Emma lord is one of my fav all time YA authors but unfortunately she should have stayed in that genre. These characters were extremely immature in my opinion. I get that grief plays a big part in their personality/choice of actions but most of this book could have been solved with a conversation (I know it’s fiction). Loved the setting of Benson Beach and of course yay for fake dating but this book was unnecessarily long and dragged on at times. However it is absolutely hilarious and I definitely laughed out loud multiple times. Do I still loved Emma Lord? Yes. Will I be recommending this one? Probably not.

Two estranged childhood friends reconnect to fake date after being dumped in publicly humiliating ways which become viral.

In Emma Lord's adult debut, 'The Break Up Pact', June Hart and Levi Shaw agree to become 'revenge exes' so June can save her late sister (and Levi's best friend) Annie's struggling tea shop and Levi can win back his ex Kelly who dumped him for a movie star. The two fell out ten years previously and haven't spoken since. Despite June's anger and hurt over their estrangement, she finds herself fighting her attraction to Levi, reminding herself he's still hung up on Kelly.

This book had me hooked from the start and I devoured it in one sitting. I loved the insight into June's thoughts and how she needed to protect herself with her feelings about Levi. Levi was also caring and supportive, but also challenged June when she needed it, such as her reasons for hanging onto Annie's dream. June also supported and pushed Levi to reclaim his earlier writing instead of writing what he thinks people expect him to write. When they finally started communicating their feelings, they did it openly and honestly. Despite a decade apart, its clear the two of them were the perfect complements for each other.

I do wish, however that June put down her enmity and confronted Levi earlier about the reasons behind why they fell out. I would've also liked more of an exploration of both of their feelings about Annie's role in their estrangement. It was a missed opportunity to see how that newfound knowledge about their dead loved one affected their grief.

Lord writes well-rounded characters, including supporting ones. I adored Dylan and Matteo. I also found the plot developments refreshing, particularly in relation to the outcome of Tea Tide. I do, however, wonder if perhaps June should've let it go entirely. Also, while I wanted to shake Levi for his stubbornness to win Kelly back despite his attraction to June, I actually appreciated where that plot went. Levi needed to properly overcome why he was hanging onto Kelly, even if it hurt June in the process.

An entertaining and well-paced second chance friends to lovers rom com packed with poignant moments and refreshing plot development.

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

"The Break-Up Pact," by Emma Lord is a quintessential friends to lovers story. June and Levi, highschool best friends, lost touch and resorted to very occasional texts. Ten years later, they both become the victims of viral break ups. When Levi returns to his hometown, he and June devise a plan to pretend-date, in hopes that it will bring business to June's struggling scone shop, and make Levi's cheating ex-girlfriend interested in getting back together. They did not expect sparked memories and feelings to return.

While, I love the friends to lovers trope,, I found the story to be long, drawn out, and, at times, unnecessarily complicated.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

3.5 stars rounded up! I thought this was super cute and I loved that it didn’t all just get super dramatic and then get nicely wrapped up in the last 80%. Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes and I love how this book also explored themes of grief and self-exploration. Cute, lovable read.

If you loved Tweet Cute, you will certainly enjoy The Break-Up Pact, which similarly balances the lead character's journey to find her way and what she wants with the romance. This is also an homage to the power of family -- especially siblings -- and how strong those relationships can be for some, though it is mixed the the grief of losing one of those relationships. Highly recommend.

This book unfortunately was not for me. It was a bit too cheesy for me and I didn't love the characters.

The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord is a second chance fake romance friends to lovers Rom Com. Both of the MCs (June and Levi) have viral public break ups and end up together in their hometown. She is trying to salvage her tea shop (a dream with her late sister). He is trying to finish his novel (writing is also a dream with June's late sister - his best friend). It is a pretty slow paced book for all the things that are happening. And there is a little bit of the "well maybe you should have had a conversation" frustration. The characters are all pretty likeable, And I didn't dislike the book. I just didn't LOVE it. Perhaps it is the fact that they were friends and both single, so when the faux relationship heats up, it was hard to understand why they were still waffling. If you like friends to lovers you might well love it. I thought it was ok. (I received an ARC)

Thanks to #NetGalley for allowing me to read this book! I give ⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5. It’s the perfect quick romance book. Levi and June are cute and sweet. I wish there would’ve been just a little more. But overall a great, easy read when you need to remember that you love reading and need to get out of the book funk.

I enjoyed this book but I felt like it dragged on a little. Also, there were so many times when the characters were so frustrating! 3.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

I've really enjoyed Emma Lord's other novels and was excited to get a chance to read The Break-Up Pact as an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher.

When her sister dies, June takes over her tea shop and in the middle of grief for her sister, and struggling to get the shop out of the red, her boyfriend publicly dumps her and she becomes an internet meme, "The Crying Girl". Levi is a writer, one of June's oldest friends and the object of her unrequited affection (or was he?) and back in town because he too, was dumped by his longtime love, Kelly. June and Levi, after not speaking for years, decide to fake a relationship so that June can capitalize on the unexpected surge in business and hopefully Levi can get Kelly back.

June fights the return of those feelings for Levi and maybe he feels something for her in return.

I really enjoyed the secondary characters Matteo, her brother Dylan, and her best friend, Sana. They brought the laughs to the storyline that I thought were really needed. I enjoyed the book, but think that it really seemed to drag a lot. It was obvious that June and Levi had feelings for each other and it seemed to take forever for them to get together.

All opinions are my own.

A solid read that kept my attention. The characters are cute and relatable. I would have liked to have seen more of the back story. It felt too huge to be glossed over so quickly.

loved this friends to lovers who try and figure their relationship out but start fake dating to get over their exes. loved the food mentioned and that he was trying to write a novel. loved the family and friends and hope to see sansa in a romance. loved that they came together and found a way to work out.

I didn't quite connect with this book like I had hoped to. The characters are good together but the story didn't flow to easily and keep my attention. I do love the cover! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you for the chance to read this NetGalley!
I genuinely loved this. As someone who has had that 'will they won't they' best friend relationship in the past, this ticked so many emotional boxes for me. June and Levi are once best friends who fell apart for many years, drawn back together by shared trauma, who must finally confront their long ignored feelings for each other. This focuses primarily on the best friends to lovers and fake dating tropes, both of which I tend to really enjoy.
I thought this also did a really good job navigating their relationship once they took that step: it was very complicated and nuanced, but never felt forced. I thought they could have pushed more into Levi's trauma from the death of June's sister, I would have loved a few head-hopping scenes in another POV. The spice/steam was JUST the right level.
Overall it was a really fun, quick, and moderately steamy read!

The fall out of breaking up on social media! I liked that June and Levi reconnected over both of them having had unfortunate breakups. I think they were what each other needed to heal and rediscover themselves. The adults they have had become from their teenager selves. This book was both light and dark but well done. Sana was definitely the best friend every girl needs. Thank you to NetGalley for this free advance copy. I’m leaving this review voluntarily

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

To be fair, second chance loves and friends to lovers isn’t my usual romance trope. However, I thought I would give it a chance. Lord’s writing style is unique and very self-aware. There were times when I laughed or smiled reading through this story, but about halfway through I was rushing the read. June and Levi’s romance is very sudden and needed more fleshing out. I wanted a little more angst and anger between the two. I also wanted to feel like June cared for her shop more. It felt very obligatory (which is fine) but I needed to just get more of how she really felt about it. I wanted Levi to have more of a presence! I’m not sure who he really is. But overall, I give this book three stars because the writing was pretty top tier.

Overall I’d say I found this book super cute and enjoyable. I will say that I found Levi a bit unbearable during the “ex returns to town” part of the plot - how difficult would it be to just send a text? This did feel a bit more like insta-love than I would typically prefer, but generally I still really liked it. Fun, quick read.

Thanks so much to St Martin's Press and NetGalley.

June and Levi were best friends as teenagers and then they were not. Both experience humiliating breakups that cause them to go viral, and then a photo has now caused the internet to believe they are a couple. They start a fake relationship to benefit themselves. Will real feelings come alive in a fake romance?

This had cute moments, but this trope is not for me. It feels overdone. However, Emma Lord writes really well and there were good qualities about both of the characters. I felt I was more interested in the scones however! For others who are maybe more into this trope or believe that love conquers all, this book may be for you.

Things I liked - I liked their back and for banter. June and Levi are pretty cute together and have great chemistry!

I thought they both had issues that they needed to work through.

The Break-Up Pact is a fake dating delight! Following their respective public breakups, old friends Levi and June reconnect and rekindle a (fake) flame. Levi and June are cute, and their story is weighty in a way that many romance novels avoid. Here it serves to make these characters more dimensional and believable as they have to navigate real challenges toward their happy ending.

There were quite a few times while reading that I just wanted to scream, “GO TO THERAPY,” but of course, that’s not the romance novel way.

Content warnings: death of a sibling, mention of breast cancer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Publishers for this ARC!

I'm one of the biggest Emma Lord fans out there! Emma Lord typically writes YA romcoms, but this one is her first adult rom com. To me, Emma Lord is the Emily Henry of YA romance. Less spice of course, its YA after all.

I fell in love with "You've got a match," "tweet cute," "begin again" and "The Getaway List" (coming 2024) and was excited to hear that Emma Lord was trying her hand at Adult romance.

The Break-Up Pact is a friends-to-enemies-to-lovers romcom about Levi and June. These two were childhood friends until a misunderstanding destroyed their friendship. Now they're back in the same area and both going through difficult breakups. They come up with the plan to fake-date and make their exes jealous. What could go wrong? Look I'm all for a fake dating plot, but I'm not sure I would do it with someone I had a falling out with. Ahh, its a book so it works.

To me, Emma Lord's novels work because she is able to balance the fun lighthearted romance with some heavier storylines that make you feel something and reflect on your own life decisions. This book is no exception.