The Art of Catching Feelings

Description

A professional baseball player and his heckler prove that true love is worth going to bat for in the next swoony romance by USA Today bestselling author Alicia Thompson.

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?”Unfailingly sweet and surprisingly sexy at the same time, The Art of Catching Feelings is a home run for Alicia Thompson.”—Jodi Picoult, #1 NYT bestselling author of Mad Honey and Wish You Were Here

“I’m an Alicia Thompson fan first and a human second, and The Art of Catching Feelings is a shining example of why. Chris and Daphne’s achingly vulnerable, hot slide into love was so masterfully crafted with intimacy and care that I was tempted to go right back to the first page once I finished (fine, and maybe I did). With her signature effortless prose and deeply insightful musings on life and love, this is Alicia Thompson at the top of her already spectacular game.”—Jessica Joyce, USA Today Bestselling author of You, with a View

“A soft and sexy riff on You’ve Got Mail, The Art of Catching Feelings delivers a beautifully layered look at how intimacy blooms on and offline. I savored the bittersweetness of Alicia Thompson’s expertly deployed angst. Whether or not you’re a baseball fan, you’ll find yourself rooting for Daphne and Chris from the moment of their one-of-a-kind meet-cute.”—Rosie Danan, USA Today bestselling author of Do Your Worst

“Reading an Alicia Thompson book always feels like watching the most elegant of baseball plays—the kind of utter mastery that seems, deceptively, like ease. Explosive, subtle, and quick-witted all at once, Alicia’s prose is as sharp as her characters are human, and Chris and Daphne’s romance is a stunning portrayal of finding genuine joy and partnership at our lowest points. I didn’t think it was possible to love baseball more than I already did, but The Art of Catching Feelings manages to capture everything that makes this sport and this genre special: flawlessly executed fundamentals, an impeccable balance of tension and release, and breath-stealing moments that stick in your chest long after the game, or book, ends.”—KT Hoffman, author of The Prospects

“On the leaderboard of the handsome, sad baseball men of fiction, Chris Kepler would rank near the very top. Alicia has such a gift for writing characters who are hilarious, thorny, (horny), and fully human — which is also really what baseball’s about. Feelings is a love letter to the game and the patience and transitions it demands, as well as a love story between characters learning how to find themselves as they find one another. It’s as steamy as a day game in August and as exciting as the final out of a world championship. In short, I loved it.”—KD Casey, author of the Unwritten Rules seriesAlicia Thompson is a writer, reader, and lover of baseball. She has never caught a foul ball but she was once two seats down from a Jumbotron proposal and that has to count for something. She’s currently taking in home games in sunny Central Florida with her husband, two children, and a cat named Luna who has yet to hit for the cycle (aka has not escaped out of every door in a single day, although with the numbers she’s been putting up . . .)US