Cleat Cute is a spicy sapphic soccer romance with a grumpy x sunshine dynamic and neurodivergent rep. I had a lot of fun reading this book, although there were some minor aspects that bothered me. By the end of the story, I was very invested in Grace and Phoebe's relationship and I would recommend this for a sports romcom with lesbian MCs (which there is definitely not enough of)!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

This book was such a good read! Any book with this type of cover is an auto read for me so I was very excited. A cute cheesy romance that any romance reader would love! I enjoyed the plot the characters and the writing made this book a favorite I was hooked I couldn't put it down! Thank you to the authors and publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this wonderful book I can't wait for other people to read it!

Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner is such a fantastic sapphic romance.
I have read all of this author's books and this one did not disappoint.

This book was sexy, and I loved every minute of it. I love that the author depicted a sexual relationship that wasn't perfect. It was really nice to see this and very relatable.

I really liked that both characters were neurodivergent. The way this was depicted and how it affected the relationship were brilliant.

This is a great friends to lovers sapphic romance with a sports element that I really loved.

I enjoyed the internal dialogue as well.

Looking forward to more books from Meryl Wilsner.

I heard about this sapphic friends to lovers romance in many places on Instagram, and was eager to see what the buzz was about. Grace and Phoebe are teammates on the New Orleans Women’s Soccer team, the Krewe. Grace has been the lead player in women’s soccer for quite some time, Phoebe is the up and comer. They inevitably fall for each other. Grace is uptight and reserved, Phoebe is a free-spirit, seemingly without a care in the world outside of making the World Cup roster. In a lot of ways, their romance doesn’t really make sense. They misunderstand and misread each other throughout the relationship and this annoyed me. That said, I really enjoyed the setting (I took notes on new places to go in NOLA) and I loved the insider perspective on professional women’s sports. A ton of 🌶️ in this one-not for the faint of heart:) #romance #fallreads #womenssoccer #pride #loveislove #allyreads thanks to @netgalley and to @stmartinspress for the arc which publishes 9/19!

This was a somewhat entertaining read. I really enjoyed the build up, but there was something missing from making me love this. I just didn’t ultimately love the chemistry between the two leads. I wanted to connect more. The spice was definitely there but the love wasn’t what I was expecting.

As an avid lover of Mistakes Were Made, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one. Needless to say, I was not disappointed! Meryl Wilsner is shaping up to be my favorite queer author and I look forward to devouring every book. I also really appreciated the description of ADHD which I found very tasteful and very accurate.

i’ve been waiting for this book to come out since it was announced, so i was afraid it couldn’t live up to my expectations BUT IT DID AND MORE

my credentials are 1. i am a massive women’s soccer fan 2. i am a massive homosexual

plot? 5 ☆
being able to relate to both characters that are opposites? 5 ☆
the spice? just about killed me

i also teared up at the ending & I DO NOT CRY WTF DID THIS BOOK DO TO ME

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I adored this sapphic romance so much!

I love a good sports romance with actual sports in it and THIS BOOK DELIVERED THE SOCCER!
I grew up on the soccer field, I obsessively watched the USWNT, and fell in love with watching women like Mia Hamm, Brianna Scurry, Brandi Chastsin, and Abby Wambach. I loved seeing them referenced in this book as women who paved the way professionally and broke glass ceilings!

Okay- now for the actual book! This was a good, quick, steamy, queer read! Phoebe and Grace definitely had chemistry! I loved the progression from friends, to friends with benefits, to girlfriends! I thought the character development was great, and the revelations at the end absolutely made sense!

My biggest complaint is that the romance took SO LONG to actually be a real thing. It makes sense, it does, I just wish it was sooner and we got more of these two blissfully sunk into the relationship!

All in all though I enjoyed this book and I will definitely be recommending it to my soccer and sports loving readers!

My fav book of this author’s so far. I do not know much about soccer but enjoyed this read! Thanks Netgalley!

My first sports romance and I finally get the hype! I loved the camaraderie of the players, the tension during the games and the spicy locker room hook ups 😏

In Cleat Cute we meet Grace Henderson who has been a star of the US Women's National Team for ten years. We also meet Phoebe Matthews a rookie who is the opposite of Grace. When they are off the field, Grace is worried she's catching feelings while Phoebe thinks they are dating. As the tension between them grows, will both players realize they care more about their relationship than making the roster?

I enjoyed getting to know Grace and Phoebe I thought they were fun and I really loved their banter with one another. I thought their conversations sounded natural and their “non” dates were really cute!

This book is written in third person which isn’t my favorite and did dampen my experience. I was reading their names so often it got annoying.

The spicy scenes were great Meryl knows how to write GREAT spice! The locker room scene was perfection! There were at least two different times the characters were going to talk about something important/feelings but they ended up banging instead. Those sex scenes were great but I felt like the characters could’ve used those conversations to strengthen their relationship and for better character arcs throughout the story.

I personally wanted more tension/conflict in this book. Like the whole time we’re talking about the World Cup but we don’t even get a World Cup scene!! I thought their fight/break up was quickly resolved and I didn’t see much character growth from either MC.

Overall this was enjoyable and I’m excited to see what Meryl writes next!

2.5/5 Cleat Cute is a sapphic sports romance between a veteran and a rookie soccer player. Grace is a long time member of the national team and her entire life revolves around soccer, but she despises the fame and press that comes with being a star player so she really keeps to herself. Phoebe is starting her first year in the national league and has looked up to Grace for years. They have a very interesting dynamic and have completely opposite personalities since Phoebe is very outgoing, flirty, and openly celebrates her queerness. Grace has a tougher relationship with being gay because she’s hesitant to divulge any private information to keep the tabloids away.

This is marketed as rivals to lovers and it is just not that. Grace and Phoebe play for the same team and neither of them dislikes one another. Grace is somewhat put off by Phoebe’s extroverted personality but they quickly become friendly. I was invested in their relationship development until the first spicy scene, then I started to lose interest after a lot of the tension was gone. I realized that I didn’t like either of the character’s individually or together so it was very hard to root for them. Personally, I thought Phoebe was annoying and Grace was very bland and some of their romantic moments were kind of cringey. The addition of ADHD “representation” was very strange and out of left field, like who just assumes that someone is on meds of a mental disorder? However, the steamy scenes and initial progression of friends to friends-with-benefits did keep me engaged. I just didn’t love their relationship development after becoming friends with benefits and I skimmed a lot.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
@merylwilsner can do no wrong apparently. I love this one even more than the last (Mistakes Were Made- I gave it 5 stars)
This one focuses on Phoebe Matthews, a rookie in her first professional season as a soccer player and Grace Henderson, a soccer prodigy now 26 with 10 years under her belt and a body that's starting to betray her. The chemistry is just as spicy as Mistakes Were Made, and I'd rate it right up there with Something To Talk About- which I also gave 5 stars to. Gosh, am I a super fan?? Who cares. This was good enough to make me put down the Buddie fics I've been reading on ao3.
Cleat Cute is out everywhere! This was delayed due to my reading slump, but this and Every Duke Has It's Day have helped me climb out of it!

Cleat Cute is my 300th book read this year and I wanted it this way because how many people can say that the main character has their name exactly?! I love the premise and of course the name of the leading character. Win, win, for me as a reader.

The cover is cute and makes you want to pick up the book and read it. Kudos to whomever designed it. I really wish publishers would list the designers because most of the time this is how I judge my books. I actually didn’t even know the main character had my name until I kept getting google alerts with my name and the light bulb went on. (chuckle).

I really wanted to just love this book and I do like the story of Phoebe and Grace. It just seemed to drag for me. I think the pace could have been a bit quicker. I normally read a book a day and I just kept putting this book down. Mind you, I picked up another book after this one and read it in one sitting so I know it’s not my physical recovery process that was distracting me from reading.

In a lot of ways, this is a simple girl meets girl romance. There isn’t a lot of drama. There are lots of cute moments. Great sex. I was expecting more actual sports moments, but what’s there is fine. The difference in economic levels between various players is explained nicely multiple times. Figuring out what you want out of life and how you choose to pursue it is also a nice journey.

Cleat Cute is a nice sweet new adult romance with spice. If you want a mindless escape from your troubles or from the kids yelling in the background or the work piling up on your desk, take a break with Phoebe and Grace.

I’m mixed with this one. It was something different and I enjoyed it but it dragged in places that I wish it wouldn’t have. I hate when characters can’t resolve issues and than we’re reading a really dragged out book that could have gone differently.

This is my first book from this author and while I enjoyed the characters and dynamics, the plot left something to desire. And being a former soccer player I was excited to read this. And I’m not bothered by sapphic stories either… I’ve had my fair share of testing stuff in college, it just left me wanting something that I can’t put my for her on.

All in all, I think I struggled connecting and got lost along the way.

I’ve only recently started reading Sapphic book, and I’m loving them! Why did no one tell me about them before!? I feel like I’ve been missing out on some really great reads!

I’m a huge fan of enemies/rivals to lovers, and soccer happens to be my favorite sport. Does that mean my review might be biased? Maybe, but that’s totally okay!

Anytime I see enemies/rivals to lovers on the back of a book, it’s an automatic read for me. I just personally think it’s one of the best tropes out there, if not the best.

This book includes two of my most favorite things so you know I had to love it! If you’re new to sapphic romances, like I am, I definitely recommend this book. And if you’re a lover of soccer as well, also recommend this book for you. It’s about time we start seeing some more soccer rep in books. I’m absolutely here for it!

This likely would've been a three star if we'd had some resolutions on a few things a little sooner than we did. Because, yo, this was exhausting. The relentless internal monologuing (and some external ones, too), the overthinking, the spiralling, the return-to-agonize-over-it-again, and yes, a lot of this can be explained for Reasons but we also don't get those reasons, like I said, until way too late. So by the time we get some things sorted out, I don't care, I'm unmoved, and I'm just all.. "yeah, I know, so fucking what!" about it all. Which is maybe harsh but like, I'm really struggling to find time to read and so when I finally did pick something up.. I just didn't want to read it. At all. But alas here we are. And we made it through. Somehow.

I'm sure there are worse things to pick up if you want something sapphic and sporty and yes it's a grumpy sunshine but not my favourite example of the trope. It's also very steamy which is nice to see but as someone who is checking out of sex scenes more and more.. personally it just meant more paragraphs to skim. So elle oh elle to me.

Also, baby girl. It was a thing. I hate it coming from a man and I hate it just as much coming from a woman. Nope to this.

For some more specific rants, I did drop into this review about halfway through reading the book to jot down some notes in the event I gave into the DNF. I didn't, obviously, and most of these points still apply even after an additional fifty percent of reading. Enjoy.

Early thoughts : I am frustrated by Grace's whiplash emotions about soccer. It's all she is, all she knows, because of how early she started playing, and how that makes her feel aged (which I'll get to in a second..) and she is grumpy and bad at being social -- she basically just sits silently whenever Phoebe is rambling or talking or asking questions about non-soccer stuff and I think there's something more to this, or at least I hope there is, because otherwise it feels kinda.. baity -- and then she'll get all bent out of shape and butthurt if Phoebe comes to her with soccer specific questions or inquiries. So like.. what is it? Are you only soccer or can you be both and if you're both why are you mad when someone talks to you about the former? This gave me a headache. Second issue is that.. this is a twenty-six year old person who acts and behaves like she's a hundred years old. Complaining about her body (but, despite being a pro athlete, refusing to deal with her injuries and potentially making them worse..) being old and broken down and acting the same and I just.. I don't know. I expected this to be a lot more fun and and wholesome based on the Ted Lasso pitch and it was not.

But don't worry, Pheobe annoyed me, too! Out of nowhere bitching people out for not telling her that they might be eating out and how "some people have to budget" like.. I get it, yes, expectations should be set but also I feel like this could've been discussed in a more tactful way? I don't know. It really rubbed me wrong somehow. And all the dirty talk.. ugh, I know, sapphics deserve dirty talk too but honestly I'm over it when it happens in most romances no matter if it's hetero or m/m or what. So that's a me thing.

And there we have it. Final thoughts? I don't think I would read Wilsner again. I really disliked the way this was written (third person present? I think? I'm bad at knowing this) and the book felt extremely long considering so little happens. Which, hey, fine, character-driven stuff with minor background noise is good but man when it feels like it's dragging, and there's nothing to distract you, and you're getting hit with sex scenes and monologues left and right, featuring not just one but two characters you can't really stand, ontop of stupid misunderstandings which cross the line into miscommunications, well.. it adds to the not-having-a-good-time-ness. But I think this'll hit all the right notes for a lot of people. I'm just not one of them.

Mistakes Were Made >>>>> Cleat Cute.

I'm all for a sapphic sports romance, but this one missed the mark. Cleat Cute is a prime example of the grumpy/sunshine trope with two characters who would never actually make it in the long run. The worst part was the repetitiveness of the non-stop internal monologuing. It really took me out of the story.

The marketing of Cleat Cute is another thing I found confusing. It's promoted as rivals-to-lovers with absolutely zero rivalry. The girls are on the same soccer team for one. If I had to pick, fwb-to-lovers is the most fitting. Additionally, the neurodivergent representation was incomplete. You have Grace with undiagnosed autism and Phoebe with undiagnosed ADHD so while the book reflects intent and both characters show clear traits, neither are actually labelled.

That said, I LOVED Grace. She is very Lena Luthor coded to me and I dig a rich bitch. Maybe this is also a Supercorp AU fan fiction. The sex scenes however, I found them to be much cringier than in Meryl's last novel Mistakes Were Made which is an absolutely favourite of mine. But if you enjoy smut this book is highly steamy.

I am so so so so tired of the miscommunication trope–we need to ban it from literature. To be fair, Grace and Phoebe did actually attempt to talk, but their wires still got crossed. More often than not, sex and intimacy were used as a way to avoid further conversation. There was not enough clarity for them to be on the same page in my opinion.

The positives: The National team included really wonderful found family vibes, despite me not being able to tell all the secondary characters apart at times. There was also a lot of queer diversity too with two lesbian protagonists, a trans masc sibling and a non-binary aroace coworker.

This may be the closet thing we get to a gay Bend It Like Beckham.

What worked: the spice! the chemistry! The story!
What didn’t work: also the chemistry! Grace was really mean, which was really off putting to me (an avid reader of enemies to lovers & rivals to lovers).

Thank you Netgalley & the publisher for the ARC. Overall this was still engaging and fun, and I enjoyed getting to spend time in this world.

Little bit of a slower start, but I was definitely all in by the end. Very fun, steamy, had some great queer and neurodivergent rep, and has been one of my favorite miscommunication tropes in a while.