~3.5 STARS ROUNDED UP~

I really enjoyed my time spent reading this book overall, but I did have one main "issue" with it. The major downfall of this book for me was the insta-love.

Yes, I understand that Ursula and Rafael were matched through copious amounts of scientific observations/research; however, I feel like there still should have been more of an adjustment period. There was literally no settling into each other and trying to understand why they were even matched in the first place? It was kind of just like "wow I love you" in the first ten minutes of meeting. We never really got to see them form this strong bond overtime, which would've made the reader more inclined to being attached to their deep love for one another and in turn make us want to root for their relationship in the long term. Their "deep love" for one another felt a little surface-level to me.

I did really enjoy learning about Ursula and Rafael as individual characters and why they chose to pay SO MUCH MONEY in order to find their soulmate, I just didn't love them as a couple as much.

Sometimes I just need an easy, mindless book to reset my reading...even if I don't actually like the book. That's what happened with The ARC. The ARC is a super high end matchmaking service in NYC…and it’s also secretive and enigmatic. Ursula, a successful branding expert, is sick of traditional dating apps, so she decides to give The ARC a try. She’s matched with a lawyer named Rafael and the connection is instant and electric. But, it’s not that simple. The beginning of this book felt more like Sci-Fi Light / Brain Candy than a Romance and I was more interested in how this extreme version of matchmaking would play out and Ursula's career arc than I was invested in Ursula's and Rafael's future.

DNF

This was not for me. By just a few chapters in, I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy this one. I couldn’t stand the MC and was not invested in her story or the setting.

Ursula subscribes to The Arc, a super secret and super expensive dating service to find her perfect match when she gets paired with Rafael, an attorney. All seems to be going perfectly as the sparks are flying until they receive notification that there has been an error with their pairing. Should they trust the data and break it off now or continue down this unknown and possibly doomed path?

I did enjoy watching their relationship unfold and develop as well as their thought process of what is true love and how does it last. Nothing is predictable and especially not this relationship.

This book definitely falls into the women's fiction category but definitely not into one of my favorites.

Thank you Netgalley, Tory Henwood Hoen, and St. Martin's Press for sending me an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Witty, hilarious and perfect on audio. A modern take on dating and finding love. So original, I loved it!

Thank you for my gifted copy. This was tough to get through but it very much could be the wrong book at the wrong time. I felt not super invested in so much of this but thank you for my copy!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Arc! The book explores how far we will go to find our "perfect mate" and do we trust science to find that for us? Quirky Ursula is a modern, successful woman who enjoys time with her friends at The Stake, an expensive women's wellness club where health is an immersive/emotional experience (although told in a witty/snarky way someone might describe "Goop" recommendations, I think I'd LOVE to visit it!). She joins The Arc, as scientific dating experience promising to match you with your perfect match and she matches with calm, grounded Rafael. The book explores what does it take to create and maintain relationships, even under "perfect" circumstances with imperfect people. The romance was sweet as was Ursula's cat, and although I had been hoping for more of a futuristic/dystopian story centering around the Arc premise, I absolutely loved the story I read--funny, witty, hopeful and imaginative.

Despite interesting blurbs and descriptions, this story fell short for me in a crowded market. Second round purchase at best

I loved every single thing about this story! I am a romantic at heart and loved that the main characters just walked away from it all to be together.

This is a great book about a secret society that sets people up with love matches. I really enjoyed this and will be reading more of Hoen in the future.

This was such a fascinating read! Books about possible matchmaking services always intrigue me. It's a quirky story that encourages self reflection, especially in terms of how far you'll go to find love.

The Arc is a different spin on romance with a slightly futuristic look at matchmaking. Ursula is quirky, supporter of other women who is seeking someone to share her life with. She's almost given up on finding it on her own and hopes the secretive, scientific matchmaking service The Arc can help. After a devastating break up, Rafael hopes the The Arc can find "the one" for him because his heart can't take much more. Can science make a better match than the human heart?

I was intrigued by Ursula and Rafael story. It weaves in some timely topics like women's frustrations with dating after a certain age and the challenges of being a successful woman in the workplace. I enjoyed the ups and downs of their relationship and the role that the mysterious Arc played in it. The book does try too hard at times, making this read "just ok" instead of one that I really liked.

I would recommend The Arc to those who aren't typically fans of the romance genre. It has enough futuristic details, mystery, satire, and commentary on today's society to make it much more than your typical romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the digital copy of this book.

“The Arc’by Tory Henwood Hoen was a bit of a twist on finding your perfect soulmate? Ursula decides to take a non traditional way of meeting the guy meant for her by joining the arc. The Arch is a top secret matchmaking service, costly but practically guarantees the perfect pair. Ursula who is a perfectionist who is set on finding the perfect match is matched to Rafael who seems to good to be true. Could this method work, could this be Ursala’s true love and her life long partner? As they start to hit some bumps in the dating life they begin to question their fate or is this just normal, or did the Arc get their match all wrong.

Smart Rom-Com, witty and fun read.

“You’re a perfectionist who is tormented by the possibility of failure.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

#thearc #julesbookshelf #netgalley
#goodreads

Cool premise: at The Arc, for about $50k, you get a guaranteed match with the man or woman of your dreams. Not just a regular dating-app-esque match though; a gold-standard one, based on complicated algorithms blah-blah-blah. Anyway, who cares how it works? The point is, you're almost 100% guaranteed to be compatible with the person you match with, on all levels. Ursula matches with Rafael and darned if it doesn't seem to work. Quirky Ursula and solid, steady Rafael are not only wildly attracted to each other, they enjoy and are amused by each other, they become best friends. Until there comes a glitch ... of course there does. Because this is a romance novel after all. But it was more than that.

Besides its satirical treatment of our trend- and technology obsessed world, and the difficulty making genuine connections with people both personally and professionally, there was an underlying feminist message. Ursula has a strong, supportive best friend who both calls her on her shit and celebrates her zany nature; and Ursula herself is a boss to a young woman who she tirelessly champions in the workplace and looks for opportunities to reward. And Ursula doesn't need a partner, she just freely acknowledges that she wants one, and a baby, and a family, without having a sense of "emptiness" with her life as it is. She has friends, and hobbies and a career. She isn't incomplete when she meets Rafael, she just wants someone to share the ride of life with. I also liked that the conflict in the relationship wasn't based on a slender thread of a stupid misunderstanding, amplified to create drama, but on real-life differences that could cause many couples to wonder whether they want to same things.

And then thrown in there, the intriguing factor of The Arc methodology and the questions it raises: is there a "perfect" person out there for everyone? Can a good relationship be designed, if you just know the right ingredients? And can true love be made, or does it have to happen organically? It was fun watching the characters grapple with these questions that most of us--coupled, and uncoupled--have at one time or another considered for ourselves. A fun, quick listen.

Audiobook note: the narrator nailed it. She had a tongue-in-cheek, almost glib manner that captured the spirit of the book and the funny flirtatiousness of the couple. Her female and male voices were distinct and identifiable for each character and didn't come across as campy, which can sometimes happen when someone is voicing characters of the opposite sex simultaneously. Recommended for a fun, lighthearted, though not shallow listening experience.

My rating:⭑⭑⭑⭑

I absolutely loved this book! I found it hard to put down. I highly recommend reading it! You won’t be disappointed.

I could not finish this one sadly!! I was so excited for it, but it fell so flat at the halfway mark. All the action happened right up front and then I was not interested in the rest. So sad because I was so looking forward to this book

This book is about Ursula Byrne, she is an executive in a branding company who is quite successful, however her personal life is another matter.

She and her friend are in a spa just for women with odd activities, like a crying chamber and a hair brushing room. During this visit an employee of the spa overhears Ursula complaining about her last date and she recommends a place called The Arc.

Ursula decides to visit this place and finds out it is a matchmaking place that you spend a week in and they find you your perfect match. for the low low price of $50,000 ($40,500 if you are female). Ursula commits to this after she gets a millionaire to contract her to scope out companies for him to invest in (because we all have a millionaire in our back pocket that we can get to hire us on the side, NOT)

So Ursula immerses herself in the week long assessment and gets matched with a 40 year old lawyer, Rafael.
and they end up on a never ending date, it's love at first sight.

I continued reading the book but found it quite unrealistic and was waiting for the other shoe to drop which it does about a dog adoption vs breeder. I only finished the book to see what happened because I honestly didn't care about any of the characters in the book. Ursula is supposed to be a modern professional woman who seems so wishy washy and indecisive. I skimmed over most of the book just to finish.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Expected Publication Date: 2/8/22

I really loved the premise of this book. I think this book might hit home for a lot of 30-somethings who are trying to navigate the dating scene and still coming up empty. The characters are interesting, they are the kind of characters that you root for. I wanted them to have a happy ending.

This was a meh book for me. I considered not finishing it actually at one point in the middle when it was really getting drawn out, but I can't actually remember the last book I didn't finish reading so I powered through and got it done. Surprisingly I really liked the ending and how things got wrapped up, but there was a LOT to get through to get to that point! The general concept of the book was interesting - a kind of "higher powered" match making service but with a ridiculous price tag attached to it. Ursula was both cute with her rambunctious and spunky personality but also annoying to me...I alternating enjoying her and getting a little tired of some of the overly feminist themes from her and overall in the book (an elite club named "the stake" as a play on when women were burned as witches on the stake? Seemed a bit much to me) SLIGHT SPOILER: as is always my complaint with romance themes - the reason for her and Rafael's break up just seemed so dumb to me and a forced way to make conflict and drama in the book. Overall the book was a lot longer than I was expecting or felt like the story needed to be and I was happy to be done and moved on!

This book started off a little slow to me, almost to the point I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get through it. it did pick up a little later on in the book and I was able to finish it, but It wasn't my cup of tea. Normally, the miscommunication troupe does not bother me, but it irritated me with these two characters so much to the point I was rooting for them to break up and stay away from each other. This just wasn't the book for me.