This did not have the same charm as other Emma Lord books, sadly. I didn’t really buy in to the past between Levi and June, which made it hard to root for their love story. There was no slow burn, it felt like the pacing was just off. While the cast of characters were charming, I feel I didn’t get to know them enough, either. We’re told June sees her brother so often and then he disappears for most of the book and when she’s struggling, she still doesn’t call him? It just felt like poor character development/explanation. Hoping the next one works better for me than this did.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In "The Break-Up Pact", former high school friends June and Levi (and each other's crushes) have both become social media "famous" after being dumped unceremoniously by their significant others. They attempt to hide in their small coastal hometown while June is running her late sister's scone shop and Levi is trying to write his first novel. When their friend plots a plan for the two of them to start a fake relationship in order to overcome their newfound fame and get back at their exes, lines start to get blurred. Their desire for revenge on their exes cause former feelings to rise and they start to realize that maybe getting dumped isn't the worst thing that ever happened to them.

I enjoyed the sweet, steady relationship between the two of them, but the tiny obstacles that kept popping up were a little frustrating. Regardless, the chemistry between June and Levi was cute, and I enjoyed the humor they shared. The storyline reminded me a bit of other books I've read recently as well. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Break-Up Pact was a cute light hearted story. I enjoyed all the character's interactions with each other. The familial relationship and banter was sweet. Learning and growing go hand in hand and you see that in this story between June and Levi.

The Story of June and Levi drew me in with the first paragraph and I could not put it down. I have never read an Emma Lord book before but I will definitely be looking for me. The emotional connection she makes between reader and character is phenomenal. Great story about love, family, and the ties that we make with those around us even if they are gone.

4 stars
"The Break-Up Pact" by Emma Lord is a delightful romantic escape that had me hooked from start to finish. June's journey to finding love in a charming coffee shop is filled with humor, heartwarming moments, and unexpected twists. Lord skillfully blends witty banter and genuine emotions, creating a perfect balance. The chemistry between the characters is palpable, and the supporting cast adds charm. This sweet and fun romance, is a must-read, offering a refreshing take on love that will leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Highly recommended!

The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord delivers a delightful blend of humor, heart, and modern romance. June and Levi, estranged best friends, find themselves entangled in a fake relationship after their messy break ups become viral sensations. The author writes engaging characters with a well crafted plot that includes witty banter, genuine emotions, and unexpected twists as the duo navigates the world of fake dating to salvage their public images.

The Break-Up Pact ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A cute rom-com.

June and Levi were friends in high school but haven’t spoken in ages. After they both go through break ups, that went viral online, they decide to make a pact and fake date to get revenge on theirs exes. Each dealing with personal struggles, they can see how they both could benefit from this. During this time, they realize they both have true feelings for each other. Why did they ever stop talking to being with?

Overall, I like the story. It was a romcom but it also dealt with a hard topic but was handle with care. It was predictable at times but still good and didn’t take away from the story or make me want to stop reading. I liked the characters and the growth they each had throughout the book.
I think this will be a great light summer read! Be sure to add to your list as it release on August 13, 2024.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martins Press for my advanced readers copy. This is my honest and voluntary opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this book. This was my first Emma Lord book, so I’m grateful to have been introduced to her work. I thought the premise of this book was sweet, with its focus on childhood friendships and grief. I loved the idea of friends-to-enemies-to-lovers, but I didn’t love that the enemies portion was due to one seemingly easy to fix misunderstanding. I’m not opposed to misunderstandings as a trope, but this one felt so easily fixed, that it made it hard to believe an entire decade was missed because of it. I absolutely loved the middle of the book, with the build-up, reconciliation, and conflict of the story, but the beginning and end dragged for me. I appreciated the attention spent to building the dimensions of each character, but there was so much time spent on it, I found it didn’t hold my focus. Overall, though slow in places, I thought it was a sweet romance with solid dialogue and I’ll definitely check out more of Lord’s books.

I really enjoyed Emma Lord’s earlier YA, but I chose not to finish this book. It was difficult to follow the plot and character development. The writing was a bit drawn out for my taste and didn’t capture my attention. The placemaking in her YA novels was more engrossing in my opinion.

I’d been excited about this book since I saw the cover of it. June and Levi grew up together as he was best friends with her older sister. A misunderstanding caused them to not talk for years, and now both of them have gone viral for their respective break-ups with other people. The two decide to make a pact and pretend to date so Levi can get his ex back and June some much needed publicity for her struggling tea shop.

I loved the chemistry between June and Levi, and their various set-ups for publicity were fun as you can tell they were definitely not faking.

Thanks as always to NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a cute story of two friends from the past, June and Levi, coming together after viral breakups on social media, to help her business and him win back his ex. However, the past is dragged up and they start remembering why they were so close. It was a cute story, but for only 320 pages it felt really dragged on and wordy. Either other stuff needed to happen or words needed cut to make it more of a novella.

The description of the book seemed interesting, so I wanted to check the story out. Unfortunately, it is not working for me right now. It is nothing against the story or the author, but I couldn't get into the story/characters. I may try and find a physical copy to add the my library when it is released, though, because I think my readers could like it!

In all honesty I had a hard time getting into this book for the first 40%. Then it picked up and I started to get invested in the characters. I found the beginning to be slow and lots of internal dialogue by June. I also would have loved a dual perspective book. I often wondered what Levi was thinking or what his perspective on things were.

The Breakup Pact by Emma Lord is a cute rom-com that also dealt with heavy issues in an appropriate and relatable way. June and Levi were friends as teenagers but haven’t spoken in a decade. After they both go through breakups that went viral, they decide to make a pact and fake date. They hope that by fake dating they can both benefit from the aftermath of their breakups. I always enjoy a fake dating trope and I especially like the friendship first aspect that developed into a relationship. I like the friendship foundation that they had and how June and Levi supported one another and didn’t want to change each other or be the reason the other changed.

Read this book if you enjoy:
* fake dating
* former friends to lovers
* Social Media: viral videos TikTok, Instagram, Twitter
* fun side characters
* little spice

I wish there was more banter between the main characters, a more romantic/swoon worthy MMC, and shorter chapters. I enjoyed the premise of this book though and am glad I had the opportunity to read it. This book will be released on August 13, 2024.

Thank you NetGalley and St.Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book. I voluntarily read it and gave my honest review.

The Break-Up Pact was my first Emma Lord's book, though I have seen and heard about her others. This book was a pretty standard fake dating romance novel. It seemed to follow the same cookie cutter pattern of similar books that share that same trope.

Although I objectively enjoyed the story (well, maybe a collective 80% of the story), I wasn't wowed by the characters. Both had their own individual downfalls for me and also shared a mutual flaw of not having a backbone, June's in the situation with Griffin (and honestly a little with Levi), and Levi in the situation with Kelly (and sometimes with June!). It was hard for me to like Levi when he was pining after a girl who CHEATED ON HIM for half the book. He was half in and half out of the relationship with June for so much of the novel that I had a hard time trusting him even at the end.

Something I really really hate in books is when characters intentionally say words that will hurt their counterpart. I ESPECIALLY don't like when an author prefaces their words by having their internal monologue say something along the lines of 'I aim these next words to hurt him." The cruelty of it makes a character nearly unredeemable to me, and I was sad that this happened around the 80% mark when there was so little time to come back from that.

I did enjoy the side characters and kind of assumed there may have been prior books about them while I was reading. Because I assumed this, I accepted feeling a little lost with their stories, so if that is not the case then I think more backstory would have been helpful.

Overall the story was a typical fake dating (with hints of miscommunication, ugh!) story. It was for the most part enjoyable but I was definitely not connecting to the characters like I normally do. Overall a 3.5 from me.

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin's, and Emma Lord for the arc!

4/5 stars! I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I did find it to be a little on the long side but I enjoyed reading it. This is the first book I’ve read by Emma Lord and I am looking forward to reading her other books. This book is released August 13, 2024. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Emma Lord and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

This was the first book I’ve read from Emma Lord and it definitely won’t be the last. I always love a good fake dating storyline and this book delivered! It was fun and heartwarming, truly a perfect combination of comedy, romance, and a thoughtful storyline. All of the characters were great and added something fun and unique to the story. June and Levi’s friendship was really sweet and I enjoyed getting to slowly learn more about their past, how they got to where they are, and to see them repair what they had lost. It was also beautiful to see both of them grow individually, to see them learn more about themselves and what they really want out of life and then pursue those dreams. Overall, this was a fun, sweet, easy read and I really enjoyed it.

Emma Lord is always a delight. While I fear nothing will ever top When You Get the Chance, the Break-Up Pact was so fun. I am always down for a fake dating situation and that coupled with both June and Levi's personal struggles made this just the right level of substance. I do feel that it almost bit off more than it could chew with both fake dating and the second chance romance and June's solo plot line. I almost would've preferred a story focused on June and Tea Tide with Levi as a side plot instead of reversed. But at the end of the day, this is one I'll be recommending.

Oh my goodness, I absolutely LOVED The Break-Up Pact! It was both heartwarming and heartbreaking. I loved the dynamic between June and Levi, how they both really understood each other and would encourage and build each other up. One of my favorite things about this book was the parallel between June and Levi’s relationship building and my own love story - I could very closely relate to these characters! We had both come out of long-term relationships involving drifting apart, gaslighting, and just clicking from the moment we started spending time together. Not to mention, I also had the pleasure of having an ex call non-stop after their breakup and worrying it would jeopardize our relationship.

POTENTIAL SPOILER: But my absolutely favorite part was the race at the end, which would lead to the same outcome, regardless of who the winner was. My (now) husband and I did something similar with our first kiss, although we were playing for high score in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, not running a race…To-may-to, to-mah-to. Alas, we’ve been married almost 20 years, so here’s to hoping Levi and June get their happily forever after like we did.

Many thanks to Macmillan Publishers and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

I loved the story of this book. It had a great plot and I’m a sucker for a fake dating trope. I had high hopes for this book although I was new to this author.

While I liked the story, the characters fell a bit short for me. June lived her life for everyone but herself, and I hated that. I hated that she didn’t have her own dreams and path but was just literally living out her sister’s plans.

Levi kind of sucked. He was nice and I wanted to love him, but for starters the entire book I felt like he was closer and cared more about June’s sister than June herself. He had zero backbone. I hated that he allowed everyone to push him around. I also absolutely hated when he outed June to Kelly but supposedly loved June and wanted to be with her. His actions were incredibly immature and a bit infuriating.

As I said, the story was good but I didn’t feel a huge connection between the characters until almost the end of the book, and by then I was so irritated with how they had conducted themselves and choices they had made I wasn’t even sure they should be together. Still an enjoyable book overall, I’d give it a 3.5 star rating.

I’ve enjoyed Emma Lord’s books before, so I was happy to be given an ARC of The Break-Up Pact by NetGalley and St Martin’s Press. Overall, it was a fun friends-to-lovers story, but I felt it was a little lacking in backstory. I would have liked more information or even flashbacks showing how all of the characters had originally met and interacted in the past. I liked June and understood her motivations with her tea room, but also felt that her relationship with Annie and the related grief could have been explored more. Not my favorite Emma Lord book, but still very good!