I would like to thank the publisher and author for providing an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this novel via NetGalley.

2.5 stars, rounded up.

"The Breakup Pact" is a second-chance romance novel that follows the story of June and Levi. We are introduced to June, the owner of a struggling tea shop named Tea Tide, located in a small seaside town. Not only is her business failing, but she also recently became the star of a viral meme after a public breakup with her long-term boyfriend. Enter Levi, her long-lost best friend from childhood, who happens to return after his longtime girlfriend went viral for cheating on him with a movie star. The two decide to fake date to save June’s business and to convince Levi’s cheating girlfriend to get back together with him.

As a former cross-country gal, I loved the references to the sport and to running. I enjoy second-chance romances, and the author did a good job of connecting the past to the present. I am a sucker for scenes where long-lost loves see each other again for the first time. I thought the descriptions of grief were thoughtful and well-written. Also, I must call out the Taylor Swift reference.

While this was a relatively easy read, overall, it just wasn't my cup of tea. I found the pacing to be slow, and I'm just not a huge fan of the miscommunication trope in the book. I feel like a lot of the tension within the plot could have been resolved with a quick conversation between June and Levi. While the book had its cute moments, it just wasn’t my favorite.

I loved the friends who stopped talking to a mutually beneficial fake dating years later trope!!
June and Levi were fun and interesting characters! It was great getting to know them as they get to know each other again.

Being Emma's Adult Romance debut, I thought that the tone was clearly set on it. It was funny and swoony, but very serious, more deep and layered as well!

I really liked Levi and June as people and as a couple. I thought they had chemistry, and they helped each other grow as individuals and together too. Overall they were very much perfect to each other, in their own imperfect ways.


This whole book was very fun, heartwarming and I really enjoyed everything! This was my first Emma Lord's book and it definitely won't be the last!

Thank you so much Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Break-Up Pact was between a 3 and a 4 star read for me. While I thought the romance between Levi and June was sweet, I was more compelled by their own personal struggles. Both are almost paralyzed with fear and desperately trying to hold on their own original plans for their lives. As they continue to work through their issues, they end up figuring out the difference between surviving and living.

I typically really love Emma Lord’s books. Tweet Cute and Begin Again were adorable RomComs for the young adult set. This book’s protagonists are fully into adulthood, and therefore come with adult problems like business issues, career issues, and break-ups that involved affairs. The challenge here is that I wish their problems would have been written about more clearly. Or maybe there were just too many problems.

June Hart owns a bakery, Tea Tide, that she started with her older sister Annie who passed away suddenly from a brain aneurysm. She has been afraid to change anything about the bakery after Annie’s death, but she needs to change things or else the bakery’s lease won’t get renewed. Also, her boyfriend of over ten years, Griffin, just broke up with her on national tv after cheating on her, and she is now known as “Crying Girl,” As if that isn’t enough, Levi, the love of her childhood, comes strolling back into town after HIS girlfriend cheated on him. The two of them start a “break-up pact” which doesn’t even really make sense as a name because they pretend to be fake-dating so that their exes get jealous, and the bakery gets more attention, You know what happens next. They really fall in love. They agonize over this for no reason (Levi wants to move too fast, and June moves too slow is what the book tells us, but it could be more convincing),

This book has a lot of the tropes of RomComs, so I think it might work for a lot of hardcore fans, Levi and June were cute, and did have some funny moments. There’s also a cute beach town and loyal and charming side characters. That might be all you need!

Thank you NetGalley for the free digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of The Break-Up Pact.

I’ve been a fan of Emma Lord’s since her first YA novel, tweet cute. Her writing is witty and her characters are always so memorable. I was excited to learn that she was writing her first adult novel, and it did not disappoint! Levi and June were the perfect MC’s in a story full of grief, reconnection, and a lot of scones. I will continue to read anything Emma writes!

The Break-Up Pact follows June and Levi, childhood friends who have barely talked over the last 10 years and are suddenly thrust back into each others' lives when they both have break-ups go viral and a picture of them together has the internet dubbing them "The Revenge Exes."

June and Levi decide to embrace the idea of the Revenge Exes as they both will gain something out of it: June will gain the money she needs to keep her tea and scone shop afloat, and Levi will hopefully win his ex back.

This book also deals with grief, as June and Levi are still grappling with the death of Annie — June's sister and Levi's best friend — two years after she passed.

It was beautiful getting to see June and Levi reconnect. They have a shared past and even though they became virtual strangers, there are still parts of them who know the other better than anyone else. After years of being pushed to be people they aren't, they really come alive and are their true selves when they're together.

I wish that there hadn't been quite so much OW drama with Levi hung up on getting his ex back for so long. It made it hard to get quite as invested in Levi and June because Levi was <i>always</i> talking about and talking to his ex. But overall, it was a quite story about dealing with grief, growing, and becoming who you're meant to be.

The Break Up Pact

Emma Lord’s debut adult novel is a hit! I love that the same time came across from her young adult novels.

The premise is so fun with revenge of the exes. There are some deep topics too and grief plays a large role. The emotion hits like Emily Henry and Abby Jimenez.

The romantic tension felt a little forced at time but overall I think it makes a great beach read. But don’t worry, you don’t need a beach in order to enjoy it.

I want to start this review off by saying thanks to the publisher for giving me a digital ARC of this book. It took me a second to get into it, but once I got into it I loved it. This sweet, short romcom was a perfect summer read with a great second-chance friends-to-lovers romance.

Even though The Break-Up Pact felt more young adult than I was expecting, Emma Lord did a great job weaving in the right amount of humor and tension to keep me interested.

This book is incredibly millennial and it was so fun. The nostalgia I felt when I read this line, “… carting around the AlphaSmart keyboard he used to type on…” 👏🏼

I love the fake dating trope and surprisingly enjoyed the “childhood friends” component too. However, some of the conflicts in the third act felt off to me. A combination of too many things happening simultaneously, weird pacing, and a few underdeveloped moments.

This was just an ok romance book for me, it had some tropes that I really enjoy like fake dating and friends to lovers but I just didn't connect to the main characters. I liked the exploration of grief for both of them and I enjoyed that more serious aspect to this story. I for some reason just did not feel the chemistry with them and also just towards the end started to get a bit bored. It was overall a solid read, with good writing but I just did not connect with it.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin for granting me access in exchange for an honest review.

I've enjoyed all of Emma Lord's YA novels so I was thrilled to see she was coming out with an adult romance.

I thought the premise behind this novel was clever and original. This wasn't just a mushy, gushy romance - - it had heart and true heartbreak. June and Levi had experienced a huge loss when June's sister had died. She was not only June's sister but one of Levi's best friends. It was a loss for them both. What it takes most of the novel to find out is what happened to drive them apart years ago. It seems June was heartbroken when Levi left town and seemed to never look back. So, she never asked about him. She knew he was still in touch with her sister yet she wouldn't lower herself to see how he was. She couldn't open her heart to care. Then Annie died and her world went sideways and everything changed.

When June's boyfriend dumps her publicly and she's humiliated by a crying meme made from her crying face, she thinks things can't get worse. Then Levi shows up back in her home town and things are just as awkward between them as she expected they'd be. But when she discovers he was also recently publicly humiliated by his girlfriend/fiancee, she finds a soft spot for him. And things gradually evolve from there. Before you know it, they are the "Revenge Exes." It's only supposed to be temporary. And it's only supposed to be fake. But feelings happen and then they get in the way. Then life happens and things change and misunderstandings come along and things are complicated.....well you know how this plays out. There's a misunderstanding....or is it that something isn't explained clearly enough? Whatever it is, they end up jilted and unsure if they can proceed. They both truly have a lot to figure out.

I really enjoyed this foray into adult romance and dealing with real-life problems. Ms. Lord did a fabulous job of crossing over and giving these characters solid backstories we could care about and pull for. I look forward to more books like this one in the future.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: The narration was spot on and really was in sync with the book. I enjoyed it even more because of the way the story flowed in the audio form. 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for early copies of both the audiobook and ebook.

Fake romance, friends to lovers, small town and some reality tv as background tossed in for good measure. June and Levi haven’t spoken in the 10 years since her beloved sister and his best friend suddenly died of a brain aneurysm. She stayed in town to continue running her sister's tea shop. It was her dream and June feels obligated to keep it going. It has been a struggle that is not helped with her landlord, who is more like a comic book Overlord of some far away galaxy and her truly awful ex who humiliated her in front of the world via reality TV. Turns out he hooked up with Levis ex in the most public way. Levi returns to town to wait it out and hope his ex comes to her senses and takes him back. June always had a major crush on Levi, but 10 years is a long time. In moments June goes from wanting to kick him off the tea shop patio to together hatching a plan to fake date and change the narrative and get their lives back on track. Can this work to save her business, her sense of self rehab her public image, get the keyboard thugs of social media off her back and maybe, just maybe find her a real romantic partner? You’ve got to read or listen to find out! Okay, kidding Of course it winds up with a lovely HEA as that is what we came for and fully expected. I had to let some things go while listening. The overall level of immaturity for the main characters, June’s almost simpering crush for Levi, Levi’s “waiting for his ex to come to her senses thinking they’re just on a break”, her landlord and her BFF who seemingly both helped her, but also used her to further her career. I am somewhere in the middle hence the 3 star rating.


I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A cute, summer romance built on 2 childhood best friends trying to reconnect.
June and Levi were friends when they were kids, and until Levi went away to college. June felt like he deserted her, Levi did it for other reasons. In the 10 years since they've become estranged, they've had other relationships, June's sister and Levi's best friend Annie died, and they are being publicly ridiculed on social media about their break-ups. So what are 2 old friends to do? Team up and fake date to get back at their exes of course. Plus, June's business Tea Tide is crumbling, and she discovers the boost on social media will help sales.

There was a lot of miscommunication throughout this story. Neither June or Levi knew the full picture of their past 'trauma', so it was hard for the 2 friends to resolve anything. There were a lot of things throughout the book that seemed unnecessary and slowed down the story. Then there were the scones that June created at Tea Tide - so disgusting it was hard to read and it was hard to believe anyone would actually like them. Ugh.

While I enjoyed the story, I didn't like June very much. There was just something about her that rubbed me the wrong way. I thought Levi was really trying with her and she just couldn't get past the fact that he left her behind when he went to college. Overall - A heart-warming romance with some serious subjects set in a very cute small town.

Emma Lord’s The Breakup Pact is like a Hallmark movie that got a TikTok makeover, blending fake dating with second chances, all set against the breezy backdrop of a beachside café. June Hart, who’s gone from internet meme to café owner, teams up with her childhood friend Levi to fake a relationship for the sake of her business and his love life. What could possibly go wrong? Apparently, a lot especially when their staged romance is full of fun dates that would make your heart flutter, if not for the miscommunication that feels more middle school than mature. The friends-to-lovers trope is there, but it’s drawn out and tangled in unnecessary drama, making you want to shake them and say, “Just kiss already!” While June’s journey to find herself is satisfying, the story sometimes feels like it’s taking the scenic route with a few too many detours. And the subplot with the sister? Let’s just say it’s the narrative equivalent of a filler episode.

In the end, The Breakup Pact is a light, entertaining read, but it doesn’t quite live up to the potential of its premise. If you’re in the mood for a rom-com with some modern flair, this one’s worth a shot in my opinion not too much emotional depth.

Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

I think this book started so cute. Fake dating isn't always my favorite but The idea odd why they were fake dating was odd but I was here for it. The first 40-50% of the book I was vibing but once we got to the miscommunication part of the story and the fake became real but not really I was in a are you kidding me. After the night they handled things horribly and honest just grazed over any conversion. I felt like I need more resolved from them. So I didn't care one way or another if they ended up together

Thank you NetGalley for this E-Arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was my first Emma Lord book and so I was excited to get an ARC of her book. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this read and it was true to the fake dating and best friends to lovers tropes. These two best friends took the long way around with their friendship falling by the wayside and after years of separation they reunite in their hometown. The timing of their reunion coincides with an internet meme that goes viral that forces them to play into that hand and pretend to date. But once they become close again its hard for them to deny their feelings for each other. While reconciling their past and getting through their bumpy present their romance forces them to grow and embrace the new changes that lie ahead for both of them.

DNF at 40%

I was excited to get a copy of this book because the premise sounded like the perfect summer romance and I’ve read previous Emma Lord books which I adored! Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me at 40%. I found myself unable to connect with the characters and the struggles they were going through. The story was very slow and I wasn’t engaged. I find myself not caring what was going to happen nor did I like the romance between Levi and June. I do enjoy the writing style, so will likely pick up another book, this one just didn’t work for me personally.

I couldn't decide if the story was supposed to be focusing on the grief or the love more?? I usually love fake dating plots but this one didn't work for me.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback!

I was super eager for Emma Lord’s transition into adult contemporary and am so, so happy with the result! This book takes some of my favorite romance tropes - fake dating, second chance, childhood friends to lovers and spins them in a very realistic and adult way. I was expecting more of a rom-com vibe, but was pleasantly surprised with how serious the tone was.

Overall I loved this!

I am generally a pretty big fan of Emma Lord. I’ve always rated her books four stars or higher, but I just couldn’t bring myself to get there with this one. Though the premise was cool (I love a fake dating trope!), I feel like I didn’t get a great sense of the characters and I didn’t really understand why they were drawn to each other other than they used to be friends. There was a hint of spice, which I wasn’t expecting and wasn’t mad about, but there was no chemistry between them. The conflict didn’t seem like it should have been that big of a deal and overall it was just kind of meh. I really did like Sana though…I hope she comes back in another book.

I do still really enjoy Lord’s writing and will read her next book for sure, but maybe this didn’t come to me at the right time. It could be as simple as that. Or maybe I would just prefer she continued to write YA.

3 STARS