Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for approving my request to read "The Break-Up Pact" by Emma Lord.

Truthfully, this book was not my favorite book that I've read and I found it very slow and hard to get through. This story follows two main characters who go through very public break-ups. My first dislike about the book is the mention of social media, for some reason that always upsets me because I read to escape real life! This book had a lot of different tropes and I feel like it was too many at times. Overall, it wasn't for me.

I’d give this book a 3.5/4!

If you like fake dating, small town romance, friends to lovers, and baking - this one’s for you! I did enjoy both the characters, and I love a fake dating romance.

There’s quite a bit of “fluff” in the beginning, but the latter half of the book kept me interested. The miscommunication between the two characters was getting to be too repetitive, but overall it was a decent read!

Thank you, NetGalley, for proving this arc!

2.5 stars out of 5.

This book wasn't for me. The plot dragged on in the beginning and the book was really hard to get into. I think the miscommunication troupe here was a bit extreme and unnecessary. I also still did not understand why June and Levi stopped talking all those years ago and continued the silence. It would have been great if we had more information on their past and I think that would have cleared up some questions.

June and Levi used to be great friends then Levi moved away and June started dating someone else. Their lives went opposite ways and they stopped talking. Both of them were broken up with by their significant others and went viral. June was living in her home town, Benson Beach, running a tea shop while Levi was in New York. Levi ended up coming back to Benson Beach after his break up. Levi and June started talking again then form a pact to fake date to get back at their exes.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Read if you enjoy:
-Friends to Lovers
-Second Chance Romance
-Small Town Setting
-Fake dating
-Single, first person POV

I liked getting to see glimpses of June and Levi’s high school days and getting to see them process their grief over June’s sister
Annie, in their own ways. I’m not a fan of when TikTok/social media is mentioned a lot in books but it did feel necessary for this plot. Overall, the story felt a little dragged on and the drama with the ex’s felt a bit unrealistic and not handled in a good way. The miscommunication trope was a bit heavy but if you don’t mind that it is an enjoyable story.

2.5 ⭐️ rounded to 3

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martin's Press for allowing me to read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Two former friends create a fake dating, 'break-up pact' to get back at their famous exes for humiliating them on the internet.

June unexpectedly loses her sister and has to move back to her childhood hometown to take over her sister's tea and scone shop Tea Tides. Levi runs away from New York to take a break from his ex and work on a novel. June had a crush on Levi in high school and after a couple of misunderstandings and a possible unrequited love, they don't see each other until ten years later. June and Levi both went through a hellish break-up on the internet and they decide to fake date to help June's business thrive and make Levi's ex want what she lost. Will they be able to move passed their rocky past and rekindle their friendship or will they be stuck wondering what could have been?

Emma Lord is best known for her quirky, entertaining young adult stories like Tweet Cute, Begin Again, and The Getaway List. The Break-up Pact is her first adult romance.

I truly enjoyed the beginning and middle of the story. I liked reading about the sibling bond between June, Dylan, and Annie, and the friendship they had with Mateo and Levi. Emma Lord knows how to write a good sibling focused story. I felt the ache and pain June was going through remembering Annie and how Tea Tides affected their relationship. I understood the drive and motivation of June wanting to keep Tea Tides open and the feeling of being stuck.

The romantic tension between June and Levi is great! I liked the way Lord wrote the 'will they won't they' and fake dating tropes. There's not a lot of spice for spicier readers but for me, it was the right amount. Besides the romance, I loved reading about their former inseparable friendship, how it broke apart, and the way they are rebuilding it as the 'Revenge Exes'.

I do appreciate that the 'third act break-up' didn't feel like a normal 'third act break-up'. The ending made sense for these characters. BUT the last 25% dragged in my opinion. Everything does wrap-up nicely but to me it felt like it took too long.

Overall, I'm looking forward to reading more Emma Lord books in the future! I love her writing style and the way she develops her characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC of this sweet book! This is my first book by this author and I will definitely read more in the future. The book is a sweet rom com with a fake dating trope. It is fairly lighthearted as a whole but does have some depth in the story, which for me makes it a better read.

The main character, June, is back living in her hometown after the unexpected death of her big sister and a traumatic breakup that had her "go viral" as a crying meme. She has taken over her sister's tea shop and is struggling to keep the business going. Levi, her childhood and teenage, best friend is also back in town following his traumatic and also viral breakup. June has always loved him, but is under the impression that her love is unrequited. They decide to embark on a fake dating relationship to bolster their careers and capitalize on their viral stories. In the meantime, they discover some of the reasons they stopped talking were a misunderstanding and also discover things about themselves personally and as a couple. It's a super cute book and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Thanks for the opportunity to review it.

This is the first book I’ve read by Emma Lord, and I really enjoyed! I definitely want to read more of her work. Loved the relationship between Levi and June. I really liked Sana too.

Thank you Netgalley, St Martin’s press and the author for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
The story has an interesting premise and touches on a lot of tropes (fake relationship, friends to lovers, unrequited love,etc). My issue is with the pacing. The first half to 2/3 of the book was good but the last 1/3 was really sloooow. After a pivotal moment with June and Levi, it felt like a different author took over the story. There is a third main character of the book, Tea Tides, June’s bakery/store. The last part of the book was all about Tea Tides. To the point that this book could be titled “An ode to scones”. It was… a lot, and distracted from the June and Levi story. We needed less scones and more revenge exes!

The Break-Up Pact features some cute moments and delicious scones!

Two former best friends find themselves in a fake dating pact which may or may not help them pick up where they left off ten years ago… I think June and Levi are darling together though I would have loved to know more about why they love each other so much. I’m not sure the characters were fully realized - I didn’t really understand June’s motivations or behavior. Though I found the viral fame/social media plot fairly implausible, I did enjoy the absurd tweets and comments directed at June, Levi, and their respective exes.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

The Break-Up Pact follows the story of two childhood friends who reunite after ten years without communication when they both go through two chaotically viral breakups. That's when they decide to fake a relationship since June needs help with her tea shop and Levi wants to get his ex-girlfriend back.

I'm afraid to say that, although the initial plot really caught my attention, this book was not for me. I couldn't connect with the characters, like the story lacked something more for everything to click, like there was a spark that was missing in order for me to believe the MC love.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. I had high hopes for The Break Up Pact… but I was bored. I struggled to care about Levi and June. I didn’t feel any depth to their story and they lacked the chemistry I was hoping for. I skimmed the last 25% of the book. It had a lot of promise but it didn’t win me over.

I was excited for Emma Lord’s adult debut. Her YA books are cute. However, The Break-Pact was hard to get into. The characters were a little annoying and I couldn’t grasp why they wouldn’t talk to each other for ten years.

The cover was the best part- five stars for that!

The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord is a sweet romance between childhood friends who’ve grown apart over the years. I was drawn in by the fun, colorful cover art and the premise of the book, but the story itself didn’t quite live up to my hopes for it. I prefer romances that lean more rom-com, with lots of fun banter between the couple. This book had some of that, but it was mainly very introspective narration by the FMC, and had a more serious tone than I was expecting. The supporting characters were all very endearing, though, and helped to lighten the mood and keep me invested until the end.

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

Oh what a cute and fun read! This is my third book by Emma Lord and once again she doesn’t not disappoint . I’m a big fan of her enemies to lovers books but she did this one just as well. signature humour and witty writing. loved the characters and could relate a bit . overall a great read and I definitely recommend!

This book was so good! A cute summer romance with a friends to lovers trope. This was so much more than just a light-hearted and heartwarming read with some funny moments. It's more than just a cute love story. Its about two people finding each other, it's about self-discovery, about how to recover from loss and grief you were sure that's you'd never recover from. June and levi were perfect. They really made me laughing, giggling, smiling, crying, squealing with their adorable and endearing moments.

I highly recommend this book to everyone who wants to real something fun and wholesome.

Two former best friends pretend to date after humilating viral breakups. June wants to make her shop popular again and Levi hopes that his ex get jealous.
Will it turn into the real thing?

Love the humour in this book. I like June and Levi and feel bad for their breakups. Love their chemistry. A terrific fun read.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

3.5 stars

First, let me just say that I adore Emma Lord’s novels. Her stories are both whimsical and yet poignant. I was thrilled to receive an early copy of her Adult debut, The Break-Up Pact. It contains her signature style of capturing both the goofy and lightheartedness of relationships, while acknowledging all the emotions and baggage that come with them.

I loved how real June’s and Levi’s feelings were in the sense of their hesitation to fully commit to their relationship. They had very valid fears based on their past interactions with each other and other relationships. However, while I enjoyed this level of openness, as an adult relationship it fell rather short. Several things stood out to me that to me seemed more appropriate in a teenage romance than what you’d expect in an adult one. First, by their own admission, June and Levi have barely spoken over the last 10 years. That means their last meaningful interaction was when they were 17/18 years old. Babies! What their story doesn’t encompass is how much growth they would have gone through during that time. The plot leaves little time to embrace their adult selves and gives almost an insta-love vibe. To me that seems unrealistic as they really don’t even know each other. I’d like to think I’m personally nothing like my 17 year old self. I would hope my experiences since then have allowed me to grow and change as I’ve experience life and learned. This critique made me think of Ashley Poston’s novel, The Seven Year Slip, where the love interest even accuses the MC of loving a past version of himself that doesn’t exist anymore. That’s how I felt about Levi and June’s romance except that was never one of the things they discussed. I’d just like to see more acknowledgement of that change and growth that would mean relearning everything about each other.

Did I still enjoy the novel though? Absolutely! I hope Emma continues to write adult novels and relationships as she is the gold standard for teenage ones and I think she is capable of capturing the all the layers and depth of adult relationships.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

3.5⭐️

I was interested to read Emma Lord's debut adult romance novel. I love (most of) her YA romances and this book had a lot of the same characteristics - found family, character growth, heart, etc.

This book follows former best friends June and Levi, who reunite after barely speaking for 10 years, after both go through viral breakups. They make a deal to fake date - her to help her struggling tea shop and him to get his ex back. This is billed as a fun and emotional book, which I agree with, but a lot of June and Levi's actions relate back to grief and the loss of someone they love.

For what I didn't like: I struggled with why they hadn't talked in 10 years (as I usually do when characters who were best friends stop speaking for that long). And while I know Levi wanting his ex back was a premise of the book, he pulled a Gus in the last 3rd of the book, which really soured me on him. I wish this had been dual POV as I think that would've helped me understand him a lot better than I did.

For what I liked: Again, this was an adult version of her YA romances. Not very spicy, but I did like the characters, even if the main ones could annoy me. June and Levi were sweet together. I loved that the person they lost was not painted as perfect. It could be emotional and fun and did have some angst. It was an adult version of her YA romances. I probably do prefer her YA ones and I flip flop between 3 and 4 stars, but still enjoyable.

Trigger warnings: grief, cheating (not the main couple)

I knew this was a romance book, and because of the cute cover in my mind this was a rom-com but there is a lot of pain here! Don’t get me wrong there are sweet, cute and funny moments but a lot of the story is surrounded by their grief, their misunderstanding when they were teens and their exes.

I honestly wish there was a POV from Levi, I would have like to see more of his feelings and just understanding him better!

I love how June comes to herself little by little, her love story with Levi comes together beautifully and it will give you all the feelings!

Fun story with heartfelt growth. I liked the supporting characters as much as the main characters, and they made the heavier parts lighter. I will definitely read books from this author again!