This was my first time reading a Emma Lord book and its safe to say I'll be reading more! The Break Up Pact was such a cute quick read, taking place in a small beach town, this book made be feel like I was on vacation. If you love a small town feel, fake dating, and don't mind social media in books, this is the book for you!

I enjoyed the concept of this book a lot, however, it was just not for me. I felt like everything happened so fast. The main characters went years without seeing each other or talking to each other to fake dating right away. I also didn’t really like the female main character. I felt like she was annoying for most of the book. The writing is pretty good and I am so sad I didn’t enjoy the book like how I wanted to .
Thank you so much to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the arc in exchange for a honest review!!

I would give this a 3.8. I’m always a fan of rekindled relationships and fated second chances oh and making the ex jealous is always a fun add in. What was interesting in this book was the inclusion of “social media” or “viral” videos. We all know these can truly happen.
June and Levi seem to have a history but one that just never felt right. And somehow an internet mishap goes viral and they’ve teamed up for some real fun!
The romance heats up meeting the typical friends to fake lovers theme. I love that the author included a backstory on Junes sister, which played as an emotional connection between the two. It was a slow romance, one that kept you holding on to see how it eventually unfolds. There was cute ah moments and some moments were almost too typical, but still a decently written quick read.

Thank you Net Galley, Emma Lord & St. Martins Press.

June and Levi embark on a pretty standard friends to lover journey in this book after both are left wounded by their very public and viral breakups with their partners. While there were aspects of this book that I loved, it took me an unnecessarily long time to finish it. The miscommunication was palpable. All of the conflict between the two of them after their YEARS of no contact could have been fixed with the simplest conversation. It felt like every side character was just there to aid in their journey, none of them had their own personality outside of being a wingman. The wedding plot line could have been forgone entirely and the book would have been the exact same. That being said, there were some cute parts to this book. I really like the baking scenes and Levi’s character as a whole. This book was just average in my rankings, not overly bad but not fantastic. It wouldn’t be at the top of my list of recommendations, but I wouldn’t be adamant on making sure my friends strayed away from reading it.

You will like this book if you love:
- friends to lovers
- slow burn
- miscommunication
- pining
- fake dating

Thank you Netgalley for the Arc!

Thank you NetGalley for this arc.

This is a sweet little romance story about two old friends from high school fake dating to get back at their exes. Everything you expect to happen in a fake dating scenario happens pretty much. Not a mind blowing story but cute nonetheless.

I really found this book delightful overall! I enjoyed spending time with the main characters, and I think The Break-Up Pact does an excellent job of digging into deeper topics within a light romance without weighing the story down. The way June reflects on her late sister Annie feels incredibly poignant, especially thinking about how someone grieves a loved one while acknowledging their flaws. It’s a difficult and messy process, and I thought The Break-Up Pact truly did that justice.

I also felt like I believed the romance between the two characters, even though they both had their own issues to work out. I feel we don’t see enough main characters in romance books that have realistic backstories or struggles, it often feels overly specific or fantastical. But the idea of staying in a relationship that wasn’t working and then trying to figure out what’s next after it ends felt so relatable, and it created a conflict that worked rather than feeling overly manufactured.

I felt the writing was weaker than I hoped. More specifically, I felt the book over-explained things at parts and occasionally felt repetitive. It felt like the book was holding my hand a bit too much.

Still, I enjoyed The Break-Up Pact enough to put Emma Lord’s other books on my to-read list!

In "The Break-Up Pact," we follow June and Levi, two former best friends whose lives have taken divergent paths since a falling out during their teenage years. A series of humiliating public breakups thrusts June and Levi into the limelight, and a mistakenly leaked photo of them together sets the rumor mill ablaze, convincing the internet that they are a couple. They embark on five sparkling and heart-pounding dates, carefully crafting their social media presence to maintain the illusion of a blossoming romance. It has witty dialogue, charming characters, and a swoon-worthy romance.

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC!

The premise of this book is very cute. The two friends that must band together to save their reputation, the forced relationship trope, the journey to watch them fall for each other, it all works, absolutely. For me personally, I feel like this scenario is a bit overdone. The famous-ish friends that are in the spotlight and have to find a way to save face so they lean on each other and fall...I feel like I've read this a few times before. I think if I hadn't recently read another similar storyline, this would have rated higher for me.
The characters are likable, the connection to reality and the importance of social media in our lives was realistic, and they way they connect and come together in the spot light is super cute, but in the end, it's a bit overdone. Again, this could be because I recently read a similar book, or perhaps this just isn't my favorite trope, but all in all, it's a quick, fun read.

as someone who absolutely LOVED tweet cute (genuinely one of my favourite books) i hate that i couldn't bring myself to love this book but i just found it so insanely boring i can't even explain it

Viral moments neither expected.

Ex best friends with something to prove.

What could go wrong?

June and Levi were childhood friends right until they weren’t, an awkward night and even more awkward revelation setting them on different pasts. After ten years, the tragic death of June’s sister, and each of their exes publicly humiliating them in equally mortifying ways, June’s best friend Sana comes up with a PR-minded idea: fake dating for publicity. For June, it’ll give the chance to save her sister’s tea shop. For Levi, the chance to potentially make up with his cheating ex.

June and Levi are characters that I felt instantly drawn to each other; the same flavor of comforting that Lord is excels at in her YA come to life in an adult setting. The chemistry between them was palpable as the book went on and I easily believed that these two were best friends who grew apart with all the things they left unsaid. I was rooting for them to “shut up and kiss already” several times which to me, speaks to the strength in building that connection. The resolution with each of the exes felt unsatisfying but this felt by design: we’re not supposed to care about getting “back” at the exes, we’re meant to care for June and Levi. In this, Lord excels.

A few quibbles that I had really lie in what feels like Lord’s continual attempt to infuse diversity into her books, which is very welcome one, only to see it just miss the mark. Sana as a character feels less sketched out beyond being “the Asian woman committed to diversity” and while it’s an improvement to me that her relationship with June feels real, Sana’s appearances felt thinly drawn which was noticeable since it was her idea to fake date in the first place. Similarly, Mateo is a lovely character that I adored for his quirks and love story with Dylan, June’s brother, but the explicit mentions of his Latinx heritage felt as subtle as a brick. Even in writing this review, sharing this feels like a nitpick since Lord’s attempts at inclusion are leaps and bounds from the countless other attempts I’ve read in romance today. Nevertheless, Lord is trying and has even improved from prior works; I know she has it within her to integrate these worlds and characters together in a way that feels more seamless.

Lord has proven herself to be a star in YA and if this is any indication of her Adult works, I know there’s only great things to look forward to. Funny, warm, and as comforting as a hot cup of tea, The Break Up Pact has all the things that make Lord’s work worth coming back to again and again.

I received this book for free from Wednesday Books in exchange for my honest review.

I surprisingly like this book the development of the main relationship was really well done, and the chemistry was great and so was the banter. I also like the character individually and the growth that they went through. Levi as a love interest was a breath of fresh air, he was awkward, he wasn’t this brooding grumpy stoic sex lord he felt very real and thats one of the things I love about this book the characters felt very real and I was very invested in the relationship and the characters themselves, so much so that I got angry at some of the choices they made but everything turn out well in the end and I mean there is no such thing as a perfect person therefore the best well written characters wouldn’t be perfect and would make stupid decisions that you as the reader wouldn’t agree with.

One thing I didn’t like about this book though was the author excessive use of similes and comparisons. No joke every two sentence we get sentences like “my heart was beating so fast like i just finished a marathon” but more eloquently written but you get what im saying. The author was trying too hard to be deep and poetic and in the first half of the book it wasn’t a problem cause i actually liked the writing but in the second half i just started noticing how often the author used similes and the word “like” and i just couldn’t look away and it was irritating because it would be just a simple scene of them hugging or just simply talking but it would become this two or three paragraph scene that is drawn out because of all the similes and the “poetic” comparisons and it would annoy me because the scene didn’t call for that type of writing and the fact that this happened all the time so it was constant and redundant it was soo irritating. Where was the editor ??? to tell the author to stop using the word like ??? So yeah thats my one complaint the other complaint I have doesn’t really have to deal with the book its not the book’s fault it’s mostly me and the problem is that this book just felt too long. Like after the 60% mark i just wanted things to wrap up and I was getting impatient because I just wanted this book to end, but again this wasn’t the book’s fault this is all on me but it is why this book is only getting a 3:75 star rating from me.

I've read a few of Emma Lord's previous novels and "The Break-Up Pact" seems to delve into more complex and heavy issues. On the surface, it seems like the novel is going to focus on the fake dating story but it's much more more than that. Yes, there are some funny rom-com type moments but it's also about learning to live with grief, changed or different expectations and more. It's about learning to respect yourself enough to not be pushed around by others or compromise how you want to live your life. The writing was easy to follow and relatable; I'd recommend this to my friends!

Big Emma Lord fan! This romcom is super fun and cute, with lots of laughs and sweet moments. Loved it!

Thank you NetGalley and Emma Lord!

I have really enjoyed all of Emma’s books, but this one is my new favorite. A second chance romance with small beach town vibes? I didn’t stand a chance and was hooked from the first page. The main characters are clearly perfect for each other and were so easy to root for the whole time.

This book was a cute little rom-com! It was predictable, but I love a fake dating trope. I live in a coastal town and this made me want to open up a little business 🥹 overall this story was decently paced, cute, and enjoyable. A great summer read!

3.75 stars! Super cute YA romance. I really liked that I could feel the chemistry between June and Levi but the concept of them going viral on TikTok, Twitter, etc. and as memes with June as the "crying girl" from their previous breakups was very cringy. At the same time, I knew social media would play a part in this book from the description, so I can't complain too much. If you take out that aspect, the book was very cute with modern summer at the beach vibes.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Emma Lord for a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love Emma Lord ever since I read "Tweet Cute" and I have never been disappointed in a book in her voice ever. I look forward to everything she writes and this one is no exception! I fell in love with these characters.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. The Break-Up Pact follows childhood friends, June and Levi, who coincidentally had public breakups around the same time. To save face they fake date and are coined online as the ‘revenge exes.’ June was hopeful that the social media attention would save her scone business that was slowly going under. Levi hoped the jealousy would win his ex back. While I did enjoy this read, I found the tropes and storyline slightly bland and predictable. Overall, it was enjoyable but it didn’t feel new to me. I personally did not connect with the FMC Emma, and found her friend Sama, far more likable.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. I believe this is Emma Lord’s first adult romance and it was a mix of fun and flirty “fake dating”.

I don’t know if it’s just me or the pacing was off but I lost motivation towards the end. There were some really cute parts to this story and overall and enjoyable read. The miscommunication in this one was unfortunate.

If you are looking for a summer read with small town romance and fake dating it’s a good fit.

“The Breakup Pact" by Emma Lord is a charming and relatable novel that navigates the complexities of friendship and young love with humor and sincerity. The author's witty prose and authentic characterizations make for an engaging read that is both entertaining and thought-provoking. The story follows a group of friends who make a pact to help each other navigate their romantic woes, leading to a series of heartfelt and often hilarious misadventures. While the plot may follow some familiar tropes of the genre, Lord infuses it with fresh perspectives and genuine emotion, keeping readers invested until the very end. Although the pacing occasionally lags, and some plot points feel predictable, the overall journey is enjoyable and satisfying. "The Breakup Pact" is ultimately a story about the importance of friendship, self-discovery, and embracing the unexpected twists and turns of life and love.