This book was just a big miss for me. I thought about putting it down so many times but I persevered...and it was not worth it. I found it incredibly repetitive which stopped me from getting sucked into the story. The writing was unnecessarily fluffy. The characters were just plain boring, they had no depth. Take Colin for example. They kept saying he's changed, he's different, he's not the same man as before. Ok...but how? I still don't understand what caused it? Oh and all that winking drove me crazy. I couldn't feel any chemistry between Allison and Colin - and the silly winks did not help.

On the bright side, if you like medieval literature, you would probably enjoy this book!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC for this book!

Rating: 3.5-4 stars

The Make-Up Test is like a Taylor Swift album: fun, clever, and full of cardigans. There's a little heartbreak, a little romance, and a whole lot of sass.

Romance gets a bad rap in the bookish world for not being "real literature" or whatever, and I'll be the first to admit I tend to read romance when I need something mindless and light and fluffy, but I started reading page 1 of Jenny L. Howe's debut and thought, "this girl knows how to write." Even without reading her bio, you can tell she has writing and literature professor, not because her story is cerebral and pretentious, but because her use of language is so skillful and purposeful. I'm definitely a left-brained, STEM kind of girl, but there's a part of me that's a huge language nerd who loves thinking about words and things like sentence structure. And that part of me was definitely geeking out a little bit over how well-written The Make-Up Test was. I never go into a contemporary romance expecting anything more than decent writing. (That might be an unfairly low bar, but it's true.) So when I picked up The Make-Up Test and found such masterful writing, I was essentially the human equivalent of the heart-eyes emoji.

Allison is such a great protagonist: sharp, whip-smart, and entirely unapologetic about who she is. Colin isn't necessarily my favorite love interest, but he's cute enough. But the banter. THE BANTER. I love clever things and the humor in The Make-Up Test was totally on-brand for me. I mean, the quips, the one-liners, the internal dialogues, I love it all.

I love second-chance romances (thank you, Mr. Wentworth,) and I love academic rivals-to-lovers (thank you, Gilbert Blythe), so a combination of (academic rivals-to-) lovers-to-academic rivals-to-lovers is the magic combination for me. The romance was cute and heartwarming, and I am ridiculously glad we didn't get a ton of unnecessary drama. My one quibble with the romance is that I felt like the conflict (aka the "why can't they be together now?"), both in the past and present, didn't quite have the weight that it needed to carry the story. Like, it was believable, it just felt flimsy? I'm also not really a fan of how rushed things are at the end.

The Make-Up Test is the nerdy, quirky and sharp-witted romance I never knew I needed. It gets a little pedagogic at times, but Jenny L. Howe's love for language and medieval literature shine through. Her excitement for stories from the Middle Ages is palpable and almost makes me want to dig out my copy of Canterbury Tales and give Chaucer another chance. (Almost being the key word, here.) It might take me a few more stories to convince me to try wade through Middle English again, but I'll definitely be reading whatever Jenny L. Howe has next for us.

The Make-Up Test is a romance that features Allison and her ex/rival Colin. They’ve both been chosen to aide for a professor within their graduate program, but then the professor drops a bomb on them. She will only be able to keep one of them on as an aide/advisee and Allison and Colin only have two months to show her who deserves the spot. One big knot in the string: Allison and Colin have major history that is sure to complicate the competition.

Some tropes: discovering who you are, exes, rivals, forced proximity.

I love Allison! I see a lot of her qualities, both good and bad, in myself. I appreciate, as a curvy woman, how her size is included in the story, but it isn’t the whole of the story or anything to do with her character arc. I love her journey to figuring out who she is outside of the academia and life that she grew comfortable with at Brown. I thoroughly enjoy reading characters get uncomfortable and come through it shining and Allison did just that.

Descriptions and imagery are wonderful and incredibly well-written. The way Howe wrote about Colin’s smile near the beginning of the book had me absolutely swooning for him and I don’t think I’m even supposed to like him yet!

I was so invested in the story that I felt Colin’s betrayal just as keenly as Allison did. That’s how immersive Howe’s writing is and how well-done her plot is.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for the e-ARC and the opportunity to read and review The Make-Up Test. I adored every second of reading this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a well-written romance! Overall, it’s a 5/5 for me.

Allison and Colin were loves at undergrad. Colin broke up w/ Allison unexpectedly and broke her heart. She was barely hanging on for awhile. Needless to say- she'd be happy to never set eyes on him again.
When Colin walked into Allison's graduate program, now studying the exact same thing as her, she is livid. How dare this man try to schmooze her life again?
Then they are thrust to work together under the same fabulous professor as co-TAs. Competition ensues and Allison is bound determined to come out on top.
Allison is a smart, funny, well-read plus-size woman. I love to see women of all sizes just living their lives in romance novels and I love when an author can make that happen organically (as opposed to forcing it just to check a box).

The setting was fun and I enjoyed Allison's development and seeing her stand up for herself. There’s some steam and some fun banter, which just so happen to be two of my favorite things.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this novel. I am rating this book based the stars due to lack of time to leave a full review. #NetGalley #TheMakeupTest

This book was just okay. I've read academia romance books that are much more engaging and entertaining.

Jenny L. Howe’s debut novel, The Make-Up Test, is excellent. I had so much fun reading the story that I consumed the whole thing in one sitting, which, unfortunately, meant that I was really tired the next day.

The story sets up an interesting career conflict between two former lovers. Allison and Colin are grad students in the same program and they’re competing for the same opportunity. Before they were grad students, they were college students in love but also, unbeknownst to one of them, already in competition.

Allison is one damaged lady. She has an ugly relationship with her deeply abusive father. She suffers from superhero syndrome and majorly fails to communicate with people who are in her corner. She also drinks far too much, bordering on alcoholism.

Colin is a lost soul who, because he doesn’t know what he wants, latches on to things other people value. Perhaps he’s hoping to value those things too but inevitably his desire for *something* turns into a competition with the people he cares about.

The characters are fun and you’ll root for them and the growth Howe allows them to experience. But you might also root for them both to get a significant amount of therapy because they really need it.

This debut is lovely. Howe’s story and character arcs are believable, her characters flawed but appealing. I’d like to see the author write a slightly more idealized world, where her fat protagonist isn’t walking around with a big chip on her shoulder. Yes, the world is as unkind as Howe portrays it but sometimes it’s also wonderful to pretend that it isn’t, that everyone is just out there looking for love and maybe, eventually finding it.

Undoubtedly this fun read is the first of many great books by Jenny L Howe. I encourage you to pre-order The Make-Up Test from your favorite indie bookstore (or ask your library to stock it and put yourself at the head of the waitlist!).

The Make-Up Test by Jenny Howe is scheduled to release on September 13, 2022.

I received a digital ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

In chapter one, Colin is described:
"One of his spindly ankles sat upon his equally spindly knee--there was a reason she used to jokingly call him Ichabod Crane...
So where is the body positivity? He's constantly referred to as spindly and gangly and knobby.

Allison is hard to relate to - she doesn't care if, during their dancing session, she bowls everyone else over. She takes Colin's laptop and while I understand the scene is supposed to be funny, Allison just comes off rude and they both seem childish. And also, what kind of student doesn't carry around a laptop in this day and age??

Now, the ending. The fact that Allison decides not to pursue a report of plagiarism against Colin was infuriating. Seriously? "If you had one great idea, you'll make another" is BULLSHIT and I can't believe academics would use that as an excuse to not report plagiarism. It pissed me off so much.

And this break up was too similar to their breakup prior to the start of the book. Did Colin learn anything? Did Allison? I don't believe so.

Thank you to St. Martin Griffin's for the eARC of this book!

I enjoyed this book! The writing was easy and flowed well - I read it in more or less one sitting. It was a fun summer read.

That being said, I found the romance the most boring part of this? As someone who did study medieval texts in university I was more interested in that part of the book, and hearing the MC talk about her research and ideas and stuff. I found Colin Benjamin kind of boring. I wasn't swooning over him or anything. He was fine? But I would have been okay if he wouldn't have been there at all.

This book is probably closer to a 3 stars for me, however I'm giving it an extra star because it was INCREDIBLY refreshing to have a fat MC in romance who is portrayed realistically and respectfully. When she was talking about not fitting in those chairs with the fold-over desktops? I felt that in my soul. Her weight was treated as a non-issue in a way that I've only ever really seen in the Brown Sisters trilogy by Talia Hibbert. I think it's very rare to see this rep and I really appreciate Jenny L. Howe's addition to this rep! I'm looking forward to what she writes next - hopefully I'll connect better to those romances!

This read had me all over the place. The first half of the book was a little too slow for me. I didn't think I was going to like it. Then I flew through the rest of the book in an evening.
A romance set in the world of academia, we follow our plus size protagonist Allison and her ex Colin as they meet again to compete for a spot in a literature PhD program. It's a little bit of an enemies to lovers/second chance/ slow burn mix. I loved the character development. These two were so frustrating sometimes but you get to see them grow.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I spent the majority of this book screaming about how these characters were not right for each other and too insecure to be together, but Lowe pulled it together enough in the end that it wasn’t a complete disaster. Although, I really wish she hadn’t called the male love interest “bony” quite as often as she did because all I could picture was a skeleton man. 😂

Also, while this definitely read like a debut, I think Lowe has a lot of potential and I love to see the plus size representation!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I wasn't able to finish this one. The male protagonist was such a loser I couldn't root for them to get together at the end. Maybe he improved more than 30% into the book. However, who he was that first 30% was enough.

I love romances set in an education setting. This was one that I was really quick to request. Could not put it down!

In The Make-Up Test, we meet Allison, who is living her dream being in a PhD program for medieval literature underneath a professor she's admired for years. Unexpectedly, she runs into her ex who broke her heart in undergrad, Colin, on the first day. What is he doing here, a medieval lit major, when it wasn't his thing? They're both assigned to TA the same class and have to compete for the one open advisee spot underneath their professor.

Things I liked about this: Allison is plus sized and not ashamed of herself at ALL. She knows who she is and what she wants. I liked her roommate, too.

Things I did not like: Colin Benjamin. Nothing he did or said made me think he was worthy of Allison. I did not like the story line with Allison's dad.

It was not a terrible read, but it was not the best. I'd definitely read more from this author again in the future.

Allison earns admittance to her dream graduate program only to find that her ex-boyfriend, who bested her for an undergraduate academic honor, not only has enrolled in the same program but also will be competing for the sole advising space open with her favorite professor. Are Colin attempts to rekindle their friendship a signal that he has changed or a nefarious attempt to derail her ambitions?

This is a likable romance, especially for readers interested in body-positive characters and nerd culture. The banter/dialogue is a particular strength. Allison’s internal narrative is a bit too repetitive for me, but I don’t read many romances so all the swooning may be a romance trope readers expect. Perhaps unsurprisingly since female empowerment is a central theme of this romance, the female characters are more convincingly delineated than the male ones, especially the secondary male characters, who are flat and one-dimensional. The central conflict is mostly plausible, although I can image some book club debate as to the overall viability of Allison and Colin’s relationship. In short, THE MAKE-UP TEST earns strong marks as a debut romance.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. I read this book and was really hoping for something closer to The Hating Game but this never quite got there. I found Allison annoying at times but also understood her more since one of my best friends is a former PhD candidate for medieval literature. The actions of Colin in competition with Allison were abhorrent especially stealing a prize and a title of her work with no regard for her. He seems to be growing more near the end of the book but I would have dropped his ass long ago. If you want hate to love, this is ok but not the best in the niche.

This was cute! And I loved the representation but I just didn’t vibe with the MMC at ALL. I don’t know what it was but he just wasn’t for me.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this ARC ✨I was honored to be given the opportunity to read this and give my honest thoughts about it.

This book is actually a hard one to rate and review because there were things that were both good/not great about it, in my personal opinion. First of all, I do have to say first & foremost that I loved the representation of having a “bigger” girl as the lead character. As a plus-sized female myself, I related to a lot of her feelings about her body. This aspect alone gets a huge bonus in the rating for me! Something that kind of was off-putting to me though, was some of the writing style (using parenthesis a BUNCH when describing extra details about something), and the amount of times that I just felt like some of the aspects of the story were unnecessarily trying to be too “woke”. You can tell the author is more liberal minded, and that’s perfectly fine 100%. Just felt annoyed about some of the constant pronouns/COVID/political talk. The story could’ve done without it IMO.

I also didn’t really find any of the characters lovable, although I did want Allison to succeed with every fiber in my being. Colin was fine, but he just isn’t really my type so I wasn’t swooning over him or anything. I did like the family dynamics though as I felt that aspect can be super relatable. Allison’s mom reminded me of my mom because she’s always trying to see the best in people too - even when they’re toxic.

Overall, I give a 3/5 stars 🌟 the ending was wonderful.

Allison and Colin have always competed in class. When they dated in their undergrad it helped with their passion for each other as well……until it doesn’t. Two years after a messy break up Colin and Allison are once again competing for a coveted spot in their graduate medievalist lit program. As the competition heats up, so does their feelings for each other but will the past repeat itself? Or will they be able to overcome their grudges to found something new?

This was cute and a fun plus size rep book. Though I honestly think that I personally would not enjoy a man like Colin I can appreciate a man that apologizes and a couple that grows together and learns.

Hmmm...I have a lot of conflicting feelings on this one. I loved the English lit academia backdrop and feeling your way through the transition from undergrad to graduate school. I really liked seeing Allison's academic process develop and change.

However, the biggest draw back for me was a really important one: I didn't believe these two as a couple. They just didn't feel like a couple DESTINED for each other, which is what I want out of a romance. I just couldn't piece together why they would want to get back together since neither of them seemed to have changed that much.

Overall, this is a 2.5 star read for me. As much as I wanted to love it, it just fell flat in my opinion.