The Break-Up Pact is a fun and emotional romance from Emma Lord

The YA to romance pipeline for authors is real and one I never saw coming was Emma Lord. As shocked as I was, I was excited for The Break-Up Pact.

While I was originally pitched this book many months ago, I knew this was going to be a summer read. For those who noticed the cover, I’m sure you can see why I made that decision.

Coupled with the fun plot, The Break-Up Pact was an easy one to add to my TBR, and since Emma Lord is an author whose writing I already enjoy. I feel like this was a pretty good bet on being one I was going to enjoy.

Whether you’re new to Emma Lord or were introduced to her via her YA titles, The Break-Up Pact needs a place on your TBR this summer.

The Break-Up Pact is a fun yet emotional adult romance from Emma Lord.

The story begins with June who is fresh out of a 10-year relationship and due to her ex being on reality TV, she’s since become a meme. She’s also struggling to run The Tea Tide as business is slow. However, things only get stranger as she runs into Levi, her former friend who was also publicly dumped by his fiance.

I’m sure you can see where this story is going. Levi and June agree to fake-date as a way for June to help keep her business afloat while Levi wants to make his ex jealous. Of course, old feelings start to come back and the connection between these two is undeniable. While it seems like this book would hit the normal fake dating beats, Emma Lord really takes you on an emotional rollercoaster with this one.

The Break-Up Pact is a lot about the romance between June and Levi, but it’s also about their shared bond with Annie. Annie is June’s sister and Levi’s best friend who passed due to a brain aneurysm. The two are still dealing with a lot of grief, related to that and it has impacted their lives in different ways. It’s honestly hard to read at times so if you’re in the midst of grief, I’d suggest sitting this one out.

Aside from the grief featured in these pages, the story does focus a lot on social media, going viral, and dealing with the aftermath of that. If you enjoy drama, reality TV, and TikTok, then The Break-Up Pact is exactly what you need. On the whole, this book was fun and felt very akin to Lord’s YA titles so I think this would be a great stepping stone if you’re looking for something more from her.

The only real critique I have about The Break-Up Pact is how much June and Levi avoided having big or hard conversations. The two of them couldn’t just sit down and talk which aggravated me. Either way, this feels like a great start to Emma Lord’s adult romance writing journey.

The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord is out now where books are sold.