Massive thanks to NetGalley & St. Martin’s Griffin for the gifted copy, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.

Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner is if Ted Lasso was about a women’s professional soccer team & they had an intra-team romance. Thanks to the vibes of an elder grumpy captain of the team meets the young, sunshine, fresh breath of a rookie of the team, I could not help but be reminded of my favorite show, Ted Lasso.

This book made me realize how few sports romances I am aware of that are about woman sports & I sincerely hope that changes for the better because professional women’s sports deserve all the love & hype. & the fact that this one has two badass women as athletes & leads is incredible.

Cleat Cute is perfect for fans of
⚽️ Sports Romance
⚽️ FF Romance
⚽️ Opposites Attract
⚽️ Rookie meets Seasoned Vet/Captain

The juxtaposition of the two different characters with their opposite personalities & seasons of life provided a fascinating backdrop to a beautiful love story. Without giving spoilers away, there were talks of mental health & I just had to say I really appreciated that.

As a fan of New Orleans as well, it was a treat to be able to visit the city through this story as well.

If you are looking for a badass women’s soccer romance, then this is a fantastic recommendation for you & one I highly recommend!


Thanks to back surgery, I got behind on reviews but I am catching up & I sincerely apologize for my tardiness.

Do I like real life sports? Nope. Do I love fictional sports? Yep! If you were a closeted child during the Bend It Like Beckham era, and spent the whole movie waiting for Jess and Juliette to get it together this book is for you.

I have read all three of Wilsner’s books so far and this one might be my favorite. Grace and Phoebe have such good chemistry from their first interaction, and to make it better this book was genuinely funny.

Phoebe may be a rookie in professional soccer but certainly doesn’t lack the confidence. I love the balance of strength in who she is, and knowing how good she is, with her honest vulnerability. Phoebe hides nothing and it makes her so endearing as a character.

Grace shocked me a little, I felt going into the book she was going to be an ice queen, but she never read that way to me. She was professional, introverted for sure, but her relationships with her teammates weren’t harsh. Even in the early interactions with Phoebe, she was never cold, more respectfully distant. Watching her slowly melt, learn to lean on others and build herself up to the person she wanted to show the world was beautiful.

One last thing, I absolutely loved the point Wilsner made in having Grace and Phoebe identify, out loud, as lesbians. Not every sapphic is a lesbian, but if you are please know it is not a dirty word.

Arc received from netgalley; all thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is my third book by Meryl Wilsner, and it did not disappoint. We are all screaming for more sports romance, and this is the book we all wanted. Sapphic romance with soccer is just the perfect combination. The banter, the spice, and Meryl hitting the nose on nothing is sexier than playing hard. It gave me the pictures my fourteen-year-old brain needed watching that soccer movie with Blake Lively... I adored Cleat Cute and will suggest this to all my sports-loving friends. This is her best work yet; I can't wait to see what is next.

Tropes:
-Sport Romance
-Opposites Attract
-Sapphic Romance

Grace is annoying.
I wouldn't have had the patience.

Over all this book was fine, there are good moments but Grace was a lot. She criticized everything and everyone and her constantly complaining about being old was gross. You're in your twenties, get over it.

This book started out well enough. I'm a huge soccer fan so all of the soccer talk within the women's league, college soccer, the USWNT, it was all so interesting to me. The spicy, open door sex scenes in this book were not for me. I could feel the tension and heat between Grace and Phoebe, and I enjoyed that well enough. The dialogue coming from Phoebe was too much though. Specifically, her constantly calling Grace "baby girl" just weirded me out. This book wasn't bad, but it wasn't for me.

𝙄’𝙢 𝙡𝙤𝙪𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙗𝙣𝙤𝙭𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙜𝙖𝙮. 𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙖 𝙢𝙮 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙙” me2 😂⁣
⁣
Y’all the way this book has been the only thing I can think about is wild. I loved it so much and I wish I could live in their world 🤍
⁣
• I loved all the characters but Phoebe is my new all time fav. She was funny, spicy, confident, compassionate, outgoing, just everything ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥⁣
⁣
• The chemistry between Phoebe and Grace was insane. Like seriously from the first chapter I knew it was them. The vibes ✨✨✨⁣
⁣
• This book had me craving beignets so bad and I don’t even like beignets🤤⁣
⁣
• quote from my notes “Phoebe is so spicy and witty and flirty I LIVE we love a flirty queen “ #PhoebeStanAccount 😂🪩💜⁣
⁣
• Fight or Flight or Fuck mode had me 😂⁣
⁣
• The steam was STEAMIN yall like 😰🌶️🥵🔥❤️‍🔥 like “shut up and put your mouth to better use” excuse me ⁣
⁣
• Graces family was 😭❤️‍🩹⁣
⁣
• Her coming out killed me in the best way y’all. I was crying 🥹❤️😭⁣
⁣
Over 10/10 recommend this to any and everyone who just needs a good book to read. Even if you don’t like romance this one just might sell ya 😊😉

This is such a lighthearted but impactful read. Really loved the soccer aspect, which I didn’t think I would! My only complaint is that I wish it was longer!

Meryl Wilsner knows what she's doing when it comes to spice. It's hot, fun, and never too self serious. This is one of the things I love about her books, but her books are not simply this. The characters are well drawn, and the world she builds feels completely real. I know nothing about women's soccer, but it felt to me that she did that world justice. I also like that the drama in the relationship and in the characters' lives is not over the top. It feels like the problems actual people have and the resolution feels honest. I read romance for fun, and sometimes the dramatic foils in the plot feel too much to really just enjoy it. Wilsner creates an excellent balance.

3 stars

I liked the idea of this book and thought it was fun and cute but it just wasn't for me. I thought that the interactions between phoebe and grace were a little awkward and stilted at times. The internal monologues could be brutal and rambling.

The spice was spicy and good. I liked the different dynamic and conversations around sex and that they checked on each other. That being said, I did think the grumpy/sunshine trope was done well. I also liked relationships/friendships within the team. The neurodivergent rep was well done too.

I had high expectations for cleat cute since i enjoyed mistakes were made a whole lot but for some reason I just didn’t care too much about these two being romantically together.

Grace was kind of boring to follow for the first half of the book and phoebe was a fun character. I didn’t like how the author made being 26 sound so old, it felt like they were stretching for an age gap that wasn’t necessary. There’s no rivals to lovers trope going on- so that’s misrepresented which was a huge let down for me personally. The sex scenes were everything

Anyways, the story was okay in regards to phoebe and grace individually.

I always love to dive into a Meryl Wilsner book! The characters are always multi layered and I love that, the spice is truly u matches in her books, it’s perfection. While a general gripe with sports romance is that sports is usually on the back end for priority, this one has sports as front and center. That sometimes made it drag a bit, but it’s still enjoyable.

Watching the characters learn about themselves as the story progressed was rather charming even if the topics had more serious undertones.

So if you have read Meryl’s books before, love a sports romance, or need some sapphic spice, pick this one up!

Unfortunately this book just did not work for me. As much as I love sports romances, I just couldn't get into the relationship between these two characters as I found that I didn't particularly like either of them. However, there definitely is an audience for this novel, so if you enjoy sports romances of any kind I would still suggest picking this one up and giving it a go - you never know!

I thought this book was super cute and I loved the progression of the relationship but also as individuals. This sapphic romance is perfect for sports lovers. Plus there’s a decent amount of heat!

This book had a fun premise and was very entertaining, but ultimately was not for me. the grumpy/sunshine dynamic was well done, and I really enjoyed the friendships within the team. however, many of the interactions between Phoebe and Grace I found to be uncomfortable or stilted.
I do think that readers that are more interested in sports may have a better time with it. Thank you to netgalley for an e-arc of this book

It was a really great book! Of course I am a sucker for LGBTQ+ romances but this one was amazing! I loved the sports theme of it because you don’t see a lot of sapphic sport romances let alone sapphic romances in general.

cute sapphic romance that I read in one sitting on the ride up to my aunts house over the summer. I love books like this

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reading copy! Grace is a veteran soccer star, when she meets Phoebe, a rookie on the national team training for the world cup, as well as her New Orleans club team. Though there is an immediate attraction, can they make a lasting relationship work? I like Wilsner’s writing style, but it is third person and a lot of inner monologuing, so sometimes it goes a little slow. But overall I thought Grace and Phoebe were sweet and likable characters, the steam was great, and I was rooting for them, as well as the soccer team. Sometimes the constant textbook explanations and descriptions of their different neurodivergent traits (ADHD for Phoebe and autism for Grace) was a lot and got slow in terms of the reading, but it was great representation so I am not upset about it. I think I wanted a little more plot since it is honestly mostly inner dialogue, but overall this is a solid 4 star for me because of the sweetness, steam, and women’s soccer stuff. I recommend this book for fans of Wilsner, soccer, and LGBTQ/sapphic contemporary romances.

Do I like soccer? Absolutely. Do I love WLW books? Did I like Cleat Cute? For the most part, I did!

Meryl Wilsner did it again with Cleat Cute! After my mixed opinions on Mistakes Were Made, I was definitely excited to read another book by Meryl Wilsner. I know it's another WLW book that most of the community will adore, especially with the soccer community. I certainly enjoyed the book but didn't feel the gripping need to finish it as quickly as possible and some of the miscommunication in it had me struggling to continue.

One thing this book has is steamy intimacy and a lot of it! I liked how strong the communication was between our two main characters, and you really are rooting for them throughout. There's some pretty good neurodivergent rep and it's a solid sports romance. The age gap was more appropriate and despite not too much inclusion of the actual sport of soccer, you'll definitely enjoy the sapphic steam.

Thank you to Meryl Wilsner, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for this ARC.

I rated this book 3/5. The story and character were cute and interesting but the internal monologue and third person story telling was incredibly annoying. It was very repetitive.

DNF @ 16%. The characters felt very immature and unprofessional to me. For example, there was a bet at the beginning of the book and the punishment felt highly inappropriate (particularly for a workplace environment).