Thank you to NetGalley for providing this advanced reader copy.

This book is set on a prestigious graduate school campus and its pages are filled with second chance romance with a competitor to lovers angle. Colin and Allison dated in undergrad and were the epitome of rivals, their relationship ended when Colin dumped Alison and her heart took a blow. Two years later they are in the same cohort with the same professor vying for a coveted research position. Their competitive sides definitely become a huge part of the plot and the unlikely romance that blossoms between them.

So from the get go I was very invested with this story I sat down and read it in a day because I loved the academic setting and the couple going from lovers to rivals back to lovers. This had so much going for it and I was all in on seeing their second chance romance really take off… but Colin. He’s kind of the worst.

He does some really bad and shady stuff to Alison. There’s no arguing that point but I really feel like he’s not worth it. Especially by the end I truly didn’t want her to end up with him at all. I really detested the guy and the endless descriptions of his knobby knees. He stole her intellectual property and repeatedly acted in ways that under minded her education and career prospects. I didn’t want to see her forgive him for essentially treating her badly in their first relationship then he came back two years later and did similar stuff to her again.

In this case I have to say that three time are not the charm. If someone ends a relationship once there’s probably a reason (even if it’s not a good one), but the continued break up and get back together isn’t a healthy dynamic for most people, let alone two people who clearly don’t handle their stress well. Whoever is Colin’s therapist he needs a better one who doesn’t let him plagiarize his girlfriends work without explaining it to her first at the very least.

For the average person who knows literally nothing about medieval literature I still didn’t think as a reader she should have forgiven him for taking her idea. Obviously later on Allison realizes he took it in “a different direction” and she cites the books he used versus the books she would have used but for most people that doesn’t mean a whole lot. He still looks like a terrible person, even if he only borrowed her title for his presentation. I’m sure to people in that field of study they would nod their heads and be able to explain the differences but to someone without that knowledge it just didn’t sit well with me.

Allisons relationship with Sophie is a complex one. They both bonded as roommates in undergrad over being plus sized (hooray for representation) but beyond that their friendship wasn’t developed enough in present day for me to care about Sophie. She isn’t in the book a ton and when she is they are usually arguing. For instance if I was having a small get together with my classmates and had prepared food and beverages and my roommate decided to invite her colleagues over and they consumed everything and just shrugged it off I would have lost my mind. Allison is fuming when it happens but she never brings it up to Sophie that that was a crappy thing to do, it’s just brushed under the rug. I don’t think either of them are very good friends to each other at all.

This one is a little more nitpicks but I really didn’t like the inclusion of the pandemic in the story. This is still such a big part of a lot of peoples lives and having it just sprinkled in for context just felt off. The pandemic didn’t have anything to do with the overarching plot so little comments about her carrying a mask in her purse or how awful school was online didn’t add the character depth I think the author was going for.

I was really excited for this book because it had a great premise and representation but I really didn’t like Colin. He didn’t change enough and the flashbacks of their relationship made me cringe. In the past he would correct peoples grammar and he treated Allison poorly. That’s not a very good love interest and not someone I was rooting for. When Sophie said “I don’t want to see you make the same mistakes your mom did with your dad” I felt that in my soul. He treats her poorly and she forgives him and I could see the character falling into the same cycle of abuse as her mom.

This was a cute read about a couple with a disastrous relationship that are forced to come back together again after 2 years to not only work together but compete against eachother for an academic position. While it was enjoyable to read, I think it would have been better served to be a dual POV book with chapters from Colins perspective as well. I feel like we didn’t really get to know him, and tbh he really seemed to suck the first time they dated, snd could have used a little more redemption to turn into the Colin 2.0 he supposedly is now

I received this book as an ARC from netgalley.
This book is a romcom of enemies-to-lovers and second chance. We meet a very lovable woman main character Allison, a heavier set academic woman with a fiery personality. Her journey for a second chance love with her ex Colin is full of emotional term-oil and an extreme attraction that can't be denied.

What I liked about the book:
I loved that the main character is not a tiny perfectly shaped miniature woman. We get to ready about a woman who is real sized.
I also love that the male main character is not also plus sized but a thinner "bonier" man.
I loved the way the author really went head first into family relationships and how some can be very toxic for mental health. How you don't have to keep them in your life just because they are blood.
I absolutely adore second chance romance.
I like how she tackles the growing strains of adult relationships, how friendships shift and chance.

What I didn't like about the book:
While the premise of the book is cute, I must admit I found many parts of the book long and drawn out. The author warns you of her love for medieval literature before the book begins. But, even with the warning I wasn't expecting lengthy histories and information that wasn't important to the overall plot. If you're a reader who doesn't care for those details then you might be skim reading some of this book.
This book definitely includes a lot of white shaming, if you're a white male who enjoys college you might not like this book.
The internal dialogue of this book was endless, I had to search for actual dialogue. I spent half the book in her head.
I had a hard time finding the main male character attractive when he was explained in sharp elbows, boney, and slender. It's just not my thing.
The Romance is fade-to-black.

Overall, some people will love this book and others will find it long and boring. It's probably and either or. I think most who love this book belong in a specific niche.

Absolutely a great read! I loved this book so much! Thank you for giving me this book in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely loved every bit of it!

This book is absolutely amazing. I really enjoyed the characterization of the FMC. I thought she was relatable, funny, and witty—I would recommend this to anyone. Love love love. One of my fav books of the year!

Allison and Colin have been in competition for scholarly awards for years. Now they are competing for a position as a research assistant in Medieval Literature, both on track to being professors. They were once romantically involved until Colin broke Allison’s heart. Now he’s trying to get her back.
This is a sweet story with plus size female main character who deals with a distant and insulting father.

Allison is working towards her Ph.D in medieval literature and unfortunately her college ex boyfriend Colin is in the same program. What is worse is that they are assigned to be TA’s for the same professor. To top that they find out they will have to compete for the spot and the chance to take a big trip with the professor. Will working together bring them closer or push them further apart.

I was not a fan of Colin. He did not come across as trustworthy.

This was a good book but I think I would have liked it better if Colin was more trustworthy or if I liked medieval literature. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

📚 ARC Review 📚

The Make-Up Test
Pub date: September 13, 2022
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ (3.7)

This is for all the Lit/English teachers out there!!!

Short synopsis:
Allison and Colin are college exes and they find themselves battling each other in a prestigious Ph. D. program in medieval literature. These two are known for being extremely competitive with each other, and it only gets worse when they find out they’re both assigned their TA positions with the same professor. Will all this forced proximity lead to more drama or a second chance romance??

~Review~
I enjoyed this book! It seemed to really drag up until Chapter 20 though, but after that I wanted to find out how it all wrapped up!

I think if you enjoy Ali Hazelwoods books, then you would be a fan of this book! Most of us love a powerful lead woman who isn’t afraid to speak her mind.

Allison & Colin are strong minded people who are not afraid to speak their truth. They have a questionable past which makes for an interesting read about their current relationship. However, they are not my favorite characters ever. I found their competitive nature with each other pretty toxic and frustrating.

Overall, this was a decent read! I would recommend you mark September 13 in your calendar if you found the above information slightly intriguing!

Read if you enjoy:
✏️ Second chance romance
✏️ Enemies to lovers
✏️ Toxic families
✏️ Ali Hazelwood books
✏️ Work place romance
✏️ Academia

In this lovers to academic rivals to lovers romance, Allison and Colin compete for a coveted PhD TA role. And by competing, I mean engaging in sexy sparring of words and remembering why they once fell in love. It's a fun, quick read and even more entertaining if you're interested in the world of academia.

This was a super cute read! I especially loved the fat rep and the academia setting! Girl power! I have to say that I wished the MMC would’ve apologized more and in a proper way for the multiple times he messer with Allison’s life. I did love his final groveling though! Ultimately, a fun, quick, and cute read!

The make-up test puts a spotlight on plus size women and everyday difficulties they face. Colin and Allison are so fun to read about. There is humor, academia, competition, romance, and even heartbreak. I really enjoyed that not everything was wrapped into a nice bow at the end. Relationships, familial and romantic, are messy. Sometimes with romance books everything is too easy and perfect - that just isn’t real life. I will say, I know nothing about medieval literature so there were several parts where I found myself confused but for the most part I was able to follow along fairly easily. Overall I’d give this book a 3.5 ⭐️.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and the author for an advanced copy of this book for my honest review.

I have mixed feelings about this book.. I thoroughly enjoyed the last ~30-40% of the book and thought Allison and Colin’s relationship was getting better but there were a lot of red flags for Colin for me. I think their banter was cuter and they started acting like a couple who could work things through. I do think the medieval literature parts of the book went over my head so that could make me dislike the book to an unfair advantage.

This was a great story with such a different premise, the details about pressure and competition during grad school was done in a fresh way. My only hang-up was with Colin, I truly loved Allison and I felt like he messed up one too many times for me, I couldn’t forgive him!

Hello friends! I was lucky enough to receive an eARC of The Make-up Test by Jenny Howe, her debut novel! I rated this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars!

I loved reading this book. We follow Allison as she enters her PhD program at Claymore University, eager to put her past behind her and focus on her future in medieval literature. Unfortunately for her, the past isn’t so easily forgotten. Her ex-boyfriend and rival Colin is in her same PhD program, and they’re both competing for the same advisee position with a prestigious professor. Can Allison and Colin look past their shared history? Or will the past repeat itself? Find out how they navigate this new terrain and relationship in this wonderful contemporary romance.

I thought Howe did an excellent job presenting a fresh take and really made you invested in the characters- there were times I was ready to strangle Colin myself! Not only that, but I love she placed this in the hard truth realities of academia. My only gripe is the ending felt rushed and I’m not sure Colin’s ending made sense with his truth throughout most of the book.

A big thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the chance to read this eARC!

Will be posted on instagram @navarro_books on September 9, 2022 in anticipation of the release

The Make-Up Test is a body-positive, enemies-to-lovers romance, As a fat girl myself, I appreciated the struggles Allison faced - with accepting herself as-is while dealing with the negativity from the outside world (including her own father). However, I feel that the story got bogged down in the details. There was way too much descriptive language and I found myself rolling my eyes at some of the comparisons. Also, the references to medieval literature went over my head. I'm more of a contemporary fiction afficianado. Nonetheless, I'd like to thank St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this digital ARC.

A good, quick read romance with fun (for me at least) references to Medieval literature.

I do have to say, though, that I might be showing my age (47), where I was a little frustrated with Allison. I realize Colin was supposed to be the evil ex-boyfriend, but I found him nothing if not charming, flirty, and right off the bat not seemingly with ulterior motives., For me, Allison read a bit narcissistic and not willing to listen or keep an open mind. My late-forty year old self kept wanting to reason with her.

Despite my personal experience (?), I would recommend the book. It was a nice take on the pressures of growing up with an un-supportive, fat shaming adult, and the will and want to prove your worth to yourself and find and make your place in world.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I wanted to LOVE this book, but it has a few issues. 1) There is a lot of mention of medieval scripts and well, it makes sense given their jobs, it was a lot - and I don't mind medieval - and it was still a lot. Perhaps if you're really into medieval, this might be perfect for you. 2) The dude sucks. He's okay and I think some of the things he's done are to make it more enemies-to-lovers, but he was her ex-boyfriend. He was sort of a snake. He's very one-dimensional. He reminds me of the men that you date but you really shouldn't and then you let them walk all over you and fifteen years later you're like "huh, this man sucks". He is intimidated by her smarts which is a red flag in my opinion. I don't like it. 3) The pandemic is referenced in this book which is crazy and I don't mind references to current topics but it's still weird because of how LITTLE it's mentioned, why include it at all?

I'd say it's a 2-3 stars. It has some stuff but it's not perfect.

I received an ARC of this through netgalley. I enjoyed the book for the most part but I just didn’t really like Colin (the love interest). He seemed so whiney and insecure which is a personal turn off. I loved the graduate school setting and the references to midieval literature but did not like the constant references to the main characters weight. I just wish size could be a non-issue. Over all I liked the book and would read more from the author!

I went into this thinking it would be a quick and easy, romantic read. What I ended up with was an intelligent, smartly written, thought provoking book I was not anticipating.
The academic rivalry/second chance romance trope may actually be one of my favorites now.
This book had plus-size representation done well and done respectfully. It dealt with emotional childhood/family trauma and bullying from her father in regards to her weight. In this regard, I rather appreciated that although it did affect her, she did show shame in her body or her weight and was proud of who she was.
I was immediately impressed when PMDD was casually mentioned in a thought from our FMC but just in passing. PMDD isn't a widely discussed condition and it should be. So, although it was never gone into, I do think it would lead to some readers possibly researching to see what it actually is. In turn, this helps to elevate the discussion on women's health and take the taboo out of talking about cycle health.
The relationship between Allison and Colin was well rounded and felt real and relatable. It didn't just skim over their past but had them unpack the issues they had in their relationship and allowed communication which opened up the second chance.
I appreciated the development in not just the main characters but her school mates and her family, as well as the grandfather of Colin's. The only one I had any issue with was Sophie. What we did get to know of her was alright, but I do think there could have been a bit more depth there?
It touched on real topics, such as the PMDD, dementia, failure, emotional traumas, and the pressures of academia.
Overall, 4.5 stars. I haven't had a romance/RomCom have such a thought provoking effect on me and I applaud Howe for her execution of this and for producing an amazing piece of work.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC eBook in exchange for my honest review.

Rom com focused on medieval literature students who reconnect after a tough breakup. The story was fine, but it felt hard to connect to the main character and her issues with her best friend or her father as it seemed the storylines were discussed randomly at times. Kudos though to the body positivity and the main character being an intellectual rather.