The Art of Catching Feelings, a standalone sports romance by Alicia Thompson, is just the right balance of baseball, contemporary romance, working through personal trauma, and steamy romance. Romance isn’t set in a vacuum, and this novel encapsulates that idea exactly right with conflicts and interactions that are just as important in the story as the development of the relationship between Daphne and Chris. It is wholesome, emotional, and a definite recommendation to your romance book reads.

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?

Content warning: The Art of Catching Feelings contains off-page suicide, off-page divorce, and the on-page processing of these events. If you are sensitive to these topics, I recommend you leave this book to the side for a while until you are comfortable with it or leaving it for someone else.

There’s a seriousness from the beginning that makes this novel feel less comical, less like a rom-com that I found myself wanting to write it as above. It isn’t one, though there are moments between the characters that may make you laugh. Instead, the tone set is one of uncertainty from coming out of the other side of something big, something life-changing, It sets the scene well for the first interaction between Daphne and Chris, and creates a shadow in the corner that hangs over Daphne over the novel, providing amazing internal conflict that gets the tension rising and means things are all sorts of tricky and difficult to navigate. It works well, but more importantly, it feels right for the subject matters at hand. Divorce can be a very heavy topic for some, and suicide is undoubtedly a heavy topic. In The Art of Catching Feelings, these topics don’t feel gimmicky or like they were used for attention. The perspectives feel authentic and real, and the characters feel like true interpretations of people who have gone through and are still going through these things.

I liked the romance. It was light, easy to read and easy to follow. There wasn’t any big dramatics or public revelations that felt like the tension was overflowing and the plot had exploded. It all felt calm, with soft rising and falling tension, and the climax was foreseen but the delivery was great. I like picking up a romance like this where the drama isn’t popping off like fireworks. I like the slow, sensible actions, the processing of emotions and the distance given between two adults. I like the owning up to mistakes, the admittance of wrongs, and the fact that one person’s intentions and feelings don’t outweigh and undermine the other’s. This things between Daphne and Chris feels like a mature relationship, and it was nice to read a romance without deviating from that maturity.

The Art of Catching Feelings is a perfect afternoon read, whether its in the warmer months or the colder ones, a busy time or a few weeks of freedom and relaxation. It’s the kind of book that doesn’t need a specific time of year to be enjoyed – it can just be enjoying. I definitely recommend you romance readers out there give it a go, especially if you are the kind of reader who wants only a little bit of spice in their contemporary romance.