The Make-Up Test

The Make-Up Test (2022), by Jenny Howe, is a fat-positive, second chance romance set in the fraught world of the Academy. It’s filled with dogs, geeky medieval literature references, impostor syndrome and extreme competitiveness, and a difficult parental relationship that included a lot of anti-fatness. And the best part is how Howe describes the main character in her Author’s Note at the beginning of the book:

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.

Allison is starting a PhD program in medieval literature with a professor she’s dreamed of working with. The first day, she finds out that her ex, Colin Benjamin, is also starting the same program. We find out how badly things ended through flashbacks as the current situation progresses.

Turns out Allison and Colin are both teaching assistants for the same professor, but only one of them will be able to continue as a research assistant with her past the first year. So they are rivals for the coveted spot. Colin seems different than he was in undergrad, more open, and Allison doesn’t quite know how to handle that, as she still gets butterflies when she’s near him. Teaching doesn’t come as easy to Allison as research does, but Colin’s section students seem to love him!

When the father who never treated her well has a health crisis, Colin is there for Allison in a way he never was before. And he’s dealt with things of his own since she last saw him, that he never before shared with her. So maybe now the time is right, if Allison can learn to trust, again?