Childhood friends, fake dating, internet fame, and lots of scones, The Break-Up Pact checks all the romcom boxes.

This was a quick read and I enjoyed watching June and Levi’s love story unfold. June may not be the strong female lead some prefer, but I found her relatable. Emma Lord throws in one spicy scene, and only a little bit of conflict.

Check this one out if you enjoyed watching Anyone But You. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced digital copy!

An absolutely delicious beach read that’s perfect for summer. I loved the main characters and how nuanced they were and the depth of their history together. The trio of secondary characters were absolute perfection. As someone who has spent a lot of time on the Jersey shore, I thought the setting was very accurate and brought the whole story to life.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Listen, I am the biggest Emma Lord fan and I will always stan and support and champion this woman, but unfortunately this was just ok for me!

When it was good, it was GOOD. I felt that she handled her entry into the adult contemporary romance well. I loved the premise! I loved the tropes! It was a matter of pacing and organization, to me. I felt that the main conflict happened too soon, and the conflict and resold just took too long to get through and I found myself losing interest in the final 1/4 of the book.

I still enjoyed but I prefer her YA books!

Emma Lord is one of my absolute favorite authors, every single book she writes immediately is bought. Unfortunately, the breakup pack did not feel as whimsical and as fun. Loving as her other books. While I enjoyed it, it fell flat compared to her other works.

One thing I love about Emma Lord is her boldness to take on timely topics without belittling their relevance by dumbing down the context. She writes about what is right now with intention and care, & I wish more authors would follow her lead. I think the timeliness adds a layer of verisimilitude that many other contemporary texts lack. Her characters and plot line benefit from being rooted in a real space in current time. With regard to this text, I loved the metacognitive awareness of living the fake relationship trope. Somehow that elevated the anticipation & suspense linked to how their relationship would unfold. A trope is a trope because it’s an expected pattern. I love that Lord has used the pattern to break it apart from the inside out.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martins Press for this early release. I enjoy Emma Lords books and was excited to get this one. While it was fine I wouldn’t recommend this one to a fellow reader if I were going to recommend one of her books. I usually love enemies to lovers but the couple really didn’t act like enemies. So there was really none of that kind of fun chemistry that trope brings. And I also like the fake dating trope but the story just seemed so unrealistic I couldn’t get into it. The characters fell flat for me in this novel. 3 stars.

The Break-Up Pact was sensational! June and Levi definitely gave off enemy vibes during their first conversation we are exposed to, but then all the feels come in. Desire, longing, love and such chemistry! While their "celebrity" status brings another element to the story, I was more interested in their past and future. Great read and look forward from another Emma Lord novel!

Thank you NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book to read and review. It was super fun, cute, and romantic! It has the modern day love story with tropes like fake dating, second chance romance, childhood friends to lovers!!

It was cute! Not my favorite book ever but I would recommend to someone.

It took me a long time to get into it but once I did it went by really fast. This book had me laughing out loud to some parts.

I would like to thank NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is my first book reading by Emma Lord and I’ve got to say that I’m a fan! Super easy and enjoyable read! Super cute storyline and loved all of the characters! Can’t wait to read more books by this author!

In support of the SMP boycott, I will be withholding my review of this title until SMP speaks out. If the boycott is resolved, I will update with a full review.

I loved the story. I loved the friends to lovers and the fake dating aspects of the n book. The burn was slow and angsty between Levi and June but too much. I think a lot of girls can relate to the guy best friends that they have feelings for and it makes the book more relatable. I’m giving 3 stars due to multiple editing errors through out the story. Spelling errors that happen more than 3 times in my opinion bring a reader out of the hole they get sucked into when enjoying a book.

I enjoyed this book! The friends to lovers was developed well, though I was not a fan of the initial miscommunication trope. This book made me think of bridge to terabithia, and June and Levi were the grown up versions of Leslie and Jess. Their running scenes were some of my favourites and my favourite character was Mateo :)

I had such high hopes for the book but imo it just did not deliver. I have never seen a faking dating trope I didn’t like but this somehow fell into this category for me. I was sadly disappointed in their lack of chemistry imo. Emma has delivered better tension and chemistry in her ya books so that was confusing in its self to me.

"The Break-up Pact" is an amusing story about two people, June and Levi, who had a comfortable friendship growing up and who should have become a couple long ago, but stubbornness (June) and indecisiveness/fear of conflict (Levi) got in the way. Instead, they ended up with other people and were involved in lengthy relationships that imploded publicly. June became a meme (Crying Girl) after her boyfriend started dating a costar on the reality show he was part of and proceeded to dump June on national television. Levi's (former) fiancée was a realtor in NYC with a high-profile clientele, and who was found cheating on him with a famous movie actor. June had previously returned to their hometown of Benson Beach to take over Tea Tide, the tea and scones cafe her older sister Annie had started, after Annie's unexpected death. Levi is back in Benson Beach trying to figure things out and to finish the manuscript he had been writing. June and Levi reconnect as friends but when a photo of them together, which suggests they are more than friends, goes viral, they suddenly start trending as the "Revenge Exes." They decide to "fake date" in order to help June's business, which is floundering, and to make Kelly, Levi's ex, jealous. However, as they spend time together, they remember what made their friendship so great growing up, and they begin to address the issues that pushed them apart, much of which revolves around Annie. The "fake dating" becomes more real and more serious, but numerous obstacles present themselves, including their former partners, and unresolved issues from their past and about their respective futures.

The "fake dates" are some of the best parts of the story. There is also a great supporting cast with Sana (June's best friend), Dylan (June's brother) and Mateo (Dylan's fiancé). A good portion of the fake dating occurs in the context of June and Levi helping with preparations for Dylan and Mateo's wedding, which presents numerous opportunities for intimate moments, as well as humorous moments. The dynamic between June and Levi is wonderful.

NetGalley ARC Review✨

The Break-Up Pact
By Emma Lord
Pub Date: 08/13/24
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Break-Up Pact is about 2 former best friends who both go through their own, very public break ups and come together to fake date each other to change the narrative around their stories.

June, was broken up with on a reality TV show and became a viral meme. She is struggling to run the business her deceased sister started and is on the verge of closing down. Levi, was cheated on by his girlfriend with a famous man, is struggling with his identity as an author and decided to go back to his hometown.

After 10 years of not talking, June and Levi decide to fake date to show their exes and the world that they have moved on. June is trying to use the publicity to save her business and Levi wants to get his ex back.

Along the way they rediscover their friendship and the crushes they had on each other in their youth. Their fake dates start turning into real ones and their feelings start to grow.

Will June's business be saved? Will Levi's ex realize what she lost?

This was such a cute story and perfect for anyone who loves a good, happy ending!

Childhood friends June and Levi agree to a fake dating scheme after both being humiliated publicly by their respective exes. This one just didn’t work for me, for several reasons. The idea of successfully capitalizing on a one-off viral moment felt really far-fetched - I don’t buy that anyone would be interested in June and Levi past the initial reveal of their relationship. Second, June’s insta-love for Levi while he pined for his ex didn’t lend itself to the best build up. Overall the plot just fell flat for me and the characters didn’t have enough chemistry to revive it. I might try other works from this author in the future but this one just wasn’t for me.

The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord is a second chance, friends to enemies to lovers, fake dating, slow burn book which will be a wonderful summer read!

June and Levi were best friends as teens, along June's siblings Annie and Dylan. All four of them were inseparable. When Annie and Levi left for college, and after a series of misunderstandings and bad communication, June and Levi did not each other again - until now. After Annie passes away, and after a couple of viral breakups, June and Levi find themselves back in their hometown, and thanks to June's best friend, decide to enter a break-up pact. They will pretend to date to clean their online reputation, and hopefully save Levi's old relationship and Annie's (now June's) tea shop from closing.

Through a string of odd dates, trivia nights, and morning beach runs, June and Levi find their way back to each other, pact or no pact.

This book was a slow burn and it takes a couple of chapters to get really invested, but once you do, it is a true can't-put-down book you will truly enjoy. One of my favorite parts about this book was how much we got to enjoy their relationship - instead of just skipping to the happy ending at the end - it was nice to see them develop the relationship with each other and get to a good place for that happily ever after. The people around the main characters were great - Dylan and Mateo and their wedding planning shenanigans, Sana and her snarky, lovely personality, and the town in general with their screaming poetry, lively community, and small town vibes.

Give this book a try - it takes a minute to get invested but I promise you will enjoy it.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with this digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This was a really sweet story. The characters are very lovable in which i love. It was a great rom-com as this was her first adult romance book.

My first book by this author was You've Got A Match which I've read multiple times and it's always 5 stars. In that book, I loved the emphasis on sisterhood, and i felt like romance was more a side plot. I'm gonna have to give this one a 3 stars coz it was mid. Maybe it's also that I'm in a slump and I'm pretty sick of romances coz they more or less have the same trope.

I know this author (I've read 4 of her books including this one) so I know she can do so much better. I hate how fast paced this book was, especially the first few chapters with the MCs going straight from "We're meeting after so long" to "lets fake date" in the blink of an eye. I also wish we had both POVs instead of just June's. This was Lord's first Adult novel venture, and I didn't like the attempts to make it adult. The adult problems or kissing scene or whatever, just not a fan.

This book was just so surface level I couldn't get in the MCs head and feel anything. It's like the author just wrote something for the sake of it. Like what I would imagine an AI bot would conjure if I fed it the terms "beach read", "friends t lovers", "fake dating", and "second chance romance". Of course, it wasn't THAT bad, and I'll talk about that in just a second. But please, where's the chemistry and sparks? What's happened t the writing I don't understand I just couldn't root for the characters. Could be me having high expectations but I'm not sorry for wanting something Abby and Savvy level from the very same author.

Why didn't I completely hate this book or DNF it? Well, it's the little bits that took me through. The familiarity between the MCs and the bond they share. I loved the relationship and memories of the MCs with June's sister, and how their loss of her bought them closer. I love Sana she's such a badass and how June later grows as a person. I liked Levi's backstory, surface level as it was and loved his quirks and insecurities and how those changed throughout the book. I also loved the very beginning when the MCs meet for the first time and that's the only time, I see the romantic potential. I genuinely think this is one of those books where friends to lovers shouldn't have happened and they should've just been left alone as friends.

Do I recommend this? No. Not a fan of the writing style on this one, or the execution or just the hesitancy reflected in the characters. I think I'm just going to resort to treasuring You've Got A Match and not get crazy hopeful about the next work by this author.