I’ve had my eye on this book for a while, and once I finally decided to pick it up, I enjoyed it so much more than I was expecting! Estranged childhood friends to lovers, fake dating, a wonderful beachy setting, and just enough emotion to pull at the heartstrings, this is a perfect sumer romance that I HIGHLY reccomend!

I love Emma Lord but this book wasn't a hit for me. It fell a little flat and I just didn't connect with the characters.

I was given an Advanced Reader Copy by NetGalley for an honest review.

The character arcs of June and Levi, though resolved, could have been more finely executed, as their growth seems hindered by the miscommunication trope that lingers from their high school days. The narrative unfolds with unnecessary length and occasional dragging moments, contributing to a feeling of immaturity in the characters. Despite the humorous elements and the beachy setting of Benson Beach, the book falls short of the expectations set by Lord's previous works in the YA genre.

I loved the beginning of this book. June and Levi are both great characters and I liked them together. Unfortunately, there was a lot of miscommunication and I felt like the story dragged out a little longer than it needed to while also feeling like it ended a bit abruptly. There are some wonderful parts of this book and I don't regret reading it but I don't think I'll reread it.

I loved this one — Emma Lord's adult debut! And it was better than I could ever imagine. It still had all the sweetness of her YA novels, but had a little *fire emoji* so well executed! Loved the characters and the fictional boardwalk — just such a fun read!

The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord is a cute rom com. This is both a second chance romance and a fake romance turned real. The characters and their fame make the story more interesting. I think readers of rom coms will enjoy this book greatly. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

This adorable and touching tale of estranged friends pretending to date is the perfect beach read. Even if it is the end of summer. June and Levi experience two very public (June’s was viral) break-ups. In an attempt to save her coffee shop, June tries to leverage the attention to bring in customers, but she ends up with far more than that. She learns to start living for herself, not the ghosts who haunt her.

CW: grief of loved one.

I received "The Break-Up Pact" through Netgalley and here is my honest review: Be still my beating heart, "The Break-Up Pact" is a great beach read to end my summer! Sweet, sensitive, and bashful Levi is such an endearing character and I was pleased by his character arc. Same goes for the tough, disheveled, and loyal character of June. I've read a couple books written by Emma Lord and this has been by far my favorite. I loved the beach town, the reliable and loving friends and family that June and Levi have, and the absolutely annoying and manipulative antagonists. The will-they, won't they, while usually isn't my favorite trope, was a lot more palatable in this book than what I've read in the past. There was far less miscommunicating which I think is part of why I was able to enjoy this sort of trope. So many of the wishy-washy romance books usually have miscommunication galore to amp up the "Ross and Rachel" style romance. Which makes me want to break out into hives for the ridiculousness of it all. June and Levi didn't do that to me. There was of course some assumptions made by both characters, but they actually adulted-up and talked about their feelings and why they were doing what they did instead of just, straight up letting it fester and make things worse. I was a little desperate to get a dual point of view, since I would have loved to know what was going on Levi's head during the scream poetry night, but alas it was only June's perceptive throughout. Overall, I was pleased with this book!

This is a perfect little romance novel that is like a warm hug and a cool breeze on a summers day.

June and Levi were best friend as teenagers until Levi left for a life of his own. The had a falling out before he Left. A slight misunderstanding.

June is struggling with her scone shop, after the death of her beloved sister. June is trying to keep her sisters dream alive. She doesn't want to let her down. Can she pull it off or will she be kicked out of her rented place? She also has suffered a bad break up seen in front of many people. She has been dubbed the crying girl. YIKES.

Levi and June have a rocky start over. But agree to a fake dating scheme to make their exes jealous. This is my favorite part! The fake dates that are steamy and the jealousy that Ramps up.

Is this a fake relationship? This story is absolutely heart warming and exactly what I needed. Emma lord has a another hit! I absolutely loved it!

Thanks to NetGalley and st martins press for giving me a copy of this arc!

Oh man. Sorry Emma but this was slow going for me. I didn’t end up loving the characters like I usually do with this author. I did like the setting and idea. I want to go to the little shop and eat a scone and drink some tea!

I would like to thank the publisher and author for providing an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this novel via NetGalley.

2.5 stars, rounded up.

"The Breakup Pact" is a second-chance romance novel that follows the story of June and Levi. We are introduced to June, the owner of a struggling tea shop named Tea Tide, located in a small seaside town. Not only is her business failing, but she also recently became the star of a viral meme after a public breakup with her long-term boyfriend. Enter Levi, her long-lost best friend from childhood, who happens to return after his longtime girlfriend went viral for cheating on him with a movie star. The two decide to fake date to save June’s business and to convince Levi’s cheating girlfriend to get back together with him.

As a former cross-country gal, I loved the references to the sport and to running. I enjoy second-chance romances, and the author did a good job of connecting the past to the present. I am a sucker for scenes where long-lost loves see each other again for the first time. I thought the descriptions of grief were thoughtful and well-written. Also, I must call out the Taylor Swift reference.

While this was a relatively easy read, overall, it just wasn't my cup of tea. I found the pacing to be slow, and I'm just not a huge fan of the miscommunication trope in the book. I feel like a lot of the tension within the plot could have been resolved with a quick conversation between June and Levi. While the book had its cute moments, it just wasn’t my favorite.

I loved the friends who stopped talking to a mutually beneficial fake dating years later trope!!
June and Levi were fun and interesting characters! It was great getting to know them as they get to know each other again.

Being Emma's Adult Romance debut, I thought that the tone was clearly set on it. It was funny and swoony, but very serious, more deep and layered as well!

I really liked Levi and June as people and as a couple. I thought they had chemistry, and they helped each other grow as individuals and together too. Overall they were very much perfect to each other, in their own imperfect ways.


This whole book was very fun, heartwarming and I really enjoyed everything! This was my first Emma Lord's book and it definitely won't be the last!

Thank you so much Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Break-Up Pact was between a 3 and a 4 star read for me. While I thought the romance between Levi and June was sweet, I was more compelled by their own personal struggles. Both are almost paralyzed with fear and desperately trying to hold on their own original plans for their lives. As they continue to work through their issues, they end up figuring out the difference between surviving and living.

I typically really love Emma Lord’s books. Tweet Cute and Begin Again were adorable RomComs for the young adult set. This book’s protagonists are fully into adulthood, and therefore come with adult problems like business issues, career issues, and break-ups that involved affairs. The challenge here is that I wish their problems would have been written about more clearly. Or maybe there were just too many problems.

June Hart owns a bakery, Tea Tide, that she started with her older sister Annie who passed away suddenly from a brain aneurysm. She has been afraid to change anything about the bakery after Annie’s death, but she needs to change things or else the bakery’s lease won’t get renewed. Also, her boyfriend of over ten years, Griffin, just broke up with her on national tv after cheating on her, and she is now known as “Crying Girl,” As if that isn’t enough, Levi, the love of her childhood, comes strolling back into town after HIS girlfriend cheated on him. The two of them start a “break-up pact” which doesn’t even really make sense as a name because they pretend to be fake-dating so that their exes get jealous, and the bakery gets more attention, You know what happens next. They really fall in love. They agonize over this for no reason (Levi wants to move too fast, and June moves too slow is what the book tells us, but it could be more convincing),

This book has a lot of the tropes of RomComs, so I think it might work for a lot of hardcore fans, Levi and June were cute, and did have some funny moments. There’s also a cute beach town and loyal and charming side characters. That might be all you need!

Thank you NetGalley for the free digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of The Break-Up Pact.

I’ve been a fan of Emma Lord’s since her first YA novel, tweet cute. Her writing is witty and her characters are always so memorable. I was excited to learn that she was writing her first adult novel, and it did not disappoint! Levi and June were the perfect MC’s in a story full of grief, reconnection, and a lot of scones. I will continue to read anything Emma writes!

The Break-Up Pact follows June and Levi, childhood friends who have barely talked over the last 10 years and are suddenly thrust back into each others' lives when they both have break-ups go viral and a picture of them together has the internet dubbing them "The Revenge Exes."

June and Levi decide to embrace the idea of the Revenge Exes as they both will gain something out of it: June will gain the money she needs to keep her tea and scone shop afloat, and Levi will hopefully win his ex back.

This book also deals with grief, as June and Levi are still grappling with the death of Annie — June's sister and Levi's best friend — two years after she passed.

It was beautiful getting to see June and Levi reconnect. They have a shared past and even though they became virtual strangers, there are still parts of them who know the other better than anyone else. After years of being pushed to be people they aren't, they really come alive and are their true selves when they're together.

I wish that there hadn't been quite so much OW drama with Levi hung up on getting his ex back for so long. It made it hard to get quite as invested in Levi and June because Levi was <i>always</i> talking about and talking to his ex. But overall, it was a quite story about dealing with grief, growing, and becoming who you're meant to be.

The Break Up Pact

Emma Lord’s debut adult novel is a hit! I love that the same time came across from her young adult novels.

The premise is so fun with revenge of the exes. There are some deep topics too and grief plays a large role. The emotion hits like Emily Henry and Abby Jimenez.

The romantic tension felt a little forced at time but overall I think it makes a great beach read. But don’t worry, you don’t need a beach in order to enjoy it.

I want to start this review off by saying thanks to the publisher for giving me a digital ARC of this book. It took me a second to get into it, but once I got into it I loved it. This sweet, short romcom was a perfect summer read with a great second-chance friends-to-lovers romance.

Even though The Break-Up Pact felt more young adult than I was expecting, Emma Lord did a great job weaving in the right amount of humor and tension to keep me interested.

This book is incredibly millennial and it was so fun. The nostalgia I felt when I read this line, “… carting around the AlphaSmart keyboard he used to type on…” 👏🏼

I love the fake dating trope and surprisingly enjoyed the “childhood friends” component too. However, some of the conflicts in the third act felt off to me. A combination of too many things happening simultaneously, weird pacing, and a few underdeveloped moments.

This was just an ok romance book for me, it had some tropes that I really enjoy like fake dating and friends to lovers but I just didn't connect to the main characters. I liked the exploration of grief for both of them and I enjoyed that more serious aspect to this story. I for some reason just did not feel the chemistry with them and also just towards the end started to get a bit bored. It was overall a solid read, with good writing but I just did not connect with it.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin for granting me access in exchange for an honest review.