Second chance, enemies-to-lovers academia romance 💕📚
Allison Avery is a plus size intellectual PhD candidate hoping to be a professor of Medieval Literature. Colin Benjamin is her rival and former boyfriend. They are both in the running for an advisory position and a trip to Wales to study alongside the department chair. Chaos and romance ensues.
Absolutely love that Allison is a self assured woman, especially in today’s body conscious world and adore her brain (especially because Chaucer is NOT my fave!) Wasn’t so sure about Colin being a dreamy love interest, especially when the descriptions of him almost always include knobby kneed, pointy angles, etc. He sounded more like an injury waiting to happen.
I will say I will never look at a game of *SCRABBLE* the same way again!

This story brought medieval romance and modern day romance together. I was back and forth between hating Colin and loving him, but was very satisfied with the ending.

I also loved that this book embraces plus size women and brings to light the hurt that can be caused by body shaming.

When I read the synopsis to this book I knew I needed to read it since it had so many things I love. School, teaching, books AND romance….how could I pass that up?!?

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
What I loved:
Boundaries, Allison spends a lot of this story setting healthy boundaries with the people in her life and I think we all need more of that in our lives
Colin 2.0, as a second chance romance I really liked seeing the comparison of Colin from the first time around and the current Colin…hint the second version is better
Monty, Allison’s corgi puppy is a scene stealer throughout the story and his full name is 😹🤣
Cohort, Allison and Colin’s cohort in there program seem like such a great group who were there for Allison when she needed it most

I really wanted to like this book and there is a lot of good stuff but I had a hard time liking Allison. She spends a lot of the book making other people actions about her and that was hard for me to read and kept me from rooting for her. This is a cute book and if you are a fan of academic second chance romances I would recommend you give this a try!

This book is adorable. I actually laughed out loud at certain parts.

This was an enjoyable read and I look forward to more from this author

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

Thank you to NetGallery and the publisher for this ARC.

I had mixed feelings on this book and finally landed on it being just okay. Based on the cover and the synopsis I wanted to love it, but I did not like any of the characters individually, or feel any chemistry between the main characters. The writing style is solid and easy to read, but sometimes second chance romances just shouldn't happen, and this is one of those cases.

P.S. Colin is F**king AWFUL.

As a former English major in undergrad and publishing grad student, I definitely appreciated the medieval lit grad school setting. I felt for both Allison and Colin, though the book certainly leaned heavily on the miscommunications trope.

The Make-up Test
by Jenny L. Howe
2 stars

I had hopes for this book and was disappointed when Alison the MC was just too self-centered and oh her life is hard. I wasn't a fan of the pity me feeling I got from reading this. I did enjoy her being plus-sized but there was so much potential and it felt like it got wasted. Then you have Colin and he was just a dud for the beginning. This one just wasn't for me.

Thank you Net galley and St. Martins Press for this eARC for an honest review.

Let me just state for the record, that I will die on the hill that romance novels need to end with a HEA (or a HFN, at the very least). I will also state that I love a second chance romance, especially when it comes with a side of grovel novel. This is why it pains me to say I really did not like this book, despite it being second chance romance, and when the end of the book arrived with its inevitable HEA, all I really wanted to do was yeet the MMC into the sun and wish the FMC could find herself a partner more worthy of her. To me, that truly would have been the real HEA of this book.

Let’s backtrack and set up the premise of this book. Allison is a PhD student studying medieval literature under a professor she’s long admired. She’s shocked to find out that her graduate cohort also includes her undergrad ex-boyfriend, Colin Benjamin. Allison and Colin dated for several months in undergrad, when she was a sophomore and he was 2 years ahead of her. Allison, studious and goal-oriented, was working hard for the Rising Star award and Colin, by all accounts was the supportive, encouraging boyfriend. When the results were announced, it was revealed that she came in second…to Colin, who unbeknownst to her had also entered the competition. Allison, of course, was justifiably angry and a week later, when they met up, Colin unceremoniously dumped her, stating that he needed to focus on his future goals and she was holding him back.

Cut to present day, and Allison and Colin find themselves in a similar predicament, as TAs to the same professor, vying for the same position, essentially in competition with each other. Now, I have no problems with this as a premise, the whole enemies to lovers, competing for a job trope is one I really enjoy. My main problem with this book lies squarely with Colin as the MMC.

The book is told entirely through Allison’s point of view and we’re only ever given the information she is privy to and nothing more than that. We learn everything just as Allison learns it so for the first entire 50% of the book, Colin is presented as an absolute asshole. He’s smug and condescending, keeps trying to one-up Allison or undercut her. I will say that the second half of the book didn’t do a whole lot to change my opinion of Colin so I can’t be entirely sure whether I would have been more sympathetic to him had I known Colin’s side of the story from the very beginning.

At about the halfway mark, Allison and Colin have a long overdue talk about what exactly happened years ago in undergrad. It turns out, Colin did not get accepted to any of the PhD programs he applied to. And he was already well aware that his girlfriend was brilliant and going places so he was…intimidated and jealous and ashamed. And he didn’t want to hold her back! Ahh yes, that old chestnut, the “I DID IT FOR YOUR OWN GOOD” line of reasoning that befalls so many romantic heroes. He also, in a scene that made me do a double take and reread it multiple times to make sure that I was not misreading it, explains exactly why he didn’t get accepted to any of the programs he applied to. He, a white, straight middle-class dude, had a hard time standing out from the sea of other white, straight middle-class dude applicants.

Now, you must be thinking, “Surely he redeems himself in the second half and proves himself worthy of his love interest!” Um. Well. NOT EXACTLY. Unless, you count him stealing her work idea and using it for his own as redemption, in which case, TOTALLY. The two of them have to give these major presentations towards the end of the semester and their presentations basically determine who gets to stay on and work with the professor (who happens to be Allison’s dream professor, the whole reason she came to this university). And Colin basically takes her idea as inspiration for his and also uses her title. Of course, Allison is enraged and runs out before watching his presentation and doesn’t know that it’s actually not the same one. And then, in a scene that’s so baffling, she ends up apologizing to him for always making him feel less than and therefore forcing him to make these questionable choices. (I’ll be honest, I did skim this part because I was so furious by this point, I just wanted this book to be over).

I liked Allison, I like smart, competitive, competent, ambitious heroines. However, I intensely dislike heroes who feel so intimidated by their love interests that they try to undercut them, manipulate them, gaslight them, and make them apologize for the hero’s own shortcomings. Allison is great but she deserves so much better than a guy who, on page, whether it be through present day interactions or past recollections, shows himself to be complete trash and utterly unworthy of her. I truly don’t even know how she managed to fall for him in undergrad. There’s another scene told through Allison’s recollection of past events where Allison, who is fat, and Colin are at a restaurant. A man shoves her and calls her fat to her face to which Allison, who loves herself exactly as she is, responds in kind. Colin drags her from the restaurant and tells her not to say anything to make it worse since he was also bullied as a child. So, instead of sticking up for his girlfriend and defending her, he proceeds to try and silence her voice.

I do want to draw attention to some of the other aspects of this book. Allison also has a very contentious relationship with her verbally abusive father. One of my favorite parts of this book actually was about Allison drawing clear boundaries and cutting her toxic father out of her life. Her mother, who she is close to, continues to call her and urge her to have a relationship with her father and I’m so glad that Allison stands her ground and refuses. I have to say, I was not super thrilled with her mother constantly trying to guilt her into reconciling with a man who had shown his daughter no love or respect or kindness. The guilt magnifies when her dad is hospitalized with heart complications and they have it out in a scene that is truly magnificent because it’s Allison being truthful about her feelings. And when her father eventually dies, I’m glad the author allowed Allison to remain true to her own feelings instead of falling into a pit of guilt over not making nice with a man who was now gone forever and had never shown her any love while he was alive.

I also want to speak about Sophie, an aspiring fashion designer who is Allison’s roommate, best friend, and possibly the only real voice of reason in Allison’s life. Sophie is supportive of Allison’s goals, has her back when it comes to her dysfunctional relationship with her father, and repeatedly cautions her about giving Colin a second chance. Sophie is the true unsung hero of this book. There’s a subplot about the growing distance between Sophie and Allison as their respective dreams and ambitions are taking them in different directions and once again, it’s Sophie coming in with the hard truths and honestly, she was my favorite character in the book. What does it say when I read a romance and my favorite character turns out to be the FMCs best friend?

I had high expectations for this book. I’m always on the lookout for books with excellent fat representation and this book had it. I love a second chance romance with a side order of grovel novel. This book…was a second chance romance. And the only real apology was the one that Allison gives to Colin for making him feel bad about himself. I ended the book unable to invest in them as a couple and if these were real people, then there’s no way I could believe in the longevity of their pairing. Truly sad to say this was a huge miss for me.

I'm struggling a bit on how I'm fully feeling about this book. The story was cute, the writing was good, and I liked the different themes of insecurity, family issues, etc., but I felt like I wasn't super invested in the actual romance. In this book, Allison and Colin are exes that are now in the same graduate program, fighting for a mentorship from the only professor that teaches Medieval Lit, which is both of their specializations. They've always had this competitive, academic rivalry, and while I think that can make for fun tension, in this book it was just too much. Colin came off as a very privileged guy who made poor decisions because he felt bad for himself, and most of the time it was at the expense of Allison. I liked Allison fine, but I felt like she honestly deserved a better romance than with Colin, so it took me out of the story a bit.

With that being said, I did enjoy Allison's familial background, with her trying to deal with the sickness of her dad, who has always been very emotionally abusive towards her and made her insecure in herself. I thought that exploration of parental guilt was really interesting and realistic to a lot of family dynamics.

Do you ever go into a new romance thinking oh yeah I’m in the perfect mood for a romantic comedy? And then said romantic comedy becomes a book about standing up for yourself, size equality, sucky parent relationships, grief, and second chances? Yeah, that was The Make-Up Test for me!

Allison, plus-sized graduate student, ends up competing with her ex-boyfriend, Colin, the boy who broke her heart so she wouldn’t “hold him back”, for the assistantship position she’s been working towards for her entire education. As you can guess she’s not at all happy about this and is gearing up for the fight of her life… but teaching is hard, she may be losing her best friends, and her relationship with her dad is, and has always been, toxic. From dealing with fat-shaming, being a first year graduate student, and maybe navigating a second-chance romance, this romance hit way harder than I expected it to!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC!

Allison Avery is the archetype of an overachieving, perfectionist student hoping to start new and make her mark in grad school. The last thing she expects is to find her uber competitive ex-boyfriend, Colin Benjamin, in the same program and vying with her for a coveted research position.

As they try to one up each other will it spark something between them again or is this second chance romance doomed to go down in flames?

Jenny L. Howe clearly knows her way around the trials and tribulations of grad school and while it might not be reflective of all experiences it was a thorough look into the life of a PhD student. Unfortunately, Allison was not my favourite character, in the beginning I found her stereotypical student personality a bit grating, however I did like to see Howe’s character development throughout the book, and as a plus-sized woman myself the fat representation was much needed and very well written!

I will provide the content warning that this book contains an emotionally/verbally abusive father character. Once again I felt Howe wrote about this very well as it reoccurs in the story, but it still may be triggering to some.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for access to an advance copy to review.

I really like a sweet male main character and I just had a hard time rooting for this couple. I thought the main male character was selfish and stuck up. Maybe the goal was to be an enemies to lovers trope but you still have to have likable and redeeming qualities for your characters. This missed the mark for me.

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

In the spirit of Allison Avery, I feel that the best way to review this book is to make a list.

Pros:
-Fat-Positive romance representation. While Allison clearly has some insecurity about her size, which is largely due to fatphobia pushed upon her by her parents, she is mostly secure in herself and likes how she looks. What’s more, her size is not once a source of insecurity in her relationship with Colin, which is refreshing and necessary.
-There is definitely character growth for both Allison and Colin, though Colin’s journey happens mostly off-page, before the book begins. I was glad to see Allison realize some of the ways that she had been projecting her own issues onto Colin by the end and apologize for that.
-Despite his flaws and moments of assholeishness, I couldn’t help but be charmed by Colin.
-I really liked that the subplot acknowledged difficult relationships with parents and that disengaging from a parent who does nothing but tear you down is a valid choice, even if others disagree and even shame you for it.

Cons:
-Allison makes fun of Ethan for being a windbag, but she is also the WORST kind of graduate student to have in your classes. Her attitude for 70% of the book and her willingness to jump to the worst conclusions about her classmates (and herself) with little to no evidence made me want to bang my head against the wall. I realize this was used to develop the rivals to lovers part of the plot, but she really felt childish at many points and rubbed me the wrong way. This was especially true when she was mad at Colin for her perception of him being competitive when she was the one who was actually being the worst.

Overall, I really enjoyed the parts when Allison and Colin were getting along, but Allison’s complete lack of self awareness for most of the book nearly ruined it for me. Still, I enjoyed the writing style and many of the themes in the book, and I will look forward to more from this author in the future—just hopefully with a slightly less annoying female lead.

First off, really loved the author's note in the beginning! It set a great tone for the book about body positivity and I was excited for the happily ever afters.
The parts of the book that were great for me wasn't focused on the romance; I enjoyed learning about medieval lit, grad school life, being a TA, the heartfelt love for pets/family members and the dynamic between the students.
The romance portion of it took a back burner for me as I didn't really feel the chemistry between the two characters plus their big miscommunication didn't do it for me.

The Make-Up Test by Jenny L Howe
Contemporary NA romance. Second chance, enemies to lovers troupes.
Allison is working on her PhD and wins the coveted teacher assistant assignment she worked for. To her surprise, Colin, her ex-boyfriend, also wins the spot and the two will need to compete against each other for their career goals.

Competition and stress can make people do unhealthy things. She lied to Colin about how her first class went. Then she expanded the lie with intricate details to make it believable. And she doesn’t stop. She lies a lot.
Colin has his issues too. He simply doesn’t communicate. So the two really don’t connect in any meaningful ways.
The story adds additional emotional elements in the last 20%. It made me sappy and wanting to like the couple.
Lots of classic literature mentioned and quoted and theorized as part of the story.
Up and down plus the angst of non-communication. Happily, they get it right in the end.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley.

This was a heartfelt second chance, enemies to lovers romance between two PhD grad students who end up competing for one spot in their grad program. I really enjoyed the Medieval literature focus, both Collin and Allison are pursuing Medieval lit degrees and struggling to be good TAs. The banter between the two is unmatched in most romcoms. It was literally perfection. I also loved the tension, secret pining, smart, curvy female protagonist and let's not forget the steamy scene!! A+++

Just couldn’t do it. The book is boring. I feel like I’ve been reading it forever and I’m only 30% in. Nope. Nope. Nope. The characters are immature and have no business dating let alone teaching college students.

Fat positive lovers to enemies to rivals to lovers? Uh, YES PLEASE.

“The Make-Up Test” was such a delight of a book to read and while it gave me the swoony rom-com moments, it also packed an emotional punch outside of the romance between Allison and Colin.

The first thing I must say about this book is how often I teared up and cried during it because the author did such an incredible job focusing on the outside stressors of Allison’s life, not just the conflict between her and Colin. Sometimes rom coms can be very romance heavy, meaning the book tends to get relationship tunnel vision–our main character’s love life becomes their life. While there’s nothing at all wrong with romance novels with heavy romance (why else would I seek out this genre if not for romance), it’s always a joy to see a well balanced and rounded character. We got to be alongside Allison as she struggled with teaching, her grad program, and her familial relationships, specifically her parents. I cried alongside Allison quite a lot because of how well we got to know her.

Colin, Allison’s love interest, was a gem. Of course, I did hate him on Allison’s behalf for a good portion of the book, but man was I rooting for him at the same time. He had a lot of character growth, and most of my hatred simply stemmed from the miscommunication trope which obviously is the way the story moves along, so I don’t fault the author that any bit.

I loved that this book was definitely fat-positive, and I think both fat and straight-sized people will find something within it. And while there was a lot of fat positivity going on, there was definitely was fatphobia and emotional abuse depicted in the book, but it was handled honestly and with care.

Back to the rom com aspects of the book, perhaps my favorite part was the traditional end-of-the-book grand gesture we typically get from one of the love interests trying to apologize or make up for a mistake. I’m not going to spoil anything, but it was definitely one of the most unique grand gestures I’ve ever read and not something I was at all expecting. I loved it.

Overall, “The Make-Up Test” was swoony, adorable, emotional and wonderfully written. It has been immediately added to my list of favorite rom coms starring fat women. I can’t wait to read more from Jenny L. Howe in the future.