opposites attract, yes please. steam and full of heart, Meryl Wilsner books are becoming my favorites, the writting is just as satisfying as the story.

A very cute lgbtq+ soccer player romance. I like our main characters a lot and that we got duel prospective in the book from both of them. I like that both our characters also had their faults, like anxiety and ADHD. It makes them feel more real to .e when I am reading. The setting was also cool being a world cup year and also in New Orleans. There was also some pretty good spice in this book 👀 like so good I was not expecting it.

If you like lgbtq romance books with some spice, or sports romance books I think you will like this.

Grace Henderson fears that her soccer playing career is coming to an end even though she's just in her mid twenties. Phoebe Matthews is new on the scene after emerging from a lower tier college to be a top draft pick. When the two players are thrown together on the soccer field, sparks are evident. Are these the kind of sparks that lead to romance or despair? Of course, much of the misunderstandings in this romance would be avoided if the participants were just honest with each other instead of speaking in jokes and innuendos. But what fun would that be? The attraction and tension between Grace and Phoebe permeates the story and author Meryl Wilsner weaves that tension so cleverly. Wilsner writes queer romance that is fun and sexy. I look forward to being a Wilsner completist.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advanced copy of Meryl Wilsner's Cleat Cute.

I've come to expect and Meryl Wilsner delivers a high-heat sapphic romance. I really enjoyed the developing relationship between Phoebe Matthews and Grace Henderson in this sports-centered rivals-t0-lovers journey through women's soccer. It perfectly delivered on its promised Ted Lasso vibes and was the perfect book to get lost in for a weekend.

This book is the perfect example as to why I like 3rd person POV, when it’s done well. And let me tell you, Meryl Wilsner did it WELL. 👏
Rating: ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️
Smut: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Grace and Phoebe are soccer teammates with undeniable chemistry from the instant they meet. This book tells us a beautiful sapphic love story between two neurodivergent characters trying to take up space in the (soccer) world in a way that feels authentic, all while battling feelings of self-worth because who doesn’t battle with that?!
Being in these characters’ heads often felt like being in my own. 🥹
The beauty of sports romances in my opinion is being able to look beyond the sports aspect (which we all know brings such a nice touch), and seeing a character’s journey & growth both on and off the field

Overall, I adored the people, and the cat, in this story
I adored the banter and the character arcs and I especially loved seeing how love can make even the parts we hate about ourselves seem not so bad.

The only reason I gave this a 4 star rating instead of a 5 star one was because of the way the internal dialogue at times felt repetitive and the characters miscommunicated. I typically give 3 star ratings when miscommunication annoys me but it was actually agreeable, understandable and not drawn out in this novel at all.

Thank you so much to Meryl Wilsner for trusting me with their e-arc and to Net Galley for helping readers like me connect with authors.

Make sure to get your hands on this book when it releases on September 19th, especially if you love:
🦋Rivals to lovers
🦋Grumpy x Sunshine
🦋Locker room (and shower) smut
🦋Banter & incredible friendship vibes
🦋Neurodiversity representation

In Meryl Wilsner’s sapphic rivals-to-lovers rom-com, Cleat Cute, a veteran star soccer player on the US Women’s National Team stumbles into a friends-with-benefits relationship with a rookie teammate who drives her crazy and takes her spot when she’s sidelined with an injury—never expecting to fall in love. I loved every minute of this beautifully written opposites-attract novel with a perfectly developed relationship/romance. Cleat Cute may be one of the best and most fun romances I’ve read this year and in a while. It’s steamy, sweet, sexy, hilarious—a legit rom-com with the perfect balance of steam, humor, angst, sexiness, pining, and sports. Wilsner’s lively and colorful dialogue, vibrant description, worldbuilding that takes advantage of her New Orleans setting, and entertaining interactions between her complex, fallible, and likable characters make this fast-paced, multi-layered romance a captivating page-turner. Wilsner deftly develops the relationships between her diverse characters, including cis heterosexual, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, African American, Latina, Welsh, and European.

At only 26, Grace Henderson is in her tenth year as a US Women’s National Soccer Team star player. Feeling her age because of a nagging injury, the last thing she can deal with right now is an upstart, bold rival coming along to try and take her spot. But when her hip injury finally does sideline her, and she’s taken off the schedule, Phoebe Matthews, who’s everything she isn’t, takes her spot. And to her surprise, Grace becomes friends-with-benefits with her frustrating teammate, who confuses Grace and makes her feel excited and alive. Friendly and unable to take anything seriously, Phoebe plays with the excitement and joy that Grace doesn’t remember losing somewhere along the way. How can she be so drawn to this girl, her rival?

Phoebe Matthews can’t believe she gets to train—and possibly play—with her idol whose skill she’s admired for as long as she’s loved soccer. She can barely hide how starstruck she is at all. In no time, Phoebe begins to see Grace as more than her teammate, especially after they kiss. Everything about Grace is what Phoebe’s been wanting and waiting for in her life, even if she didn’t know it.

Grace takes advantage of being sidelined to heal and work her way back from injury while the team prepares for the World Cup. Most importantly, she and Phoebe discover how to play with each other on the team instead of competing for the same spot. Things are going great with their friends-with-benefits relationship, but Grace and Phoebe aren’t on the same page. Phoebe thinks they’re dating while Grace increasingly grows concerned that she’s catching feelings, and she doesn’t know how to feel about it, believing Phoebe isn’t serious about her—about them. This divide increases the tension between them. Will Grace and Phoebe discover that their feelings for each other have become more important than making the World Cup Team?

I love Wilsner’s development of Grace and Phoebe’s relationship. They share an immediate connection and heat, even if Grace wants to deny it. Wilsner excellently captures all that fire and passion in their first kiss, which sparks from chemistry. Reading each of their interactions filled me with anticipation and excitement. The author smoothly transitions their relationship from rivals to friends with benefits to two people falling in love who don’t understand how they got there. Grace and Phoebe’s sweet, intimate, sexy, passionate, funny, emotional, and steamy make-outs and love scenes—featuring unexpectedly sweet dirty talk—and snarky, entertaining interactions vibrantly shimmering with chemistry, fiery heat, and tenderness reveal Grace and Phoebe’s characters and connection and evolve their relationship, moving the story forward with fantastic pacing.

Grace and Phoebe are complete opposites, but they balance each other perfectly, helping each other grow. A playful, talkative jokester with endless energy and no self-doubt, Phoebe is extroverted, loud, and loves to win people over and make them laugh. However, she has time management issues, quits when things get hard, and lacks focus—except in soccer. Disciplined, patient, and responsible, Grace, on the other hand, is an intense introvert who loves her privacy and quiet. She’s driven, used to always being in control, wary, doesn’t like showing weakness, isn’t good with feelings or relationships, and plays with grit and perseverance. Grace has been going on about her life for so long, not fully living it to the fullest, not doing what she wants, not making herself happy, and never taking the time to slow down and take care of herself while taking care of her players and everyone else. Phoebe blows into Grace’s life—a talented whirlwind of nonstop talking, constant action, pushing, not taking no for an answer—challenging Grace, forcing her to take care of herself and think about her pleasure. She opens up a whole different world to Grace. Being sidelined forces Grace to use that time to evaluate her life, offers her body a chance to heal and rest, and her mind and heart a break from the stress of being Krewe Captain and being in the spotlight all the time. Grace sees behind Phoebe’s façade to who she really is inside. When she falls for Phoebe, she loves all the parts of her without judgment or ridicule. They both show their love for each other by putting the other’s well-being first.

Cleat Cute is a sexy, sweet, funny, steamy, emotional, sapphic rom-com I highly recommend for fans of rivals-to-lovers, friends-with-benefits stumbling into love, and falling for your teammates tropes. Wilsner explores themes of self-discovery, identity, falling in love, doing what you love, following your dream, finding happiness, soulmates, friendship, ADHD, sexual exploration, being loved for who you are, and first love.

Advanced review copy provided by St. Martin’s Griffin via Netgalley for review.

I am a really big women’s soccer fan so I was really excited about this book and it was one of my most anticipated reads of 2023, but unfortunately it was super disappointing.

A trope I really hate is miscommunication and a really big theme in this book was miscommunication, and it got really old really fast.

I was also annoyed that whenever there was some kind of issue or fight, Phoebe always solved it with distracting Grace with sex. So they never actually talked about their problems.

I absolutely hated the “baby girl” thing.

This book had the kind of epilogue I dislike, because it was basically pointless. It gave us zero information. For me as a reader, I look at an epilogue as a way to see how the characters are doing down the line. I also think it’s important to to help take care of any unresolved issues at the end of the book.

I like that it was mentioned that phoebe is now taking ADHD medication. However, I am annoyed that Grace talked about looking into an autism diagnosis, and that was never addressed past that one comment towards the end of the book.

This ended up feeling much more like a NA romance instead of an adult romance because of the ages of the main characters and Phoebe was incredibly immature.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

meryl wilsner is a must read author for me now. soccer? sapphic? enemies to lovers? spice? sign me up! i'm so glad books like this exist and we're able to have this representation.

This book gave me all the things I love humor, Kinda enemies to lovers, and of course sappy love story.. I highly recommend this book if you are big on sports sapphic life stories..

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

❗️Disclaimer: This review isn’t to tell the author that they are bad or not. This review is simply based on my own personal opinion of the book. I do suggest you give it a chance before you form an opinions about it and decide whether you like it or not.❗️


2.5/5 ⭐️


DNF at 77%. At the beginning I honestly liked the book and read the first 53% in a few hours but after that it went downhill. Lets starts with the things i liked, i liked the main characters at the start and honestly though they would be an amazing couple. I also liked that they were both on the same team and that they firmed a really nice friendship. I liked that there was other LGBTQ+ rep. Honestly i thought the first 53% was very good and that they were such a cute couple but after that unfortunately the internal dialogue got to much. It became so annoying and I honestly thought that it could have been cut to half because it became also repetitive. Some of the miscommunications could have been avoided with a simple honest talk instead of just assuming what the other person meant. I also could not feel the love growing between the or the care especially from Grace. In the end i do see how some people might love the book since that was me at the start but unfortunately in the end it wasn’t the book for me and I found myself forcing myself to finish it but just couldn’t.

This was my most anticipated book of the year, and it wasn't bad... Maybe I just had too high of expectations, but I just??? The more I sit with it, the more I find myself dissatisfied. This had all the proper elements for me to love this, but something about it just didn't land with me. I love the ADHD x Autistic dynamic, but I didn't find those identities to be explored in any meaningful way. Instead, both characters just present such obvious textbook signs of their respective neurodivergency but live in complete oblivion for 90% of the book. I loved the way Wilsner writes smut, but these characters just continued to fall into bed instead of talking, which led to so much miscommunication that I actually wondered if I had a misprinted ARC and missed a chapter (reader, I looked at my finished copy to confirm and indeed, I did not miss a single page). I enjoyed the sports element and I found the power dynamic between the two as a season veteran and the rookie to be fun (Wilsner knows how to write power dynamics, and they do it well). I also enjoyed the side characters, which I find is another consistent strength across this author's work. Overall, I don't think this is a bad book and if you're not going in with the high expectations I had, you may end up really enjoying this one for the fun and fluffy romcom that it is.

DNF at 20%. I tried, but I don't think Meryl Wisner's writing is for me. I normally love sapphic and sports romances, but I just couldn't get into this one.
Thank you St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the advanced copy.

after reading Meryl’s first book I was convinced and I was very intrigued by this book. I didn’t felt as in love with it as the first book but it was fun nonetheless


4 stars

Such a cute read! Enjoyed it very much. I don’t read many sapphic romances but now after reading this one I’m going to expand my horizons more. I found myself similing the entire time! Very much enjoyed

I haven't read many sports romances, but if Cleat Cute is anything to go off of I would say I need to try more. Soccer + the grumpiest grump/sunshineiest sunshine - what more could you ask for? Phoebe and Grace had excellent chemistry and Meryl Wilsner definitely brought the steam.

This is my second book from this author (I read Something to Talk About a few years back) and think her writing is getting even better. I really loved all of the characters in Cleat Cute and thought they were fully fleshed out/unique enough to have their own backstories. I loved the dual POV and seeing what Grace and Phoebe were both thinking.

The only thing I didn't love was that the conflict behind the third act breakup really came out of left field. The conflict could have come from so many different places, so it kind of distracted me that Grace brought this issue up. It was just a weird addition to the story.

If you're looking for a cute sapphic rom com definitely check out Cleat Cute!

Thank you to NetGalley & SMP for a review copy.

This was a quick read, I really enjoyed and loved the characters. Turns out I can tolerate sports if it’s women’s. I want to add the finished copy to my collection.

I absolutely loved this book. Soccer, grumpy/sunshine, teammates…

I’m obsessed. Grace and Pheobe were so relatable and real. Their chemistry was absolute fire.

And the found family aspect?! My absolute favorite thing ever. I loved that teammate/friend group soooo much!

Cleat Cute was a fun sapphic romance centered around soccer. I really liked Grace and Phoebe as characters and enjoyed how it switched perspectives between them. I read Some Mistakes Were Made, by the same author, and enjoyed this one more. I found there was more depth to the characters and I appreciated that they were both working through some mental health and other life obstacles. I don't even like soccer but I appreciated those sections and learning more about the sport, the team, the coaching, etc. and I felt that the other characters are on the team were great supporting, developed characters as well. This has lots of open door scenes so I would not recommend this to anyone other than adults looking for that.

This FF sport romance follows Grace and Phoebe. Grace is the team captain and veteran of the pro soccer team that Phoebe just joined. Off the field, the two are just about as different as they could be, but they start up an unlikely friendship. They graduate to friends with benefits at the same time that Grace is sidelined for an injury which puts her spot on the US National Team in jeopardy. But when they figure out they can work together instead of competing against each other, these two women just might find a connection they never expected. This was such as fun sport romance that was spicier than I initially expected. Grace and Phoebe are such great characters and I loved how different they were from each other. They each had a ton of character development throughout the story. Of course, there's a good amount of on-page soccer playing but I thought it was still really well balanced. We get a variety of soccer scenes that didn't get repetitive. I really liked how Wilsner was able to weave in tension on and off the field and how the two interact with each other.
Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC. Publication date was September 19, 2023

Review is written but will not be posted till St martins press addresses the actions of the the employee spreading harmful messages and misinformation.