In a world rife with shiny new dating apps, how far is too far to go to find the one without having to suffer through dozens, if not hundreds, of bad dates? That's the question Tony Henwood Hoen poses in her debut novel, The Arc, in which the eponymous Arc promises clients just one perfect romantic match--in exchange for a week of time spent plumbing their physical and emotional depths and a $50,000 fee.
Ursula Byrne is crushing it at her job as v-p of strategic audacity at a branding agency in Manhattan that fills her bank account but not her soul. Woefully single, she's tired of her dating options and about ready to embrace life as a single lady with a cat when she is introduced to the Arc, whose website reads: "Lasting love is in the details. It's time to be more particular." Somewhere between skeptical and optimistic, Ursula signs up. When she's matched with Rafael Banks a few weeks later, it feels too good to be true.
Their magical first date doesn't happen until more than 100 pages into The Arc, during which readers have learned much about Ursula and nothing about Rafael. While this pacing feels uneven at first, it starts to feel more deliberate as the new couple's relationship takes off. The Arc is a romance novel, but even more so a story of self-discovery and womanhood, of Ursula coming into her own both as an individual and as one half of a perfectly happy couple. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer