Nice Catching You

By: Ryan Taylor, Joshua Harwood

Narrated by: Nick J. Russo

Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

What happens when the number-one college hockey star in the country falls in love - with a man?

Nick Johnson, a top prospect for a pro hockey team, has a secret: He’s gay. Tired of living in the closet for the sport he loves, he sees no way out.

Jacob Meyer’s string of bad boyfriends left him cynical about love. Instead, he focuses on his studies as a third-year law student. With a new job waiting for him, he’s eager to graduate and move on.

On a school-sponsored trip, Nick and Jacob meet in a most unexpected way. When Nick tells Jacob his secret, they decide to hang out, just as friends. But their attraction is too strong to ignore, and they soon begin dating.

Since Nick is a big man on campus, it doesn’t take long for people to notice his attachment to Jacob. All hell breaks loose when the relationship gets out. As the national media descends, university officials try to figure out how to solve their “problem”.

Their efforts divide Nick’s team, inflame fans, and put Nick and Jacob’s futures in jeopardy. Will the men be able to survive a plot to destroy them without derailing both their careers?

Nice Catching You is an out-for-you romance featuring a lot of love, exciting hockey, and a beautiful holiday. There’s also plenty of steam and a very happy ending.

©2020 Ryan Taylor & Joshua Harwood (P)2024 Ryan Taylor & Joshua Harwood

Cute but a bit too unbelievable

Maybe it’s because I’m not a huge fan of the “instant love” trope but everything happened way too quick in this. The meet cute for the MMC’s was adorable then it got a little repetitive and boring. Then it got interesting, which was dragged out until the end. But proposing after like 3 months?! Come on 😅 not sure if I want to continue with the series but we’ll see. Overall sweet fluffy story if you like the instant love trope. There really isn’t too much hockey either, only two games are talked about…

Very entertaining

What a great story. Love the sports romances? this is one for sure. one of the best stories I have listened to in a long time. Nick Russo did an amazing job bringing this book and its characters to life. really good narrating. well worth the credit and your time to listen.

Chairman and LawNerd

I enjoyed listening to this story, although at times Jacob playing the Devil’s Advocate was frustrating to listen.

This one is low angst story, hockey star falls for a law student, against all odds with a good HEA.

So cute

Jacob and Nick are such a cute couple. Nick J Russo nailed the narration. I thoroughly enjoyed the low angst story!

Amazing love story!

I don't know if there is anything that I didn't love! The story was adorable and I sure hope that they will publish more in the series! I guess I will be going on an audiobook shopping spree and get the rest of the series!
My favorite thing is how the authors created the emotional intimacy between Nick and Jacob. Even though it was built over only 2 weeks, it just made sense! Hope many more books will be coming in the series! There are only 4 now.

Sweet but characters too perfect

Sweet and predictable story, and sometimes that's okay but the characters were just too perfect and without flaws, which made it tooooo sweet at times Had a hard time keeping my interest.

A Great Story Filled With Heart

OMG I loved this story sooooo much. It really had everything: romance, heat, friendship, enemies, and sports. So of course the heart of the story was Nick and Jacob’s romance. I loved their development, it was pretty much love at first catch but still they took so time with it and it didn’t feel rushed despite it being a whirlwind romance. I really liked the development of some of the hockey team as well, some that started out that I didn’t think I was going to like ended up growing into great characters who had Nick’s and then Jacob’s backs. I found the administration in the school interesting as well, how they portrayed someone in power actions being the entire opposite of the words they stood for previously. There were quit a few foes in this story and some of them I still don’t quite get the motivation of, but I guess that is true in life sometimes too. The ending was perfection for me, it was the perfect HEA romance novel ending. I also really enjoy the way the Epilogue was done as if Nick was not talking directly to the reader rather than is reading the story taking place from afar. I think that was a great choice. I also think the narrators did an excellent job portraying Nick and Jacob, and bringing the story and their world to life. I look forward to reading this author again.

Early book reinvigorated by Nick Russo's narration

Ryan Taylor and Joshua Harwood’s Nice Catching You is an older title, published back in October of 2020, and lives in the same universe as some of the more recent titles you may have read, for example, Fire in the Ice and the lovely romance Ice Angels which was released in October 2021. It is the first book in this universe of interconnected standalones, and it is reinvigorated through Nick J. Russo’s vocal performance on the recently released Nice Catching You audiobook.

While the authors do a nice job of making these books accessible on their own or even taken out of order (except The New Next One, which must be read after reading Nice Catching You), my view is that reading them in order enhances the enjoyment of them. The connection between the characters is pretty tight, and the plots refer back to prior characters and events. The greater context makes the stories much more fulfilling.

Each book focuses not just on the romance of the featured couple but how that romance develops within the real-world challenges of coming out or existing as an openly gay man in a competitive, traditionally homophobic sport. The books vary on how those two aspects are balanced. Nice Catching You leans heavily towards the latter. It focuses less on Nick and Jacob falling in love, instead dwelling more on the perils and controversy surrounding Nick’s coming out in order to love Jacob openly. We see how they navigate the hostility, threatened violence, and sinister machinations of the press and the hockey powers that be in light of the revelation about Nick’s sexuality and his relationship with Jacob.

Nice Catching You displays the authors’ solid writing skills. However, having read the later books first, this book clearly is a starting point for the authors’ increasingly refined and matured craft. In their later stories, they are particularly adept at creating multi-dimensional, endearing characters and rooting them in intriguing, plausible situations. However, in this book, that complexity is not as evident.

The structure of Nice Catching You makes more sense if viewed as a Young Adult title. I’m not sure if it was billed as YA or not, but it certainly feels like one (but for the explicit sex scenes) because the story dwells in the shallows rather than plumbing the depths of the characters or any of the substantial issues touched upon across the narrative. The plot lacks the nuance seen in the authors’ later titles, predictably unfurling events and driving the plot forward using “cookie-cutter” characters (e.g., the viciously homophobic teammates, the vindictive ex-boyfriend, the slighted then redeemed former best friend, the enraged coach, etc.)

The story is enjoyable for what it is, and if read with the YA expectation, you won’t be disappointed. Mr. Russo’s narration of the story helps. He’s a very skilled narrator who invests in his vocal performances, as is evident in the Nice Catching You audiobook. He adds the most value by giving dimension to the characters through his vocal intonations and emotional investment. A quicker pace would have been preferable, though. However, that’s easily remedied if you listen to it at a faster playback speed (I used 1.3x speed) because it makes the dialogue, in particular, feel more natural. Increasing the speed also detracts attention from his tendency to add an “l” to the end of his “aw” words (e.g., “drawl” instead of “draw”), a tendency that is more noticeable at the slower speed.

Overall, Nice Catching You is better with the audio than without and needs to be read with appropriate expectations. It’s a worthy listen, though, mainly because it lays down the foundation for the later stories in this universe.

Nice Catching You

4.5 Maple Leaf Review

Nice Catching You (Nice Catching You 1) by Ryan Taylor & Joshua Harwood
Narrated by Nick J. Russo

"𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦."

⏤

An emotional journey about acceptance, growth, and heartwarming love.

On the way home from a school trip, Nick catches Jacob when he falls out of his seat when the bus skids off the road. Being forced to stay at a hotel overnight, Nick and Jacob share a room and being their friendship. The more time they spend together, the more Nick is ready to finally come out about his sexuality. Jacob is worried about what will happen and tries to get Nick to reconsider but Nick is determined to be true to himself so he can be the person he feels Jacob deserves.

I love Nick and Jacob. From their meet-cute on, they continued to win me over. The banter between the friendly teammates had a constant smile on my face and even had me laughing out loud at times. There were some characters that I did not particularly like, for obvious reasons, but I was glad to see everyone else not back down from their negativity.

These authors are still relatively new to me, as this is only my second book by them, but I am looking forward to reading more of their books.

Nick J. Russo did an amazing job of narrating that I felt like I was listening to a duet narration instead of a single narrator.

Nice Catching You is an mm, college, sports (hockey), jock/nerd, out-for-you romance told in the dual first-person point of view.

A must listen!

Ryan Taylor and Joshua Harwood have done it again. I absolutely loved this book. It’s a beautiful, heartwarming holiday story. This book grabbed my attention from the first page and I couldn’t put it down. Nick and Jacob battle challenges and difficult decisions together while working towards their HEA. This is such a wonderful book with a beautiful HEA. A definite must listen!