Title: The Art of Catching Feelings
Author: Alicia Thompson
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: June 18, 2024
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:
A professional baseball player and his heckler prove that true love is worth going to bat for.
Daphne Brink doesn’t follow baseball, but watching “America’s Snoozefest” certainly beats sitting at home in the days after she signs her divorce papers. After one too many ballpark beers, she heckles Carolina Battery player Chris Kepler, who quickly proves there might actually be a little crying in baseball. Horrified, Daphne reaches out to Chris on social media to apologize . . . but forgets to identify herself as his heckler in her message.
Chris doesn’t usually respond to random fans on social media, but he’s grieving and fragile after an emotionally turbulent few months. When a DM from “Duckie” catches his eye, he impulsively messages back. Duckie is sweet, funny, and seems to understand him in a way no one else does.
Daphne isn’t sure how much longer she can keep lying to Chris, especially as she starts working with the team in real life and their feelings for each other deepen. When he finds out the truth, will it be three strikes, she’s out?
Let me get this out of the way to start with: I am not a baseball fan. I’ve watched my share of games, but I don’t seek them out, and if pushed, would probably agree with Daphne’s opinion (America’s Snoozefest). So I certainly started this baseball-themed romance with, oh, just a smidge of hesitation… but I needn’t have worried. Alicia Thompson hits it out of the park with The Art of Catching Feelings! (Sorry, I’ll try to avoid indulging in baseball puns from here on out…)
You’re the book I want to reread. For the rest of my life.
Have more romantic words ever been spoken?
In The Art of Catching Feelings, newly divorced Daphne — who couldn’t care less about baseball — attends a home team game courtesy of her brother, who works for the team. And because the seats are so good, when Daphne (very drunk) decides to get into the spirit of things by heckling a player, her words hit her target very directly. Not only does the heckled player not laugh it off, he seems to be injured by her words to the point of tears. The moment goes viral, of course, and while he is subjected to an awful lot of public criticism (mainly by trolls), she’s also considered a villain. Who does that to a player on their own home team?
Once Daphne sobers up, she’s horrified by what she’s done, and impulsively DMs the player, Chris Kepler. Chris is usually a great hitter and rock solid at third base, but he’s not having a great season. Daphne works on her apology draft, but somehow in copying and pasting it into the DM, the piece where she identifies herself as the heckler gets deleted. What Chris actually receives is a very nice message from a person known as Duckie, who’s sorry for what he experienced and offers care and concern. He responds back, and soon, the two are exchanging messages that grown deeper and more personal.
Unfortunately for Daphne, her professional life is about to intersect with Chris’s, as she’s asked to step in as a sideline reporter to temporarily replace her sister-in-law who has to take an earlier-than-expected pregnancy leave. At first, having Chris’s heckler step in as a reporter seems like a publicity gimmick, but she’s actually good at this, and soon she and Chris develop a tentative friendship… all the while, continuing her DM relationship with him under her online ID.
The closer she and Chris get in real life, the deeper the hole she’s dug for herself becomes. She knows she needs to be honest with Chris, but can’t see any way to do so without losing him forever. And as their feelings deepen beyond friendship, she really can’t stand the idea of losing him.
The Art of Catching Feelings conveys this dilemma with sensitivity and emotion, while also showing the chemistry and connection between Daphne and Chris. It’s clear from the start that she needs to come clean and set the record straight — but we spend enough time in her head to understand all of her fears and what’s at stake. We may not approve of her decision-making, but we can at least sympathize.
Chris is a lovely character, laser-focused on baseball but dealing with a terribly painful loss that he’s kept hidden from his team until now. He thinks if he pushes past it, he’ll make it through the season, but he’s fraying at the edges and his emotions are raw. Getting to know Duckie is a huge step forward for him in terms of opening up, but the hurt he feels when she ends their connection sets him back quite a ways… until he starts getting closer to Daphne. Confusing, right? He doesn’t know that he’s ended up falling twice for the same person.
This book is such a joy to read, even when things are difficult. The connection between Daphne and Chris is apparent right from their start, and their communication is full of both silly banter and meaningful sharing. Of course we readers know that Daphne is making a huge mistake by not owning up to her true identity, but as she wonders each time she thinks about their situation, if she’d done things differently, would they have ended up connecting the way they did?
Chris’s loss is handled sensitively, as is Daphne’s divorce and the pain associated with her unsuccessful marriage. The author provides content warnings at the start of the book, so the information is easily available for those who prefer to know in advance.
In terms of Chris and Daphne’s chemistry, the sex scenes in The Art of Catching Feelings are explicit (open door). There’s nothing left to the imagination. Personally, I’m tend to prefer these scenes more on the implied side — door slightly ajar or a nice gauzy curtain in between in the action and the reader — but given how much I liked these two characters, it didn’t end up bothering me.
Sure, a couple of elements feel less than completely believable — especially Daphne getting drafted for the reporter role based on her family connection and the fact that she’d been a communications major in college. She ends up growing into it, but it’s a very silly plot contrivance that we just have to accept and roll with.
On the plus side, I love how much of a reader Daphne is, and over the course of their relationship, she and Chris discuss some of their more foundational books, including The Phantom Tollbooth, Catch-22, and Mandy (the lovely children’s book by Julie Andrews). Maybe that’s a piece of why I liked the characters so much — their book talk absolutely made my heart sing.
I’ll be honest — if I’d come across a book with this cover by an author I didn’t know, I’d probably skip right by it. However, I read and loved Alicia Thompson’s two previous novels (Love in the Time of Serial Killers and With Love, from Cold World), so I knew I’d be in for a treat… despite the focus on baseball.
The Art of Catching Feelings is engaging, emotional, and funny, and its main characters are two good-hearted people stumbling their way toward one another. This is a feel-good, absorbing read — a perfect choice for when you want to curl up and get lost in a good book.
Bookshelf Fantasies 
I’m with you, I’m not really a fan of baseball. Though the snacks at a game are usually good. ;D But I did really love Alicia Thompson’s previous two novels, which means I’m very excited to read this one, too.
Haha, yay for baseball snacks! I couldn’t even tell you when the last time was that I went to a ball game… but it’s probably been decades! It’s funny how even when it’s a topic I don’t care about, I’ll still pick up a book if it’s by an author I have confidence in. Hope you enjoy it too!
I’m also not a baseball fan and this doesn’t look like something I would usually gravitate toward, but it sounds really cute!
It was lots of fun… despite being about baseball!
I’m not a baseball fan either but I’ve read some really good books with baseball in them, so I’d definitely try this. I love when characters dig deep holes and can’t get out, lol, it’s so tense and entertaining!
I agree, I was getting so tense waiting for the blow up that just had to happen once the secrets come out! This is actually the 2nd book I’ve read this year where people who had an online or written correspondence later meet, and only one of them knows the truth — both times, I could kind of understand the secrecy, but still was practically yelling at the characters that this would not end well!