A huge thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and the author for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Cleat Cute follows Pheobe "Phenom" Matthews, one of the newest rookies on the Krewe, and Grace Henderson, a US Women's National Team veteran star. When an injury takes Grace out of play, all she can think about is her unfortunate past with another player.Grace would've never imagined even a friendship with Pheobe, let alone falling for her, but these two just can't seem to stay away from one another.

This book delivered some steamy romance, grumpy vs sunshine banter, and representation for both LGBT+ and neurodivergent folks. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and a relatively easy read for someone who knows absolutely nothing about sports. The miscommunications were also minor between our two MC's and there wasn't a horrible breakup that some of these stories feature.

What I didn't enjoy was all of the inner monologue throughout. I felt that it slowed the story down and didn't add enough to justify it being there. I think if this story were written in first person (still dual POV) it wouldn't have been as overwhelming.

Overall, this was a fun read and I recommend it to anyone looking for a FF sports romance!

Rating: 5 stars rounded down to 4.5 stars.

First off, thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy for my honest review.

I am not one for sports, but when I saw another book by Meryl, I had to read it! And they did NOT disappoint. The soccer aspect plays a minor role in the story (so im a little happy not needing to know any soccer lingo or terms).

Meryl has a way with words when it comes to Sapphic romantic scenes. I did feel this one was more "tell" instead of "show" with the overuse of internal monologuing, but it impacted the story in a positive way, giving us an inside look into both MCs.

Phoebe and Grace are both relatable characters, which had me hooked reading this in 4 days. Their communication was lacking at some points, but when it comes to friends with benefits, is it really THAT necessary?

Overall, I would recommend anyone read this who enjoys a cute rivals to lovers story.

Okay Meryl, im ready for your next one!

Cleat Cute is a saphic romance between two professional soccer players. This was a spicy and fun read - loved the characters and grumpy/sunshine romance dynamic. I know very little about soccer but I still really enjoyed this romance. A perfect beach read!

This author has gained another reader. I will automatically purchase the books. This was an enemy to lovers tropes and she did an amazing job at bringing everything together.

Thank you for letting me read this arc!!

To be honest I struggled a bit to get into the book. It’s written in third point of view.
I did love the development of their relationship and a SOCCER ROMANCE!!
This is my first Meryl book—it started off a bit slow building and I found some of the conversations to be something that wouldn’t happen in real life. The spice scenes are amazing and I was not expecting it!

•sapphic
•sports romance

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review of Cleat Cute. Wow, I'm now a big fan of Meryl Wilsner! Their writing style is easy to read and flows quickly. Cleat Cute follows the story of a rookie soccer player getting a callback to play with a national team with some of her new club team players. She falls hard for her club captain and they figure out a way to make it work but now without some hiccups along the way. I enjoyed the tenacity/goofiness of the rookie and could feel the loneliness of the captain. Overall, great read and will be looking for more to come from them!

Awww rivals to lovers one of my favorite tropes and Meryl Wilsner did a great job bringing it to life plus what girl doesn't want to read about some cute soccer players. When the ladies finally work past their miscommunication it was nothing but hot!

Thanks so much to the publisher for an eARC via NetGalley. All opinions are honest and my own

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book lived up to it's title; it was super cute. I'm not a huge fan of soccer or sports in general, but for this book that didn't matter. I loved the storyline overall and the characters. Phoebe was my favorite but I also grew to love Grace as well, especially as she learned more about herself. I highly recommend this book!

Absolutely adored this book. The story was amazing, the neurodivergent representation was on point and I loved every single minute of it!
This was my first time reading a Meryl Wilsner book and I purchased the rest of the books before having even finished this one.
Loved the character development and the way that they learned about each other and grew together.
Will 100% recommend this book to everyone!

I had such high hopes for this book. It was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, so it is completely possible that my high hopes thwarted my experience.

I have talked to people who have enjoyed this book, and they all either did not read or did not like Mistakes Were Made. As such a huge fan of Wilsner’s last book, I expected this book to be on par, but was so disappointed.

There were so many long paragraphs of descriptions or setting the scene or internal monologues and they made me want to scream. Like, get on with it!! Get to the story! And when we did get to the story, I couldn’t even enjoy it because it was all broken up by long blocks of text. The pacing and writing style made this book just not an enjoyable reading experience for me.

My takeaway— if you loved Mistakes Were Made, skip this one.

I am so thankful to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

Cleat Cute was a refreshingly cute sapphic romance. The main characters are on the soccer team together, and the friends-with-benefits to lovers trope ensues. However, the main issue was miscommunication, and they really just needed to have one real conversation for everything to have been solved. It also felt as though some of the character discoveries came way too late in the book, and I would have liked to see them dealing with those subjects much earlier.

Cleat Cute is a sapphic romance that follows Phoebe and Grace, two woman soccer players who are vying for the same position on the national team after Grace get injured. While they start off as rivals, they quickly realize that they are attracted to each other and feelings escalate from there.

This book is a mixed bag for me. I was so excited to read it because the idea of a sapphic story around soccer while following the Women’s World Cup seemed like a blast. And while I did enjoy the overall story for the most part, there were a few things that I just did not enjoy.

Starting with the good, I absolutely loved Phoebe. She was pure golden retriever energy and just a delight. She had a trans sibling and I enjoyed how subtly that was brought into the story. The “Ted Lasso but make is lesbians” vibe was strong. The two characters has such Jamie Tartt/Roy Kent vibes. The steamy scenes were aplenty and very fun. And the overall message of the story was a nice one to read.

Things I didn’t love include just the overall writing style. This is my first book by this author and I’m not sure if I will read another one. This is written in third person present tense which is always hard for me to read in a romance because it makes it hard for me to root for the relationship. There is also so much internal dialogue that really made the story drag at times. So the internal dialogue and the third person pov combined made for a really awkward feeling of both knowing a lot about a character but not truly connecting to them. The miscommunication on here was also weird. I am not someone who hates miscommunication but it felt very forced in this book.

I would say, if you are looking for a steamy romance between two lady soccer players, this is fun enough. Just be prepared for loads of time spent in the players’ heads and a heavy helping of miscommunication.

I think I have to admit to myself that this author's writing style just doesn't work for me. I love seeing the diverse characters, and the soccer aspect was more interesting than I was expecting (I'm not much of a sports person), but something just didn't click for me.

This book is exactly as advertised, a funny and cute sapphic romance that takes place on the soccer field! I didn’t want to put this book down as I read it. Grace and Phoebe are such wonderfully written characters, and I fell in love with both of them. Phoebe definitely has that golden retriever puppy energy, where she is always bubbly and happy and energetic. I wouldn’t say Grace is grumpy, but she is definitely more reserved and has a strong personality. The two of them together was adorable. They have witty banter and so many of their moments are just so freaking cute. The spice level is higher than I expected but I didn’t find it overly ridiculous or cheesy. Representation is so well done in this book and that’s always very refreshing. I loved the soccer angle and at first it was a little confusing to follow all the names, especially with nicknames thrown in, but I think I understood most of the characters by the end. The plot was really well done and the ending was just so perfect, being a combination of sweet and funny. This book is really worth the read and is so enjoyable! 4.5⭐️, 3.5🌶

Thank you to netgalley and St. Martin's Press, for providing a digital ARC of Cleat Cute in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun, and spicy read! I didn't really like the relationship between Grace and Phoebe at first, but I did love how they try to take care of each other so they can be at their best. I didn't like the miscommunication between them that could have been cleared up quickly. It had a sweet ending.

Thank you to netgalley and St. Martin's Press, for providing a digital copy of Cleat Cute in exchange for an honest review.

I am always a fan of sapphic rom/com books and have a soft spot for the sport of soccer so I was so excited to get my hands on this copy and read it. And I really enjoyed Cleat Cute!

There's a ton of queer representation—done in a way where it's just natural instead of forced—and I loved the differences between our two main characters. It was chaotic and fun and full of delicious misunderstandings.

I do agree with a few other reviews that I saw that the description is a little off in terms of the plot line. I do also think that the ending could have been a little more extended, in my opinion.

That being said, I still really enjoyed it. Definitely a great summer read, some steamy sex scenes, and an interesting plot.

3.5/5 ⭐️!

Okay I am obsessed with the hyperactive ADHD sexy golden retriever and anxious introverted low key ice queen dynamic! The way they didn’t judge each other’s little quirks made me happy and obviously the spice was much appreciated as per usual with Wilsner’s work!

I will say, the miscommunication trope usually bugs me but this took it to another level 😩. They drew out their misunderstandings in their heads for forever and then spoke two incredibly vague sentences to each other to clear them up? Over and over again?? Some of the miscommunications were quite a stretch and unrealistic, but suspension of disbelief and all that! It drove me insane, but I was still rooting for them!

EDIT: I finished this book a week ago and I'm still thinking about it and I'm realizing I liked this way more than I thought, especially in the world cup era. Bumping this up to 5 stars!!

I wanted to start off by saying that the concept and plot of this book is 100% right up my alley. I'm a huge fan of women's soccer, the NWSL, and the USWNT. I think my expectations were set quite high from the beginning because I had also previously read "Mistakes Were Made" by Meryl Wilsner as well. I'd rate this a solid 3.5/5 stars (rounded up to 4 here).

*Light Spoilers Ahead*
I'll start with the things that I loved about this book. All of the characters were extremely fun and likable. I did find myself comparing them to current USWNT members or soccer players in general (in my mind Grace was 100% Sam Kerr for some reason). The spice was really well written (I'm looking at you chapter 12), and I genuinely enjoyed watching Grace and Phoebe's relationship grow. The trans, NB, and mental illness rep was fantastic. Each struggle felt true to the individual and made sense with the plot I wanted to note here that I called Grace being potentially autistic very early on in the story as I related to her struggles on a deep level.

All of that being said, I do have some qualms about it that may not bother everyone, but it was in my mind for a lot of the book. I really didn't enjoy the 3rd person POV that this was written in. I think it led the story to be incredibly surface level, and I really would have wished we could have dove deeper into their minds with a dual POV (just link in Mistakes Were Made". It felt a bit repetitive at times and I wish we'd gotten to see more of these characters at the world cup or more of their season at home. I also would have love to have had more in depth with some of the other players. Wasn't Phoebe besties with Gabby when she got there? Did Gabby not care that her supposed new BFF was suddenly gone 80% of the time? I'm being nit picky here, but I feel it deep in my bones.

I would definitely recommend this to someone who likes a good sapphic read that doesn't want to read anything to heavy. It was cute, fluffy, and had a good amount of spice with really low steaks. I finished this in about 2.5 days. I'll also probably still buy this once it comes out because the cover is cute and I love supporting anything LGBTQIA+ and sapphic.

I loved this book! The chemistry between the character created a swoon-worthy romance. The conflict felt purposeful and contributed to the overall arc and themes of the story.

Meryl Wilsner writes the best sapphic romance. The romance, the angst and the spice are all top tier! Every character in this book is well developed and lovable each in their own way. The main couples chemistry shines but you’ll fall in love with more than a few side characters as well!