ARC Review: For the Record by Emma Lord

An electrifying rom com of rivalry and redemption, perfect for fans of Emily Henry and Daisy Jones and the Six, from New York Times bestselling author Emma Lord.

Once the most notorious rivals in the music scene, pop princess Mackenzie Waters and punk rockstar Sam Blaze electrified audiences as their bands clashed on stage. But behind the scenes, their simmering tension grew into something more — until suddenly both bands fell apart, and the idea of Mackenzie and Sam did, too.

Two years later, Sam has traded the rockstar lifestyle for a quiet life raising the son he didn’t know about. Meanwhile, Mackenzie is dealing with a postoperative change in her voice by only singing under a pseudonym. The only way to revive their public careers? A joint comeback album.

With fans over the moon and their futures on the line, Sam and Mackenzie face their biggest challenge yet: giving up the old rivalry and learning to work together. But as old sparks fly and new secrets emerge, they set off a chain reaction neither of them could have anticipated — one that proves that sometimes, the greatest hits are the ones yet to be written.

• Title: For the Record
• Author:  Emma Lord
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
• Publication Date: August 12th, 2025
• Genre: Romance 
• Source: Digital ARC via Netgalley/Publishers  in exchange for an honest review
• Targeted Age Range: Adult
• Content Warnings: strained relationships with parents, mentions of surgery
• Rating: ★★★★★

Me? Giving an Emma Lord book 5 stars? You’re absolutely shocked! Seriously though, I think we all have those authors that really click with us, and for me it’s definitely Emma Lord. I think that she has a very distinctive voice in her writing  and that sound is incredibly strong in her next adult release, For the Record. In any Emma Lord book I’ve come to expect characters that are relatable, likable, real and flawed, storytelling that’s easy to get lost in and feels like you’re talking to your best friend, silly and wild food combinations that actually sound incredibly delicious (need those mac and cheese scones), a romance with super fun banter with a couple that you’re really rooting for and truly care about one another, and a story that is going to hook you from the start. For the Record delivered on all of those things, and the second I started it I knew I was going to love this one.

Back in August of 2024, I was at Emma’s book signing for her adult debut, The Break-Up Pact, and she did give us some hints about For the Record, including that if we were to compare this book to a Taylor Swift album (obviously) that album would be Red, and I definitely see why she made that connection. Red (my personal favorite of Swift’s albums) is a great exploration of the highs and lows of relationships — both with yourself and with a partner — and I think those things are explored really well throughout For the Record. 

I loved this cast of characters. I thought Mackenzie was a great main character and I really loved her journey throughout the book. While I’m not a singer, I am a performer and have lived and breathed theatre since I was a teenager and the thought of my body not working the way that it used to and preventing me from doing the thing that I love in the way I’ve always done it is really really scary, so I could really sympathize with Mackenzie as she struggled to figure out how to use her voice post surgery (it also made me think of what Julie Andrews went through after getting vocal surgery and luckily Mackenzie’s surgery wasn’t as severe as Julie’s was, but having that in mind made me extra emotional). The dynamic between Hannah, Mackenzie and Serena was really interesting as well. I won’t lie, I didn’t like Serena for most of the book and I was really struggling to connect with her, but I think that she was a well developed character and definitely interesting to read about and I was glad to see the progression of her character and that she, Hannah and Mackenzie were able to work through their problems.

Oh, Samuel Blaze. I really loved him. He was just so sweet and the love he has for his son is so beautiful. Sometimes, kids can be a bit hit or miss for me in books, mostly because sometimes authors just don’t get how to write a kid, but I think Emma did such a great job of writing Ben and the relationship between Sam and Ben. Sam is such a devoted dad and it honestly made him all the more endearing to me. I loved that he and Ben’s mom, Lizzie (and Lizzie’s wife Kara), co-parented so well and that they lived in adjoining apartments so that Ben could just go from one apartment to the other and be with his parents at all times. The “Mom Side and Dad Side” thing was so cute; I just loved their little family unit. 

Mackenzie and Sam were so much fun. I absolutely loved their banter — they had me giggling, they were so funny, and I loved their chemistry. I was so excited for them to work together as a duo in the present and loved the concept behind the album and seeing them go to all of these places and revisit bits of their past together. There’s a moment where Sam says one of his bandmates called Mackenzie his “emotional support enemy” and that made me laugh so hard, and really, are they actually enemies to lovers if they are not each other’s emotional support enemies? I thought that their relationship developed so wonderfully and I loved how supportive of one another they were.

Since this book is centered around musicians, there was of course a bunch of music running through my mind throughout the entire book, so I decided to make a little playlist of songs that I thought of while reading. I may add more songs to this eventually, but these were the first ones I thought of and figured I’d share it with all of you!

For the Record kept me captivated from start to finish and just like all of Lord’s other works this book brought me a lot of comfort and happiness, and I know I’ll be rereading it multiple times.

Links for For the Record: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop