I absolutely love Emma Lord! June and Levi are childhood best friends who have fallen mostly out of touch but remained distant acquaintances. Now they have reconnected over as their break-ups go public and their “date” goes viral. We love a “fake date” moment in rom-coms!!!! As June and Levi add fuel to the viral fire they find their connection is more real than fake. Highly recommend for a summer read that will carry you away!

Completely consumable! This is Emma Lord’s transition to adult romance, and I loved it! She paints absolutely gorgeous writing and descriptions, and at the same time gives us plot complexity. Grief is woven throughout the novel in an authentic and careful way, which I really appreciated. I would love to be able to spend some time in Benson Beach, and of course I want to be friends with all the side characters. I wish we had gotten to see Mateo and Dylan’s wedding! There were times when it was hard to watch June struggle, but that’s always my experience when I love the main characters. The author crafted the spicy scene with great talent; I wish there had been more than one! I would love to see more adult romance from Emma Lord.

I've been a fan of Emma Lord since reading Tweet Cute a few years back. That has been my favorite from this author thus far, but after reading the Break-Up Pact I may have a new favorite.

In this story we follow childhood friends June and Levi. Both are picking up the pieces after facing public humiliating breakups, more June than Levi. When the two are caught together rumor spreads that they are the revenge exes and the two take full advantage of this.

This story was written for a more mature audience than the author usually writes for, but her writing still comes through the pages. June and Levi are still written as if they are real people in the world and the side characters add great moments throughout the story. The author does a wonderful job of demonstrating the history the characters have with each other.

This story is not without heartbreak. There are mentions of a sibling passing away off the pages and while it is important to the storyline, it isn't so present to make it hard to read the story itself.

The Break-Up Pact will be a great beach read this summer!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

June Hart and Levi Shaw, childhood best friends who have been estranged for about 10 years, are suddenly reunited in their home town after both of their very humiliating breakups went viral. June and Levi become the internet's newest darling couple after a leaked photo of the pari innocently hanging out takes the internet by storm. Both quickly realize the benefits that go along with everyone thinking they are a couple could be extremely beneficial. June and Levi agree to put the lingering hard feelings aside to seize the opportunity. June has hopes to save her struggling tea shop while Levi wants to rekindle things with the fiance that very publicly cheated on him. As June and Levi go on fake dates to portray a blossoming relationship, the lines start to blur as real feelings develop between them.

The Break-Up Pact was the first book by Emma Lord that I've read, and it definitely didn't disappoint. I thought Lord did a fantastic job at fleshing out both Levi and June that made it easy to understand their motivations and to feel like I really knew the characters. While I really enjoyed this book, I just wish there had been a little bit more conflict between June and Levi. It just seems like any time a potential conflict came up, it was all resolved very quickly. The Break-Up Pact would be the perfect summer romance, and I would definitely recommend this book when it is released.

The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord is an easy summer beach read. You want a book to through in your bag and casually check in and out of during a vacation? This is the book for you. We've got friends to lovers. We've got a small town bakery on the verge of collapse. We've a viral internet video. It's like the summer edition of a Halmark movie and sometimes, that's all you need.

The plot is easy to follow and the characters are endearing. I will warn you, the slow burn is slowwwww. Like to the point I was unsure if the characters actually liked each other or if the hostility was purely hostile.

TW: grief, off page loss of a sibling.

This book had me smiling all along.

I loved the whole fake dating journey with June and Levi. ‘’

Will definitely recommend

June & Levi were best friends growing up, but they went their separate ways despite having feelings for one another. Over a decade later, they find themselves in the same place (beautiful Benson Beach) nursing a broken heart. For separate reasons, their breakups went viral, so they decide to fake date as “Revenge Exes.” June wants her ex to know she’s moved on & Levi wants his ex to realize she really wants to be with him.

There are several tropes found in this story, but they all struggled to get their footing. We had some friends-to-lovers, but their friendship was fractured when they met back up. Why was it fractured? Because of the miscommunication trope from when they graduated high school & went their separate ways. Miscommunication trope has never been a favorite of mine, so I didn’t love that piece of the story. We also have fake dating, but the timeline of it needed some ironing. The agreement happened way too quickly & then it was serious, but not really. Again, it needed some ironing.

There were a lot of emotions that were just waiting to bust through. I was waiting for that gut-wrenching burst of emotions & I felt like it was all a little too mundane. I wanted more. I do think with the right narrators, this could be better on audio. They could potentially bring this story off the page where it often fell flat.

I liked this story, but I wasn’t enamored by it. I didn’t feel a pull to keep reading. The idea and outline of the story is there, but it felt two-dimensional in that it never came alive.

Thank you to NetGalley & St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This book releases in August 2024.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
book was a light fun romantic read. The over all storyline was good. Unfortunately, the characters did not leave a lasting impression on me. That being said, I found this a quick and enjoyable book.

The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord was such a sweet summer small-town romance. I loved June and Levi and their fake-dating scheme. Their chemistry was unmatched and I loved their growth throughout the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with this Advanced Reader's Copy.

The forced Proximity is off the charts. Emma Lord is a genius. Her books are always a must! Don’t skip on this must read. The banter is beautiful and you’ll be rooting for them to work out what feels a bit contrived in the beginning. It’s not my favorite of Emma’s but still worth reading.

this book was sadly not for me. it had its cute rom com vibe to it so I would definitely recommend it to others but I just couldn't get into it. I found the main character to be very icky so I couldn't connect.

Thank you so much to net galley and the publisher for this ARC!!

In this fun romance beach read, you get to enjoy The Break Up Pact!! In a plot for one friend to save face and another to win back a love, The Break Up Pact is filled with ups, down, hard times and good. This is truly a fun read which leaves you rooting for June and Levi as they reconnect after 10 years and a tragedy ago!

The Break-Up Pact is a fake dating, childhood friends to lovers book, but it’s also more than that. It’s a book about grieving, and healing. June Hart lost her sister two years ago and is running her sister’s tea shop and bakery trying to keep it afloat. Levi Shaw is a writer, an old friend of the Hart family, best friends with Junes brother Dylan, and comes back to the small town after the loss of their sister. He and June have been elected to help Dylan plan his wedding, and send them out on many tasks. Levi’s big city famous girlfriend had dumped him publicly on live tv, something similar to what happened to June with her boyfriend of 10 years. So when people see them together and think they’re dating, suddenly people are drawn to the tea shop and June sees it as a way to keep the shop afloat. No harm no foul right? So they make the break up pact.

This story is both light hearted and emotional. I feel like it’s a good description to say this book is for adults who enjoyed Sarah Dessen novels in their teen years. The characters are both so lovely, and together they’re so healthy for each other. It’s soft, comforting, healing, it made me tear up a little. It’s also a great spring and summer read. Takes place on a beach with sand, clubs, a cozy tea shop with inventive scones and creative and sassy side characters you also can’t help but love.

I read romance but don’t often highly rate it, because I like Good romance. This is Good romance. With a capital G.

These are the trigger warning I collected: grief, loss of sibling, cheating

The Break-Up Pact comes out August 12, 2024!

Thank you Emma Lord, NetGalley, and St. Martins Press for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The writing in "The Break-Up Pact" is sharp and engaging, with Lord's signature wit shining through in every page. The dialogue is snappy and relatable, and the pacing is spot-on, keeping readers hooked from start to finish. Lord also incorporates elements of social media and technology seamlessly into the story, adding a modern twist to the classic tale of friendship and romance.

Overall, "The Break-Up Pact" is a charming and heartfelt novel that will resonate with readers of all ages. With its lovable characters, engaging storyline, and poignant themes, it is a must-read for fans of contemporary YA fiction. Emma Lord has crafted a gem of a novel that is sure to leave readers eagerly awaiting her next book.

I have been trying to read this for too long and I'm throwing in the towel. This is so annoyingly predictable, and while we love romance for that, the writing for this book put me off. You forget the main characters are in their late 20/early 30s, they act like teenagers fresh out of high school (and with the amount of times they reference things it makes it harder to remember this fact). The writing I find sub-par and the constant repetitiveness of Annie was started to get annoying. I understand the use of her to bring the main characters together, but holy cannoli it's overkill (sorry not sorry).

I didn't even get to any spicy scenes, I DNF'd at chapter 15 where it looks like they were finally going somewhere but I honestly am so un-invested I'm not even going to try to see if that can save my opinions of this book. This could definitely be pitched to new romance readers who are just getting their footing in the genre, but now that I've been around the block a few times there are just so many better ones that I'd recommend than this.

Thank you for this ARC, still glad I got to try it but we can't love every book!

thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I absolutely loved this book! June and Levi had a crush on one another in high school, until something happened that caused them to not speak to each other for a decade. Both end up in the tabloids for unfortunate breakups and wind up being in their hometown at the same time. They decide to use the big breakup as a way to benefit both of them, by fake dating. But of course fake dating ALWAYS turns into the two falling for each other.

Second chance romance done in a cute way. enjoyed the characters. Felt really surface level though, even through there were heavy some heavy topics. Lots of good concepts and ideas but felt it could have been executed better

A fun friends to lovers book. It started off a bit slow for me but I enjoyed it and it was a quick read!

Cute and fluffy with all the tropes: fake dating, childhood friends-to-lovers, and the ultimate millennial dream of running a tea shop on the beach in a small town.

Well, this was adorable. Aaaaand, it had some of my favourite book tropes bundled neatly into one sweet package. The second-chance romance. The friends-to-lovers. Excellent secondary characters that weren’t just plot points to further the story, but had their own fleshed out backgrounds.
Ugh. It was so cute… and I want to visit Benson Beach to meet them all SO BADLY.
The only thing that could have made this book better would have been the addition of a few scone recipes sprinkled in at the end. I desperately want to try some of the Scone Specials!
Big thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader’s copy. I will definitely be recommending this one to our library patrons!