"Fake dating, it turns out, is a scam of a trope, because the effort of getting ready for the date part is still very real."

If you like books that are written purely for the tropes, then you'll like this one. Unfortunately, that's not me, and I had a hard time slogging through this one. I don't know why I keep reading "famous people" and expecting to like it, but it was hard for this Gen Z girl to imagine anyone caring about the Revenge Exes, but maybe I just couldn't suspend my disbelief enough. If you can, go for it! Enjoy this summery read with some pretty solid lines :)

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Charming, Heartfelt, and Full of Fake Dating Fun 🙌

Emma Lord, yet again, delivers an entertaining blend of humor and heart. June and Levi, once best friends, find themselves faking a relationship after viral break-ups. What starts as a ploy to save June’s struggling tea shop and mend Levi’s wounded ego turns into something deeper as sparks fly and old feelings resurface. 😏 There were so many laugh-out-loud moments with genuine emotion, making this a perfect read for fans of fake dating and second chances. It gave me similar vibes to Tweet Cute, but the adult version. Love!

I thoroughly enjoyed the last book written by Emma Lord so I was eager to check this book out. However, I found it hard to connect with the characters. For the most part they came across bland and I really didn’t understand how a book about a breakup pact seemed to include very little of the pact. It seemed like they barely talked to each other about their breakups and the issues they both struggled with were pretty low stakes. I had a hard time believing any of the struggles and sort of felt like the story just lagged. I guess it wasn’t for me. 2.5 stars rounded to 3.

This was so cute and funny. Not sure if this is a trigger for anyone like it is for me, but there is a lingering ex in the picture for a moment —which I didn’t expect! All i know is that June is better than I am!

As a content creator, I loved the social media aspect of this! So gossipy and fun. The wedding chaos was so relatable and overall June and Levi were cute together. Do I think Levi could’ve tried a little harder?! Yes. He’s giving B for effort and I’m looking for an A from my book boyfriends, but maybe this makes it more realistic.

This would be the best beach read ever. I didn’t want to put it down and it constantly kept me wanting to pick the book back up.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this book in exchange for an honest review.

There was something about this book that didn't quite hit for me.
I loved the set-up (two viral breakups), the setting (a small, sea-side town), and the main trope (fake dating), but it all kind of fell flat in the end. I think I just wanted a lot more back and forth before the couple decided to fake-date because it had been a few years since they'd last interacted in a stable capacity; it just felt really abrupt. I also wish the author would have delved a little further into the grief that June and Levi were both affected by and June's relationship with her brother! I think there were just too many things that felt a little half-baked.
However, I loved Emma Lord's writing style and her ability to convey so many emotions; I'm excited and hopeful to see what she does next!
Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Emma Lord for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

*3.5 stars*
The Break-Up Pact was set in a small, tight-knit beach town where everyone seems to know each other. We follow several things that are going on beyond the main storyline... June's tea shop struggling, Levi writing a book, June's brother is getting married, and June's friend Sana is trying to write an article worthy of being in a big magazine. There's a bit of a sad undertone to the story due to June's sister (and Levi's friend) Annie passing away two years ago, and I think both characters are still processing the grief of her being gone. The main characters were overall likeable, though sometimes I found it a little frustrating how much June tended to push Levi away. Both characters have been living in situations that are more to fulfill the dreams of other people instead of themselves, so there was some good character development as June and Levi figured out what they actually wanted for themselves.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for the review copy of The Break-Up Pact! All opinions expressed in my review are completely my own.

I enjoyed this cute friends to lovers story about childhood friend June and Levi. June agrees to help Levi win back his cheating fiancée. This is very cute story and I highly recommend this book for lovers of romance.
I want to thank Netgalley and St Martin Press for the opportunity to read this book. I give this book 3.5 stars

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for a copy of The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord. I was so excited to read Emma Lord's adult debut since I've really liked her YA but this book was disappointing.

I'm such a big fake dating fan, but something about their plan and fake dating was a complete miss for me. I also wasn't a fan of June and this book just wasn't for me.

Emma Lord has always been one of my favorite YA authors so I was excited to get a review copy of her adult debut, The Break-Up Pact. I really enjoyed this one too.

I love a good fake dating story. Make it a childhood best friends to lovers, second chance romance & I’m all in. This story was cute, filled with great banter, & just overall a good time!

The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord is a romance novel about two people whose break-ups went viral and decide to date. I thought this was a great summer romance that was very fun. The setting is on a cute beach town where the main character owns a tea shop. The main characters do have a bit of a history which makes the dynamic more interesting because it adds extra tension. This book does dive into some heavier topics than Emma Lord's other novels so be aware of that. The topic of finding your own passions in life and the realization you may have wasted your time with a career and people is a topic I enjoyed. I think this book is more of a contemporary novel than a romance but I felt like everything was balanced well. Overall, I thought it was a fun read!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for a review!

This book was a delight. I am a childhood friends to loose acquaintances to lovers junkie. AND it involves a costal tea shop and is just so delightful. Honestly, this was much more sad than I anticipated but I really enjoyed it still!!

What a great read. I thoroughly enjoyed every single piece of this story, and couldn't put it down once I got started. I read it all in one sitting! Emma Lord is a fantastic author, and I've enjoyed each of her books tremendously. There is the perfect mixture of spice and romance and plot, so you get all sides to the story. Another home run!

I've been a fan of Lord's YA books so I was so excited to get an opportunity to read an early copy of Lord's first adult romance. A lot of the things I would call characteristic of Lord's YA books (references to social media, lots of descriptions of baked goods) are present here but I was happy to see that they did seem somewhat toned done in a way appropriate for a more adult book if that makes sense. That being said, there are lots of Lord's cutesy hallmarks so any fans of her YA books should find a nice soft place to rest here.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It maybe took a little bit longer than normal to buy the romance between June and Levi but once it got cooking, it did really work for me. A lot of the conflict does rest on what could be considered various miscommunications. I wasn't personally bothered by this but I know sometimes it can be frustrating at times when characters can't get it together. The fake dating conceit is one that almost always works for me and there were some parts of the conflict at the midpoint that had my blood boiling.

While I do find a lot of the concepts here sort of silly (two "viral" breakups and a...tea restaurant that everyone loves on the beach) I think a lot of the emotional parts of the book are grounded in the huge loss June suffered when her sister and best friend passed away suddenly. Both June and Levi seem somewhat stunted by this tragedy and I thought the way June was handling it and by the end, overcoming it to be her own person, was particularly gripping.

I am so excited for Lord to write more adult romance. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars

I have to applaud this book for all of the wonderful emphasis it puts on LGBTQ+ characters and LGBTQ+-owned businesses. This representation was beautiful to witness and was done in a tasteful way. Basically, every couple that was not the MCs was queer in some way.

This book uses brief moments of a different format through text messages. It was nice and easy to read and broke up the monotony of typical text.

My one complaint with it was that it did a bit too much telling and not enough showing. It felt a bit like Lord was holding the readers' hands through it. Also, there was a perfect conclusion point to the book at around the halfway mark but then it kept going. I enjoyed where it went for the most part but the second half is where the telling was more prominent.

Their love for each other felt so real and natural. They acted like two people who have been in love for years but are flawed. In addition, the way he expressed his love for her was incredibly hot (sorry not sorry).

I will warn readers there is the miscommunication trope, but it takes place before the events of the book.

In sum, it was a fun story to read with an interesting take on the fake dating trope. I desperately want one of the scones.

I love Emma Lord's novels, especially her integrations with food concepts and her women leads always loving to eat. But I could not get into The Break-Up Pact. The storyline of the main character owning a failing tea shop was hard to fathom and I wanted it to be grounded in just a bit more reality. Plus, the descriptions of where the location is could have been stronger -- I never knew quite where they were based and kept making things up in my head to allow the story to progress.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for an early copy in exchange for my honest opinion!

Unfortunately, I couldn't get into this story. The story was sweet and fans of second chance romance and fake dating should still give it a chance. For me, the stakes were too low to keep me invested. I also got annoyed by the miscommunication and third act breakup tropes. These are the reasons this book didn't work for me but might work for another reader who is a fan of these tropes in romance.

Absolutely loving the fake dating trope by emma lord. She kills it again!!! This is the perfect beach read for the people magazine, duexmoi loving girlies. Its such a fast paced romance, i love that levi has some depth to him and longs for his past relationship

The Break-Up Pact is the first adult romance novel from Emma Lord and I liked it! It was second-chance and fake-dating, and both tender and funny. Two best friends from high-school who were almost something more than friends, but have barely spoken in years are suddenly thrown back together when they find themselves in their hometown after they’ve both been publicly humiliated and broken up with by their exes. A fake-dating scheme to redeem themselves and get back at or make their ex jealous is concocted. But fake dating continues to throw them back into each other’s lives in a way that reminds them of why they were so close as kids, and feelings become to come to the surface. But with both of their exes circling, the public circling them, careers and lives to be sorted out… can they actually make it work this time around? I found the characters and their friends/family to be real and relatable, even if I found June to be a little too weak when it came to running the tea shop because of her grief over her sister. And June and Levi's chemistry left a little to be desired, and not quite as convincing as it could have been. But short of more anguish and drama, it was an enjoyable read, it just felt more juvenile, which is understandable given the author's previous writing.

June and Levi team up after their respective partners dumb them in very public ways. They had been childhood friends but haven't talked for ten years. Levi was June's deceased sister's best friend and they both live with memories of Annie. June runs a tea and scones shop near the beach and it provides the perfect setting for June and Levi to fake a relationship for the publicity in order to make their ex's jealous and save the fledging shop. But will they rekindle their old feelings for each other?

This is YA author Emma Lord's first adult romance, but I didn't see that listed anywhere before I read this. I have enjoyed her books before, especially the ones that had themes to update old movies (Tweet Cute for You've Got Mail and Take a Chance on Me for Mamma Mia.) I wish this one was a little more like those, but I did overall enjoy this. It felt like a Sarah Adams rom com in that these young adults have a romance trope of fake dating and are also trying to figure out who they want to be. I wish it had alternated perspectives maybe (it is only in the voice of June) and I was not prepared for a pretty spicy sex scene at about 60% (I still thought it was YA!)

Props to Emma Lord for branching out some and I look forward to seeing where she goes with her writing career. I'm not sure I would start reading her here, but this is still a solid book that was entertaining.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Standard best friends in high school with secret crushes on each other, years later reconnect and pretend to be dating in the wake of their separate heartaches, only to stop fighting their hidden feelings and fall in love, in a nutshell. It was slow going in some parts, thankful for the best friend's funny banter to keep it moving along.