June and Levi had secret crushes on each other in high school but college and life choices end their relationship. They reconnect years later after they both had very public break ups. The story unfolds as a combination of fake dating and second chance romance. This novel includes a look at relationships between a close friend group and siblings and how time and perspective can change everything.

I struggled with the pacing of this book. The first half moved really slow for me, but I ended up liking the second half of the book. I also did not relate to the social media theme that was a strong presence in the book. Emma Lord brings an interesting added theme of grieving an unexpected loss in the book. I also liked the theme of starting over being brave when failure is looming.

A complementary copy was provided by publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. all opinions are my own.

I've only read one other book by this author and really enjoyed it so I had high hopes. I didn't really enjoy this one unfortunately. Not that it was bad, but it ended up being one of those books that kept me intrigued enough to want to finish and know how it ended, but not enough to be excited to finish if that makes sense.

3.5 stars
June and Levi, now in their late '20s, are former best friends who haven't been part of each other's lives for 10 years. After spending most of the past decade travelling with her boyfriend, June is back in the small town of Benson Beach where they grew up running a tea shop on the beach that she's struggling to keep afloat while Levi is taking a break from his high-paying finance job in New York City to try and finish the novel he has been working on for years.

After they both experience humiliating public break-ups that go viral across social media, Levi and June bump into each other on the beach and a photo of the two of them sets the internet afire with rumours that they are now dating. Recognizing the possible upside to minor social media celebrity, the two make a pact pretending to date in hopes that the attention will help June's shop financially and convince Levi's ex that she made a mistake. They have a swell of public support and the break-up pact appears to be having the desired result but can Levi and June pull this off without developing real feelings for each other?

Emma Lord's first romance for adults, The Break-Up Pact is a good summer read - a friends-to-lovers/fake dating romance with likeable characters and a fun beach town setting. I was expecting a light and fluffy rom-com but there's a bit more to it than that as both of the main characters are dealing with grief and other serious adult issues so the plot is as much about them working out who they are and what they want in life as it is about their romance. Fans of Emma Lord's are sure to enjoy!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sending a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

3.5 🌟

Could have been good but the miscommunication troupe is so frustrating!

I can't imagine not talking to someone for years that you had a crush on and then randomly end up fake dating them?! I did enjoy watching June grow through this book and Sana, her best friend was 👌. Not my favorite of Lord's but still glad I had the opportunity to read it.

Thanks, Netgalley for the ARC of this book!

I didn't finish this one after about 50%. I was really into it at first and then I gave up because I just couldn't get past certain things I didn't like about the characters.

Also, the pacing was off. I wanted to love this one so much.

I really enjoyed this cute fun story. The audio was great and I really liked the narrators. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher.

4.25 stars! I really enjoyed both characters in the book and loved that they seemed fully fleshed out. I am a huge fake dating fan, so this was great. Second chance romance usually isn't my favorite, but this one was understandable. I related to the June, the FMC, because I'm also stubborn and hold a grudge.

I think there was a lot going on at times. From planning a wedding to June dealing with her grief, I think there was some parts that didn't need to be there. I also was left wondering about the dynamics of the group. I even reread some parts to try to figure it out. June says her and Mateo were best friends before he dated Dylan. I caught on later that Levi was a year ahead and I think June started dating Griffin in high school or college (she was 17) Also, did she ever have a job? How did she have money for all that traveling? If these things were stated at the beginning, I didn't catch them. I don't necessarily think we needed flashbacks or anything, but maybe more clarity on the past of their dynamics so I could understand the timeline here.

The third act breakup (?) was also not my favorite. I think the reason for it made sense, but I think I just personally was not a fan of how it played out.

Honestly though, those are just the few things that stuck out to me. I really did enjoy reading this book. It was great! Even if I think both main characters genuinely need therapy, I do think they love each other.

THE BREAK-UP PACT was my first Emma Lord novel and while it was entertaining, it didn’t live up to the hype. The characters were unrelatable and the storyline too all over the place, which lost my interest. I finished it and acknowledge that some may enjoy this, but the style wasn’t right for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review THE BREAK-UP PACT.

Thank you to NetGalley and SMP for the opportunity to read an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

As someone who's very picky about romance books, I was shocked by how much I enjoyed this! Emma Lord's writing is the perfect mix of flowery and easy to follow, and the story is entertaining from start to finish. The Break-Up Pact managed to explore grief in a way that really impressed me, and even with these heavy topics, it was still overall such a fun book. This didn't feel written for tropes, and it thankfully lacked some contrived, infuriating conflict in the third act--in fact, I felt the conflict was extremely well handled, and it was refreshing to see June and Levi acknowledging their faults and handling the whole thing like adults. Morals aren't spoonfed to you, and I think the characters had a good balance of self-awareness vs. unintentionally messy.

Honestly, almost all of my complaints are just personal taste--I wished their previous relationships hadn't both been shitty (much more June than Levi), because to me this would've made a much more interesting story, etc etc. My most objective complaint is that June forgave Levi too easily for certain things. We're told repeatedly that June trusts him entirely, but we see several times reasons why he isn't all that trustworthy, especially early on or in the height of his emotional turmoil. But, oh well, even with this complaint it is overall a quick and easy read, and plenty enjoyable.

I loved this book! It's well-written, enjoyable, and a great read. Emma Lord did a great job of writing in a way that captured my attention, and made me not want to put it down until I was finished! I would highly recommend it!

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I requested a bunch of romance on here because I wanted to try it out. However, romance is just not working for me at the moment. I think its more me than the books themselves so I will be giving this one a neutral rating.

I know Emma Lord is a popular author but I haven't tried her books before. This is my first by her and I wasn't a huge fan. I am not a huge fan of some of the tropes in here and the story just wasn't working for me.

I hope others love this one but it wasn't for me.

3.5 stars.

This was Emma Lord's foray into the adult romance genre, having previously written a few YA novels that I've read. June and Levi used to be bffs in high school until they had a falling out (miscommunication). Several years later, they both wind up in their hometown following humiliating public breakups.

Lord has a thing for dessert, which she weaves into all of her books. In this case, June owns a bakery/coffee shop. I think the dessert thing works for YA, but I didn't love it in this. I did appreciate Lord's signature wit and humor, however. Overall, I would say this was a cute and heartwarming summer read. I'd recommend it to fans of the following tropes:

*Fake dating
*Friends to lovers
*Second chance romance
*Small town
*Mild spice

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for audiobook and ebook arcs to review!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️💫 (2.5)
Steam Level: 🔥🔥🔥 (moderately descriptive open door scene)

After being dumped by her boyfriend on national television, June has become a viral meme. Now she's trying to move forward while brainstorming ideas to help her struggling tea shop. That's where she happens to find her long-lost best friend Levi laying low after his own public break-up. With a little nudge from another friend, Levi and June decide to fake date to gain public interest in June's shop and make Levi's ex jealous. But will old feelings blur the lines between real and fake?

This book had an identity crisis. It appears to be a rom-com, but there's several competing storylines that make it hard to care about what's actually happening between Levi and June. One of the storylines includes the characters overcoming their grief at the unexpected death of June's sister years ago. As much as I love a grief journey, it took away from the fake dating. In addition to the storyline issues, we had two main characters that were clearly not ready for a mature relationship. Levi wants to get back with his cheating ex but then does an about face and declares his love for June after years of ghosting her. Then when the ex comes back into play, June and Levi both act like teenagers who don’t know how to communicate. I quickly lost interest at the 75% mark and skimmed the rest. This sadly wasn't a winner for me.

As a romance, The Break-Up Pact left me underwhelmed. There was a lot of miscommunication and indecision between the love interests, making me question whether they really were “meant to be”. While I didn’t buy the romance, I fell for the setting. Lord’s descriptions of the beach town where this book takes place were beautiful, saving this title from being a total flop.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for giving me an ARC of Emma Lord’s The Break-up Pact in exchange for an honest review. I absolutely loved this book. It wasn't what i was expecting. I didn't expect it to be as charming as it was. Some of the scenes had me laughing and many had me crying. I felt the hurt and confusion that June felt over everything in her life; her feelings over the loss of her sister, the changes to her family, the possibility of losing the family business, the humiliation from her ex, and the feelings from Levi which resurfaced as soon as she saw him in town. While I didn’t experience the feelings the same way from Levi’s side, since the book was told from June’s POV, I could still see his confusion about his life and his being lost on where to go next.

There is no question in my mind that June and Levi were meant to be together. June’s ex is a despicable human being and Levi’s ex was too caught up in seeing if there was anyone better out there for her. Both characters grew during the story as well. Both were able to come to terms with their current lives and really focus on what they wanted for their future.

The author did a wonderful job of representing a small town and how everyone knows everyone else’s business. She did a wonderful job showing how everyone cared about everyone and was able to convey to small town feel to the reader, including one like myself who isn’t from a small town.

I highly recommend this book.

3.75/5 stars rounded up.

This was my first Emma Lord book and it will not be my last.

I really enjoyed her writing style. She has a way with words that paint a vivid picture of the characters and scenery in my brain. I was right there with June and Levi on the beach, on the boardwalk, in Tea Tide… The story felt like a movie playing in my head, and I loved every second of it.

The only problem was that I didn’t really connect with the characters, especially June. They were well fleshed out and believable, but some of their actions and reactions felt so dramatic and unnecessary. I know that there is almost always a big conflict in the third act of a romance book, so I was expecting one here, but it really got on my nerves because it felt so immature on June’s part. And, I get it, she had past relationship traumas she needed to get over, but I could not help being frustrated when Levi was trying to talk things out with her and she just kept shutting down and pushing him away.

Still, the ending tied everything up in a pretty little bow and redeemed the messy middle for me a little bit. And made me want to eat some scones.

I am love love loving Emma Lord's recent novels! After finding her through Tweet Cute I was excited to see what else she had written and wwowuld write and she has not disappointed. The way that she writes is so fun and colorful I can never stop smiling or laughing while reading her books. This one was super cute with the tension making me giddy and the characters making me absolutely blush. I am excited to see what is next for her!

Another one of those books that felt like they were missing something. The resolution for the third act breakup was dragged out, and it felt like all of June's trauma didn't get resolved... go to therapy.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of Emma Lord’s newest book in exchange for my honest review.

While this is a fast read with a youthful, fresh plot (starts with a viral social media breakup), I had a lot of trouble connecting to the characters. I questioned some of their decisions, which made it hard to root for the couple. Even though this book wasn’t for me, I will keep an eye out for more of Emma Lord’s books in the future due to her unique writing style.

First, I'm endlessly grateful to St. Martin's Press and MacMillan Audio for early access to the ebook and ALC of this story! These are my honest thoughts!

I enjoyed listening to this book SO MUCH. I was drawn in by the narrators and while I enjoyed reading it, I think I actually loved listening to it even more! The audio performance gets 5 stars. It felt like watching an old favorite rom-com, with so much energy and ridiculousness and fun and serious all mixed in the bag!

This story is tied together with tragedy, with June's sister/Levi's BFF passing away, but not before she causes a chasm to form between June and Levi right out of high school. Years have passed, and yet these two haven't managed to reconnect. However, they both are facing public humiliation in the form of their exes publicly breaking their hearts for all to witness. Rumors start rolling, and these two form a break-up pact in order to ward off the public interest in their love lives.

The best part of this whole story is Levi coming to June's defense. He's best friends with her brother still, and his intentions are pure. When all their history finally comes to the surface, you see Levi as the sweetheart he really is.

This is a childhood-friends-to-strangers-to-fake-dating-to-lovers story, with a lot of emotional turmoil in between. It's sort of second chance (they both had crushes in high school). There's grief. There's embarrassment. There's failure. And then there's a lot of fun, too. And the spice was... brief but spicy all the same!

I'm excited for this one to be in the world. It vibes sort of like a spicy Sarah Adams romance novel, and I'm glad Emma took the leap from YA, making The Break-Up Pact her contemporary romance debut. A solid 4-star read for me!