In the first third of the book, I was asking myself “Who is Annie?” amidst the circus of a televised breakup that led to a fake dating scheme. I didn’t get a sense of whether the story was a romcom or a drama because any scene with Annie would mute any action. I later learned why, but it took a while. I’m not sure that I needed the mystery of who or what Annie’s role is in everyone’s life.

While there were aspects that I enjoyed about this book, Alex’s relationship with the characters who are her family and chosen family, I was also frustrated by the storyline for Alex and Levi, the ones fake dating. Just when I would buy into the possibility of a romance, I’d be pulled back. This push and pull did not feel like a slow burn. It felt more like insecure characters who had no idea what they wanted. I suppose that’s the point, that I was feeling what Alex was experiencing.

The 3 star might be my bias that I don’t like to mix romcom with drama, and this book is both, depending on the chapter. The story is fairly standard romance, but the scones were fun.

This is an incredibly cute book.
Levi and June grew up together along with her sister Annie and Dylan. Many wonderful things kept them close until Levi moved away to school altering everyone's plans.
After tragedy strikes and they lose one of their own. Levi and June continue on separate paths in their lives.  June runs the tea shop that her sister and her dreamt of and started up and Levi works away in New York. Losing touch over something in their past. These two are brought back together for some crazy break ups with their now exes in one of the most adorable stories I've read. 
The cast of characters, the fun locations and stories  are all one of the most charming parts of this book. The Revenge Exes are something you won't want to miss.
5 stars. I loved it.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable summer romance. I liked June, her brother and his fiancee, and June's best friend.
However.
I did not like Levi. His reasoning for agreeing to the break up pact was infuriating and I could never root for the guy when he seemed so hung up on his cheating ex. Also, I wanted more closure with June's feelings towards Annie.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and St Martins for the eARC in exchange for my review.

I loved this story — a high school friendship renewed and reimagined. I love how the characters redefine themselves in the course of the story. Younger readers will relate to the impact of social media and reality TV as part of the narrative.

The premise of this book is funny and different. I liked the characters initially they started grating at my nerves. June is so weak and unconfident when dealing with Levi. And on the other hand, Levi is frustrating as well. Who actually wants to get back together with their fiancé who is actively dating the person they cheated on him with? I don't know, I just don't think this book is one I can recommend.

This had the potential to be a cute, summer, friends to lovers, fake dating romance, but it wasn't for me. I loved the setting (she owns a tea shop by the beach) and the idea of the "break up pact" to get back at their exes but it was missing something. There was also a heavy focus on social media which I'm not a fan of in books, and a lot of references and slang that will be outdated in a year.

*Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this book, with my honest review below*

A great friends to lovers book by Emma Lord, The Break-Up pact was a comforting romance that had the best slow build between the two main characters. In doing this we got a chance to grow close to them separate from the romance, and to read through their development as individuals, especially when it came to how they honored Annie, June’s sister’s, memory. This was not about revenge but genuine love that came about from a pretty funny event. Recommended for anyone who wants a romance that isn’t all light and butterflies, but feels genuine.

I am in love. Obsessed. My little childhood friends-to-lovers-with-a-stop-over-in-stranger-land heart melted within the first few chapters and Levi Shaw put it back together, bruised and perfect.

I’ve never been a big annotater of books - the occasional highlight here and there. I’ve got like 50 highlights and notes through this thing. I don’t know what kind of crack was put in this book but it’s like BK Borison, Emily Henry, and Christina Lauren all sat her down and taught a personal masterclass and then Emma went to town! “I wasn’t a part of the larger story he wanted to tell.” But then a million lines later, “I just want to keep making stories with you, June. Stories that are all our own.” MA’AM!!

Also, as a sister of sisters, can we please take a moment to acknowledge the absolute gut-wrenching potential reality of having to live a life where a distinct and substantial part of you is missing? Every day, all day, the subtle reminders that your person is gone. “When you have a sister, you don’t realize how much of the way you think, the way you exist, is framed not just but your own thoughts, but hers.” Her grief was excruciatingly sweet to read, like pressing on a bruise to remind you that you can feel it at all.

This was so much more than what people think of when they think “romance novel” - it’s best-friend-love and siblings-after-grief love, and realizing-that-wasn’t-love and self-love and, yes, I’ve-always-loved-you love. It’s hard, and a little silly, and pretty damn real in my experience.

It’s June and Levi all the way down.

Levi and June are the supportive, unwavering friends to lovers I always crave but rarely see in romance books. There are no demands, just love and encouragement.
They may have had a 10-year friendship lapse, but there’s no doubt they could have still depended on each other at the drop of a hat. I was rooting for them from the beginning, fake dating and cheating ex’s be damned!

“I will be here, and I will love you no matter what we are going to be to each other.”

While I did truly enjoy this book, I subtracted a ⭐️ for multiple chapters requiring a “push” to get through. Some of the descriptions and inner monologues, while generally lovely, were a bit too winded for my liking. Sometimes I even found my eyes glazing over, requiring a re-read to make sure I absorbed the information.

Reading other reviews, I see some people are upset about Levi’s motivation for the fake dating scheme. As a teenager, I went back to a cheating ex multiple times until I finally learned my lesson. I wouldn’t wish that hurt for anyone, real or fictional. But it’s a lesson most people have to learn on their own. I do not feel that Emma Lord downplayed the cheating or glorified it in any way.

Another sidebar: I grew up wanting nothing more than to have a sister. June and Annie made my childhood wish come back with a vengeance.

Example: “When you have a sister, you don’t realize how much of the way you think, the way you exist, is framed not just by your own thoughts, but hers.” 😩🥹

Overall, I will recommend this book and remember Levi + June fondly!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin Publishing for this ARC.

The break up pact was such a cute book!!

Friends to lovers plot — June + Levi grew up as best friends and then grew apart for a full decade before accidentally reuniting as their simultaneous break ups went viral online.

I personally enjoy when there is a deeper subplot (in this case Annie) and I felt it added a lot more substance to the book than you would find in a typical cute romance novel.

I felt like there could have been a little bit more revenge taken on Griffin but 🤷🏼‍♀️

Would also love a sequel about Dylan and Mateo!! Overall really enjoyed this one! Thank you Netgalley + St. Martin’s Griffin Publishing 🫶🏼

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of "The Break Up Pact"

This was my first Emma Lord novel and I was pleasantly surprised by it. The story was cute and entertaining, the plot moved quickly, and who doesn't love a good fake-dating trope? June and Levi have been publicly dumped. As old high school friends, they meet up in their hometown, where June currently lives and Levi goes to get some space. A moment on the beach turns into a social media sensation of the "Revenge Exes" and they roll with it, to help June's tea shop, "Tea Tide," and help Levi get back together with his ex. Their new relationship sparks old feelings, and what begins as fake, ends in real feelings.

The characters had a lot of baggage with each other and the fake dating helped them talk about their past. June and Levi both mourn the loss of June's sister, Annie, and she becomes an important secondary character in the story. Both Levi and June try to hold on to Annie's memory by living a life they thought she would want them to, but in the end, they both realize, living their own lives would have been what she wanted.

While the story focuses on characters around their thirties, they both seemed younger and by reconnecting, fell into their high school selves. Their friend and sibling relationships were very surface level, despite how close they could have seemed. The relationship they had with Annie seemed to be the focus of the story, not their dating debacles.

Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️

Loved this book. It was filled with sweet nostalgia, grief, a love that had been budding since childhood. Would read again!

TW: death, grief, infidelity

Pub Date: 13 Aug 2024

Overall love this. It was super sweet and made me want to open my own small business (ie the female dream of owning a small bookstore with some wine component to it ). My main issue was it was slow to start and slow to wrap up. It feels a lot longer than it really is. Yet this has all the fun romance tropes/vibes: fake dating, childhood friends, second chance romance and secret feelings.
I’ll be recommending this to all my girlfriends

This was a fun and easy book to read. The premises of friends to lovers has been done before but this one still kept me reading. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and laughed along the way!

4.5/5
Where do I start? My heart was sooo into this book that I read it all in one sitting. Small town romances are completely my vibe and this really hit so hard. June is so neurotic but realistically she's dealing with the aftermath of her own guilt after her sister passes away. They had planned to do the Tea and scone place together but June was traveling with her boyfriend at the time. The boyfriend just so happens to be famous and a bit of a douchecanoe if I'm honest. When they break up, June goes back to her home town to give the place her all but she's really struggling. She doesn't want to change much because it was her sisters vision, and while she has her own visions for it she just can't bring herself to it. She gets dumped in such a public way that she's a meme. Then we have Levi, who is a bit of a recluse. He's a writer and is back in town after his own very public and humiliating breakup and runs back into June again. It has been hinted throughout the book that they have history and they didn't speak for a very long time. They decide to get the press off their back after being caught in a very friendly but cozy looking moment, to fake date and become the Revenge Exes. The story has humor but also has some moments of sadness. It's really about people learning to find themselves after tragedy and relationships that in the end were just more comfortable. It's about going over the past and fixing miscommunications. There is a HEA but it's absolutely after them working on themselves.

I really couldn’t get into this one. Normally I love a romcom, but this plot was far too contrived and convoluted, and the characters weren’t interesting enough to help me get over that.

June and Levi, the main characters, find themselves in a fake dating situation in order to get their exes back after both were publicly dumped. Their characterization was pretty poor - I had no feel for their second chance relationship or for them at all (so didn’t care about it).

I found the plot just a bit lame too - why would anyone care about the nobody ex of a d-list reality star and the nobody ex of the non famous fling of a current star? Especially to the degree they’re following the pair of them around taking photos. Or posting photos on a high school Facebook group 10 years after the fact.


So, not one for me. I’m glad it’s over.

BUP

This friends to lovers, fake dating, 2nd chance romance-ish novel starts out very sweet. The female lead takes over her sister’s scone shop after she dies and she spends a lot of the book working through her grief. Shes dumped and is a meme. Her old high school friend is also dumped very publicly. They inadvertently end up posing as “revenge exes” for publicity for her tea shop (which is failing financially) and to help his ex get jealous. There’s a LOT going on and it didn’t work for me.

I’ve read other books by this author and so I was NOT prepared for this level of spice and detail.

While I usually like when Rom Com characters have more depth than just the love interest. I also understand losing a sibling would be very impactful, but it was uninteresting to me.

There are also too many side characters and side stories for my liking.

Solid 4 leaning towards a 4.5...will be putting it in as a 4.25 on StoryGraph. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this upcoming book. I've read books by this author before but this is definitely my favorite. The characters were fun, likable and had some good inside jokes between them. I liked the progression between June and Levi's story. There were a few frustrating choices at times but overall it was a very enjoyable read. I loved all the scone flavors!

I typically really like the friends to lovers, but this was missing something for me. I will complete a more in depth review once st martins press acknowledges their readers concerns

Captivating from start to finish, this romance novel weaves a spellbinding tale of love and self-discovery. The characters are richly developed, and the author's vivid prose brings their emotions to life. A perfect blend of passion and heart, this book is a must-read for anyone seeking a delightful escape into the world of love and romance.