This book was adorable and a great rendition of the enemies-to- lovers trope. This book bleeds character and research that is authentic, timely, and enjoyable throughout. The peek into medieval literature accompanied by second-chance romance gives the book good pacing, its insightful delineation from typical romance novels, and helps Allison lift off the page. While the romance and Collin's character overall lack the steam and swoon-worthy lines to make this a bestseller, it will still be a standout that fans of Emily Henry’s Book Lovers will definitely be drawn toward. The book addresses fat phobia, academia’s hypocrisy (sexism predominantly) and chosen families with accessible, but detailed nuance. A wonderful four stars.

There is so much great stuff about this book. The glimpse at grad school, the discussion of fatphobia , the unresolved relationship the main character, Allison, has with her dad. The grad school dynamics and Chaucer snippets and did I mention the grad school stuff? I really loved so much about the book. Which is why it’s frustrating that the least successful part of the book for me was the romance. It’s not even that I disliked Colin as a character. But the second chance romance didn’t work for me, and it didn’t seem like a healthy relationship. I wanted Allison to go to therapy so badly throughout the book. Granted, she’s 22 or 23 and is at a big transition point. But so much of what she sought out in Colin didn’t seem to be positive attributes of his so much as what she was lacking from other people. I felt like Allison deserved someone better suited for her, who was better at communicating. I get why she dated Colin in college. And I can even see the draw during the book. But ten years down the line, I’m not convinced that he’s who’s going to make Allison happiest and that instead she clung to the familiar.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am a sucker for grad school/academia romances, so this was right up my alley. If you enjoyed The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood and A Brush with Love by Mazey Eddings, then The Make-Up Test is for you!

This second chance romance had intense literary debate, tension, swoon worthy scenes, and complicated relationships. I loved the academic rivalry between Allison and Colin and the whole story kept me wanting more. It had great character development and humour throughout. Howe’s writing style is fantastic and I can’t wait to read more from her in the future.

Thank you NetGalley, Jenny Howe, and St. Martin’s Press for providing this ARC!

CW: emotionally abusive parent, death of a parent, fat-shaming/fatphobia, getting brutally fucked over twice by your ex (and not in a hot way)

Okay, I know I've been generous with my romance ratings lately, but hear me out: y'all like The Hating Game and The Love Hypothesis, right? How about we take the two main elements of those books - enemies-to-lovers competing for a respected position in their field + an academia setting - and add a second chance romance between an intelligent, ambitious plus-sized heroine who's comfortable in her skin and her ultra bright, cutthroat but sensitive ex-boyfriend, and a competition between the two exes for the lone spot in a prestigious medieval literature PhD program? Does The Make-Up Test have your attention yet?

Good, because this book is just as good as it sounds. It pleasantly surprised me. Both books I just referenced set a high bar for their respective tropes, and The Make-Up Test easily matched, if not surpassed those bars. It's a fun romcom with a lot of depth and it's a stand-out in the genre. It's filled with medieval literature references that, if you didn't pay attention much in your high school English classes like me or if you're just not familiar with that niche genre, you'll be lost. But nonetheless, I was fascinated by the references and I fell into a rabbit hole researching everything that was mentioned.

I love how Allison doesn't let her body define her; she's unapologetically proud of her curves and stays calm and strong against bullies. She's a respectable, iconic heroine with healthy self-esteem and a brilliant mind and you'll wish you could be friends with her. She's someone with some much love and light in her heart and deserves a partner who treats her well. Which, oh boy...

I should warn y'all - Colin's, uhh... how should I phrase this? Colin's a dick. He's a pretentious, obnoxious, candy-ass little dick and there's a high probability you'll DNF this early on or dislike this book because of him. Personally, despite how his character development rounds him out to a kindhearted, gentle lover at the end, I still hate him and he's the petty reason why I'm giving this a 4.5 instead of a full 5. Not sorry. Fuck this guy.

Also, this was Howe's debut?! Stop. Hands down, my favorite part of this book was the writing - it's so meticulously crafted and polished, the humor is easy, the characters are empathetic and strong, and the conflict is natural and believable. If anything, this makes me incredibly hyped for her second book. Add her to your "auto-buy" list ASAP! She's an author to watch out for.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 / 5

Thank you so much St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Pub date: September 13, 2022

I really, really wanted to like this book. But I just didn’t.

The sincerity of the author’s note preceding this book makes me think that she’s probably someone I would get along with well in person. Yet, as an author… I don’t think she’s for me.

I struggled the most with the overall writing quality. Most of the time all the characters, even the main character, fell flat. The whole “show, don’t tell” motto is sometimes overstated, but this book desperately needs it applied. As the reader, I’m told tidbits about the characters. Things they’ve done, said, felt. What they like, what they don’t. But we don’t see this exhibited by the characters’ choices of action or speech much of the time. And the few moments where we are given an almost-taste of depth, the writing style jolted me completely out the story. There are so many instances of a fact being given in parentheses, like an aside to the reader, that I never could lose myself in the book. I was constantly being reminded that I was being told a story. These moments are so egregious that, more than once, it even occurred multiple times on the same page.

But beyond the writing, what about the story itself? Girl and boy meet, boy breaks girl’s heart, and after some time, they meet again, not quite who they were before, and that is where we begin.

I like the premise. Time and life experience shapes everyone, but sometimes so much more than you expect. Especially because, as is true in this book, time and life experience don’t stop happening. The characters are still experiencing big life moments. Still learning. Or at least, we’re told they are. I really wanted to watch a romance blossom with those parameters. But it was more that the characters are antagonistic, and then they’re together. Yay, I guess? I never did really figure out why I was supposed to root for this.

On a more personal note, while I like that this book did at least attempt to acknowledge important topics such as sexism, racism, LGBTQ+ issues, body issues, representation, etc., it was, to put it kindly, very forced, and often very awkwardly brought up. These are all issues I’m passionate about too, but I wanted to hide from the second hand embarrassment at times.

So why two stars instead of one, if I disliked so much? Because there’s glimmers of something good here, and if you’re not bothered by the other things like I am, this may have potential for some readers. Had these things been fleshed out, it’s likely I would have felt very differently. I liked the specificity of the main character’s interest in literature. I liked the topic of dealing with a parent who isn’t a good parent. I liked the idea of how friendships and romantic relationships can change or fail and it’s not always because one character is horrible. I liked that who someone is isn’t always who they will be.

And the dog. He was my favourite character. But dogs will always have an unfair advantage with me for that title.

A sweet and thoughtful look at an early career academic with a focus on medieval literature and an unfortunate tendency to escalate her problems into Worst Case Scenarios. This, of course, includes her rivalry with her ex, who pulled some pretty shady dealings during their undergrad years, shady dealings that now lead the heroine to assume the worst at nearly every turn. As the pair grows as scholars and teachers (and simply as adults), they rekindle the spark they felt in their younger years, wondering if their competitive habits weren't so much a product of enmity as they were a means of connecting with one another.

I found Allison's first fumbling attempts at teaching deeply relatable, being thrust into a classroom and expected to "get it right" with little guidance. I also deeply appreciated having two main characters who weren't given conventionally assumed physical characteristics. She wasn't tiny. He wasn't buff. I loved that. And I loved the balance of seeing a fat woman own her body with confidence, while also acknowledging that constantly maintaining that confidence amid of sea of negative messages from others is virtually impossible.

The choice to set the book several years post-pandemic (with specific references to the pandemic) was interesting, though it made me wonder what else had changed about society and technology and politics and even the landscape of teaching 5 years from now. The references could've been removed and the story could've unfolded in the fake non-pandemic world of roughly "now" like a lot of books hitting the shelves, so the choice made me curious about the intent of including it, without deliberately creating a 5-years-in-the-future world or otherwise integrating the pandemic into the story. As writers, I feel like we're all asking these questions about how we set our "contemporary" stories, and I appreciated seeing someone take a stab at this particular choice.

Other highlights include a realistic look at the inevitable shifting of friendships as adult lives evolve, a load of fun and insightful references to medieval literature, and a pair of fabulous dogs.

I like this book but I don’t love it. As I read, it felt like someone who really loved medieval literature studied rom coms and figured out how to combine the two. There were so many things that felt forced. Pasta bouncing someone’s glasses askew? A scar from Scrabble? There were some things that were just repeated too much. Clearly Allison went to Brown, as mentioned in every chapter or multiple times in each (presumably). She’s fat and has a bad relationship with Jed. Got it. Several times over. She hates Colin, she loves Colin, she hates him and then loves him again. Got it. She’s doing a PhD at a prestigious school, also got it. She’s a brain twin with Sophie, mentioned too many times to be cute. The ending was way too cheesy and everything was just tied up too neatly. Allison did not come off as someone I would like by the end of the book. She felt too immature and bratty. Colin can also be summed up by saying he’s a white man who wears glasses and cardigans… all the time. I did like the explanations of grad school - as someone who also as a PhD I felt they were really realistic.

the make-up test by jenny l. howe.
3.5/5 ⭐️ rounded up to 4!


thank you netgalley and st martins press for this eARC!

this book immediately caught my attention with the second chance lovers trope and academic rivals as well. i found Allison to be a lovable character with her enjoyment for reading, passion for wanting to become a professor, and being so independent at a similar age to mine! i loved how the book had an mc that is plus size without the focus of her losing weight or hating her body! i loved the side characters Sophie and Mandy as well! on the other hand, i found Colin to be quite unbearable at times. i noticed nearly all the male characters in the book were annoying honestly.

Colin’s character annoyed me a lot which if you read this, i’m sure you will understand what moments i’m talking about, but i won’t give away details. i honestly did not gain much interest as i thought i would within the book until about 40% in and i think a large part of that had to do with allison and colin’s pettiness. you could obviously tell there was tension between them, but at times it was super toxic and a bit immature. the writing is great so that really pushed me to keep reading and as well as knowing this would be a slow burnish book. i am also not a fan of the miscommunication trope!

overall i loved the grad school setting and the elements explored for this book! i just did not love all of the elements brought to the page. i would consider this to be a great debut novel to read! i would read another book from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!

4.5 stars, rounded up!

this. book.

i absolutely completely loved this book. medieval literature? yes. great academic rivals-to-lovers plot? check. awesome main character. got that too! this was one of my most anticipated romance releases of the year, and it 100% lived up to my expectations. allison was a great main character! she was very relatable, and i absolutely loved her. colin was a bit…less so? honestly i don’t completely know how i feel about him, but he was fine. I did enjoy allison and colin’s banter, though, and their relationship just made sense; their personalities fit together well. this book was super fast-paced (i read it in one day), so it’s a pretty quick read! i think this is one of my favourite academic rivals-to-lovers books that i’ve read, and i would definitely recommend it :)

The Make-Up Test by Jenny L. Howe is a touching, fresh-feeling romance that is as much about navigating adulthood as it is about academia, love, and second chances.

Allison is beginning her PhD as a teaching assistant with her dream mentor. The only problem? The other TA is the ex who broke her heart two short years ago. The setup is so fun that by the first moment Alison cursed Colin's existence, I was buckled up for the ride. Flashbacks to Allison and Colin's failed college romance interspersed with super-cute scenes in the present day made it painfully obvious that Colin has changed for the better, but of course, Allison isn't won over that easily.

Old wounds take a lot to heal, and The Make-Up Test is thorough in its re-evaluation of the central relationship. Both Colin and Allison struggle with their self-image and the drive to be the 'best,' and both have to learn to put that aside in order to really open up to each other. There are pastries, hand-holding through some of the toughest moments I've seen in a romance novel in a while, cute dogs, and a scene of Scrabble-as-foreplay that made me wonder why more books don't include Scrabble-as-foreplay.

Besides the romance, I really loved how The Make-Up Test tackled other hurdles of adulthood--making friends, keeping the ones you have, not murdering the know-it-all misogynist in your work environment. Also, poignantly, the ever-changing parent-child relationship. Allison has an emotionally abusive father with health problems, a subplot that brought so much depth to the story. In particular, her relationship with her mother changing along with her father's decline, the pressure to forgive and gloss over what Allison isn't ever going to accept, it really stuck with me. The book was lighthearted on the whole, but the family drama brought everything down to earth and made Allison's triumphs that much more powerful.

Allison as a whole was such a great main character. The author's note talks about how it was important to her to write a story about a fat protagonist who already loves herself and isn't constrained to the same old stories of self-acceptance or transformation. The story really made the most of this mission. Allison, with her many flaws and equally numerous strengths, was such a real-feeling, well-realized character. Yes, she was always snarkily quipping and doing a *the most,* but it was very clear that it all came came from her love of learning and the tenacity needed to excel at her dream. Occasionally she was stubborn for the sake of it, but often she was admirably holding her ground, and true to life, there were some times when she may have been doing a little of both. The nerd-factor of the book will definitely work better for some people than others. I don't have any real interest in the inner world of academia, but I still found Allison's love of Chaucer and other Medieval classics deeply charming. I won't spoil anything, but the ultimate lesson she takes away at the end felt satisfying and fresh to me as well.

An entertaining, touching, and fully realized romance about second chances and staying strong through the pressures of adulthood. I really enjoyed this one!

Thank you Netgalley for a ARC of the Make Up Test. Overall, I loved the banter between the characters and that Allison was so head strong and fought for everything 100%. The author did an amazing job of creating complex academic characters that seemed human and that showed "love is messy". I was pleasantly surprized by the ending and thought it had a great HEA.

Jenny L. Howe knocks it out of the park with her debut novel, The Make-Up Test. It's sweet, sexy, whip-smart, and contains one of my very favorite things: a plus-size heroine whose story does not revolve around being sad that she's fat, or feeling like she needs to lose weight to be worthy of love. Readers who enjoy second-chance romances should add this to their TBR stack immediately.

Warning: you may finish this book with a sudden, unexpected interest in medieval literature ;)

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

I have mixed feelings about this book.

Academic Rivals to Lovers is my favorite trope ever so i was really excited to read an adult take on this trope. At first i was really enojoying the story but at times the relationship felt like it was leaning towards being too toxic.
The thing is, I very much liked Allison as a character and her character-arc. I could relate to a lot of what she was feeling. What i did not like that much was Colin, he was not my favorite, and he made some awful choices through the whole book.
Also, the mentions of the pandemic really took me out of the story, trying to figure out the timeline of it all and also why would she have a mask just in case (???) when the virus is still around for us. I think it was unnecessary to mention it all, to be honest.
So that's where i am at. The writing was great but i don't think the story was what i was hoping it would be.

I tried so, so hard, but ultimately I had to DNF this one about 100 pages in. It just didn’t work for me - the characters, the setting, the writing style. I’m disappointed I didn’t love it but ultimately was just not enjoying reading it at all and had to put it down.

There's a lot to love about Jenny Howe's debut, The Make-Up Test! It's a second chance romance with a bonus rivals to lovers trope added to the mix! And it's set in a prestigious graduate school literature program! Could it get any better? Well, I'm glad you asked because, yes it can! The main character is a smart, funny, well-read plus size woman. I loved the author's note at the beginning of the novel, specifically this quote: "Allison Avery, my main character, is a fat woman, but that is just one small facet of who she is. Her story is not a story of weight loss, or even of learning to love herself for who she is and what she looks like. She already does that." Louder for the people in the back! 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).

I really liked a lot about this book. 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.

What I didn't love:
-Colin Benjamin. It's really a bummer when you don't like a main character and I promise I tried. I just don't know what Allison saw in him. He was a jerk the first time around and he wasn't much better as "Colin 2.0". It almost felt like she was settling.
-I could have gone without the mention of COVID. I guess the book is set after the pandemic (Allison mentions she was a junior in high school when her classes all moved online and now she's in graduate school?), but it was a really weird detail to sprinkle in.
-The pacing was a bit too slow at times for me.
-The ending. Things wrapped up a little too nicely and I hate miscommunication.

Overall, this is a fantastic debut and I can't wait to read more from Jenny Howe!

I had such high hopes for this book after reading Ali Hazelwood’s review on GoodReads. A second chance romance with a rivals to lovers trope just sounded amazing. Unfortunately, it fell short of the mark for me.

Allison is a plus sized grad student who has been working to get a TA position with a prestigious professor at Claymore. All her dreams come true! …Except that the professor takes TWO TAs and the other is her ex-boyfriend, Colin. Things went sour between them two years ago when he won the Rising Star award and she placed second. And now they’re both trying to claim their professor’s attention and position as TA after their prof explains she can only keep one. Things spiral from there.

I must confess I did not like Colin. I don’t understand why Allison gets back together with him after all the pseudo toxic interactions and the whole winning the award out from under her thing. Their relationship honestly just had no chemistry to me. I also am mad at him for his dislike of Hayden Christensen. It’s such a small thing but it made me dislike him more. We Stan Anakin Skywalker in this house.

I also wasn’t overly fond of the ending in this book. Everything seems to come to a head at about 80% and the wrap-up just seems too convenient. I realize at that point things should be starting to resolve themselves but it just seemed like too many things at once? Plus, there’s a rather glaring case of miscommunication around this point that I just did not like. Miscommunication is never a great plot device in my opinion, but this one just killed my enjoyment of the book.

All that said, I did enjoy the snippets of literature and discussion we were privy to. I don’t have a huge grasp on pre-1800 English Lit, so it was interesting to read! I’m going to be adding some Arthurian legends to my TBR thanks to this. The author did a wonderful job with the research for this novel!

There is a bit of spice, but it’s kinda blink and you’ll miss it. The characters definitely get into bed more than once, but it’s not descriptive at all and is very short. This would be a good book for someone who is not comfortable with spice or who is looking for a less spicy option.

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

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the early opportunity to read “The Make-Up Test.”

“The Make-Up Test” is a second chance, enemies to lovers romance between two grad students, Allison and Coilin, who had a tumultuous relationship and break up as undergraduates. I liked but did not love this book, mostly because of Allison. She just had so much *stuff* going on - body issues, dad issues, relationship issues, work issues - and it really interfered with the romance between her and Colin. I wish the author had focused more on Allison’s work woes and the relationship development between her and Colin. The other stuff did not really seem to be needed and the book was a little slow in the first half. I did enjoy the second half and Colin was a really sweet hero. Overall this was a strong debut and I would recommend to readers of contemporary romance.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The heroine was kind of frustrating, and while I understand why she had some of the trust issues she had, the miscommunication trope was way overplayed here, in my opinion. And not just between the two main characters, but also with the best friend. I don’t hate the miscommunication trope, but this one was harder to get through than normal.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

Allison is in a PHD program in Medieval Literature when she discovers her ex BF, Colin, is also in the same program. I liked Colin but I didn’t connect with Allison.

I really, really enjoyed this book! It hooked me from the very beginning and kept me hooked the entire time.