Emma Lord's adult debut is a fairly solid, if forgettable, romance. The audiobook was narrated well and quite enjoyable to listen to. I didn't love the plot but I enjoyed it enough to finish the book. I would recommend the audio to anyone who wants to read it.

The only other Emma Lord book I have read previously was a YA novel, and I definitely liked it better. The Break-Up Pact didn’t feel like a true adult romance, but also not a YA book. At about 50% in, I felt like it really could have been wrapped up, and I wondered how the author was going to keep going for another 100+ pages. Not a great sign.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for giving me the opportunity to listen and review The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord.

This book takes place in Benson Beach where June tries to keep her sister’s dream of owning a tea shop at the beach alive. Tea Tide Tea Shop is just barely keeping the doors open for customers to enjoy some vanilla almond tea and scones. With a humiliating breakup from Griffin, June tries to take life day by day, struggling to make ends meet. Life turns around a bit when Levi, a childhood friend, resurfaces and gives June’s life new direction and a clearer meaning. This cute romance story about two friends reconnecting in Benson Beach is a cozy summer read. Out for publication on August 13th! 3 ½ stars

The Break-Up Pact, by Emma Lord, is a novel I enjoyed so much I wanted to listen to in audiobook format too. I've read the authors previous books, which were more YA, and love her style so I had a feeling I would would be a fan of The Break-Up Pack, which features more adult characters- though they met as teens and we see their relationship develop. There is a breezy, natural tone to Lord's voice, and it feels like listening to a friend telling a story about real people rather than fiction. The narrator was absolutely fantastic. Highly recommend!!!

- Fake Dating
- Former Friends to lovers
- Second Chance-ish
- Grief/healing

Overall I thought this was a cute, fake dating romcom with a good message of being true to yourself and living your life for yourself and not for someone else. It definitely had a bit of a Hallmark movie feel to it. I personally wasn’t a big fan of the miscommunication/lack of communication explanations throughout, but I can’t say I expected much else. I thought the narration by Natalie Naudus was great.

Excellent set-up and narrated by one of my favorite audiobook narrators, Natalie Naudus. We have a single POV novel with June having been dumped on national TV, turned into a meme, and now dealing with her struggling tea shop on a beachy boardwalk. She runs into childhood friend Levi, who has also been virally dumped recently, and somehow they get caught up on a social media storm calling them the Revenge Exes. They decide to awkwardly follow through with some fake dating so that June can get more customers in her store and Levi can show his ex-fiancee what she’s missing. It’s messy and complicated, especially when we factor in June’s teenage crush on Levi, and his rejection and radio silence for the past ten years. We also get a fun cast of supporting characters in the form of June’s brother, his fiancee, and another one of June’s best friends. This book is funny and sweet and cute and steamy and emotional, all in one.

The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord was a fun read, but it didn’t quite blow me away. The premise of a pact to avoid heartbreak was intriguing, and I enjoyed the witty banter between the characters. However, some parts felt a bit predictable, and I wished for more depth in the character development. It’s a light, entertaining read perfect for a cozy weekend, but it didn’t leave a lasting impression on me. Overall, a solid three stars for a sweet story with a few missed opportunities.

I read this book as an ARC earlier this year and just HAD to listen to the audio because I adored it! I love love loves the narrators for this book! Thank you so much NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to listen! Four stars!

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!

What a great book!! I loved the story and the writing style. Such a good romcom! It was exciting from page 1! I enjoyed this more than I thought I would! My first for this author but will not be my last!

2.5 stars.

This book gave me Emily Henry vibes, but not as well done. Emily Henry writes these books that you think are going to be light and fun, but end up having these very serious tones in them. This book had those serious tones with the death of June's sister, Annie, a couple years ago, but the book just didn't seem balanced. It jumped around with a few flashbacks to high school, but the flashbacks felt more like mentioning of something that happened instead of full flashbacks. You get the second chance romance with June and Levi finding each other again, but to be honest, I wasn't even rooting for them by the end.

I went into this book thinking it would be this funny, witty fake-dating storyline to make both their exes super jealous. Levi was hoping the fake-dating would help him get back together with his ex-girlfriend. June thought the publicity of the fake-dating would help save her tea shop. Levi and June have some SERIOUS history. They both had crushes on each other in high school, but Annie talks Levi out of pursuing the relationship. To be honest, I didn't like Annie in this book. Which was hard because she was dead. There was no redeeming qualities for her to reveal in the future. She was just plain selfish in my opinion.

My biggest problem with this book was how bad of a sister June was to her brother. June and Levi decide to help her brother plan his wedding in a few months. But June is constantly forgetting to meet up with him when they schedule something. Or she mentions needing to remember to respond to his texts to meet up, but she says she will worry about it later. June and Levi have all this time for these fake dates, but she can't make time for her brother? Yes, she was busy with trying to run a business. But why not simply ask her brother to hang out while she is baking? Between Annie and June both being not the best sisters, it just made me not care how it ended as much.

What did I love about the book? Tea Tide - the tea shop. I loved June talking about baking all the different kinds of scones. It definitely made me want to stop at a tea shop (coffee shop) to pick one up.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for giving me an advanced copy.

I was so excited when I saw that Emma Lord was coming out with an adult novel. I have loved her YA books and couldn't wait to read this one. I feel that this reads like a YA novel that she just aged up the characters a little. While it wasn't my favorite of her books, it was a good first attempt at writing for adults.

Great mix of classic troupes. While you can see the storyline unfolding ahead of you the mix of troupes keeps it fresh. Well done! I will be buying this book for my library and have a quite a few patrons I will be suggesting it to as soon as it comes in.

• two victims of viral break-ups decide to fake date to save a tea shop & maybe win back an ex
• second chance romance, but the reason for the tension & break up was so underwhelming, it kind of deflated the plot
• the writing felt very emily henry-esque, & was ultimately a quick read, just fell a little flat

☕️Book Review☕️
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Summary- June and Levi were best friends as teenagers—until the day they weren’t. Now June is struggling to make rent on her beachside tea shop, Levi is living a New York cliché as a disillusioned hedge fund manager and failed novelist, and they've barely spoken in years.

But after they both experience public, humiliating break-ups with their exes that spread like wildfire across TikTok rabbit holes and daytime talk shows alike, they accidentally make some juicy gossip of their own—a photo of them together has the internet convinced they're a couple. With so many people rooting for them, they decide to put aside their rocky past and make a pact to fuel the fire. Pretending to date will help June’s shop get back on its feet and make Levi’s ex realize that she made a mistake. All they have to do is convince the world they're in love, one swoon-worthy photo opp at a time.

Two viral break-ups. One fake relationship. Five sparkling, heart-pounding dates. June and Levi can definitely pull this off without their hearts getting involved. Because everyone knows fake dating doesn’t come with real feelings. Right?
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Rating- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
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My thoughts- I have such a massive book hangover from this beauty! I loved loved this book SO much! It was so sweet and I just fell head over heels in love with Levi and June. The most lovable main characters , the sweetest setting in a beachside scone shop 🥺, and discusses grief in a really profound/relatable way. This book is so good, special thanks for @netgally and @macmillianaudio for the advanced copy!
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QOTD- what is your favorite sweet treat? Since this one took place in a scone/tea shop!

The book itself was good , but the person reading the book personally didn’t like that they read both the male and female parts of the book!! They should have gotten another voice actor to play the male section! But over all it wasn’t horrible just extremely slow also.. I enjoyed the slow burn aspect of the book as well as the fake dating !! 7/10 book 3/10 for the audio version just can’t get behind the voice actor ..

Two former friends. Two very public breakups. A fake date pact. Real feelings. What could go wrong? “The Break-Up Pact” by Emma Lord was a super cute could not put down, perfect summer beach read for me.

This book was the perfect rom-com I love reading with a slight touch of spice. June and Levi were well developed characters. I was very invested in their story.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for providing me the advance audio book in exchange for my honest review.

This is the perfect summer romance to pick up. The characters were diverse and lovable and the location of the small town and tea shop along the sea was so cute and quaint I wanted to move in. Both the male and female main characters were lovable and we were cheering for them the whole time. A light, and sometimes emotional story of friends to more than friends. One of the best romances I've read this summer.

Former best friends June and Levi both find themselves in the same situation--very publicly dumped by their significant others. Now, they decide to fake a relationship together in order to turn public favor to them.

I LOVED this romcom! Here's what I loved:

June and Levi: They are perfect. Both are funny and flawed. Together they are even better than apart. Watching them realize how much they actually mean to each other made my day.

Second Chance(ish): While they were never together to begin with, this does feel like a second chance. They were best friends who were (obviously) secretly in love with each other. I loved getting little bits of their past friendship.

The humor and the heart: This book had a perfect combination of humor and heart break. All of the characters are dealing with the death of June's sister which affects them in so many ways. But they still have a good humor to everything they do. I also adored the beach town and all of its inhabitants.

The audio: Natalie Naudus does a great job with these characters!

All in all, I added this book! It's a perfect romcom!

Thank you to the author and publisher for the gifted copy.

Two ex-best friends, Levi and June, come together under similar trauma when their break ups go viral. This gives them the idea to create a fake relationship with each other and commit to five dates.

They learn a lot about their current and past lives that make them realize they may not have known what each other were going through when their friendship went sideways.

You know the story. Fakes relationships always stay fake, right? Levi’s initially hoping to get his ex back where June goes ahead with the fake relationship to boost her publicity and career.

I felt this story did a lot of building up, and it combines friends to lovers and fake relationship tropes together nicely. The author also did a nice job with side characters and I could see more from this world by the author. Well done 👏🏼

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Release date 8/13/24!

I had the pleasure of reading this book before receiving the audiobook version. I’ll first post my review of the audiobook aspects of The Break-Up Pact, with my original, full review added below.

I adored this book and I found that Natalie Naudus’s narration only added to my enjoyment. There’s a thing that female narrators in this genre do - their voices are soft, breathy, overly wistful. It’s fine when the emotions of the passage call for it, but the rest of the time it’s distracting and emotionally dissonant.. So when I find a narrator that doesn’t do that, I take note. Loved this performance. Loved this book.

Original Review, for the e-book version:

My first 4.5-5 star read of 2024.

I’ve read two of Emma Lord’s YA novels, both of which I enjoyed, but I was still a bit skeptical of her move into adult romance. I should have known better than to doubt her. Everything about this book feels like a shift into a more adult world - the writing is mature (and, quite frankly, beautiful), there is spice(!!), and the plot has more depth. There are so many lovely sentences and amazing ways of phrasing things - I wish I could stick them in my pocket, just to take out and enjoy later.

Emma has proven, in her earlier YA novels, that she has a good handle on pop culture, media, and social media, all of which come into play in this book. She’s also good about handling heavy emotions without coming across as exploitative. (No trauma for the sake of drama.)

In reading other reviews, I see several low ones. I guess I’m still surprised when I see so many people whose opinions differ from my own, and I’m starting to parse out why - there are two camps of Rom-Com novels, regardless of genre or trope: those that purely fantasy fulfillment vs. those that are more grounded in reality. So many of these reviews aren’t faulting these characters for being poorly written but for being *flawed*. Honestly, I’d find myself reading and enjoying both, but it’s always the latter kind of book that sticks with me. Both June and Levi have issues - they’ve got baggage to sort out. If you want to read a book that’s purely fantasy fulfillment, with a swoony MMC that already has his shit together, this isn’t the book for you. Instead, this reads much more like a Beth O’Leary or Mhairi McFarlane novel - two flawed people, trying to make it work.

Anyhow, the plot description is fairly spot-on for this one, so I don’t feel the need to rehash it.

Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the advanced reader copy of this novel.