I loved this book. Could not put it down! Emma Lord did it again. I loved the characters and the story, overall would highly recommend!

Emma Lord's "The Charm Offensive" is a heartwarming romance about second chances and unexpected love. June and Levi, estranged best friends, fake date after their break-ups go viral. With witty banter and palpable chemistry, their journey is filled with self-discovery and forgiveness. Lord's subtle approach to intimacy adds authenticity, making it a satisfying read for fans of contemporary romance.

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own!

Everything I've read by Emma Lord has been young adult, but this is a wonderful foray into the adult romance genre. I absolutely loved Levi and June's second-chance romance, the development of their characters both individually and together, and their happily ever after. The sex scenes were very subtly spicy but so, so sweet—and well written! Throughout the story, Lord gracefully and carefully handled the topic of grief in a way that felt true but not too heavy. Loved this one! Would absolutely recommend.

First off, I love the names of the main characters, Levi and June, and loved even more when he teased her by calling her by any other month. This was a quick and easy summer read, but the characters still had depth and plenty of time for character development.

June and Levi were inseparable growing up until a high school crush and miscommunication caused a falling out. Ten years later, June and Levi are reunited, both suffering from breakups that went viral and decide to change the narrative and fake date throwing the internet into a frenzy. But as most fake dating stories go, the lines begin to blur. As they try to mend their friendship, figure out their careers, and continue to sort through the grief of losing Annie, June’s sister and Levi’s best friend, it keeps getting harder and harder for June to guard her heart.

I’ve read other Emma Lord books, but they’ve all been young adult so while this didn’t have a ton of spice it definitely had more steam than her other books.

The Break Up Pact by Emma Lord ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley, Emma Lord and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The story follows June and Levi, childhood friends who agree to fake date for publicity after June is dumped live on reality tv, and Levi’s long-term girlfriend cheats on him with a Hollywood heartthrob. June hopes the social media buzz will help save her struggling beachside cafe, TeaTide, while Levi hopes his ex will gain perspective by seeing him with someone else. Their plot is complicated by their intense history, June and Levi both had secret crushed on one another in high school, and spent the last 10 years barely speaking - until the unexpected death of June’s sister Annie.

I really wanted to enjoy this book. I’d heard great reviews of Emma Lord’s other novels and hoped her first adult contemporary romance novel would live up to that hype. There was a lot of potential, but ultimately I feel like this needed more depth to be a great romance story. June and Levi are both clearly still dealing with their grief over the loss of Annie, and this seems to be put in the background and used as an excuse for characters to deflect their feelings and miscommunicate. This book is heavy on the miscommunication trope which drives the majority of the conflict. I also think the secondary characters could’ve added so much complexity to building out this story, but they were underutilized.

One thing I liked about Lord’s writing style was her pacing, the story moved well and I was never bored. I loved the beach small-town vibes that Lord wove into the setting, it suited the romance well. I also enjoyed June and Levi’s relationship in their happy moments. They had adorable dates, witty banter and great sexual chemistry. But when things got hard, their dynamic didn’t work well together and I feel like they never truly resolved their issues.

I will definitely give Emma Lord’s other novels a read to see how they measure up. If you’ve read her other books, I would love to hear which you liked and if you read The Break Up Pact, what your thoughts are!

The Break Up Pact will be published August 12th 2024.

The Break-Up Pact is a cute, modern friends to lovers romance story, with a little drama, whitty characters, lots of emotions, & a sprinkling of passion.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book on #NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. If you're looking for a light-medium read that gets a little drawn out in the middle, but comes together for a Hallmark like ending, then please read The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord.

This was my first Emma Lord book. It was an easy, mindless, feel good read. I loved the premise behind this book of two best friends that have not spoken in a pretty long time. I enjoyed the beginning awkwardness, the reminiscent memories and their interactions as they pretend to date and the way they navigate their new "relationship" and their old flames. I am normally into mystery/thrillers and often times find the love stories or pretend love stories not riveting enough. Emma Lord had absolutely no problem keeping my attention and made my heart swell many times at childhood memories and new experiences. Excited to read the other books she has written.

I enjoyed this book! I like Emma Lord’s writing style and the way she develops her characters. I wish that the secondary characters were a bit more developed and there was just a bit more depth overall to the storyline. Overall, though, it was a fun and heartwarming read.

I'm not sure what audience this book is written for--the characters seem a little old for young adult, but yet the story seems aimed at a younger audience than adult--I think it is one of those rare books that seem to be written for he "in-between" age, college into young twenties. However, I as a really older woman, enjoyed it (although I read YA as a hs librarian). June and Levi are likable characters that I felt comfortable reading about knowing how most of Emma Lord's books end. I also loved her best friend and to have a little diversity Dylan and Mateo (June's brother and his fiancée) are interesting--especially Mateo's sweater vests. My only complaint is that the end of the book felt rushed--I wanted the two exs, Kelly and Griffen to have more of a just conclusion, after all they were kind of rotten and I guess I wanted Levi and June to be just a little more human and gloat a little. This is a quick easy read that is perfect for escape!

I was so excited to read an adult romcom from Emma Lord after hearing such good things about her YA titles! The Break Up Pact was a solid beach read with cute characters and solid chemistry. The basic setup is a cute twist on the second chance genre for the internet generations—two estranged friends who missed their shot together team up as “revenge exes” after both experiencing very public breakups.

It’s a cute-if extremely unlikely-setup that I honestly feel would work extremely well in the new age of Netflix romcoms. This book didn’t change my life, but it’s the perfect light, summer read to bring along on vacation. And I really want to try the revenge ex scone.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

1 Sentence Summary: June and Levi used to be best friends in high school, but now June is a struggling small business owner and Levi is a failed novelist, and they haven’t spoken in years; after they both experience humiliating public breakups, a photo of them together goes viral and they are dubbed the “Revenge Exes”— and maybe keeping up the charade that they are dating will help June’s shop get more business and convince Levi’s ex to get back together with him.

My Thoughts: It feels illegal to rate an Emma Lord book 3 stars, but I guess I just like her YA books a lot more. Not to say this was a bad book, I just found myself not caring about it; I wasn’t rooting for the love interests to get together, I wasn’t dying to find out what happened at the end, and I wasn’t super invested in the story.

One of my main complaints was that it seemed like nothing happened the whole book. Yes, I know it’s a romance novel and that the romantic relationship is the focus, but all they did for over 300 pages was have intense conversations, worry a lot about whether their relationship would work out, and go on a few fake dates.

Also I felt like some of the romantic scenes were just <I>too</I> cheesy. Enough to make me cringe a little. After not seeing each other for over 10 years, June and Levi got together way too fast to be believable in my opinion. (But somehow also way too slowly?) (And the fact that the whole reason they didn’t speak to each other for 10 years after being best friends was due to a tiny misunderstanding in high school?!?!)

Maybe it was a me problem, seeing as two of my least favorite tropes, fake-dating and miscommunication, greatly abounded in this book.

Positives, though: I thought the characters were well developed and I loved the sibling relationships, and explorations of grief and healing from loss of a family member.

Overall, while this wasn’t my favorite, it was still really well written and would probably be a fun beach read!

Recommend to: People who enjoy romance novels, tea shops, fake-dating, scones, and social media.

(Warnings: swearing; explicit sexual content; mentions of death of a sibling)

There’s a lot to enjoy in the Break Up Pact by Emma Lord.

Friends to estranged to lovers: ✔️
Descriptions of delicious scones: ✔️
Villainous ex we love to hate: ✔️
Fake dating: ✔️

Overall, I found this to be a fun, easy read. There’s some complexity in the exploration of the grief of losing a sibling before their time but overall, I found the story hit the marks that it wanted to explore. There were times where the pacing seemed to something be slower than I would like but overall I found Levi and June’s love story to be sweet. I especially love June’s best friend Sana and her brother Dylan. The supporting cast really helps the story shine.

It’ll be a great book to take to the beach over the summer, an easy treat for a day where you want a break.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins press for the arc.

i wanted to love this one so bad but it just didn’t work for me. the characters were a little bit too immature for my taste, and the romance wasn’t too romantic for lack of a better term. i would still like to give this author another try…

The break up pact will be a fun a summer read. I read it in Florida so it felt like summer. I was immediately pulled into the story and loved June right away. I loved Levi as well and they have great chemistry. The characters are rekindling their childhood friendship (and more) while fake dating and dealing with some other social media sillyness that I really enjoyed. But the book also covered themes of grief and family, opening up and making space, of taking a chance and change. It’s a fun story with character growth and a super sweet romance. I really enjoyed it!

It was cute. It was easy to read. It just wasn't super memorable for me. I couldn't tell you much about it now, but it is a very easy and cute book.

I really enjoy Emma Lord's YA books so I was beyond excited for this one!! Unfortunately, though I love the fake dating trope, this just didn't hit for me personally. I couldn't get into why these characters should fake date, and that didn't make this a good reading experience for me. I do hope for more Emma Lord books, of course!

This was a fun, easy read. Nothing too groundbreaking, but not disappointing either. A light-hearted romance with a beachy setting.

This was such a unique premise and executed really well-- the characters felt fleshed out, including secondary characters, who were almost as engaging as the MCs. The romance was so well paced and adorable, making this an overall great read! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

I wanted to love this as I love a good fake dating trope, but unfortunately I couldn’t really connect with this one. I didn’t find myself invested in the main characters or their relationship much at all, and starting the story off with so much negativity in the female’s life felt a bit heavy for a cute romance.

I enjoyed the book! I loved the small town beachside vibes. Everyone knew everyone and they all support each other. It also included a trope that I have yet to read much of (childhood friends to lovers) so this was a good intro to it for me. I agree with what Sana said, June and Levi worked because despite knowing each other for years, the hardships they were both going through in the beginning of the book really brought them back together. June’s ex is a POS and I’m so glad he got what he deserved.