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

A hilariously, sweet and cozy romance. 3.5 ⭐️

My favorite thing about this book was the setting. The Break-Up Pact takes place in a small beach town and the vibes are giving. After her sister passed away, the FMC takes over her sister’s tea shop called, Tea Tide (are you kidding me with this cuteness?), located on a boardwalk overlooking the ocean. The story captured me right away with the picturesque seaside setting and engaging cast of both family and found family characters.

The story did lose me a bit towards the second half with its heavy handed use of miscommunication. I had the urge to shout at the characters multiple times to JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER ALREADY. Still, I cared about the characters enough and was rooting for them even though it was frustrating at times.

All in all a delightful story definitely worth picking up if you’re into scones, childhood friends to lovers and fake dating!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC!

I love the fake dating trope so this book was a fun read for me. I always love seeing how they’ll come together.

you can always count on emma lord to give you swoon worth romance novels! i particularly really loved this one. i thought the story flowed wonderfully and the characters were likeable. 4.5/5!

Spoilers ahead: There was things I really enjoyed in this book and a few things I didn't. I really hate the miscommunication trope when it's like "oh that night meant nothing to me," "oh, me too" and they were both lying. It's maybe one of my least favorite things in romance novels, so that probably shades my feelings about this book. Also, the fake dating portion of the book was made to seem like really important, but was really just a blip in the scheme of things. Some of the getting together in their relationship was super vague - I kept feeling like I was missing some details. But overall it was cute and I liked the MCs. I will say that I find a scone food truck finding great success to not be very believable.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review of this book.

I was excited to read this book as I love second-chance romances and beachy settings. The story follows June and Levi, former high school friends turned viral social media dumpees turned fake daters.

As much as I tried to connect with the plot, there was too much going on too quickly. I didn't feel like there was enough character development to feel any kind of connection to the two main characters. Why are Levi and June's exes so famous? Why is everyone they went to high school with so invested in their situation? Why would the paparazzi care that they were dating? Add in a dead sister, a gay wedding, and a business in need of saving... it felt hard to focus on the budding romance with so much going on.

Sweet story of childhood friends, June and Levi, who start a fake dating pact to get back at their exes. Both of them went viral on social media because of disastrous break ups that happened in the public eye. It took a bit for me to get settled into the story; I was a bit confused at the backstory with the sister. But once I made it through the first quarter of the story, I was really invested and enjoyed my first Emma Lord book. There were many great light and funny moments among the real and tough moments that I always love in a rom com with depth. This one also had so many of my favorite tropes.
I’ll for sure reach for more of Emma Lord’s books in the future. Thanks NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this lovely ARC experience. This book comes out on 8/13 and I think it will be a great addition to anyone’s summer reading list!

I am a big Emma Lord fan and really wanted to love this book. However, it fell flat for me. I really struggled to get into it or care about the characters. Truthfully, I don't even remember their names. The story focuses on a girl who is running a struggling tea shop and a guy who's run away from NY after his girlfriend traded him for a celebrity. The girl also had a public breakup, but I was never very clear about what made her ex famous. They were on a reality show, but the show is never explained. All we know is that they traveled a ton. The idea was there, but the execution didn't deliver for me. It almost felt like Lord was trying too hard to be like Emily Henry. It didn't have Lord's signature voice or multi-dimensional characters.

There is a spicy scene that was VERY cringy for me. Like bad porn descriptions. The scene felt unnecessary and could have been a fade to black and still impacted the story the same way. I usually don't mind spice in books, but this one was uncomfortable.

Overall, this is one I wouldn't spend money on and wouldn't recommend to others. If you're looking for something fluffy and chill this could be a good book for you. If you're looking for Lord's signature charm, I'd skip this one.

My first Emma Lord book- cute setting, fun characters but I just never really go into this one. I did finish it but just didn’t love it. I kept waiting for it to get better and It just fell flat for me. Not horrible, but nothing I would overwhelmingly recommend.

Thank you NetGalley & St. Martin’s Press for this ARC!

thank you to netgalley for this e-arc!

ended up dnf'ing this -- the setting was fun, i liked the cute town and occupations of everyone, i just couldn't get into it.

story didn't feel real and the characters just felt like caricatures of stereotypes, always running from the paparazzi's that for some reason are obsessed with capturing the two MC's together.

it just didn't hook me. something felt missing.

this was my first emma lord novel, might look into reading more of her work but this one didn't grasp me like i wanted it to.

I wanted to like this book. It had all the ingredients of a good love story, but it felt like the author tried to give the characters a level of depth that was unearned. I felt like she wanted me to feel the weight of the tension between these two characters, but she didn't provide enough of a set-up for me to buy in. I wasn't particularly rooting for them, and about 3/4 of the way through, Levi does something messed up that he never really has to answer for. Towards the end, the story just kind of meanders and the thread of the love story feels lost.

The Break Up Pact is about two estranged childhood friends, Levi and June, who have both just undergone very public break ups. After a photo circulates of them together and people dub them the “Revenge Exes,” they agree to fake date. For June, it’s to boost sales for her failing tea shop that she inherited from her sister who passed away a couple years prior. For Levi, it’s to try to win his girlfriend back, who cheated on him with a movie star.

I am a sucker for the childhood friends to second chance lovers pipeline. Add in some fake dating? All about it. And my god, I don’t know what it was about this book but I ate it up like one of June’s Revenge Ex scones. (And yes, there are a lot of references to scones throughout so probably a good idea not to read this too hungry).

Apart from the romance this book centers on, the book also deals with grief and guilt in multiple ways. I won’t explain this too much because doing so will give away some plot points but the main exploration of grief is June’s for her older sister, Annie. By the time the story starts, June is an age her sister never reached, struggling to keep a static dream they had, but that June has outgrown, alive. It is not a heavy read by any means and it doesn’t really explore the darker places grief takes people to (it is a romantic comedy, after all) but it also doesn’t shy away from the fact that it’s not something that goes away, even if the weight of it gets easier to carry with time.

Was I frustrated with the miscommunication? Yes, very much and always and yet multiple of my favorite reads this year (including this one) have involved it so I’m not sure what to make of that except maybe to admit that it works when it’s really well written? Maybe the point is to be frustrated and we just have to lean in to the discomfort??? I struggled with the duration of some of the conflict that takes place but I understood its purpose and the necessary character development it enabled.

Overall, this was a really sweet and fun romantic comedy that also made me teary eyed at times. It was beautifully written and I loved it!

Thanks very much to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wasn't written from the heart. There was no passion and nothing drawing the reader in to make them care for the characters.

I really enjoyed this book. I love that she's a meme and he's heartbroken because of a reality show. It's a cute concept. This book is definitely a slow burn, maybe a little TOO slow, but worth the wait, I would recommend it to my friends.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

After reuniting after not speaking to each other for ten years, high school friends Levi and June hatch a plan to get back at their exes after each was dumped got someone else by very publicly fake dating in a social media obsessed world.

In the newest YA novel from Emma Lord she mixes, what she does best, the modern digital age with a likable YA romance. Is the ending transparent? Yes, but the journey is worth it.

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