main characters. This book was heartwarming, while also touching on some more sensitive topics with the utmost care. As someone who recently lost their grandma and suffers from depression this brought me a lot of comfort. The disability representation in this book is unlike anything I have read. I love that not only is grief, depression and anxiety addressed, but also a character that is a wheelchair users. This book is a good reminder of how to interact with individuals with disabilities and not all individuals experience their disabilities in the same way. Also, there is more to people than meets the eye and you don't know what people are going through at just a glance or even in a few interactions.

I got this ARC from NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK.
This is a sweet coming of age love story. Penny and CJ meet might right away misunderstand what is happening with circumstances of actions. Eventually they figure it out. You learn a lot about certain disabilities and how others choice to either ignore or do the right thing. I love how empathic, kind CJ is all the while dealing with his own grief and depression yet choices to do the right thing. Thoughtful and well written. I enjoyed all the characters and how they treated each other with kindness even if they didn’t understand what was happening. Great book for young adults, teenagers as well as adults.

This was such a sweet story. I loved the disability rep and Penny was an amazing character to root for! CJ and her relationship was great to watch develop. I also adored Amy and Ro!

4 star
Spice: N/A
Format: ALC

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for both the arc&alc in exchange for an honest review.

I want to preface that I know knowing about pots or any other disabilities mentioned in this story. For me it seems like great representation, so if it's not I'm sorry. I loved Cam from the start, he was very relatable for me. It does come off a bit juvenile and I wouldn't consider this a romance. The characters are young and their reactions to certain situations reflect that. The audio was very enjoyable. It helped me to understand their emotions a bit better. The star the sorry by far are Tabby & Callie.

The Chemistry Test was presented as a STEM college romance and I suppose to an extent it was that. I found the POTS + EDS representation very informative and the portrayal of grief was well written. As someone who recently lost a loved one being able to relate with the mmc in that aspect was nice. I didn’t have many issues with this book but at times I felt like it dragged on. The romance was also very YA and honestly didn’t really feel like the mcs were in college. Overall, I found this book enjoyable.

Thank you for the ARC and the opportunity to review the book honestly.

Penny meets CJ when she starts at university. She is trying to navigate her new life, with new friends. CJ is struggling after events in his life, and meets Penny in more than one way. I liked how it was told from both points of view.

I absolutely LOVED this book so much. It was so sweet and wholesome and I loved watching the relationship between Penny and Cam form. They had such a sweet dynamic and watching them come together was beautiful.

As a disabled person, I always appreciate seeing disability representation in books. The mental health aspect was also very interesting and overall I felt like both situations were handled very well. The relationship development between Cam and Penny was very sweet. Recommend, particularly for those looking for representation and others seeking diverse books!

I absolutely ADORED Cam & Penny’s story. As a chronic illness sufferer myself (fibro) it was so wholesome and lovely to have a romance with someone with a chronic illness, which I feel isn’t done enough - especially ambulatory wheelchair users.

This book was so wholesome and beautiful and just really made me miss my Gran, and the UK where I was born and the book is set.

An immensely cozy story about the importance of second chances, living life to the fullest whilst doing the best you can - which is okay if it looks a little different than others, and, of course, kittens. Super hygge and a fantastic read for readers who prefer their romance smut free (no judgment either way).

I made it to 21% into this book before I had to put it down. I’m so sad! I wanted to love this one.

It seemed like every single chapter was more about the main character talking to her mom on the phone and about her struggling that she was at college. There was not a lot of conversation or dialogue happening with the boy in the cover, but there was a lot of conversation about classes about her stressing out about her talking to her mom.

We do have multiple POV in this book which I appreciate, but that usually creates an opportunity for tension and character development to happening immediately, and it seems like this book was continuing to drag

I understand that the character is struggling with going to college, but this was not what I was wanting in a book. I usually shy away from university settings in general and that’s a reason I think I really did not enjoy that.

This book was also something that made me feel more sad than I was anticipating. I was hoping for more giggles or more feeling relating to the character being disabled. The cover is quite cool, but this book and I just did not connect unfortunately.

I would still read more books from this author in the future. I’m just hoping that in the future there’s more banter, more dialogue that helps further the plot, more in-depth character development, and less ongoing communication with a parent because it seems like that’s a huge plot. While family dynamics are important in a relationship I am more interested in the dynamics between the love interests and the challenges that are outside of those interests.

Thank you for this ARC. I appreciate the opportunity to leave honest feedback voluntarily.