The Make-Up Test is a second chance romance set in academia, with a little enemies to lovers within that second chance. I really appreciated Allison as the main character, a very intelligent 23 year old who, while larger in size, actually loves herself and is very body positive in her own appearance. I do think she could be a little "everyone's against me" self absorbed in her thinking (ie stealing something she'd worked so hard for even tho technically it was an even playing field), but she is still a heroine we can all root for to succeed.

Overall the story had a lot of promise, being full of some of my favorite tropes, but the relationship between Allison and Colin just fell a little flat for me. While I do believe he was working on himself and had changed after their original breakup, he was just portrayed as such a bad ex boyfriend that I almost wished this was solely an enemies to lovers story instead of adding the element of second chance romance.

In the end, tho, this was a quick and enjoyable read - 3.5/5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's for the digital ARC for review.

I am not sure how I feel about this book. My first issue is that the main character is in a PhD program but her junior year of high school was during the pandemic. I guess it takes place in the future? The break-up relied heavily on the miscommunication trope, and it was a little childish. Well-written but just wasn’t my favorite.

ARC thanks to @netgalley

This was such a cute and inspiring read. first off the plus sized representation was on point and done very tastefully. I love the academic enemies to rivals vibe the author does this so well. The main characters have lots of depth and internal struggles which make them relatable and the banter was very amusing. This book is great for lovers of the love hypothesis, soulmate equation, how to fail at flirting and book lovers. Because just like the examples I listed the main characters demonstrate very well that you can have and happy ending and still advance and succeed at your career too.

This grad-school romance has some Anne Shirley/Gilbert Blythe vibes in its better moments but it the plot is a little sleepy and I wish that the side characters were given a bit more time on the page. There are probably some good inside jokes for Medieval Lit people in here. #NetGalley #ARC

The Make-Up Test by Jenny Howe covers a lot of my favorite tropes: second chance romance, enemies to lovers, with a side of forced proximity, and plus size representation

Allison Avery is a hard-working and determined grad student who is starting a TA position with a professor who teaches her dream subject. However, quickly Avery find herself in an unlikely situation when it is announced that there will be two TA positions and the empty seat is being vine to Colin Benjamin. Colin and Allison dated through undergrad but split due to Colin’s competitive personality (and other reasons that justified a break up).

I was really looking forward to this book. I ADORED Allison’s character and how she was plus size but it wasn't sold as "she's plus size its amazing anyone loves her" which is what you usually get. I loved that she was an academic. I really didn't like Colin's character. His sweaters and hair gel had more personality IMO.

Overall, this is a good enjoyable book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Being so far removed from this stage of life, I had a hard time relating to the vibe of this story. It’s well written with fat positive representation. I just couldn’t connect.

Thank you for the ARC to read and review..

Read if you like:
❤️ Quirky Romances
❤️Heartfelt Stories
❤️ Second Chance Romances

This one was ahhhhhhhhhhhh soooo good! I loved every minute of it and completely devoured it!

I love that we get a MC that is so smart and educated and that this is leaned into as it is tough to be a highly educated and career driven women and date.

I loved how this story brought her around to her path for her education and career and added in romance but didn’t diminish her strengths where other romances have diminished the characters when they were seeking love and career.

This one also has several TW areas discussed so be sure to check those out prior to reading.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Make-Up Test by Jenny L. Howe is a solid debut novel by the author and is a second chance romance with a flavour of the forced proximity trope. Overall, this was an easy read but I found that I didn't really root for either main character and didn't really understand their history or attraction to one another.

Allison Avery and Colin Benjamin (exes from college) find themselves in the same graduate program and are ultimately forced to compete for a coveted TA position with a professor who teaches Allison's dream area of study. I was really looking forward to this book as I like books set in a professional setting - especially an academic setting. Overall, this was enjoyable but I felt like neither character's motivations were very fleshed out. The author's attempt to explore body image issues through a confident Allison is laudable though which I why I rate this book higher than I would.

Enemies to lovers- I love to see it! Allison and Colin are both competing against each other in an academic setting. With books like this, you know there is some underlying tension (if you know what I mean) and its always so fun to see what happens as the characters realize they have feelings for each other. Give me a forced proximity trope mixed in and I'm good to go. Thank you to the publisher for giving me a chance to read a digital ARC of this book!

Allison hasn't seen Colin since they broke up at the end of her sophomore year in college. Now she's surprised to find that he is a first year PhD student in the same program she is starting. And since she last saw him, he has switched to her specialization and wants to work with the same advisor she does.

This felt much more enemies-to-lovers than just a second chance romance. There was more anger and hard feelings than sadness and regret. Even halfway through the book, I didn't really see a connection between Allison and Colin. They thrived on competition, but not necessarily in a way that brought them together.

I was impressed with much of the accuracy in the description of graduate school. But I was caught off guard by the timing of the pandemic. Allison said that her year of online learning was in junior year of high school, meaning that the current year for the book would be fall 2026.

This is very much a new adult romance. The characters read young and didn't grow as much as I would hope. I recommend it for those who enjoy the college setting and like a happily for now.

Thank you to SMP Romance and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. These opinions are my own.

3.5 stars rounded up

Loved the academic setting and watching Colin and Avery go from lovers to enemies back to lovers. Even with the rivalry.

While I related to Avery’s view of the world as a plus size woman who also has issues with her dad, that’s where it ended for me. I struggled a little with her always jumping to conclusions, but I understood the WCS lists.

I also enjoyed seeing the growth of friendship between Avery and her best friend Sophie as they both ventured into adulthood and how that might change their paths. Avery making grad school friends and teaching while Sophie is a badass plus size fashion designer. So much fun getting glimpses into them.

Rating: 2.5 stars

This one really spoke to my English major heart. One thing I loved about taking English Lit courses were the discussions that took place. It was interesting to see what others would think about while reading a certain passage. That part of this book didn’t disappoint me. The mass amount of miscommunication is what did and how most of the characters were not-so-great.

The book is told from one point-of-view and it comes from Allison Avery. She has worked hard in her life to get where she wanted to be and had a caring mother and friend who were there for her. Although with her mother, Allison did take it upon herself to care for her more than not. I definitely could understand wanting to help your mother in any way. I liked that quality about her. Her relationship with her father is very strained throughout the book. It’s been an unhealthy relationship and I can understand why Allison wanted to set boundaries with him. Boundaries are very important.

The other characters, besides her friend, were just okay. Most were just dillweeds and didn’t have any redeeming qualities.

Colin, the love interest, was fine but he wasn’t what I wanted nor liked. He was the reason for many miscommunications but wanted Allison to accept his apology and be okay with everything that transpired between them. She also was a bit selfish in some of her choices by not wanting him to apply for anything that she was applying for. That’s not very supportive and obviously had already caused issues in their relationship. Despite all this, they did have cute moments together (loved the scrabble scene). I also liked the little flashbacks of their relationship to help build into the present.

I liked the important talks about boundaries, toxic family relationships, and body positivity. I think most were done well but I didn’t like how the family one concluded. It kind of felt like an easy way out for the dad.

Overall, this was an okay to moderately fine read.

The Make-Up Test, the debut book for Jenny L. Howe, was a sweet story about Allison and Colin, two graduate students who were duking it out to be the best of their class and be selected for the chance to work directly with their professor in a 1 on 1 setting. Allison and Colin had a previous relationship that was destroyed when Colin betrayed Allison and took a prestigious award that Allison had been working towards for months. Fast forward a couple of years and Colin joins the same program as Allison, daring to go as far as even selecting the same genre of program in literature. It is through being forced into working together that the two characters rekindle their feelings for each other....or do they?

Overall, this was a charming story, but I did have a hard time connecting with the characters. I did appreciate some of the topics you don't always read about such as fat-shaming and plus-size characters, but overall, I don't know that it was entirely relevant to the story.

I always appreciate reading a book from a debut Author. Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

3.75 out of 5 stars rounded up
I give a book 3 stars if it was readable and gave me all the elements I would expect from the genre. Howe's The Make Up Test was your average second chance romance but it did the elements well. It never felt like it was just checking off the elements.
Probably what helped elevate the rating is the inclusion of a plus sized MC. Howe did a good job of including a plus sized character and not patting themselves on the back for doing so. The inclusion of a women in higher education also pushed the rating higher. I could not give it a start 4 stars though because it did shake up the genre a bit it didn't do anything to wow me.
My two big complaints is the dating sucks and men sucks because some man hurt me boohoo schtick and Colin's constant character descriptions. Having your heart broken by someone you have given your whole heart too especially when it appears to have nefarious reasons sucks but I am over it being a story element, that is totally on me. I know it speaks to others I have just read quite a few recently and it's getting a little old. As for Colin's character descriptions, I think they were included to showcase how different they are physically but we need some synonyms or something.
I would recommend this book to someone who wanted a plus size romance book that was readable but nothing that would become their next all time favorite. It was overall ok but never wow'd me.

I requested The Make-Up Test because Ali Hazelwood recommended it and because of its academic setting. Unfortunately, The Make-Up Test is driven by lack of communication and the main characters have little to no chemistry.

Almost all of the drama of this novel could have been avoided had the love interest, Colin, been honest and communicated with Allison. Their first break up and the third act break up could have been avoided entirely.

Colin is not a swoon worthy character, nor is he a good person. His reason for what he did before they broke up the first time was insufficient and, personally, I think Allison deserved better. Their third act breakup was just ridiculous.

I can’t tell you how many times Colin’s hair gel and cardigans were mentioned. I also can’t think of a more unattractive smell to smell like than hair gel. Yuck.

In their time apart, Colin becomes a better person. Instead of making Allison cower to fatphobic comments, he suddenly became some approximation of a white knight. This change wasn’t earned, nor was it necessary. Colin should have been a better person from the beginning and not expect Allison to put up with verbal abuse.

One of the only interesting relationships in this novel was Allison’s friendship with Sophie. There comes a time in every friendship where careers and growing families pull friendships apart and force them to adapt to new realities. I would have loved to see Allison and Sophie try to navigate their developing friendship, but instead Howe turns Sophie into a terrible friend through her actions and her (correct) opinions regarding Colin.

The Make-Up Test also briefly touches on strained and toxic familial relationships. I applauded Allison’s choices regarding her father, but Howe included a slight redemption for him then never develpped it further making it completely irrelevant and, again, not earned.

Overall, The Make-Up Test was a disappointing romance with no chemistry, terrible people, and lack of communication as the primary source of tension.

This book sounded like one I would typically love - enemies to lovers and second chance romance? Two of my favorite tropes. However, I struggled with how competitive they were. It really messed with my ability to enjoy the book like I wanted too.

This was cute and I had a good time. I do think it could be greatly improved by being dual pov. I felt like we were in the dark for everything colin did and does a disservice to the book.

I received an arc through netgalley.

Thank you netgalley for letting me read this advanced readers copy in exchange for my completely honest review! I loved Allison, but Colin I was very unsure about like 50 percent of the time. I think I just was never sure if I could truly trust him. Also the twist and turns at the end of this really threw me. I did feel like the end was a little rushed but it still overall was a good book! It even had some smut to spice it up a little bit!

This novel was just okay-really not memorable or engaging. The problems that a main character, Allison, has are over related and repeated seemingly to add to the plot but really added to my total dislike of her. I just could not connect with her nor care about how things would turn out.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Make-Up Test by Jenny Howe is a second chance, enemies to lovers romance with a side of forced proximity, and plus side representative.

Allison Avery is a hard-working and determined grad student who is starting a TA position with a professor who teaches her dream subject. However, quickly Avery find herself in an unlikely situation when it is announced that there will be two TA positions and the empty seat is being vine to Colin Benjamin. Colin and Allison dated through undergrad but split due to Colin’s competitive personality (and other reasons that justified a break up).

I was really looking forward to this book. I ADORED Allison’s character but did NOT like Colin’s character. I thought he was rude and EXTRA competitive. I liked how he tried to win back Allison but still wished he did more.

The writing style wasn’t my fav and I couldn’t get into the past/present style but the last half I got used to it and enjoyed it!!

Overall, this is a good enjoyable book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.