The Arc by Tory Henwood Hoen
When I read a blurb about The Arc by Tory Henwood Hoen saying that if I was a Taylor Jenkins Reid fan that I would love this book. So of course I HAD to read it, being a big TJR fan. Sad to say, I was disappointed. This was nothing like a TJR book in my opinion.
Ursula is successful yet single and very underwhelmed with her options. She complains a lot to her BFF Issa. They both belong to a posh feminist wellness club which I found pretty over the top. I wasn't sure whether to roll my eyes, laugh or toss the book. Ursula ends up discovering The Arc which a super secretive and sophisticated matchmaking service. It claims to find your ideal mate. She's matched up with Rafael and everything seems to be going quite well for the couple. Until it doesn't anymore.
Everything annoyed me about this book. Ursula in particular. This book was definitely not for me.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my review.

I enjoyed this book. The prose was well-written, and the characters were dynamic and jumped off the page. I thought the story was interesting and the plot kept me guessing.

I got about 15% in and didn't love this one and thought it was trying a little too hard to be trendy yet ironic? If you wanted romance with a twist, you might try this.

In THE ARC, we follow Ursula and Rafael both in their late 30s/40s and are sick of the way dating life has become so virtual. And so they decide to visit The Arc, where soulmates are brought together through high-tech science. When these two meet, they begin to discover that they may be soulmates, until real life infiltrates.

THE ARC is a book I was incredibly excited for, and it is...ok if you want a dystopian and kind of bizzare story similar to THE SOULMATE EQUATION by Christina Lauren. I wanted to like this book more, but found it to be overly done when it comes to vocabulary used and the non cohesive statements regarding feminism and capitalism. I do think others could enjoy it, I just wasn't the best reader for it.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing the arc of The Arc by Tory Henwood Hoen in exchange for my honest review.

The Arc could be described as a rom-com for people who don’t like rom-coms. It is a love story for the modern age of dating apps and independent women who need to control every aspect of their lives. I mean, I honestly thought this was my kind of love story.

We meet Ursula Byrne, whose job title is literally VP of Strategic Audacity, at a feminist health club in Manhattan. After being introduced to the Club, it took a lot to keep reading, but I pushed forward. Ursula is a fiercely independent 35-year-old woman who’s had terrible luck when it comes to dating. While at the ridiculous Club, she is handed a card for The Arc, a new-age matching-making service for people willing to spend a lot of money to meet their ultimate match.

Ursula decided to give this Arc a try. After a week-long lock-in, she walks away feeling great but questioning if it will work. She is matched with Rafael. They are perfect for each other in every way, or so they thought.
I had such a tough time reading this book. I never connected with Ursula. I found the way she treats people to be rude and disingenuous. Her frustration with her job is entirely understandable, yet she won’t do anything to fix it. Then we met Rafael, and I wanted to like him. I wanted to like them together, but I found myself rolling my eyes. Rolling my eyes a couple of times is fine, but when I took a week off from the book and returned to more eye-rolling, I knew it was time to move on. I raced through the end of the book, hoping something would happen to change my mind. In the end, I didn’t connect with The Arc at all. I know plenty of people will love these characters and their story, but I’m not one of them.

The premise of this book sounded so interesting, when I read the description, however it was a lackluster story that I got bored as I continued to read The Arc.

Ursula and Rafael want to find a perfect love, and are willing to spend a lot of money for it. The Arc is a high end matchmaking service that promises to match couples after a series of tests and observations. At first when Ursula and Rafael met, it was practically love at first site, but after a minor disagreement, it is learned a mistake was made by the Arc, and they should immediately dissolve their relationship.

This book was so droll, that even the conflict was boring. The idea of this book on the surface reminded me of John Marrs’ The One which I absolutely loved. While that had a thriller element, this is the nice calm version of this story. I found that our two main characters especially Ursula were so cumbersome to read about. Especially, Ursula who seems to be having a mid life crisis at times.

While I did stick with this one all they way through, it was just because I invested so much time reading it. Stronger start than middle and ending. If you decide to pick this one up, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this one.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this book. It's based on a dating social experiment where you pay a lot of money and then go to the company to stay and they delve into all aspects of you as a person and find your one true match. One of my favorite shows is Love Is Blind - a social experiment reality show where people fall in love site unseen so this book had this vibe for me. It's actually something I can see as the new way to date in the future.

I loved the characters. Ursula and Rafael were very likable and completely compatible. I felt like I felt everything that they did. I smiled, laughed, and even cried with them. The ending was a little different. I'm not sure if it was a twist or not but I figured it's something The Arc was doing.

It does start a little slow but once they meet it seems to pick up. I love that Ursula is quirky and how Rafael is smitten with her. It made sense that their relationship would be instant with being told that they were perfect for each other.

This was fun and I'd recommend it to those who like romance.

The Arc is a sophisticated matchmaking service that uses a variety of assessments. It costs $50,000 dollars but when you complete the program, you’ll find your ideal mate. Ursula and Rafael are paired together and we follow their relationship over the next year.

I thought the premise of The Arc was interesting, and I was curious to see if the matchmaking service was going to work. I also really liked both Ursula and Rafael’s characters. Unfortunately, this one didn’t work for me. I thought it was too slow and barely anything was happening. There were multiple chapters that I just skimmed over because I Iost interest – specifically chapters about Ursula’s job. I enjoyed the beginning and the ending, but the middle was too drawn out.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Ursula is a career focused woman in her mid-30's intent on finding her perfect life partner. She has tried all the dating apps and is tired of failing. In comes The Arc, a super secret, scientific method of matchmaking, and Ursula decides this is her last shot at love.

Rafael and Ursula start dating, buoyed by the knowledge they are perfectly matched for each other, nothing can go wrong! Until a seed of doubt is planted. What if it's not real?

I have mixed feelings about this book. Overall I think the themes were really strong and something I generally don't see much in romcoms. I LOVED exploring what happens in a relationship after the glow of the honeymoon phase wears off. This is without a doubt a relationship character study.

However, it was a little too long and meandered for almost a third of the book before getting to the main plot. The Arc--the matchmaking service--felt a little too much like science fiction. I would still give this a read if you enjoy a good feminist romance with some snarky banter and a character driven plot.

Thank you so much to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this ARC, Getting His Game Back is out now, make sure to grab your copy!

Why you should read:
✨Sex and the City vibes
✨Post 30's dating
✨Science-y matchmaking
✨Post-honeymoon phase dating
✨Career focused women
✨Hilarious pet names

Have you ever watched the reality show Married at First Sight, where experts match up two strangers and they meet for the first time at the altar and then have 8 weeks to try and make it work? My husband and I might be addicted to it and have watched all eleven seasons. This book reminded me of that show only the research that goes behind The ARC’s match is much more extensive than MAFS and comes with a hefty fee of 40-50k! The couple meets on a date with the understanding that they will stay together for eighteen months and do regular check-ins with The ARC. Ursula, 35 and Rafael 40 are both professionals with well established careers that have been too busy to find their partner for life. At first their match seems to good to be true, because they have such great chemistry and compliment each other well. After settling into their relationship they discover there has been a mistake in The Arc’s data and they are not a compatible match. Now they must decide if they should stay together or try for another match that is correct.
I really enjoyed Rafeal and Urusla’s love story in The ARC. With all of the dating apps out there today, I could see why this would be something enticing for those looking for a serious partner.

i might try this book another day but i do not think i am the targeted age group for this book. i loved the concept of it, but i do not want to read about 40 year olds!! again, might revisit another day- dnf

I was not sure what to expect from this story but I definitely wasn't expecting to loudly snort laugh in a dentist waiting room at 9am. The Arc is funny in a very specific sarcastic millennial way that I love stumbling upon. The characters are right around my age and while our lives are very different their humour and perspective felt familiar and very relatable. I was immediately pulled in by the friendship of Issa and Ursula and wanted to sit around in The Stake with them gossiping and getting the weirdest treatments imaginable. The Arc is obviously modern in it's take on dating but it also feels like it's meant for a very specific and modern audience. This is a book for women who grew up hearing that if they just stopped spending so much money on leggings and avocado toast everything would work out fine and I love that so much.

This book has been frequently compared to The Soulmate Equation because of the similarity in premise, but I think that's an overly favorable comparison. This book is more similar to books like A Special Place for Women or The Hunting Wives--neither of which I particularly cared for, with just a dash of algorithmic romance thrown in. The writing style is a bit tedious, with LOTS of unnecessary detail, making the book drag and overly long. It could have done with a good trimming of the frills (do we really need another description of a side character's childhood and what they're wearing?) and more focus on the love story, which often takes a backseat. It also has a pretty slow start, taking a while to introduce our male lead to us, and to our female lead.

If you like the style of books like A Special Place for Women or The Hunting Wives (which are popular), then perhaps you will enjoy the style of this book. It's not ad per se, and the premise is interesting if not already been done, but it just wasn't my favorite.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for my eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3 stars - 6/10

This book is so good. As someone who has had experience with dating apps, the premise is very appealing. I really liked the way this book appeals more to modern day dating reality. This couple doesn't meet cute in a coffee shop and aren't friends or rivals. They just don't know each other at all, until they do. While it is a romance novel, there is a lot more to it. It discusses being a woman in coropate america and how to find your self without someone else.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy of this. I ended up listening to a ALC I had of this one.

This was an interesting premise about a program that sets up people to meet their soulmate for a high price. Ursula is the main character, a quirky girl in NYC who has had bad luck with dating. She is paired with Rafael and they forge ahead with their relationship, speeding through the stages of the relationship. I won't spoil the story but they encounter some trouble and must figure out how to navigate.

This was a fun story and I enjoyed listening to it.

Follow @literaturewithalatte for more book reviews!

✨The ARC by Tory Henwood Hoen✨

Genre: Romance
Pages: 352

📚 Can you curate your soulmate? Thirty-five-year-old Ursula Byrne, VP of Strategic Audacity at a branding agency in Manhattan, is successful, witty, whip-smart, and single. She’s tried all the dating apps, and let’s just say: she’s underwhelmed by her options. You’d think that by now someone would have come up with something more bespoke; a way for users to be more tailored about who and what they want in a life partner––how hard could that be?

Enter The Arc: 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.

Ursula is paired with forty-two-year-old lawyer Rafael Banks. From moment one, this feels like the electric, lasting 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.

📝 The concept of the ARC was what had interested me in this book. I thought the plot would be a sci-fi meets romance story which is something I know I would love. However, that’s not really what this turned out to be. The ARC was a romance book with the sci-fi concept in the background.

As for the characters, they just didn’t resonate with me🤷🏻‍♀️

💫Thanks to @netgalley for my ARC💫

3.5/5 stars


The Arc is sort of a combination between women's fiction and romance. However it's quite different from most other contemporary romance reads.

The book is set in New York City. We get both the male and female 3rd person POVs. But at times we are getting both POVs and their thoughts (as well as others' thoughts).

The main female character is 35 year old Ursula. She is amazing. She's very highly motivated and a very successful brand strategist VP.

Rafael is the main male character. He is a lawyer in his early 40s.

The book felt slightly futuristic to me. Ursula and her best friend Issa belong to a wellness club called The Stake. This place was amazing. But the things that they offered were unlike anything that I've ever heard of.

I wondered what the title meant. The Arc is an advanced match-making service. It was really fascinating. And I absolutely loved everything about this.

I really enjoyed the beginning. I loved meeting Ursula and learning about her life and job. The middle fell a bit flat for me as I wanted more.

It's a bit hard to explain why this book is so different from other romance or women's fiction books. It seems like the book is part satire. And the author uses a lot of fancy words. Parts felt a bit highbrow and maybe more like general or literary fiction.

This book was quite interesting and very different. There was something that I wish had been shocking (but it will definitely be surprising to many). Overall I really enjoyed the parts that felt futuristic, I loved Ursula and I thought that the concept of this book was amazing! I just wish that I had been more invested in the middle.

“The Arc” by Tory Henwood Hoen
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Release Date:2/8/22
Genre: Contemporary Romance

While I ended up enjoying the book it took me longer to read it than expected. I struggled to get into some of the book. The last 40% drew me in and I wanted to find out what would happen.

Ursula is a 35 year old independent woman working at a branding marketing agency. She has a good job, great friends, and the perfect cat. She’s missing love.
Rafael is a 42 year old lawyer that loves his life, but is ready to settle down.
Both decide to pay for a relationship solution through a company called ARC. The ARC’s strategy is to have their clients go through a series of text and find their perfect match.
They claim Ursula and Rafael are the perfect match.
When they meet they have instant chemistry, but they also have a sense of pressure to make their relationship work. It seems it should be foulproof with the ARC pairing them, but the ARC’s tactics are never that simple.

This is SUCH a good read! The premise is intriguing - a super-secret company that promises to match clients with the perfect romantic match through an expensive, proprietary, incredibly invasive (and at times creepy) week long process. But this story is so much more than the concept. I was surprised by how richly drawn these characters are - nuanced, conflicted, entirely human - and how quickly they drew me in. The love story matters, but somehow the author also makes their individual lives just as interesting. I don’t want to give anything away because the twists and turns are a huge part of the fun here. I’ll just say: this book is definitely worth your time.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book.

DNF at 11% I really pushed to try to keep going, but the pacing got to me. And I wasn't really getting into the story at all. Thank you for the opportunity to read the book and I apologize for the inconvenience.