A fun read that's reminicent of You've Got Mail! Cute and a little spicy too! It was alight read but had a lot of heart too.

i wasn't the hugest fan of alicia thompson's earlier novel 'love in the time of serial killers,' so i was very pleasantly surprised when i really enjoyed this one!

- hate-to-love, but also a secret online romance? the mix worked really well for me
- discussions of chris’ mental health were handled with extreme care
- LITERALLY NONE OF THE CONFLICT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF THEY JUST TALKED
- unexpectedly loved the baseball?

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Tender, hot!, and truly moving - I had so much fun reading this. It made me love Baseball!

The ‘what has she gotten herself into” and “I’d probably do the same’ moments had me living for what would happen next. The plot was plotting with the hidden identity texting and forced proximity in the workplace. I was living my early 2000’s RomCom dreams with this! And that’s just half the reason I love this book so much.

The other half? I loved Daphne so early on, which I have come to expect from Thompson’s writing. By 10% I am deeply invested in her character's happiness, and Daphne was such a stand-out for me. She has been through it, just ending a marriage that stole her self worth. So of course she thinks she can’t possibly have any lasting impact on anyone.

And Chris, a man who cares so strongly about the people he loves. I heard once that romance is just two idiots who need to stop believing lies about themselves so they can be in love. That is the simple way to explain this story. Daphne believes she isn’t worthy of such notice or care, but Chris wants to care for her. After losing his brother Chris thinks he’s failed at loving people, but Daphne feels so cherished by him, twice. I love how achingly intimate it felt.

Another thing I’ve come to expect from Thompson’s writing is the empathy she is able to transfer between her characters and readers. It is unmatched. This handled the topic of d*ath by s*icide with such grace.

There's just SO much I loved in this. I loved the friendship and ‘locker room talk’ between Randy and Chris, it felt real! And it was so unexpectedly sweet the way they cared for each other. I loved Daphne taking care of herself in small ways, even just doing her hair. That was surprisingly impactful for me and had me cheering her on even more.

And the tension between Daphne and Chris which had my cheeks heating! I was actually physically pining over them! This is the, ahem, hottest!!! book Thompson has written so far. The heat is only matched by how tender it is. Romance at its best.

This book is a home run! A knockout? A very good game! Gimme me a break, I'm new to baseball, but it's a win.

Another home run from Alicia Thompson!! I am full on embracing the new baseball romance books that have released lately and The art of catching feelings is right up there with the best of them!!

This dual POV, heckler turned on air sideline reporter who falls for a major league player suffering from the suicide of his brother brought me to tears, made me laugh, swoon and fall in love with Daphne and Chris!! The mental health rep in this story was excellent!!

I absolutely loved this book even though the miscommunication of the online/texting to IRL catfishing esque plot had me cringing for when the lies would all come crashing down. Highly recommended for fans of books like The prospects by KT Hoffman or Wild Card by Staci Hart. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!!

Steam level: some open door spicy scenes

Another sports romance for the win! I loved the characters and their meet cute and I loved the You’ve Got Mail vibes. This was a little bit of a slow burn and I was disappointed that it took so long for the characters to figure it out but overall this was a fun read.

I enjoyed this book so much. I loved the author’s last book, so I absolutely had to grab her new one. It was everything and more. All the feelings, the fun banter, the lovely characters. The cover is so so perfectly fitting to the story. I would ready anything from this author.

It bother me how much Daphne was dishonest though. It wasn’t fair to Chris that she didn’t tell him the truth, as to who she is. I wish she told him early on. She had so many opportunities.

Delicious, emotional, upbeat romance between a baseball player and the woman who heckled him at a critical moment. The characters are terrific, and they have great chemistry.

I think this book made me like baseball?! I loved it and binged it over the weekend! I was so invested in the characters and the story; I could not put it down! I love this author and adored her last two books! Highly recommend!

This is my third book by Alicia Thompson and all of them are five stars in my opinion! A baseball romance publishing the week of the College World Series — if that wasn’t on purpose, the stars definitely aligned for this one! I was already in my baseball era in reality so listening to this while watching baseball was a real treat! Kristen Sieh knocked it out of the park! (Pun intended) I laughed so much from the banter and Kristen delivered it all flawlessly!

Daphne is getting divorced and the one petty thing she can keep in the settlement are the two tickets to a Major League Baseball game. The only problem is Daphne does NOT follow sports. She tries to follow along but ends up heckling a player from the home team. Chris Kepler is having a rough day so the words that would usually roll off his back hit him right in the feels and he proves that sometimes there is a little crying in baseball. Daphne feels bad, reaches out to him on social media, and he actually responds! They build a rapport but when Daphne gets hired by the team with her identity as the heckler known, she doesn’t know how or when she’ll be able to tell Chris that she’s also the person he’s been talking to online. When he finds out the truth, will it be three strikes, she’s out or a walk off win in the bottom of the ninth?

this one is hard to review - i really enjoyed the writing and the characters, but having that huge lie hanging over most of the story was really difficult for me. the author builds the tension well, but i had a hard time with the female lead because of everything. it just took away a lot of the fun!

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reading copy! I really enjoy Alicia Thompson, and this book had some great elements, but overall I was just too bothered by the catfishing and miscommunication trope in this book to truly enjoy the other elements. Alicia Thompson is great at banter and inner dialogue. She writes lovable and relatable characters. But with how long the catfishing went on - and this was flat out catfishing - I was just too bothered, leaving me mostly annoyed at the FMC Daphne. Yes, she had her reasons, but it was not good enough and distracted from their very sweet romance. I just feel like these characters could have shined without that plot point, but I am not the writer. Also, this book took me a long time to read, and though I have stuff going on in my life, this also shows me it wasn’t one of her best if I was struggling to finish it. To be clear, Thompson’s writing is great and I do recommend this book for fans of her, but again, TOO MUCH CATFISHING.

Despite being a baseball hater, I loved this book! I could deeply relate to Daphne in all her thoughts and choices, and I really loved Chris' vulnerability with her as both Duckie and Daphne. This is a great bingeable summer romance!

I loved this book so much! The pen pal "You've Got Mail" aspect was very fun and their banter over text and in person was fantastic. I enjoyed the baseball aspects of the book and that we got to see some play. Daphne and Chris had amazing chemistry and both characters were likable while also being complex. The writing was witty and also covered some heavier topics. I am absolutely obsessed with this book!

This was great! I have enjoyed everything I’ve read by Alicia Thompson, so I was happy to get my hands on this ARC (even though I totally messed up my deadlines and read it a bit later than I meant to!)
I loved the humor and the lightheartedness that meshed with some heavier themes. I love when romcoms have something beyond the surface and I felt like Daphne and Chris truly connected before actually having a physical relationship. I loved that it was both light and heavy at the same time.
The miscommunication thing can drive people crazy, but I feel like the conflict worked and I enjoyed watching it all unfold. I wondered how it would all go down and I was super engrossed. The characters were likable and I flew through this book. I highly recommend it and I can’t wait to read more from the author because I’m clearly a fan at this point!

Daphne is freshly divorced and while not a fan of baseball, goes to a game and has a few too many beers, eventually heckling one of the players, Chris, with a Winnie the Pooh line…and he ends up crying. She’s now the viral heckler and to smooth things over, she’s hired by the team to interview Chris. But what no one realizes is that she’s also behind the anonymous account named after her nickname Duckie, developing a connection with Chris through their messages. A tricky situation that can easily strike out, proving there *is* crying in baseball.
Some parts of the story I really loved (gave me big A Cinderella Story vibes with the texting/mystery) but I did struggle with some of the disjointedness between the Duckie period and Daphne period of Chris’s life, not to mention the heavy topics (TW: suicide) that were kind of passed over. Would’ve liked to learn more about Chris and his brother and why no one seemed to know about his death.
Thank you to Berkley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Art of Catching Feelings is the story of a woman at a baseball game (Daphne), a few drinks in, who heckles a player in a slump (Chris). It turns into a thing so she attempts to apologize over instagram but fails to explain she is the heckler so they just start chatting. Yup, you can see where this is going…. Because oh yeah, she gets hired by his team and he doesn’t realize she is the same person he has been texting. Let me be clear, I hate miscommunication and stories centered around people not being open. But something about this story really struck a chord with me. Chris’s slump was due to a recent tragedy and his mental health was in shambles. Daphne was trying to regain her footing after a divorce. The two of them were just inherently likable, their banter was off the charts and they just felt like real people caught in this awkward situation. And the baseball bits were fun and not over the top and made for a perfect sports romance. All in all, it was a sweet summer romance that I flew through and really enjoyed.

⚾️ The Art of Catching Feelings ⚾️
Alicia Thompson
#BerkleyPartner

I was so excited to read this one! I haven’t read a lot of baseball romance and the concept of the heckler and the heckled coming together sounded fun! I really enjoyed this one. I know that the secret identity and lying is going to cause issue for some of you, but it did give me some You’ve Got Mail type vibes….I mean I wish she would have told him sooner than she does. The way this all wrapped up is what made me more ok with it in the end and oh the angst and spice was HOT I liked the texting conversations that happen between Daphne/Duckie and Chris. Overall, this is a great twist on a baseball, secret identity, workplace romance that I think a lot of you would enjoy!

After drunkenly heckling a baseball player whose emotional reaction goes viral, Daphne reaches out to apologize on Instagram, sparking a friendship that evolves into a friends-with-benefits relationship, complicated by her new job with the team and her uncertainty about revealing her identity.

Read if you vibe with….
⚾️ Baseball Romance
🤫 Secret Identity
💬 Texting
🎤 Workplace Romance
❣️ Friends with Benefits
🔥 Slow Burn
💞Dual POV

Daphne Brink is not a baseball fan at all, but she ends up at a Carolina Battery game after signing divorce papers. After having a few drinks, she gets into the spirit of the game and heckles one of the players, literally driving him to tears.

Chris Kepler can’t believe he became emotional over a fan’s taunts. That never happened before, but he’s in a pretty bad state. He’s grieving and not playing the best baseball. When a fan named Duckie sends him a text message empathizing with him, he is quite receptive and begins a friendship with her. The unique thing is that the friendship is strictly through text messages, so he never comes face to face with her.

Meanwhile, Daphne gets a job with the baseball team. What Chris doesn’t know is Duckie and Daphne are one and the same person. What’s going to happen when the truth comes out?

I’m a huge baseball fan so I couldn’t resist this one. I’m always looking for some good fiction set to the backdrop of baseball. This is a good, solid romance, although I thought it took a bit too long for the truth to come out.

There were a few steamy love scenes. I was afraid Chris and Daphne’s chemistry would melt my e-reader. I liked both characters very much, even when I wanted to shake Daphne into coming clean with Chris.

The supporting characters were all portrayed realistically. I cared about them almost as much as I cared about the main characters. I could even see a sequel in the making.

This is the first book I've read by this author, but I'll be checking out her backlist. Overall, a hot romance with emotional characters you can truly care about.





FTC Disclosure: I voluntarily reviewed a free Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This book is a wonderful delight. You can feel the conflict coming a mile away but it doesn't really matter because you've fallen in love with these characters and want everything to work out for them. Daphne makes some really terrible choices but always in the name of saving someone she loves pain or putting herself first for once in her life. I think everyone is going to fall in love with Chris. This book was so much fun from start to finish and I hope everyone gets a chance to check it out!

Many thanks to Berkley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Read If You Like:

-Hidden Identity
-Mental Health Representation
-Sports Romance
-Friends w/Benefits
-Slow Burn
-Dual POV
-Workplace Romance-

The Art of Catching Feelings is a cute yet emotional romance following Chris, a struggling baseball player, and Daphne his one-time heckler. The tension between these two was SO GOOD!
I loved Chris and Daphne together but also loved them on their own. Felt very real in a sense like you know they are lasting past the book! Such a good read