Sarah's Reviews > The Art of Catching Feelings

If I had realized this was from the same author as With Love, From Cold World - a book that I liked elements of but disliked the characters and their miscommunication so much that I still get disgruntled thinking about it - I don't think I would have bothered to read this one, no matter how highly recommended it came.

Thompson creates great contemporary vibes in her stories, writes solid dialogue/banter, writes characters who feel grounded in this real world and who talk the way real people talk, and she also writes really good, tender sex scenes. But when you end up disliking 50% of the couple you're supposed to be rooting for, that really puts a damper on the enjoyment.

Here are some assorted thoughts as to why this didn't work for me.

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- The entire premise of this book is that Daphne develops an anonymous DM/text relationship with Chris after she messages him after heckling him to apologize, but then realizes she failed to actually apologize/identify herself at any point. Feelings ensue, but SURPRISE she also now has fallen face-first into working with the team, where she STILL fails to identify herself and starts a relationship that way, too. And like, all of this is clear from the description of the book, but what is not clear is that the deception goes on for SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT OF THE BOOK. She deceives him for SO LONG because she's afraid/it's awkward/she doesn't know how to tell the truth when she's lied about so much for so many months. I could have accepted this level of silly miscommunication/failure to communicate if it hadn't been THE ONLY CONLFICT in the whole book. What would have been more interesting - Daphne hand-wringing for the entire book about why she couldn't possibly tell the truth now but otherwise continuing on as normal, or the truth coming out earlier and having to see them actually work through their problems to rebuild the trust needed for a relationship? See them actually learning to trust each other? See Daphne actually showing via actions not just words that she wants to rebuild his trust in her? Instead of just handwaving it away with "if you still love her go get her back" stuff. Seriously, this book could have ended at the 80% mark when Chris leaves after she finally ACCIDENTALLY tells the truth, and I would have been happy. Chris is far too sweet and vulnerable to have been treated like this.
- I understand that romance novels are wish fulfilment, and that "oops I found myself working for the baseball team and OOPS one of the players likes me and OOPS now we're in love" is fairly normal wish fulfilment. But. Like. I don't know. As someone who spent somewhere around 10 years covering hockey as a freelancer, including interviewing players, coaches, etc., after games - the idea of ANY of this happening at all just makes me want to have a tantrum about how hard women have to work to be taken seriously in this industry and to NOT be seen as people who just are there to bang the players, and then Daphne goes and gets this sideline reporter job WHICH SHE IS NOT QUALIFIED FOR and then PROCEEDS TO BANG A PLAYER, like, GIRL. GIRL!!! I get the wish fulfilment aspect of it!! I do! This is also probably why I can't read office romances because as an HR professional I'm like THAT IS NOT HOW THE REAL WORLD WORKS, PLEASE STOP BANGING YOUR HOT BILLIONAIRE BOSS or whatever.
- I am somewhat concerned by Thompson's ability to write female main characters who I just cannot get behind. I WANTED to like Daphne, there was so much about her that I found relatable - married/divorced young, got a cat because she was lonely, feelings of inadequacy/never quite being enough, bookish, awkward - and honestly, like, even the failure to fess up to the deception feels relatable, like you have gotten yourself into a PICKLE and it IS hard to do the right thing and OF COURSE you're going to worry about ruining everything. But it was SO HARD to be on her side because there were SO MANY OPPORTUNITIES to do the right thing and she just never did it! Their entire relationship wasn't entered into in good faith, and I just don't know how you can go on to have a successful relationship with someone who spent so long deceiving you.
- Everyone in this book sucked except for Chris, and Milo the cat.
- AND ANOTHER THING (yes I am coming back hours later to add this), I don't know how you expect me to believe that not a single person knew about Chris's brother's death. Like, was there a public obituary of any kind? Did it say something like "Tim Kepler, survived by his father, Name, and brother Chris..."? Then some baseball fan or reporter who has the right search alert set up is going to get a notification. Hockey people will dig up the weirdest most obscured things online about players, and I can't imagine baseball fans are somehow more normal. I get that HE doesn't want to talk about it but I can't see a way that no one would have found out that his brother had passed.
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I understand that getting mad at a book for having a premise you don't like, when the premise is clearly disclosed in the summary, is kind of like being mad your burger has pickles on it when it was clearly advertised as YES PICKLES NO EXCEPTIONS or whatever. But oh wow did I not expect the premise to be THIS FRUSTRATING.