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ONE TO WATCH meets BEACH READ in this smart, swoony, romantic comedy, in which two college exes find themselves battling against each other—and their unresolved feelings—for a spot in a prestigious literature Ph.D. program. 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. Charmingly bookish and unequivocally fat positive, The Make-Up Test embraces the truth that people can sometimes change and grow, even when you least expect it.
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0Academic Romance That Is Refreshingly Light On Academic Theory. Wait. A book set in Academia that *isn't* hyper preachy about white people and/ or straight men being the epitome of all things evil and a scourge on humanity? That alone makes this work from debut author Howe quite refreshing. Now toss in a fat chick who is comfortable in her own body and who learns to stand up for herself even to those closest to her, and you're getting *really* "out there" in terms of things that simply aren't usually done in novels of any form, particularly romance novels released by Mega publishers. Now we're even going to toss in *actual* academic work discussing the variations and themes of medieval literature? Wow, we're really going on a refreshing romance journey that stimulates the brain as well as the heart! There are a few quibbles here or there with this book, but overall, ignore the people that are hating on it - this is actually quite a departure from the norm for this genre in so many ways, and thus deserves to be explored because of its originality while still being perfectly within overall genre norms. Very much recommended.
0I received an e-arc/audio arc of The Make-Up Test by Jenny L. Howe from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, this really didn't work for me. I gave it a few chapters, but ultimately DNFed at 6%. This felt like it was a YA story that got aged up to be adult. The characters felt really juvenile and didn't seem to act like Ph.D. candidates that were supposed to be in a very prestigious program?? It's supposed to be a second chance romance from an 8-month relationship that happened years ago. We are told about but not shown, and based on their first meeting I got secondhand embarrassment so bad, and I have no idea how they ended up being in a relationship based on that interaction. I'm also confused at Allison's timelines, she's now in grad school getting a Ph.D. but says her junior year of high school was online due to pandemic reasons... my senior year of high school was in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic.
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