The Make-Up Test is a second chance romance set in the cutthroat world of a medieval literature grad school program. Intense, right? That's how I'd best describe the main character, Allison, as well: intense. She is comfortable in her plus sized body, which I appreciate, and tackles every obstacle with unrelenting passion. The problem for me as a reader was in connecting with Allison. She's supposed to be a recent college graduate who went straight into a PhD program, making her like 22-23. Nobody that age is ever as self-assured as Allison. Like nobody. Even when she's flailing, she is still somehow absolutely sure of herself and seems to get over the issues fairly quickly. The only exception is her relationship with Colin, which has concerns she can't get past so easily. Which brings me to the second thing I had a lot of trouble with as a reader: the romance. There was a lot of reliance on a shared past, and a lot of touting how things were so much different and better now. But the chemistry was never really there for me, and Colin felt like an absolutely inscrutable mishmash of personality quirks. I think I would try another book by Jenny L. Howe in the future, but this one wasn't it for me unfortunately.

*Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.