The Arc offers an interesting premise; Can true love and compatibility be fabricated due to matched personality traits and history? If said relationship evolves is there pressure for it to be perfect and devoid of conflict due to the pressure both emotionally and financially?.I certainly think that at the beginning, Ursula and Rafael epitomizes this as they cannot believe they found each other and how quickly they became best friends and lovers. However, Ursula was determined as a perfectionist to set herself up for failure. She was so regimented and in need of control that the relationship and herself imploded. It is only taking a step back and determining that no relationship is perfect did she find her way.

Interesting premise for a story but it kind of freaked me out at the same time just imagining the lengths we could go to to find our perfect matches in the future. I also had a hard time connecting with the main character and found myself skimming a lot of the book. This one just wasn't for me.

3 Stars

I enjoyed this romance book. A fun take on what we resort to in order to find love, and the costs we pay (both figuratively and literally.

Thirty-five-year-old Ursula Byrne, VP of Strategic Audacity at a branding agency in Manhattan, is successful in all but her love life. She’s tried all the dating apps, and feels she is loosing hope in the male race.

Enter The Arc: a highly secretive, super-sophisticated matchmaking service that uses a complex series of emotional, psychological and physiological assessments to match partners that will go the distance. The price tag is high, but the promise gives a lifetime full of love and blissful companionship.

Ursula is paired with forty-two-year-old lawyer Rafael Banks. From the beginning this feels like the love they’ve each been seeking their whole adult lives. But as their relationship unfolds in unanticipated ways, the two begin to realize that true love is never a sure thing. And the arc of a relationship is never predictable...even when it's fully optimized.

Likeable characters, and a what could be very realistic part in the near future. I found myself questioning how much I would pay for the guarantee of true love. It also shows that nothing is perfect. That’s why I love these characters and story. Yes sometimes it all may seem good and shiny but dig deep and there’s some rust hiding under. Definitely a good read that I would recommend. Thank you for the ARC NetGalley

The Arc is the first book by Tory Henwood Hoen.

The story is about a highly secretive, super-sophisticated matchmaking service that uses a complex series of emotional, psychological and physiological assessments to architect partnerships that will go the distance. The price tag is high, the promise ambitious––a level of lifelong compatibility that would otherwise be unattainable. In other words, The Arc will find your ideal mate.

I loved the concept and did enjoy parts of it, but I felt like the writing was clunky, repetitive, with huge chunks of internal monologues and unnecessary backstory.

A romance novel about the genuine ups and downs about dating in the modern age. The writing was good but it was really the character dynamics that kept me hooked and these are more than just characters and actual people you could meet anywhere.

This was such a fun read. It was like the rom-com version of Nine Perfect Strangers. Loved every word.

ARC kindly provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book was very interesting (you can already tell from the blurb), the characters were amazing (especially Rafael) and the plot was entertaining and enjoyable. The romance was so good and kept me on the edge of my seat because I wanted to know how this was going to end for them. I was definitely rooting for them and their happy ending. Overall it was a great read!

An interesting concept that has become a more common topic in fiction. The Arc, not unlike the service in John Marrs ’ The One promises to find your one and only perfect match. Unlike the other story, Ursula and Rafael’s love story isn’t quite so dark. I enjoyed the familiar love story meets a futuristic concept with a bit of a twist ending. Ursula unfortunately was not a very likable character, so that was the main detractor from the book.

The premise of the story was great until I got a few pages in and then it was skim city. Highly unlikable character, snooty attitudes, pretentious titles/businesses, the wannabe SATC/Instagram lifestyle - all big NO’s in my book.

I was provided with an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story still has me reeling one week after reading because… THE ENDING!!! Although decently predictable, I still can’t get over that the author actually chose to end the story that way. Brief synopsis: Ursula is a thirty-something tired of looking for love online or otherwise, so when she hears about The Arc, who will deliver one perfectly matched mate after a week-long in-person analysis, she signs up anticipating the worst but hoping for the best. Ursula is then perfectly matched with Rafael and they spend four blissful months together, only to find out that The Arc mistakenly matched them.

I was so enthralled with these characters, their journeys, and their commentary on love, life, and finding love in the digital age. I met my husband online, and I remember thinking, “How does the algorithm know?!” and “If he’s only 90% compatible, could it still work?”. I saw these characters work through these same questions, but had the ultimate response of “Well, The Arc told us it would work, so we’ll make it work”. Which offered up the question, when you’re told that something is a “sure thing” does it allow you to turn a blind eye toward skepticism.

I loved everything about this book, and can’t wait for it to come out in February 2022 so you all can read it! And for anyone looking for an off-beat-romance-but-not-romance, this is still available for request via NetGalley.

Arc is highly zeitgeist-ly, smartly criticizing and thought provoking but also entertaining debut, a sarcastic women’s fiction waltzes with romance genre. A romance without troupes and angst but somehow realistically questioning the relationships!

How far you go to find her love of your life? And what if there’s no guarantee in your life to find your soul mate and chase your HEA?

The author’s dark sense of humor pouring out on the chapters help you to enjoy witty dialogues : an emotional struggling heroine: 35 years old New Yorker Ursula Bryne could be one of the member of Sex and the City reboot ( her characteristics are someone between Carrie and Miranda) with interesting job title ( VP of Strategic Audacity at a branding agency), desperate to find the love of her life. She tried a several dating apps but each of her experiences were doomed to fail.

When she is so close to give up, she finds out the Arc: a highly secretive and super duper sophisticated dating service helps you to find the One by assessing several emotional, psychological and physiological diagrams. The results seem like so concrete which worth to your 50K!

She joins the service and finally gets paired with 42 years old Rafael Banks.

She realizes the service accomplished its mission successfully! They seem like soul mates and perfect for each other!

But… yes, a nearly 400 pages long novel can not end so abruptly! The couple hear news which dramatically change their lives!

Without giving so much spoiler, I can honestly find this concept interesting! The characters were likable enough to pick my interest and be drawn into their dilemmas.

The conclusion was also good. It was soft, interesting and enjoyable popcorn& GT reading and a great start for debut author!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

A very cute, quirky book that invents a new mechanism for dating, The Arc. Ursula is a very likable heroine and we follow her dating mishaps until she finds The Arc.

I often find a book with too many names and characters confusing and here again, just too many names tossed around. I enjoyed it and I think a younger demographic might really find it fun to discuss.

Thank you for this opportunity to read and review this novel.

Ursula is tired of online dating and apps but wants to find love. She learns of the ARC which is this secret, state of the art matching system (and it's expensive!). She signs up and is matched with Rafael. Will her investment be worth it?

This was almost a DNF. I mean i skimmed so much of this book maybe toy could say it was tenchincall a DNF. I stuck it out and finished to the end but was not with a struggle. I was intrigued by the premis of the book but it just fell flat for me. There was little plot to the story and Ursula the main character is not likable. I knew quite early on I would not like her when she judged someone for wearing shoes with a certain toe shape. I can usually get over annoying characters but she was so childish. Rafael was nice enough, but i found him to be a little boring. There is a twist at the end so the book isn't exactly ordinary. Ursula always dated the same type of guys and then spent $40,500k to be matched with a guy unlike her typical type. She could have done that on her own had she opened her mind up to other types of men.

Thanks NetGalley and St Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.
What would you spend and what you sacrifice if someone promised you that they could find your perfect person and guarantee it?! Could you get out of your own way, your own baggage to be with that person?
Ursala and Rafael find themselves in that situation and they go for it, $50,000 later, but they are madly in love and feel like they have their person..until they get news that changes everything.
A cute take on a love story that shows nothing is guaranteed, that love is always a risk, and that you have to step out of your own way, your issues to truly let yourself be loved. Characters were a little hard for me to get invested in, I wanted to shake them a lot if the times. And the premise of the book I liked but also found unconvincing/unrealistic at times.
Overall a good, fast romance read that will leave you with all the feels.

Wow this was such a unique and wonderful book! It is rare that I'm so pleasantly surprised by a book I go into blind to read. I was attracted by the cover but the content blew me away. High concept and highly entertaining! I loved it!

Go in blind and let the story take you on a wonderful journey all the way to the end!

Feedback only for publisher and author
Formatting, structure and nit-picky feedback: I don’t think the dates and times at the starts of chapters adds anything to the book and possibly detracts. I kept waiting for the time to be relevant to the story or structure. Either put the season in the text as exposition “Ursula dug out her vintage brown leather jacket, her favorite for fall” or separate chapters with month declaration page “November” etc.
I don’t need to know that Ursula and Sabrina had a conversation on November 14th at 4:07pm. I don’t need to know the day or that it was even in the afternoon. Years are also not working in this case as the beginning of the end starts right at the time of COVID. It’s a worldwide event. You can’t ignore it. Just don’t mention years and we will assume its about current day or at least early 20-teens (starting her art business on Etsy? She’d start it on Instagram if it was really 2019 or 2020.)
I like text conversations in a text conversation type of format—different font and appearing like it would on one’s phone, though not necessarily formatted left and right. It’d be cute if Rafa’s name for her in his phone would be one of his silly nicknames for example. This happens in Chapter 32, but not in Chapter 17.
It starts to become obvious that most female’s names end in ‘a’.
Thanks for not alternating POV and not labeling chapters “Ursula”, “Rafael”, “Ursula”. Its not needed.
The blurb: Seems like publishers of every new female-authored book wants to have the words “sally” and “rooney’ printed somewhere on the cover. This isn’t the book to have it and there will be reader pushback about it. Readers will write negative reviews based on how the book holds up to the blurb rather than review based on the book alone. I’ve seen nasty reviews for books that are significantly more similar to Sally Rooney novels.
There’s already mentions of similarity to The Soulmate Equation, which has a long wait time at my library.

Review
If enough data is gathered, can you have a perfect match? What does it mean if you and your perfect match have a disagreement?
This not a typical romance novel trope. The ARC experience made me wonder if it was going in sci-fi direction.
Things are trucking along and then Rafael is considering getting a specific breed of dog instead of adopting one at the SPCA. Ursula panics internally and her repeat behaviors from past relationships and catastrophic thinking comes right back. Individual therapy could be quite useful for Ursula and Rafael, and couples communication retreat for the both of them. We learn at 83% that Ursula does have a therapist. So, she’s either using therapy incorrectly or needs a new therapist.

Overall its mid-weight beach read. Along the lines of Jennifer Weiner level of seriousness. Not frivolous, not literary.
The wit and humor were great at the beginning (before we are in the flush of love). Hoen nails the zeitgeist without being overly sardonic. Initially Ursula seems great and I’d want to be friends. As the novel goes on, we get less and less of her personality and are left mostly with neuroticism. She comes back to herself when she and Rafa are no longer in a relationship. Is this on purpose? Is this part of how she keeps losing herself in relationships? If getting feedback that middle is getting boring (because we aren’t getting interesting Ursula), consider shortening that part. Ursula felt less realistic during that period, but a great character before and after. Rafa was also likeable. He seemed to appreciate her, which is also why having this work trip spiral so quickly seemed unrealistic.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's for this digital ARC of THE ARC!

This book is so zeitgeist-y. It's a cultural criticism of a certain class of New Yorker-- and comes with all the trappings we love (and sometimes love to hate) to read. But underneath, there is also criticism of what it means to find love, the expectations for love, and how we tell a love story.

This is technically a romance (spoiler, there's an HEA), but without the tropes that romance readers love. It's a compelling, surprising narrative that makes you consider your values, our culture's values, and literary values.

A compelling, but not always easy, read.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. This was a really fun book that definitely read more like "women's fiction" rather than romance. Ursula and Rafael are both trying to find perfect love in an imperfect world. Their story is sweet, funny and relatable. I'm impressed that this is the author's first book and I'll check out her future works!

The Arc was such a great read, I finished it in less than a day. Don't plan on putting it down once you are a third of the way through. It is rare that a book makes me think of it when I was not reading to try and sus out the ending. The Arc is that kind of book. I waswrong about how it ended, but enjoyed every minute of reading it.