Caitlin (The Love Librarian)'s Reviews > The Art of Catching Feelings

A top read of 2024! Daphne and Chris’ love was so organic, and the author’s writing was easy to read. And my mind usually can’t process third person unless I really love the book, but I ate this up!

Daphne and Chris' love story as an unorthodox start. Daphne and her bestie are at a baseball game, drunk to forget about her finalized divorce. She's not a sports girl, but had the tickets and nothing else to do. A few drinks and some animated fans leads Daphne to try her hand at heckling one of the players. Turns out she heckles Chris, one of the home team players, and clearly what she said struck a nerve because it makes him emotional.

Given that Chris didn't get a great look at Daphne, she thinks the best way to appease her guilt is to apologize via Instagram DMs, to which Chris responds. The only catch? Somehow Daphne forgot to mention she herself was the heckler, and we can all guess where this is going to go. Especially when Daphne starts working with the journalism/behind the scenes team, where Chris is not a fan of in-person Daphne once he realizes she's the heckler.

I'm normally not a fan of hidden identity storylines, but this one made it work, in that we got to see two people essentially fall in love with each other twice. One on hand, we have them anonymously in the DMs, and in the other we have the dislike to lovers storyline in real life. Their journey was the epitome of love can spring from anywhere, especially when you realize that Daphne has brought Chris out of his shell in a way that he hadn't been able to do since he experienced a recent loss. Daphne was able to connect with someone who accepted her for who she is, despite how shaken her confidence was after being married to her douchebag of an ex-husband.

This was one of those romances that snuck up on me. It highlighted Daphne and Chris' connections, without there being a bunch of drama/side plots to distract the reader. I am definitely interested in reading more from this author, because this book was just so pleasant and warm to read!