I absolutely loved this book. Emma Lord can do no wrong, this book was one that I could not put down. The characters were developed nicely and the tropes were perfectly executed.

WOW. Easily a 5 star read. This was lighthearted and fun in so many ways. Even though this book deals with the impact of grief and loss, the author does it in a way that really captures how it can sneak up on you when you’re least expecting it. She captures how you can continue to live your life and move on while still honoring your lost love one. And, while that was happening as the undertone of the story, one of the quaintest fake dating tropes was center stage. The connection between June and Levi was evident from their very first interaction. The tension was screaming off the pages. There was moments that I really felt everything to my core, but also moments where I was hysterically laughing (Catch me making a bracelet that says be like Gouda). The side characters were also woven into the fabric of this book in such a beautiful way that truly allowed them to be a huge part of it and not just an afterthought. I loved everything about this!!

This was a cute read and honestly wanted to enjoy the characters felt a bit bland. The miscommunication also wasn’t done as well as I’d hope. I just don’t think this book was for me!

2.75 stars.

This book follows June and Levi, who were friends in high school and reunited a couple of years after their public break-ups hit the internet. When a photograph leads everyone to believe they're a couple, they fake a date to boost June's business and help Levi win back his cheating fiancée. As they navigate their staged relationship, filled with fun, cute dates, they unexpectedly fall in love again.

While the story is cute and has elements of fake dating and second chances, it lacks some depth. The romantic aspect may come off as immature, leaning heavily on the overused misunderstanding trope, which may remind readers more of a middle school rom-com than a story about mature adults. Despite this, the journey is enjoyable, albeit somewhat predictable. The characters' chemistry as a couple feels slightly off, and the miscommunication trope, although a personal preference for some readers, doesn't add much depth to the plot here. The lack of high stakes leads to an anticlimactic resolution.

Overall, it's a cute read, but may not be everyone's favorite from Emma Lord. This might be for you if you're into cheesy, cute stories with familiar tropes. However, if you're looking for something with more depth and complexity, you might want to pass on this one.

I want to thank Netgalley for giving me this ARC! I thought this was a cute little story. I really liked the setting and the atmosphere. For some reason I found myself not connecting to the characters as much but I still enjoyed their story. This is a quick and easy romance to read that I think most people would enjoy!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Emma Lord for the opportunity to enjoy this advanced reader copy.

This is my first time reading Emma Lord's work and my understanding is this is her first in the adult genre. This is a classic trope of getting a second chance at love missed. I found the romance to be positively adorable as I admittedly have a soft spot for this particular trope. The book has a bit of a slow start but I do think it's necessary that it does as the world building is set up rather well from there on out.

I loved that rather than have characters that fight or miscommunicate Lord has made actual functioning adults who talk about their problems. I feel like this is such a rarity in romance novels that it actually felt like a breath of fresh air.

This book just oozes with summer cozy vibes and I highly recommend taking it along with you to the beach this summer.

June and Levi are former close friends who have known each other since they were kids traipsing through the woods and playing on the beach, along with June's sister and brother. They haven't spoken much in the years since Levi left for a job, and a future with his long-term girlfriend, in New York City. June is back in their hometown after many years traveling the world on crazy adventures with her own long-term partner, Griffin. When both of these old friends are involved in viral social media breakups, they decide to turn the tables on TikTok, reality TV, and all the rest by starting a fake relationship with each other.
I enjoyed both of the main characters and their individual growth throughout the story, as well as the ways in which they were able to come to terms with many different things that happened in their shared past. June and Levi know when to push each other, and when to give each other space, as only those who have a real understanding of each other can do. I loved the supporting characters in this story. Dylan, Mateo, and especially Sana, are the kind of friends and siblings anyone would be fortunate to have in any circumstances.
The Break-Up Pact will be a fun summer read for romance readers, so be sure to grab a copy for your beach bag when it comes out in August!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I’m a huge fan of Emma Lord’s YA novels, and her debut adult novel just confirmed that I will read anything and everything that she writes. I LOVED this one!

She immersed me in the world of a coastal beach town tea shop and kept me on my toes with the fake dating/viral relationship situation.

June and Levi were so sweet, and I felt like they were mature enough to not frustrate me with any avoidable miscommunication. The backdrop of figuring out your new dreams after losing someone you love brought emotional layers to the story.

If a fake dating, small town, and friends to lovers second chance romance with a side of scones and cute banter sounds like a good time, READ this one please!!

This book has all my favorite tropes - fake dating, second chance romance, & childhood friends to lovers.

This book was a cute and fun read for me. I found myself laughing at certain points (hello, scream poetry!), and also sad & heavy in the grief of June losing her sister. I wouldn’t be mad if there was a sequel following Santa’s story, she was such a fun character I wanted more of.

Thank you to NetGalley & St Martins Press for providing me with the ARC!

This one fell a little flat for me. I didn't really like either character and feel like there wasn't much plot. It was just fine. I do like the cover though!

Wow! I was pleasantly surprised with this novel! The characters were hilarious and brought in the sort of drama that makes you want to keep on reading. I was a big fan of the way Emma Lord created her storyline and kept the characters alive on the page throughout the whole novel. Great read!

Emma Lord's break-out adult novel was a joy to read! I started following her work as a young adult author and am so glad she decided to cross over into adult. For any young adults that want a smoother transition into the next "level" I would recommend this as a good new adult read.
June and Levi were best friends growing up, coupled with her sister and brother they were an unstoppable team. That is until Levi upends the post high school graduation plan and goes off on his own. Skip forward a couple years, and June is struggling to keep up on her rent for her beachside tea shop and Levi is a failing novelist in New York, and the two have barely talked in years.
Is there anything that going viral for a couple of publicly humiliating break ups that TikTok can't fix? Levi finds himself running back home in wake of the drama, looking for a calm place to write. Looks like that will be hard to accomplish when the internet gets a hold of a picture of him and June reconciling and thousands are convinced that they are together. Suddenly the benefits of letting the people believe what they want holds more appeal as the tea shop is getting more business and Levi might be making a certain ex jealous. Separating the fake dates from real life will be a breeze, especially because their history and current situations would make navigating a real relationship very difficult. And anyways, neither of them feels that way about the other... right?

"I ache for both my sake and hers, because I never wanted to imagine a future where we weren't each other's first lines of defense."

The Break-Up Pact is a solid example of how the Contemporary Romance genre can use its tried-and-true tropes to provide a comforting read while allowing the reader to explore more abstract topics of grief and healthy engagement with social media.

This book beautifully addresses the complexity of losing a close relative. June's compulsion to preserve everything exactly how her sister left it, and guilt at wanting or needing to do something different. The way home doesn't feel the same now that the person she lost is not around. The way she clings to the things within her control when there is so much in the world that outside of it.

The framing device of the viral social media breakups, while implausible, is a unique way to bring two estranged friends back together - you can see Emma Lord's digital media background in how this part of the story is written. The fake relationship trope is alive and well in The Break-Up Pact. But as much as I thought I would roll my eyes at the stereotype, I don't mind it so much? Because the dialogue is funny and the chemistry between June and Levi is more than believable. I buy their shared history and think it serves the narrative well. I would not. be. sad. if Emma Lord decided to write a whole book on Sana (a la the Soulmate Equation followed by True Love Experiment) because I 100% want to read more about that lady. The characters have human, complex reactions to their emotions and (generally) make mature, non-impulsive decisions.

The aforementioned (generally) is what kept this from being a 4-star book, in my mind. Where I, for the most part, applauded June and Levi for using their words in times of conflict and stress, there are moments where it doesn't feel as consistent throughout the book. There are more stereotypical rom-com "misunderstandings" that, while eventually resolved, don't jive with the thoughts and actions of the characters during the previous chapters. While humans are imperfect beings and characters in contemporary fiction benefit from being less perfect than most, I still want my characters to use the lessons they learned in earlier chapters to inform their behavior in future ones.

All that to say I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys contemporary romance. Fans of Emily Henry and Christina Lauren will feel right at home. Of the books within this genre I've read so far this year, The Break-Up Pact is one of the better ones. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go buy a scone.

**Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

This was such a warm and wonderful book that felt like a big hug! I loved June and Levi, as well as the entire side character cast. Everyone was so well fleshed out and just fun to read! There were a few dated millennial lingo references that jumped out at me in a not so good way but honestly i don’t even care, this book was so lovely. I loved June and Levi’s chemistry and I loved that the premise was funny but executed beautifully and with such depth. Probably my fave Emma Lord book yet

This book was really hard for me to read. I found myself rolling my eyes multiple times. There was no chemistry between the main characters and the whole premise was not done well in my opinion. This book just doesn’t hit the mark for me.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I had to DNF this book. I got through 50% of it, but I couldn’t connect with the characters, and it took me a while to reach that point because I didn’t find myself reaching for it or wanting to read it. I felt like it dragged to actually get to them faking dating. I really wanted to stick it out but couldn’t anymore.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this book; it just wasn’t for me. I simply couldn’t get into it. I was confused at the beginning, and social media was all the rage throughout the chapters I did get to. I just didn’t enjoy.

The Break-Up Pact follows June and Levi, two former best friends who both experience near simultaneous humiliating (and viral) breakups. The two haven't spoken for years until Levi suddenly appears outside of June's struggling beachside tea shop. When a photo of them is leaked and the internet is avidly interested in their supposed relationship, the two decide to use it to their advantage; June in order to generate income to save her shop, and Levi to cause his cheating ex girlfriend to reconsider her choice in partner. Thus begins the fake dating extravaganza with the all important break-up agreement.

As a lover of all things *fake relationship* this story drew my eye immediately. And honestly, it was good. Great even. My heart was pulled from the beginning by both characters. I was rooting for them, hurting with them, blushing along side them. It was an enjoyable read that I think of fondly.

Unfortunately, this story gets 3 stars from me. The reason for this is two fold. #1 I'm not a huge fan of the miscommunication trope. This is entirely personal preference and could easily be something I breeze past if it weren't for #2 the ending DRAGGED. The climax of the book felt like it came around the 50% mark, meaning the last 6+ chapters weren't relationship building or conflict resolution or any of the other important aspects of a contemporary romance. Instead the last fourth of the book comprised of putting metaphorical pretty bows on everything. Each chapter was fine on its own, but taken together it started to feel like a Tedtalk of everything Emma Lord thought the reader could learn from the characters. It was still an enjoyable read, don't get me wrong, I just wish the end was more succinct.

This was actually really cute! I went in with kind of low expectations because I saw some bad reviews but I was pleasantly surprised! Who doesn’t love an “it’s always been you” with some fake dating?!

The characters were fully fleshed out and I loved them. June is sassy and so loving but dealing (or not dealing) with the grief of losing her sister. She has to learn how to come to terms with her loss and let go of the past. Seeing her figure out her grief and how to look towards the future and what SHE wants rather than what her sister would want was everything you’d want in a FMC.
Levi is such a lovable little push over until he finally figures out how to live for himself and decide what he wants with his life. I, so badly, wanted chapters in his POV! We could get little glimpses from what June thought she was seeing in his expressions but I would love to have heard from him what exactly was going through his head during their Revenge Ex dates!

I thought the story wrapped up nicely. We got the MCs to finally speak freely with one another and clear the haze from their eyes to realize they can stop hiding their feelings. I want more! (Please leave Kelly and Griffin out of it 😅)

Ah, the age-old miscommunication trope twinned with a fake-dating scenario. One of my favorites. Whatever could go wrong? To be fair, this one was far less of a 'main character didn't listen to the whole conversation or seek clarification' incident than a 'teenage boys can be jerks' miscommunication. Much more palatable. Overall, I very much enjoyed the Break-Up Pact. The main characters June and Levi were likable, the banter was funny, the supporting characters were amusing, and the writing flowed. I liked the underlying storyline of both main characters working through their grief, and how their re-introduction to each other spurred on that process and made them individually reassess their goals. I loved the initial premise that June and Levi started dating because they both had viral break-ups. However, there was a point where it felt like the story was plodding along. Two people fake-dating can only do so much wedding planning for another couple before every situation begins to feel repetitive. And, yet again, here are two grown adults unwilling or unable to have an adult conversation about their relationship, leading to even more miscommunication. Ultimately, though, this was a perfectly enjoyable romcom full of funny quips and playful adventure that I have no problem recommending for a light-hearted read.

4.25⭐️
2.5🌶️

The Break-Up Pact is the first book that I’ve read of Emma Lord’s despite owning her other works for quite some time. As far as I know, this is her first adult novel after a few books in the YA genre.

I really enjoyed this book! It had a little bit of a slow start, but I think that helped the story to develop and character connections to blossom. Going in, I didn’t realize that there was a subplot of sibling loss. If I would have known this, I likely wouldn’t have ever picked up this book. The topic wasn’t handled in an exceptionally sad way, but I still would have avoided this if I had been aware. For this reason, I deducted 0.75 stars.

The prose of this book reminded me of “Beach Read” by Emily Henry. The way that the characters interacted, the way the plot moved, and the writing style. This book and story felt familiar to me in a really good way. I also felt like the romance between the two main characters was reminiscent of an adult version of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” by Jenny Han.

This book is the perfect summer read, and I think that it was really well done. I’m definitely hungry for a scone after reading this one!

My favorite quote from this book was: “The way we have always been able to see deep into the cores of each other, to feel the depths of the other's hurts and triumphs and everything in between. A thread between us that kept its pull even after all these years apart, too steady to break, too strong to unravel.”

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Emma Lord for the opportunity to enjoy this advanced reader copy.

Content Warnings: sexual content, death of a sibling, grief, infidelity, bullying