Lasting love is in the details. It's time to be more particular.

35-year-old Ursula Byrne is successful, witty, smart, and single. She's tried all the dating apps, and let's just say: she's underwhelmed by her options.

Enter The Arc: a highly secretive, super-sophisticated matchmaking service that relies on a complex series of emotional, psychological and physiological assessments. The price tag is high, the promise ambitious- you get one match, and one match only. Because one is all you need for a partnership that will go the distance.

Ursula is paired with 42-year-old lawyer Rafael Banks, and from the start, 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 question The Arc's legitimacy.

After all, the arc of a relationship is never predictable ... even when it's fully optimized. Or is it?

 

Tory Henwood Hoen is an American-Canadian writer who lives in Brooklyn. She has worked as a journalist, content creator, and brand director in New York and Paris. She graduated from Brown University, and The Arc is her first novel.