"I wanted to feel close to the people who meant something to me."

This book follows Allison, a Ph.D. student navigating graduate school. She's in her dream program studying medieval literature but there's one problem - she's now directly in competition with her ex. Colin. Their competitive nature comes out immediately, trying to best each other during their shared TA assignments and recitations. But there's an underlying tension of their past threatening to boil over.

Allison is strong-willed and confident in herself, though she's extremely competitive about the graduate program she's in, It only gets worse for her once she's in direct competition with her ex, Colin. They clearly have unresolved tension that is constantly bubbling under the surface as they both try to outshine the other.

I loved the setting - graduate lit students that all have a passion for their chosen subject. Allison is clearly brilliant and she has the determination and drive to become a college professor.

But overall, I disliked more of this book than I liked. We get tension from Allison's parents, particularly her father, that does nothing to drive the story, and there's a particular part at the end that felt unnecessary. For me, it took way from the overarching story of Allison and Colin. Additionally, Allison and Colin's chemistry doesn't jump off the page, so I never got invested in their relationship. I didn't have this overwhelming excitement over their reconnection.

They also have a major communication problem that did not feel resolved by the end. It was really hard for me to root for them when everything felt petty, even when the circumstances in the story were serious. It felt like they were constantly lying to each other and for me, that didn't create a couple I was excited to read about.

Book Review:

The Make-Up Test by Jenny Howe

I can't tell you how much I loved this book simply for the throwback to my own graduate school days. The Canterbury Tales was even one of the texts for my comp exam!

Allison is ready to conquer her PhD program...until her ex-boyfriend is also in the program studying the same thing as her. They have to battle for a top spot with their advisor and a research trip. Will old feelings emerge or will they finally find out who wins in the academic game.

The Make-Up Test has some very cute moments and is fat positive in a way that does not pull from the larger story. Allison faces many battles throughout the story including struggling to find meaningful interactions with her father.

If you like academia focused stories, second chance romances, cute dogs, and a little Middle English, then The Make-Up Test is for you! It releases tomorrow 9/13.

Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this advanced reader.

#BookReview #Bookstagram #JennyHowe #TheMakeUpTest #StMartinsGriffin #BookishLife #Reading #Bibliophile #BookPhotography #BookRecommendations #InstaBooks #BookNerd #RomanceBooks #RomanceBookStagram

Thank you Jenny Howe, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Allison Avery just started her dream PH.D program only to get there on the first day and find her ex-boyfriend from undergrad, Colin Benjamin, also in the program. Allison has a lot of unresolved feelings for Colin, her best friend is drifting away, her cohort likes to pull all nighters, and the professor she is the TA for just told her either her or Colin will go with on a once in a life time research trip opportunity. Allison loves to win and will do anything to get that spot.

I did not love this book to, Allison grew on me, but not enough. I felt like it was a lot of poor me throughout the book and she did not take responsibility for trying to fix them just complained about it. Her father was awful, but I would have liked to see something else happen besides what did. If you want a quick read to cleanse your pallet this book is it.

This was one of most anticipated reads for 2022! And it was so cute!! I loved that The Make-Up Test is set at school (and perfect timing for fall reading). Second chance romance, the rivalry, the plus sized rep. It was a fun read!

I ended up giving this book 3.5 (rounded to four for GoodReads) stars.
While this book was good, I found the writing to be a bit stiff at times. I enjoyed the characters the most! Allison and Colin, boy, were they something!

I liked Allison's character, save for the fact that she tended to jump to conclusions (but can we blame her considering her past experiences with Colin??). Colin- I wasn't sure about him for awhile, but when he told Allison the full story, I felt for him then. He was going through something and experiences like that can be difficult to go through.

I really enjoyed the literature that was sprinkled in since they were in graduate school. I am also in graduate school for English and I thought it was cool to see some grad student banter and antics!

Overall, I liked this story. I wish there were more at the end; I felt it just e n d e d. I was hoping for an epilogue :( Will there be a sequel? I would definitely read that!

Out September 13, 2022 [Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!]

Rating: 4/5 stars

Allison has big plans for her new graduate program—get a great mentor, become a great professor, and earn a spot as a leading scholar of medieval literature. But she doesn’t account for her ex-boyfriend—and academic rival—being back in the picture for all of it…

A rom-com featuring plus size/fat representation, literature academia, and a corgi puppy? Suffice to say I could not get my hands on this one fast enough. And I’ll be honest—I related to Allison and her lived experiences, insecurities, and self-imposed perfectionism a little *too* much, but it made me enjoy this book all the more.

First, the less great—I did think the book felt a hair too slow in parts, and I wanted fewer internal-monologues-stressing-about-situations and more situations-to-stress-over, if that makes sense. I wasn’t bored, exactly, I just didn’t feel like enough had happened for me to be fully invested in the characters until close to the 2/3 mark.

That said, once I got invested, I got really invested, which is what led to sobbing at 1am as I stayed up way too late to finish reading. Colin went from insufferable to an absolute gem very quickly (it’s amazing what communication will do) and Allison’s character growth was really lovely to watch. In short, not a perfect book, but a really wonderful debut, and I can’t wait to see what Jenny Howe writes next!

Recommended to anyone, but especially if you like: fat representation, academia nerdiness, puppies.

CW: Emotional abuse (including abusive parent/child relationships); loss/illness of loved ones; fatphobia; sexism.

2.5 stars. The characters in The Make-Up Test veered too far into toxic territory for me to feel satisfied with the resolution, but lots of readers will enjoy this more than I did. Recommended for readers whose interest is piqued by the academic setting with a quality discussion about the field (medieval lit) or by a romance about a confident, fat woman who is represented as such on the book cover.

I look forward to reading future titles by Jenny L. Howe.

Pros:
-Grad level medieval lit discussions were really interesting and made me want to read some of the titles being analyzed
-Really good fat representation! Allison loves her body and confronts the people who try to fat-shame her. Her best friend is an aspiring fashion designer who creates plus size clothes. I was pleasantly surprised since the book description made a comparison to One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London, one of the most upsetting romances with fat rep that I've ever had the displeasure to read.
-realistic depiction of friends who have started to drift apart
-Colin's medievalist grandfather. Can we get a prequel for Charlie?
-Monty the dog
-Allison and her mother's coming to an understanding about the father, Jed

Cons
-The relationship between Allison and Colin is so toxic mid-book that their reconciliation felt like a mistake.
-Allison lies many times about her teaching skills purely to make Colin feel inadequate and then to avoid confessing to her lies
-Colin turns everyone else's accomplishments into occasions to whine about his own feelings of inadequacy
-The story leans on ridiculous miscommunications to prolong the will-they-won't-they drama.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin for providing a review copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I am trying to be kind to myself and DNF books when they are not working for me. I do try and push through if it is an ARC, however I couldn't with this book. I made it about 50% and Colin was still being so rude and competitive with Allison. I am all for enemies to lovers, but he took things a step too far with his constant need to overpower Allison in their accomplishments. This book is nothing like Beach Read, one of its comp books. There is no chemistry or depth to these characters. I was really hoping to like this one too.

Before I give my review, I need to admit up front that I am an Associate Professor. The Make-Up Test involves the foibles of a PhD program: academic rigor, impossible reading lists, honors, and romance. Howe interweaves real life, including a very realistic portrayal of less than supportive friends and family. Balancing a real life with academia is truly a continuous balancing act. Howe also includes a good dose of impostor syndrome, which every PhD student fights. The realistic portrayal and the constant plot twists makes The Make-Up Test a pleasure to read. My compliments!

The Make-Up Test was an excellent book about second chances and allowing yourself to know that your feelings are your feelings and that's all that matters. Allison and Colin were a complicated pair with history. But once they got past their history and when they actually talked, they were magical together. I wish we got a tad more about Sophie and Allison's friendship, but in the end this was a chef's kiss of a book. I look forward to more from Jenny Howe in the future!

This was an absolutely delightful romance to read! I was excited on the premise alone, I mean academic rivals? Sign me up! I mean, having a confident, fat woman as our main character was amazing and I loved how bold she was. And Colin? A sweetie at heart! He was incredibly endearing, I mean they both were! This was just a true delight through and through.

What could be better than a romance novel that promises second chances, academic rivalries, and books!

This debut novel had a lot of things going for it. It had a strong female protagonist, body positivity, and it was set in academia. This was one of my most anticipated releases, it was offering up everything that I enjoy in a novel.

I am a reader who wants to love every book that I pick up. I want to be completely immersed in the characters’ lives and glued to the pages. Unfortunately, I didn’t fall in love with The Make-Up Test. I never really felt a connection to the characters. I should have. I wanted to. I gave it a fair shot, but for whatever reason, I never became truly invested in it. There was nothing wrong with it. Nothing that stood out or annoyed me. It should have checked off all my boxes, but when I fail to connect with the characters, the story ends up falling short for me.

The Make-Up Test was a well-written novel by a promising new author. While this novel didn’t captivate me as I had hoped it would, I would definitely read another book by Jenny L. Howe in the future.

*3 Stars

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

Fellow former (and current) English majors: I don’t know about you but it feels like I read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight a million times & any time (ok the *one* time) I see it mentioned in a book now I get a little dorky thrill of excitement ;) .

Jenny L. Howe’s The Make-Up Test comes hard with the literary references, the excitement over academia & thesis arguments, & the insecurities that lifestyle can breed.

It also offers a second chance romance story between two mid-twenties PhD students who first dated for 8 months in undergrad before the hero, Colin Benjamin, dumped the heroine, Allison, after betraying her academically.

Present-day Allison isn’t a Colin Benjamin fan, but Howe does capture how much he’s grown in two years & how he’s been tempered somewhat by his life experiences.

Allison does some of her growing on the book’s pages, as she navigates difficult family situations & another big blow-up with Colin, but in general she sometimes comes across as a little immature for me.

The Make-Up Test starts off strong but then gradually loses some of that with the conflict, which was a little 🤔, the hasty resolution, & then the lack of an epilogue. That always makes me feel not totally secure about a couple’s future.

There’s a lot to appreciate about this book—including its nuanced portrayal of Allison as “a fat woman,” as Howe writes in the Author’s Note, existing & flourishing in a space that often vilifies fatness (as the book makes it clear)—but overall the last part of the book leaves me a little unsettled.

Still, I think this author’s worth checking out & I’ll celebrate women in academia every day of the week.

3⭐️. Out 09/13.

CWs:
Please read a trusted reviewer’s notes about these as my notes weren’t exhaustive enough to include.

[ID: the ebook rests on a wooden desk. A line of yellow & red flowers, including sunflowers, is above the ebook.]

I'm giving this book 3.5/5 stars.

It was good but I think I've heard so much about it that I was expecting something a bit different? I don't know, but it just didn't work the best for me. Maybe it's me? Maybe it's the book? Maybe it's a bit of both.

Synopsis: Allison Avery has always had a plan. That's why she's a Claymore, pursuing her Ph. D. in medieval lit. The only kink in her plan? The ex-boyfriend who ruined her life is also in the program.

As always, here's my two stars and a wish...

1. Medieval lit/college life

I'm a forever student so I loved that this book centered around college and being at school and those once-in-a-lifetime experiences that you need to adjust from with undergrad.

2. Allison

I really like Allison, the main character. I don't know that she's the best friend in the world, but I liked her personality and thought she was a nice, strong character who didn't hold back.

My wish....

Man, I just could not get into Colin. He did Allison way too dirty in undergrad and I will never be able to understand how she was ever even able to look at him again. I think maybe that was my biggest issue with an otherwise good book. If you don't like the love interest, it's just not going to be your thing, you know?

Overall, I'm excited to see what Jenny Howe comes up with next and I'll absolutely read it. For debuts, it was a witty, fun story. It's a shame the love interest was not the best.

A sweet second chance romance set in the world of academia? Yes please.

Allison and Colin dated in college until he suddenly ended their relationship. However, when they end up in the same Ph.D program AND end up as TAs for the same professor they become rivals. That rivalry is taken one step further when the professor shares she can only take on one of them as an advisee. However, as they work together, they remember more and more why they dated in the first place.

I appreciated the author’s note prior to reading this about her intentions for including heavy topics to include fat shaming and fatphobia, and I thought those topics were handled beautifully. While reading Allison’s experiences, especially with her father, were challenging to read at times, reading the author’s note made those scenes feel so important and impactful. Allson was such a strong main character who managed to overcome so much trauma. Her growth throughout the book was incredible and I loved how she really found herself and came into her own here. I thought the romance was believable - it took a while for Allison and Colin to shift from rivalry to really trusting each other enough to try their relationship again. I appreciated the slower burn here because it felt needed. Overall, this was a great debut and I look forward to reading more from Jenny Howe.

Thank you to SMP Romance and OrangeSky Audio for the advance copies.

Love love love this book! Nerdy, fat-positive love story with rivals-to-lovers and second chance romance! It was important to see Allison’s relationship with Colin, where he loves her for her, as the counterpoint to her toxic relationship with her father. There’s no get healthy, get pretty makeover montage here, which was also incredibly validating as a fat reader- so often I read supposed fat-positive, inclusive romance books that hinge on some kind of improvement factor to get their happily ever after, and it can be discouraging. Jenny Howe is now my latest must-buy author - right up there with Olivia Dade!

Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, for an advanced Readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I had a hard time rating this one – because while I didn’t like it, I can see why others might. I’m giving this a 2 even though I had to ultimately DNF this book – not because the writing was bad, I think Howe’s writing is fine but mostly for the fact that for a book being marketed as a rom-com, it is very little rom (I ended up DNFing at 40%), and even less com.

Things you’ll find in this book:
- Second chance romance
- Academic Rivals - Only one spot for a TA position, two people wanting it.
- Single POV
- Plus-Sized Heroine
- External Fatphobia

Things I enjoyed:

I did enjoy the writing in and of itself. I did enjoy the fact that Allison was plus sized, and that this fact wasn’t hidden.

Things I didn’t enjoy:

There is no fat joy. While I understand that Allison’s life is in flux, and she has issues within the school and her family, in the 40% that I read, there is no pure moment of joy. She’s suspicious of Colin because he’s changed. But she refuses to talk to him about their break-up other than saying she doesn’t want to look back, but you don’t get the true why (until obviously later in a part I didn’t get to) which is odd seeing as this book is entirely in her POV.

It's frustrating to see Allison get in her own way throughout the book, with her TA position, when it’s obvious Colin and the professor want to help her, in her friendships, in her relationships. Everything is doom and gloom, and there is very little joy.

Even the moments she has with her roommate are shadowed by this misery cloud of her friend obviously trying to move on with her career and getting new friends.

Really, when I really pin it down, Allison isn’t all the likable, and neither was Colin. I wasn’t really rooting for them, and I got to a point where I didn’t really much care about their relationship or the story because there’s so little movement and character growth between them.

Overall:

I really wanted to like it. I really wanted to finish it, but even with the trigger warning at the start of the book, it wasn’t quite what I was hoping for. BUT I do think there is a subset of readers who would enjoy it – it just wasn’t for me.

Title: The Make-Up Test
Author: Jenny L. Howe
Genre: Romance
Rating: 3 out of 5

Allison Avery loves to win. After acing every academic challenge she’s come up against, she’s finally been accepted into her dream Ph.D. program at Claymore University, studying medieval literature under a professor she’s admired for years. Sure, grad school isn’t easy—the classes are intense, her best friend is drifting away, and her students would rather pull all-nighters than discuss The Knight's Tale—but she’s got this. Until she discovers her ex-boyfriend has also been accepted. Colin Benjamin might be the only person who loves winning more than Allison does, and when they're both assigned to TA for the same professor, the game is on.

What starts as a personal battle of wits (and lit) turns into all-out war when their professor announces a career-changing research trip opportunity—with one spot to fill. Competing with Colin is as natural as breathing, and after he shattered her heart two years ago, Allison refuses to let him come out on top. But when a family emergency and a late night road trip—plus a very sexy game of Scrabble—throw them together for a weekend, she starts to wonder if they could be stronger on the same team. And if they fall for each other all over again, Allison will have to choose between a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and what could be a twice-in-a-lifetime love.

I usually enjoy second chance romances. This one…the level of competitiveness between Allison and Colin was almost too much for me. Allison came across as almost hateful sometimes (to Colin and to any random person she didn’t like), sometimes despite the other person being perfectly nice to her. She was extremely judgmental and rarely made any effort to see anything from someone else’s point-of-view. I enjoyed the body positivity and Allison’s unapologetic views on her life, but she came across as very selfish, rude, and pushy.

Jenny L. Howe is a professor. The Make-Up Test is her debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

The Make-Up Test, on paper, has just what you want: second-chance, academic rivals to lovers romance. Unfortunately, it falls a bit flat with characters you don't really care about, and a romance that left me puzzled and honestly, a little bit bored.

The main issue I have with this book is that many of the relationships - both romantic and platonic - only seem to experience growth off-page. Allison (our main character, a grad student at Claymore studying medieval literature, seemed to make deep friendships with members of her grad student cohort, but as the reader, we didn't really get to see those friendships develop. They just kind of happened, and you're left to just go along with it without being given a reason.

The same is true for our hero, Colin. Colin is never really described as the hero you want to root or pine over in a romance, and he never really gave me a reason to want to love him. I found both him and Allison to be immature, with the inability to communicate AT ALL. I was left wondering, for most of the book, where the romance is or even when it would start.

The non-romance elements in the book almost seemed to take precedence: Allison's relationship with her best friend/roommate and her fraught relationship with her father, the latter of which is kind of but not really resolved, once again removing any sort of character growth we might get to see on page.

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

The Make-Up Test by Jenny L. Howe 📚

Cute cover-check! Adorable premise-check! Romance surrounded by the world of literature…check, check, check!! I’m totally reading it! This book started out very promising for me. It’s a second chance romance that pretty much turns into enemies to lovers. It’s also steeped in academia, specifically the world of English literature. I just couldn’t wait to read.

Allison Avery was left broken-hearted by Colin Benjamin right before graduating with her undergrad at Brown. Fast-forward a few years and Allison is now working towards her PhD. Who happens to be there and in the same program?? Yep!! None other than Colin…the man that shattered her heart. To make matters worse, the professor states she only has room for one, and so now they will be competing for the lone spot. Allison knows Colin can’t win this like he seems to win everything else. She’s ready….game on! The thing is-Colin is confusing her. His actions aren’t lining up with his behavior and words of the past. Does he still have feelings for her, or is she getting played so he can win?

This is a cute read. I liked it, but I didn’t love it as much as I was hoping to. I appreciated that the book touched on some important topics such as having a healthy self-image and self-worth. I also loved the flashbacks of Colin and Allison falling in love and of course all the English lit references! The Scrabble scene in the present is absolutely cuteness personified!!

What I didn’t love was that both MC’s seemed a little juvenile at times comparative to the age their characters were portraying. Also, there were some miscommunications throughout that could have been resolved very easily with a conversation or two, and “listening ears” as my former elementary teachers would say. All in all, It’s a quick read with a satisfying ending that will have you smiling at the incredible sweetness of it. If you love English lit, it’s definitely worth the read for the references and that Scrabble scene alone. 3.5/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.