I really enjoyed this story of Levi and June. I was immersed in their world of books and tea and was rooting for them every step of the way. I smiled a lot while reading and there may have been a time my eyes sprung a leak, only a little. 😉
I’ll gladly recommend this gem!

Many, many years ago, someone told me “you’re a nice girl, but you think too much.” That came to mind as I read the novel, a fake dating/friends to lovers/second chance romance. Centered around two friends with unrequited crushes in high school reconnecting 10 years later after humiliating break-ups that went viral on social media.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, I liked the characters, but I felt it dragged a bit as the main characters obsessed about all their life choices. Nonetheless, I would happily read more by this author..

thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for the digital ARC in return for an honest review. .

1.5 stars

I had a hard time getting into it with the characters. I felt like they were forced and both held on to a lot of grief and couldn't see past it. The book was slow burn to the extreme and also very long but slow moving. Second chance romance, misunderstanding, kinda 3rd act breakup ish, best friends to lovers. The steamy scenes were kinda cringe. Sana is the best character and I loved her so much.

Thank you St Martin press, Emma Lord and NetGalley for the ARC

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

I was really hoping to like the book as the trope is right up my alley and the cover/summary really caught my attention. However, certain things made it tough to enjoy it but it may work for other readers!

The relationship the main characters have with their ex-partners didn't do it for me. June has been with her (ex) boyfriend for about a decade, Griffin, who also grew up in their beach town. Wanting to get away, he applied for a reality show and got in. That led to him cheating on June, bringing both the girl he cheated on her with and a camera crew to June's house and humiliated, creating her into a meme. With all of this, June still wants to be the bigger person and say, "He was my best friend." Please grow a spine. Then, Levi and Kelly were together for years as well and Kelly cheated on Levi with some older celebrity. This also became publicized once the world found out that Kelly was engaged. When asked about the break-up, he said no one broke up with anyone and they're taking some time apart. And swears that he understands why Kelly cheated on him as if it's his fault.

Both characters really lacked self-respect and it was hard to read. Also, once they finally hook up, Kelly is on her way to their town the next day in which he proceeds to ignore June for a full day and is seen out with Kelly. When they have a conversation on Levi no longer being with Kelly, June just forgives him as if what he did was okay.

I think the ending was lackluster and was hoping for some kind of 'one up' on Griffin but he ends up getting the shot he needed for the show, don't understand why she would do it for him (oh right because she still has love for him...). I haven't read any other books by this author however this might have been the odd one out of the catalog for me.

First, the cover for this book is absolutely gorgeous!!

June and Levi experience break ups of their long term relationships around the same time. They were friends back in high school and through a series of events they create a pact to fake a relationship and document their revenge relationship through social media.

I think the premise was really creative. I struggled connecting with the story for the first half of the book. Though, once I got into the last half of the book, I felt the pacing of the story really picked up and reading through the later half was a breeze. As much as miscommunication can be a common element used in storylines, I did appreciate that there were moments where June and Levi were very forthcoming and direct rather than allowing miscommunications to be drawn out.

If you enjoy a fake dating or second chances romance, this would be a book to consider checking out. I’m excited that Emma Lord wrote an adult romance and would definitely check out a future one!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this was a fantastic read! There was enough build up and twists that made it not feel like the normal formula for a romance and kept me reading! A perfect read for a cozy Friday night in - couldn’t put it down!

This book is sweet. Sickening levels of sweet. Hallmark movie levels of sweet. Just the way I like it.

Was an ok read, June and Levi have had feeling for each other years ago. Both date others in high school, moved away, come back after many years to fate date to get revenge on their exs...

The Break-Up Pact is the first book that I have read of Emma Lord’s, it also is her debut novel in the Romance genre as she typically writes YA books.

The Break-Up Pact was a cute, modern, romance about two ex-best friends, June and Levi, who are facing a mutual struggle where both of them have very public break-ups that go viral on the internet. The break-ups circulating social media platforms and news outlets, then puts them in a situation where they can either come together again after all of these years, and embrace the 15 minutes of fame for their benefit, or allow it to bring them down.

Throughout the book I truly appreciated the comical banter between the main female character, June, and her best friend, Sana, as well as the loyalty both women have for each other. I especially enjoyed the underlying theme of the book that brought up the topic of loss and the grief that it brings those who experience it. Emma did a great job addressing what it is like to lose a loved one and all of the emotions that it can cause. However, I felt as though the book fell a little short.

The setting and timeline seemed to get lost in the writing and I found myself having a hard time visualizing where the characters were, how long it had been between one conversation and another, which then made it difficult for me to fully emerge myself into the story. The transitions from one setting and conversation with one of the characters to the next also seemed rushed – at one moment June is speaking with her future brother-in-law and the very next paragraph, she’s somewhere else, speaking to Levi.

The book also uses the trope of miscommunication and I found myself thinking that the miscommunication was not significant enough to cause two long standing friends, who seemed to have been incredibly comfortable around each other, to no longer speak to one another for a decade. Especially with how intertwined their lives seemed to have been.

Overall, I did like the book; it is a lighthearted, easy read. I laughed, teared up and enjoyed the personality that Emma Lord wrote into her characters.

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

Fun quick rom-com about two former high school friends who both find themselves back in their home town helping to plan a wedding and end up fake dating each other after breaking up with (very publicly) with their respective exes. June is struggling to run her deceased sister Annie’s tea shop while Levi is trying to write a novel he has giving up on writing after seeking a job as a hedge fund manager. I would say this one was a little sadder then I would normal expect in a rom com however it made me more invested in the characters and how their story was going to end up (legit had tears in my eyes with the epilogue). This is a perfect summer beach read that was read in the dead of winter!

A cute fake dating story with all the emotions. A little slow to start, but then sped up and couldn’t put it down.

I've absolutely loved all of Emma Lord's YA titles, so I was extra excited to get my hands on her adult debut, especially since it has so many of my favorite tropes (fake dating, estranged childhood friends, small town)! This book really packs in the swoons as June and Levi grow closer and closer together as adults, but it still deftly tackles more complex, tougher topics. The cast of secondary characters was fun and vivid -- this was the perfect beach read!

I love Emma Lord, she is great with YA, and when i found out that she wrote a romance, i was so excited to read it.
Thanks so muche to Netgalley and the publisher, for giving me the chance to read it.
The story itself is not bad, it has lots of pop references and is enjoyable, but i didn't care a lot about the character. The story in some points is a bit "heavy", and not always is what i look for to read in a romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for this gifted ARC.

Let me start off by saying that Emma Lord normally is an auto-buy author for me. She writes sweet, cute YA romances that always put me in a good mood. Unfortunately, this one was a miss for me, and I felt like something was just missing from the overall plot.

Fake dating romances are one of my favorite tropes to read. Emma Lord set this trope against a social media background that included villainous exes and a mysterious BFF breakup between the two MCs (Levi and June). On top of that, we have the cloudy presence of June's deceased sister, Annie, who played a major role in their childhood friendship.

All of these elements are ones that I love, but it was entirely overshadowed by the pacing of their romance and the dreaded miscommunication trope. Speaking of the pace, this is one of the reasons I gave this book only 3 stars. After ten years apart, Levi and June fell back in love pretty quickly without any context for the reader. Also, I am not a fan of miscommunication driving an entire plot line. It is revealed that this was THE reason that Levi and June stopped being friends. It wasn't realistic to me, and I wish there was more to this part of the plot.

Overall, this was a fun read; I read it in a single afternoon. The beach setting is fun, and I love a good fake dating theme. If you are looking for a lighthearted romance that has a few gaps, this book is for you.

Ohhhhhh……..I wept, mostly quietly and without fanfare, in the last third of this book so often that I had to tuck a tissue into the area under my glasses to catch the tears. It was so so lovely and so heart-wrenching and so so beautifully written. I have enjoyed Lord’s books before, but never quite this much. I won’t ruin the book for others, because I feel like any discussion might lead me to spoil something unintentionally, because I just adore Levi and June and Mateo and Dylan and, ohmygawd, Sana!!!! Love. Her. So. Much!!! This was a great read. 💜💜📚

The Break-Up Pact was such an entertaining read. Lord combined a second chance romance, fake dating trope, and deeper emotional struggles with ease in the novel. I would recommend this book to romance and general fiction readers, unless the miscommunication trope is a turn-off.

The plot: June and Levi are former-best friends who happen to go through highly public, mortifying break-ups at nearly the same time. These humiliations aren't their only challenges - June owns a languishing beachside tea shop that's empty more days than not, and Levi is a prototypical New York finance guy who "sold out" and abandoned his dream of a writing career. After not speaking for a decade, June and Levi have a chance meeting that leads to a viral photo & myth that the "breakup duo" have found revenge on their exes by dating each other. Both of them find potential benefits to this misunderstanding, so they decide to play the part with a fake dating (and redemption) campaign. What could possibly go wrong?

My opinion: This was a fun read - I read it in a single sitting. Fake dating books are always a favorite for me and Lord created a very interesting backdrop with the viral social media pressures, villainous exes, and mysterious "BFF breakup" drama between June and Levi. I enjoyed how the author balanced the humorous elements (June's best friend with the quirky personality & incredible internet savvy) with the emotional trauma of losing a sibling and the reckoning 30somethings go through when they realize they haven't lived up to their childhood dreams. I did find the pacing of the romance to be a bit unrealistic - it felt a bit like "insta love" between the two characters, without the reader understanding exactly why they fell so deeply. The childhood friendship was discussed in much more detail and felt more realistic, with the connection and its drivers being much more apparent. I disliked the miscommunication trope that was revealed to have caused their "friend breakup" at the end of high school - the author built some suspense throughout by delaying the reveal to the end of the book, but the payoff wasn't satisfying for me. Overall I enjoyed the book and would recommend it, especially as a beachy read given the setting of the book.

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

I really enjoyed this book! It has several of the best romantic tropes all put together in a really good way, and I really enjoyed watching their relationship progress throughout the book.

If you’re looking for a really quick and easy read, this is perfect for you. The characters are charming and the dialogue is super fun, it’s a perfect rom com!

That being said, it is a tad corny however what do you expect for a short fake dating romance book. Definitely a good book after a heavy read!

This book was cute! I thought the pacing was a little fast—not enough tension. But I enjoyed it and look forward to more adult romance from Lord!

I have loved Emma Lord since Tweet Cute, and when I got the email that I could read an advance copy of her first adult romance, I may or may not have actually squealed out loud in an airport. I devoured this book in about six hours, and it was even better than I had hoped.

June and Levi were really compelling, fun characters, and the progression of their relationship was so much fun to read. Something that I find that Emma Lord does really well across all of her books is the combination of each character's personal development and the development of their relationships. June and Levi each have a personal journey to take during the course of this book, but they also grow together and as a couple; and that's something that I personally really enjoy in a book when it's done well. I love a good fake dating trope when done right, and this one was done very well.

The side characters in this book were also done very well. Dylan, Mateo, and Sana were all vibrant and contributed substantially to the plot, and I loved the close family vibe that the scenes of them together had. The way that they contributed to each other's lives and livelihoods felt realistic and warm and truly caring, which is something that I find is very rare in books.

My only small annoyance with this book was with the character of Annie. There was a part of me that just did not understand why the dead character felt distinctly unlikeable (at least to me). But I think that was a bit of a double edged sword - a big part of her influence on the story is in her absence and in how her not being there to speak for herself was hard for June and Levi because of how important her opinion was to them.

Overall, I was so happy to have the opportunity to read this book and highly recommend it. This is Lord's first adult novel and I really hope that she keeps going and writes another!

Huge thanks to NetGalley and to St. Martin's Press for providing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.