The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson 
Published by Berkley Romance on June 18, 2024
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 384
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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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?
Not my favorite Alicia Thompson story.
Daphne Brinks doesn’t know much about baseball. The only reason she is at the game is because her ex-husband all but insisted she give him her ticket. That’s how she ends up drunk and joining her neighbor in heckling the players, except it probably isn’t in good taste to heckle the home team. Worst of all, her ridiculous statement makes the next batter cry.
Daphne tries to apologize and after a brief but pleasant text conversation with Chris Kepler, she realizes that she accidentally deleted the part where she told him that she was the heckler. It should be fine, at least she apologized but when Chris texts again and again, they start to build a texting friendship. Two lonely people, Daphne and Chris are building a comfortable relationship and again, it shouldn’t hurt anyone to keep her identity a secret, right?
When her sister in law, the Battery’s sideline reporter, ends up on a medical leave, she wants Daphne to take her place. Daphne agrees. At first, her IRL interactions with Chris are tainted by their first failed interaction but after apologizing to his face, Chris agrees to move on from that day.
Chris also feels, after his text interactions with his mystery friend, that he needs to stop hiding from the world. When she doesn’t agree to meet with him in person, he is disappointed but then Chris start spending more and time with Daphe. This leaves Chris conflicted about his growing feelings both for Daphne and for his texting friend, never knowing they were one and the same.
THOUGHTS:
I found my whole experience with this story overshadowed by dread as the more we get to know Chris the more we know he is not going to react well when he finds out that Daphne and his friend are one and the same person. There were things he confessed to his texting friend that he wasn’t ready to tell Daphne, including the death of his brother which as caused his spiraling and his crying when she taunted him. Chris wants to meet his friend in real life but she says no and she starts withdrawing from their friendship, which again makes Chris pretty sad. Of course, this is because Daphne and Chris are spending so much time together at this point.
I was frustrated every time there was that perfect opening where she should confess that she is the text friend and she passes it up. Then there would be a perfect bonding moment between them and instead of being happy, the dread would grow because I knew the hurt would be that much greater when the betrayal finally hit.
I enjoyed the other stories by Alicia Thompson but these were not my favorite characters.
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