June is in her twenties who takes over her late sisters bakery. She is known as the "crying girl' after being blind sided on a reality dating show. An experience she shares with her childhood friend, Levi, who was just publicly blind sided as well. They reconnect with their shared experience-both with different expectations out of their new-found relationship.
June wants to save her bakery and Levi wants to win his ex back. We get to watch them fake date but as time goes on-they begin to fall for each other.
I wasn't bored reading it-a well written story! However, it was just too predictable and Hallmark like. Would I recommend this book-probably not. It is such an over used plot. Would I recommend the author-Yes!!

The Break Up Pact is a summer hallmark movie in book form, cue the beachside town and bakery, and is perfect for a hot day lounging by the pool. It was a slow read for me, but the childhood friends paired with fake dating was a great combo. I was craving more depth and insight into June and Levi’s old feelings for one another and the fake dating scenario didn’t hit the mark.

The Break Up Pact is a great romance option for those seeking an easy read. It didn’t become a personal favorite, but it's worth considering if you're in the mood for a charming childhood friends to lovers story.

Thank you, NetGalley, Emma Lord, and St. Martins Press for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. The Break Up Pact releases August 2024!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Emma Lord does it again in this swoon-worthy romance! Second-chance is always a favorite, and she did it justice with a pair of friends who haven't spoken much in years being forced back together. I found myself rooting for them to end up together from the beginning, and loved reading their journey! I would highly recommend to other romance fans and second-chance romance fans.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the main characters, June and Levi, were really well developed, and were fleshed out enough so that they weren’t just another set of characters in a romance novel, and were instead their own people with their own personalities. I really like that certain plot details that are important to the story, such as the respective viral break-ups that are a big premise to the plot, aren’t immediately told to the readers, and expanded upon when necessary. They could have just been thrown in our faces to set the scene but instead come about naturally like how they would if we were really getting to know these characters in real life, instead of having every single thing we needed to know given to us immediately. I also love how Emma Lord writes her characters and their developments. Levi and June had such good dynamics and dialogues throughout the book, and they don’t just seem like the standard romance novel characters and storylines you’d have in other books, even if that is in part what you’re getting. She writes in a way that makes it seem like whatever you’re reading is new, and not something that’s been written countless times before for hundreds of years, but she also is great at coming up with new premises for her books too. I usually get tired halfway through romance books because they all start getting predictable and follow the same formats, and while this book does have a little bit of that, I wasn’t annoyed by decisions and arguments the characters were having, like those in other books that follow similar formulas. I also liked the more minor characters because they did help expand upon the story, though they weren’t really as fleshed out as Levi and June were, and while that does make sense because they weren’t the main characters, I felt like what we did learn about the characters was either repetitive or came about a lot later in the book. My main issues were in other aspects of the book being repetitive or unnecessary in my opinion, and in the professions of the main characters. June runs a tea shop, but there’s more mentions of scones being sold in that shop more than the actual tea itself, and a relatively big portion of the story and developments has to do with the shop and the scones, so at one point I found myself replacing “tea shop” in my mind with “scone shop”. If the store didn’t have “tea” in the name, I would have outright forgotten that’s what was sold there. There’s also Levi being a wannabe author with a finance job, but that finance job is not really talked about much, and while I get that that is for a reason, it’s still a big part of him for a lot of the book, and yet it just seemed like a throwaway mention. His writing is mentioned a lot, on the other hand, but the writing itself isn’t really what’s talked about, more that Levi does it. There’s only minimal summaries of what his writing is about, but him being a writer is a big part of his character and what he writes about gives more insight into who he is and his motivations, and I didn’t really get that through what was said about what he was writing. Yes, it was talked about a lot, but it just wasn’t talked about correctly, in my opinion. Other than those two small grievances, I really enjoyed the book, and I believe anyone who enjoys romance will like this book, and even some people who don’t care for it could find themselves enjoying it. Emma Lord is a great author, and I add this book to be yet another book I’ve enjoyed from her.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy!

The Break Up Pact is a sweet story about two former friends who try to show their exes that they have moved on, by dating each other (and splashing it all over the internet). June and Levi haven’t seen each other in years, not since June’e sister (who was also Levi’s best friend) passed away. They come back into each other’s lives after they both go through very public breakups (hers in reality tv, his when his girlfriend leaves him did a movie star). June moves home to run her late sister’s struggling tea shop / bakery and Levi comes home in a desperate attempt to finish his novel.

It’s a story of first loves and second chances, and finding out who / what you thought you wanted may not be the path you’re intended to take in the long run. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy.

I am a huge Emma Lord fan and I was so happy to receive an arc of Emma’s debut adult novel. For me, it didn’t quite have the charm that her YA books have, but it was still a fun read. My favorite characters were actually Mateo and Dylan. I would love to read their story. I also really want a scone right now.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review which is not affiliated with any brand.

I’m not a fan of leaving less than stellar reviews, but this one just didn’t work for me. This was definitely a quick read, i flew through it. I will say that i had a hard time connecting with both main characters. They both had qualities that i just didn’t love. June was semi annoying and even though levi wasn’t as annoying, he still grated on my nerves with the whole cheating ex thing. Like, dude she cheated there is no excuse in the book for that.

I do love a fake dating trope, but this one felt so rushed. 10 years later and all of a sudden they are fake dating? Like you guys don’t even know if you can stand each other anymore? It happened so fast, i felt like i got whiplash. Also, communication is KEY 🔑, why is this a thing in books?? Gah, i hate when stuff can be solved just by talking and it’s just not. I’m so sorry, but that trope is my least favorite and i feel like June liked not communicating well enough.

I just didn’t connect with this book like i wanted to, Its a me thing. I don’t know that my reading mood was ready for it.

This was a very cute rom com book! I loved the depth of the characters and the story line. I found it to be a little slow in places but overall would recommend it

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC copy.

There is nothing worse than getting dumped, unless it's getting dumped in public and it goes viral, that is what has happened to both (childhood friends) June and Levi. How better to change the narrative than to fake date after a photo of the two of them (in an innocent but compromising position) goes viral.

Easy peasy, right? They no longer look pathetic to the outside world, they drive business to June's failing tea shop, Levi has time to work on his book, and they can assist their family and friends with their various projects. What could go wrong?

Secrets are discovered, old hurts resurface, and missed opportunities are revealed. Add in some of our favorite tropes of: mutual pining, second chances and a hilarious cast of secondary characters and you have a fun read with a satisfying HEA. The only thing that is missing is the recipe for the “revenge ex scone”

What a great adult romance from Emma Lord! Pick this up if you love friend to lovers or fake dating tropes! I especially love how the author dealt with grief in a delicate and realistic way without it weighing down the delight of the story!

I felt prepared to like this fake dating story but it fell a bit flat for me. I'm not sure what exactly didn't work, but the pacing felt a little off and maybe there was too much social media driving the story for me. It just felt a little underbaked for my taste.

The Break-Up Pact is Emma Lord's debut adult romance, after two fantastic YA novels. I was in the mood for a quick, fun, flirty book and Lord definitely delivered. Fake dating, (childhood) friends to lovers, second chance. Highly recommend- perfect to take on vacation!

The Break-up Pact by Emma Lord
I love a cute fake dating story!

A very public and messy breakup is what June and Levi have in common. They return to their hometown to sort out their lives and heal; meanwhile of course, they rekindle their childhood friendship. Social media fallout means both June and Levi continue to face inquisitive people and running public commentary on their daily interactions. Media savvy, best friend Sana pushes them down the path of fake dating; and as expected sparks fly!!!

What else I loved about this story:
-beach setting,
-tea shop,
-side characters

What I didn’t love:
-the revenge focus,
-Levi’s indecisiveness,
-the slow start, and most of all…
Where are the scone recipes?

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and the author for this ARC

IG post to come!

4 stars

I love that this was a fake dating and second chance romance book! Levi and June are so cute together. The only issue I had was that sometimes the characters were a little immature.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC of this book!

This is a refreshing and heartwarming young adult romance that explores the complexities of friendship, love, and self-discovery.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC.
This was a cute story! If you love the fake dating trope this book will be perfect for you! June and Levi are such good characters. This would be the perfect book to read on the beach. I would definitely recommend this book.

This book had a lot of elements I love – fake dating is always a favorite, friends to lovers, I love a main character who bakes! I liked June’s friend/family group, but I wanted to see them fleshed out a little more. I loved that they shared the running hobby.

While Levi definitely had a nice swoony quality about him, their relationship pushed the limits of my frustration tolerance too far. They were both pretty crappy to each other multiple times, and I was basically rooting for them to just move on.

I have loved Emma Lord's YA and was so excited to get my hot little hands on her new adult romance. Unfortunately, it wasn't love for me.

I like me a good childhood friends reconnect to lovers story, but this one just didn't feel cohesive. There were reasons why they fell out of touch, but it was a lot of miscommunications over a lot of years. And I just didn't feel the chemistry when they did start getting together. I am a sucker for a fake dating trope and this one just didn't do it for me sadly.

Sometimes in stories, there needs to be a mystery or something that you don't have the full context on to keep going. I get this. But one of my pet peeves is when this feels contrived and cryptic for the sake of being cryptic instead of a compelling reason. This book definitely suffered from that for the first probably 60% of the book.

I will say that I do appreciate the growth that the two characters do go on toward the end and there is some healing/growth separately. I did like that they both needed to figure some stuff out and recognized that.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I have seriously mixed feelings about 'The Break-Up Pact'. This was a solid 4 star read for me and then they got together and were happy and I looked down and I was only 61% in. I knew right then that I would be annoyed for a good portion of the rest of the book because it would likely be unnecessary drama and miscommunication. AND I WAS RIGHT. I seriously almost DNFed for the next 20-30% of the book. So much back and forth and ridiculous doomsday thinking and even when Levi was like, "hey let's talk about it" June was a whiny baby child and acted ridiculous. At one point June went along the lines of, "good thing we have unwavering trust," and then literally the next page she had no faith in him or their relationship at all. It made me want them to actually be broken up and stay that way. And let's be real, both Levi and June need therapy (ESP June) so they can properly deal with her sister's death.

Overall, pretty dissapointed with this one from Lord and I'm hoping she can bring back the good stuff for her next one.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I just did not connect with this title or this romance. The set-up seems so implausible to me. They were both dumped online/had a super personal moment on social media? The whole thing just seemed super clumsy to me and I did not enjoy the plot.