Harding's potboiler is about the "sugar bowl," a lifestyle in which a young girl thinks herself capable of anything to ensure her survival in New York. What begins with 20-something Natalie Murphy attempting to keep it "fun and flirty" with older, more powerful wealthy men "who have a desire to pay for it" ends with her frantically phoning her father, Andrew Murphy, to tell him that she's killed someone. Working in a bar to pay the rent while attending the New York School of Visual Arts, Natalie has spent more than two years in the city after traveling all the way from Blaine, Washington, where Andrew, prone to angry outbursts, left a "difficult marriage." While Nat resented her father's desertion, she admits that she also envied it. Now she's just "one small drop in an ocean of people carving out a life in the world's greatest city."

Natalie meets Ava and becomes obsessed with her friend's fancy clothes, bags and designer lashes. Ava convinces Natalie to become a "sugar baby"--to get paid for her time, to go on dates with rich successful men. ("I look pretty. I flirt, listen to them talk about their work... Just for a drink. Just for a coffee. It's called a pay-per-meet.") At first, Natalie is hesitant. Even without sex, it sounds tawdry, exploitative, "uncomfortably close to prostitution." Yet Ava convinces Natalie that getting paid for it is empowering.

The Arrangement explores the messiness of relationships and the toxic twist that ultimately lands Natalie in a catastrophic relationship with an older, wealthier man. Classifying himself divorced, Gabe Turnmill tries to convince himself that Natalie is not going to fall in love with him and threaten his marriage or harm his "impeccable reputation." Girls have given Gabe the attention, the adoration, the sex he needs, but then he has quickly grown tired of them and they have disappeared. But in a cozy Midtown bar, an increasingly drunk Natalie creates a new "fission of desire" in Gabe. Gabe knows she's young (she's only a few years older than his daughter), but rather than repelling him, this idea seems to excite him. Perhaps Sugar Daddies can be kind, respectable, even normal. Yet it feels awkward to think of Gabe as a family man, a father. Gabe elicits an inevitable walk of shame, Natalie's roommate's judging with sneers and whispers, their disapproving glances.

The book is held together by the tortured nature of Natalie and Gabe's relationship. the narrative plays much better when it's part of Natalie's dizzying, experiential journey versus through the eyes of manipulative Gabe. When she melts into his arms, Gabe becomes her hero, even her savior or "her white knight." Gabe is so attractive and charming and attentive. Natalie knows the blossoming relationship "is debauched," but she finds herself wanting to see Gabe again, wanting to kiss him again.

Like her previous work, Harding's prose has a dreamy flow well- suited to Gabe and Natalie's intense affair. My favorite chapters are the ones that capture the early moments of their courtship, beginning with their "arrangement" to meet in the East Village. That hints at their personalities and conversations while offering satisfyingly frustrating glimpses of two desperate, lonely people. Soon enough, Natalie begins to feel a subtle chill, a "frisson of dread." Some sixth sense, an instinct for self-preservation, whirls Natalie around to scan the streets. Things become less convincing with Natalie's inevitable obsession featuring love and hate as two sides of the same coin. As Natalie becomes increasingly unhinged, she grows more willing to use Gabe's daughter, Violet, to destroy Gabe's family. The salacious, degrading charges against her are reflective of the fact that Natalie has sold herself to a rich man. When Gabe no longer wants her, the shame and self-hatred threaten to overwhelm her. While Violet and Gabe's wife, Celeste, are important to the plot--especially when Celeste formulates her master plan--the meat of the story really begins and ends with Gabe and Natalie's "arrangement."

As the weight of the memory presses on her chest, Natalie's present story line is in danger of being overshadowed by the events of her past. The book's most contemporary scenes existing primarily as an entrée to Natalie's older memories: a series of vignettes strung loosely together, moments from which the rest seem to hang and tied together by the mistakes from which a girl like Natalie may never, ever fully recover.