I enjoy the way Meryl seems to make every one of their characters feel relatable. These characters may be professional athletes, but at the heart of the story they are just like the rest of us...unsure, insecure, messy or maybe just trying to find the happiness they crave. This book is another example of the perfect balance between spice and swoon, making it an easy story to love.

Did I only pick up this book to because the World Cup is happening right now? No, but it sure helped to get me in the mood to read a book about soccer. Normally, I don't go for sports romances, but this was a delightful, queer, opposites attract story.

Grace Henderson is a veteran soccer player who has played on the National team for years. Phoebe Matthews is a rookie player who has just been drafted by the New Orleans team to take Grace's place when she heads off to the World Cup. They are about as opposite as it comes in terms of personality (real grumpy/sunshine dynamic here) but somehow, Grace finds herself playing tour guide as Phoebe gets settled in New Orleans. And the more time they spend together, the more they realize they enjoy each other's company, and both of them start to wonder whether there might be something more important on the line than soccer.

This book is pretty steamy, but the sex was well[-handled, with great communication between the characters. The supporting cast is fairly diverse (gay, trans, nonbinary characters, although I believe most characters are white). This isn't my favorite book I've read by this author, but it's definitely worth reading if you've enjoyed their previous books and/or are looking for a steamy-yet-somehow-still-wholesome queer romance. (Soccer knowledge not required.)

This captivating sports romance introduces readers to the talented author Meryl Wilsner, leaving a lasting impression and ensuring I'll be seeking out more of their work in the future. The seamless blend of love and soccer serves as an engaging backdrop, neither element overshadowing the other. The story revolves around Grace, an experienced player grappling with an injury, and Phoebe, a newcomer to the field. With only one spot available on the national team, the tension between the two players is palpable. However, the complexities of their relationship add depth to the narrative, making it a far more intricate tale than a simple rivalry. The book masterfully intertwines the world of soccer with the blossoming romance between Grace and Phoebe, skillfully depicting their emotional journey, unexpected connection, and genuine care for each other. Alongside well-crafted location descriptions and events, the book's cover is also noteworthy. In essence, this sports romance not only satisfies but excels in delivering an enthralling read.

It's the start of a new season and women's soccer star, Grace Henderson, is dealing with an injury and trying to hide it. Newbie Phoebe Matthews has been drafted to Grace's team with the understanding that she's Grace's replacement when Grace leaves for the world cup. Grace isn't interested in getting close to anyone on the team, let alone a rookie. Somehow Grace finds herself offering to shoe Phoebe around New Orleans when they both arrive early. Though she's not looking for a relationship, Grace can't help but to make a move on Phoebe and they start a friends with benefits arrangement. They both want to focus on soccer, not a relationship...at least at first.

I really liked this! I thought both Grace and Phoebe were very distinct characters and I love that this book was dual POV so we got to see both of their inner thoughts. The spice was top notch, which is my experience with all of Meryl's books I've read. I loved the ending - I thought there was going to be this huge 3rd act breakup but there wasn't and honestly thank goodness! I also loved their friend groups/other teammates.

Read this for:
- Opposites Attract
- Sports Romance
- Sapphic
- Friends with Benefits
- Workplace Romance
- Grumpy/Sunshine
- Hair braiding as foreplay

This reads a little as New Adult to me - particularly during the fights Grace and Phoebe had - it's realistic in a sense that these two very different people would need to learn how to communicate with each other but the fights just felt a *touch* dramatic. I also (like Grace) spent the entire book assuming Phoebe knew she had ADHD. I had to suspend my disbelief just a bit that a 22 year old on Tiktok hadn't already figured this out given the clear struggles she had throughout her life and in the book.

The third person present POV was initially quite jarring to me and I had a hard time getting into the book because of it. I think there's a reason most books are not written in this tense but I will say that I ended up getting used to it by about 20% and was no longer noticing it the longer I read.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you Net Galley for giving me the ARC!

3.15 Stars!

If there is one thing I have been loving this year, it's sports romances. This one is one of the best ones I've read this year. I don't usually love third POV, but I actually liked it in this book. It just worked for me! The queer rep was beyond perfect, I thought it was so good and I was really happy that it was written the way that it was. Not a ton of them are in my opinion. The only thing I don't like, even in this book, is a miscommunication trope. They're not my favorite. But it was such a cute read! Would definitely buy from this author again.

There were a lot of things I really enjoyed about this book. As a college athlete I related to it a lot more than I expected and it was a great example of positive queer rep. The only few issues I had were the extensive miscommunication trope which left most of the fights and make up conversations feeling really incomplete. I also found the description of the book to be a little too on the nose and could have left a little more to be found out later. But over a fun and cute sports romcom in the very lacking area of queer sport romcoms.

Premise:
-contemporary fictional romcom set in New Orleans, Louisiana (but begins in Indiana)
-dual third-person limited perspectives of main characters
-22-year-old Phoebe Matthews is about to join the New Orleans women's soccer team & it's her first season as a professional soccer player!
-26-year-old US Women's National Team legend Grace Henderson loses a bet during a drills session and has to kiss Phoebe (a penalty thought of by her teammate and secret ex, Kelsey)
-Phoebe struggles to make it on time to practice, while Grace navigates panic attacks and tries to hide her hip injury and brushes it off as "her body getting older"
-tropes: friends-with-benefits, miscommunication, workplace romance, forced proximity, grumpy x sunshine
-steam: 3.5/5 - Meryl just *knows* how to write delectable steamy scenes
-cw: mental health struggles, ableism, injury, bullying, toxic relationship, panic attacks, classism

Thoughts:
Thoughts:
I am absolutely in my sports romance era and this hit the spot!!! Meryl Wilsner strikes AGAIN! They can do no wrong, I said what I said!

Meryl wrote Grace's character and arc so perfectly. I know SO MANY people like Grace, who do not prioritize themselves, and constantly brush off their pain or deem their situations as easy to work around, when all it's doing is inadvertently causing them harm. The worst part is that they don't even recognize that they're not being kind to themselves? It's sad and it's exhausting to watch someone treat themselves this way.

I loved that Grace had to re-examine what prioritizing her emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing meant. So many millennials experience occupational existential angst, because many of us tied our self-worth to our career trajectories, and once the curtain dropped, we were left with having to re-learn who we were WITHOUT that job/career/degree. Grace has to rediscover what she actually enjoys about her job, and then how to enforce boundaries around that. GO OFF BABYYY!

Another piece of this book that was handled with so much care was Phoebe's journey with her undiagnosed neurodivergence! From the very beginning, Meryl gives us subtle hints and glimpses, and I think it worked really well! I also just adored the general spunkiness and initiative that Phoebe had with exploring a brand new city. Sure, she was perceived by her teammates as a wide-eyed ingenue, but her curiosity and enthusiasm was genuine and refreshing to see. She wasn't too cool for anything, and since she hadn't traveled much before, she was framing living somewhere new as an opportunity to explore and learn.

Overall, this has become another favorite by Meryl for me and I simply adore the way they flesh out characters' motivations, backstories, and fears. And omgoodness do they know how to write swoon-worthy romance!!!

First iff I want to say thank you for the opportunity to read this arc!

I just want to start by saying Mistakes Were Made is one of my favorite books! That being said I understand this is the uncompleted version… there are pacing and grammar issues that made this some what difficult for me to read. Also, I’m not exactly sure what tense we’re in.

That bit being said… I enjoyed the concept of this story. A solid 3.7 stars.

I don't really know what to say other than this was fun and cute and I read it in two days.

I love Phoebe as a character, and both she and Grace are fleshed out well, both as athletes and neurodivergent adults. <spoiler>Though Grace only starting to wonder, hm, am I autistic? after watching tiktoks where a few chapters earlier she was briefly nonverbal and hand-flap stimming was a bit much imo.</spoiler>

Good sports romance, good sapphic romance, both POV characters were distinguishable from each other (which is a low bar, but still, enough books miss it that it's worth mentioning). I'm in a sports romance phase and likely wouldn't have been interested in this if it wasn't a queer sports romance, but it definitely scratches the itch if you're also in that phase.

Also, I want Grace to braid my hair, please.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Overall, it was cute! I especially enjoyed the dynamic between the team members in both of the teams involved. I did feel like I learned a little bit about soccer, so there's that. Do I think the love interests should actually be together? Probably not, but that is a matter of my opinion.

3/5. Cute and fun.

This is what Bend it Like Beckham could've been if Jess and Jules got together! I loved this book so much, it felt extra special to have read it during the Women's World Cup.

Cleat Cute is a heartwarming sports romance with neurodivergent lesbians who go from rivals to friends with benefits to lovers with an overall grumpy/sunshine dynamic.

This was a wonderful story centering on lesbians navigating their careers, identity, relationships, and intimacy with an unapologetically queer ensemble of side characters.

Go lesbians in sports!!

Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute story with lots of spicy scenes. I feel like (for me at least) the inner dialogue and thoughts were a little lengthy and distracted from the story at times.

This was a DNF for me. I didn’t really like the characters that much. The spice was immaculate and I love all things soccer, but I just didn’t find myself caring about the characters’ storylines. In theory, this book sounds perfect for me, but I just did not click with the main characters’ personalities.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this e-arc!

I am fairly new into sapphic romance and this one hits all the spots! I love soccer, I love women, I love New Orleans. This book has it all. I absolutely adore Phoebe and really related to Grace as a character. I am running to read the other books by this author!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I’m officially obsessed with Meryl Wilsner and this book. As a former competitive soccer player, this book gave me everything I’ve wanted and needed in an adult romance. My soccer playing heart is so full. This was hot, fun and so dang good. The banter, the opening, their tension and chemistry. All of it was just…chefs kiss. There’s just something so addicting in this book and couldn’t put it down.

If you’re looking for a romance, one that will consume you until you finish, this is definitely the one you need. The fact it’s sapphic just makes it even better. This is absolutely a book you need.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I was really excited to read this one but I’m a bit disappointed. I’m new to FF but I have to admit, the sex scenes in this book were a bit cringy. The pillow talk was terrible. I did really liked the main characters. It’s a rivals to lovers story. Much of the story is pretty good. Would have liked this better in dual POV. With that in mind, the author still does a good job at letting you know how the characters are feeling and what they’re thinking. I would recommend this book because I think a lot of people will enjoy it. Just wasn’t for me.

GOD this woman knows how to write a steamy sex scene! And a sapphic one at that, you don’t see this kind of stuff every day.

This is definitely a strong point of the book. The sports element is a bit more of a window dressing: so manage your expectations from “sports anime” levels to “hockey romances” probably. I mean, fair for a romance to be a romance. I didn’t know much about female soccer going into the book, and I can’t say I learnt much after. Another thing I enjoyed was the neurodivergent representation, which is cool. I like to see that happen in my queer romance reads.

What didn’t work out well is the pacing. There was an overwhelming amount of internal monologue, and the progression of the relationship was too fast for me.

But overall, a good time had with the book. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

I LOVED this book. I finished it in one day which is not always the case for me. I think that the two main female characters (Phoebe and Grace) have great chemistry and compliment each other, one being really introverted and the other being talkative and more expressive.
I’m not a big fan of soccer or sports in general but it didn’t stop me from liking the book. I loved the opposite’s attract trope, the queer representation in many of the characters, the ADHD representation with Phoebe and finally the autism representation with Grace. All these representations was what stood out for me the most. I rate this book 4,5/5 stars because there were a few slow moments in the story but overall really enjoyed the book.

Feel very lucky to have gotten an ARC of this. Wilsner found my softspot for sports romances and nailed it Grace and Phoebe. Loved this romance.

I typically am not one to get hyped about sports romance, but I think reading this during the Women's World Cup helped get me in the mood for this one! It was super easy to follow the soccer storyline and I loved the scenes with the team.

I liked the dual POV but I think the biggest drag for me was the inner monologues of both MCs. It was just a little too long and a little too repetitive, I ended up skimming a few pages.

However, the banter between the two MC's was great, and the (numerous) steamy scenes were a lot of fun. I loved these neurodivergent lesbians and I cannot wait to read more from Wilsner!!