Reviews - The Break-Up Pact

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1.66k reviews for:

The Break-Up Pact

Emma Lord

3.45 AVERAGE

instalovewithbooks's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Will always love everything Emma Lord writes 😍

karynrl's review against another edition

3.25

emotional funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Childhood best friends and then they stopped talking for a decade, and now they are fake dating. I will say I hate the reason they stopped talking and the only reason I can excuse it is because they were teenagers so I get that they would go about it in a childish way, but I still don't like it. Overall I liked the book and the characters, nothing crazy, just a quick easy read.

Content Warnings

emilyreadstoomuch's review against another edition

4.0

I really liked this a lot!!!! No clue why so many people couldn’t connect w the characters

withintheselines's review against another edition

3.5

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

caitlyn44's review against another edition

4.5

funny inspiring fast-paced

akarently's review against another edition

2.75

Because I'm worried this book is so forgettable, I'm starting with a quick summary: Two former best friends, June Hart and Levi Shaw, haven’t spoken (beyond a handful of texts) in ten years. Not since a high school misunderstanding when June was a junior and Levi a senior on his way to college (making them 27 and 28 now, respectively). Also: it’s two years after June’s sister Annie died, who happened to be Levi’s classmate and other best friend (eventually, we learn that the 3 Hart siblings are all a grade apart: Annie, June and Dylan in age order, and Levi Shaw is essentially adopted into their family early on as pretty much a friend-cousin type).

Now adults (27 and 28, respectively), June is barely hanging on to her dream (read: mostly Annie’s dream) of running a beachside tea shop in their small New York hometown. Levi’s flailing in NYC, a hedge fund burnout-slash-wannabe writer. Then, the premise: both of their exes publicly humiliate them (hers cheats on a reality show, his leaves him for a movie star), and the internet goes wild over a photo (planted by June’s bestie Sana, a character who is an actual highlight) of the two of them together. Naturally, this leads to a fake dating pact, which includes helping plan the wedding of June’s younger brother/Levi’s close friend Dylan and his high school sweetheart, Matteo (of which they are noted as the traditional roles of MOH/Best Man).

The Setup? Light beach read. Silly romcom. I went in with this mindset.

The Execution? …Messy. Chaotic. Multiple mentions of “swallowed thickly” and “throat felt thick” and too many references to “TikTok.” A thousand or just so many scones. Tea shops typically offer many baked goods, but we are in Scone World with this store.

So. June owns a tea shop (inherits? co-owned?) with multiple full-time and part-time employees but somehow can’t ever leave the premises. Even after she’s kicked out by the landlord (close family friend who is doing this for June's own good. She doesn't care about the money, she wants June to be capital-f * Fulfilled *! So June's emotionally frozen: stuck running her dead sister’s café, stuck in a decade-old grudge, stuck refusing to confront anything. She’s equal parts millennial burnout and Disney Princess (absent parents, a dead sibling). I think I’m supposed to root for her, but she’s so judgmental it’s hard to invest. Like, how are you too busy to get a drink with your best friend… because you’re getting a drink with someone else? And how do you just mix up the days you are supposed to meet your brother?

Levi? The Nice Guy (TM) who excuses cheating exes and avoids emotional confrontation. His motive for fake dating June is winning back said cheating ex, even though he’s secretly been in love with June forever. Not exactly swoon-worthy. And when he does fall for June (spoiler: obviously), it feels more like convenience than chemistry. This man is literally giving leather-jacket-in-a-club-in-July energy. Because, yes, that happens.

The whole plot hinges on a decade-long miscommunication. I hate miscommunication as a plot device ESPECIALLY when the “miscommunication” is one vague comment overheard in high school and no one ever decides to clarify (and is further exacerbated but silent treatment and strongly fortified emotional walls). And then we throw in Annie’s tragic death, a barely-explained “she didn’t want us together” backstory (why?!), and a love story held together by grief, cold chain pizza (YOU LIVE IN NEW YORK WHY IS THAT YOUR PIZZA OF CHOICE), a sort of insude joke about Uptown Funk being rhe mark of a good DJ, and beach jogging.

For a romcom, we get barely there romance. Which is fine. I’m not here for spice. But there’s one steamy scene that feels jammed in just to satisfy BookTok and the draw of spicy reads these days. There’s just a lot of platonic affection that left me wishing they’d stayed friends. YA vibes in adult packaging.

But I did like some things quite a bit! Sana (June’s best friend from college who moves out to June’s hometown when June shares about the cheap rent) is a bright spot. Funny, grounded, and genuinely engaging, even if she’s also reduced to “diverse best friend who supports the white protagonist.” Matteo, June’s future brother-in-law, is another standout. Meanwhile, June’s own brother Dylan and her actual family drama are relegated to vague mentions and June being pretty dismissive, which makes the “helping plan the wedding” plot feel a bit off.

Overall, the writing is Ali Hazelwood–adjacent, Emily Henry–lite: trying hard to be clever. Sometimes it lands. Sometimes it doesn’t. The scones, though… The scones. There’s Levi’s famous one made with mashed-up store-bought cookies, and the one mentioned at the end that made me shudder: “blueberry-sriracha” fire-and-ice scone as a nod to Levi’s fantasy novel (co-written with June in high school, starring characters based on Annie and Dylan, mentioned 2,830 times and still somehow completely forgettable).

The concept of two viral breakups leading to a fake relationship based on a former mutual crush should be fun. And sometimes, it is. But The Break-Up Pact ultimately forgets to give us a reason to root for this couple. It needed to go deeper or lean harder into the romcom silliness.

jenngerbread's review against another edition

4.0

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

qbooker's review against another edition

3.25

hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

hmelton96's review against another edition

3.0

funny relaxing slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I was hoping for more from this book than I got. While I loved the characters, main (Levi and June) and side (Sana, Mateo, and Dylan), I didn’t feels attached to any of them. The setting was nice. The drama around Tea Tide didn’t really make sense. Convos about grief were beautiful and realistic so that raised it a star for me.

c_reads_kc's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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