This is a story about soccer veteran Grace Hendricks who’s on the USWNT and on a NOLA club team Krewes. Grace is a bit on the autism spectrum and is an introvert and completely private in her personal life. Phoebe Matthews is a new player on the Krewes team and hopes to make the National Team. Phoebe is loud and boisterous and loves teasing Grace.

Grace is bothered by Phoebe’s personality and tries to avoid her all the while finding herself drawn in by her happy go lucky attitude. They are complete opposites in most ways except their love for the game of soccer.

I like that Wilsner switched back and forth between Grace’s point of view and Phoebe’s for each chapter. This way we got to know what each was thinking and I think it helped develop their personalities.

Grace was my favorite character in this story and together they make a cute couple. The Krewes teammates were fun and both MCs had supportive families.

There is some soccer in the story and lots of hotness between the MCs. I enjoyed the setting in NOLA and all the great restaurants and unique food to the city.

This is my second Wilsner book and I’ll be reading more in the future.

ARC received from NetGalley for an honest and voluntary review.

A good romance for anyone who loves women's soccer, steamy shower scenes, and a grumpy sunshine trope. The writing felt a little clunky and I had a hard time liking the characters but it was still a fun read. 3.5/5 stars.

First book I've read by the author but it certainly won't be the last.
Wilsner's writing easily pulled me into this romance with the backdrop of soccer. Love and soccer are front and centre but neither overwhelms the other. Grace, the veteran player now injured is faced with a newbie player in Phoebe. Two players but only one position on the national team. Who will win, the upstart or the veteran? If only it was that simple! I was treated to a fine romance between Grace and Phoebe with the game of soccer beautifully interspersed in the storyline. Location descriptions and events were on point but I loved the connection, growing feelings and caring, the emotional ride and back and forth between two women who shouldn't click but eventually do. The book cover works too!!
A sports romance that hits the spot.

* I love how realistic both our characters are when it comes to romance
* Both perspectives lends itself to the way the woman feel each other and how each feels in the moment
* Enemies to friends to lovers is my favorite

Seeing Grace and Phoebe evolve from the characters we see them as in the beginning to people that grow in their relationship for the better is amazing! Grace learns to play and live her life for herself rather than others. While Phoebe learns what real love feels like and how she wants to fight for it.

Having a sapphic romance centered around soccer and an extra level for me of appreciation. The stereo types are funny for both soccer and sapphics. But this is also the first books I’ve read like this. Having a new relationship on top of the life being soccer adds for realistic twists and turns.

Grace learning to trust again was honestly one of my favorite things. Being hurt by a person changed everything and she shut down. Meeting Phoebe allowed her to discover love again.

Cleat Cute was cleat cute. All her life Phoebe Matthews wanted to play for the world women's soccer league. And her idol was Grace Henderson who was captain of her team and soccer extraordinaire. So when Phoebe is recruited to play professional soccer, she is flabbergasted when she finally gets to meet Grace and to actually play on her team.

Not long after they meet they have their first sexual encounter in the locker room. Grace was burned in her relationship with her teammate, Kelsey, and as a result was phobic about relationships. And Phoebe has never been in a serious relationship. That said, they decided to become friends with benefits. But that didn't sit well with Phoebe because she has developed intense feelings for Grace. And as it turns out, Grace, too, had feelings for Phoebe. Phoebe was totally out and Grace was not.

Finally, they acknowledge their feelings for each other and Grace does an interview where she comes out. She did it to prove a point to Phoebe.

This book was really cute and was a delightful read. I really liked what the author did with the characters. They were very believable. And the angst between Phoebe and Grace was enough to hold my attention. I gave the book five stars.

From this point forward, please consider this page an official @merylwilsner fan account. Thank you so much to both Wilsner and @netgalley for this ARC of Cleat Cute! I could not be more in love with this soccer romance.

What I LOVED:

⚽ The absolute banter of it all. There is no one that writes such sparkling dialogue as Meryl Wilsner. Between the absolute best and worst flirting I've ever seen with Grace and Phoebe, and the casual dialogue between our leads and their team mates, I was often literally snort laughing. It was so easy to feel like you were in the room with a bunch of cool ass World Cup soccer players joking like true friends really do with one another.
⚽ Grace and Matthews are the most adorably dysfunctionally functional couple I have ever read. For two women that are seemingly never on the same page with where they are in their relationship, they manage to be exactly what the other person needs throughout the story. I love that their dysfunction was sweet and led to greater growth between them, rather than being toxic and unhealthy as sometimes transpires in romance.
⚽ The pure STEAM of it all!!! The way they write sex scenes just 🥵🥵🥵 I was hooked from the very first bench scene (IYKYK) and was hooked further with every moment of caring these two take for one another. The focus on taking care of one another and making the other person feel good, building trust and not needing "reciprocity" or feeling pressure was so incredible to read within such a steamy novel.
⚽ Grace and Phoebe may be one of my new favorite couples of all time. Their complete love for one another as individuals, soccer players, and as romantic partners really got me. Both characters are also so well developed that as a reader I was invested in both of their separate journeys, as well as theirs together. They felt just as important, especially for Grace's storyline.

What I disliked:

LITERALLY NOTHING, HUSH YOUR BEAUTIFUL FACE!!

This choir nerd is officially considering watching the World Cup after this incredible romance. Cleat Cute is out September 19th! Trust me, you don't want to skip this one.

Meryl Wilsner just doesn’t miss, huh?

Cleat Cute is romantic and sweet, with incredible neurodivergence rep, a sports romance without being excessively sporty, and just SO GOOD.

Phoebe is a rookie, Grace is a veteran. They meet, and sparks fly on a soccer field. It’s beautiful.

I think my favorite thing about this aside from the IMPECCABLE spicy scenes (🥵🥵) is how well these two women work together. It’s very much an opposites attract situation, in a “we’re on the same team and I have experience so take heed”. They LISTEN to each other, they learn from each other. There’s no drama for the sake of drama, there’s very little angst, and because of that, I devoured this.

Also, Wilsner’s prose is identical to the way I think and process, so I, as a neurodivergent woman, really appreciate reading about neurodivergent women and seeing that representation really hit home for me.

Also also, this was my first sapphic sports romance, and I think it’s a cool genre. Props to Wilsner for this excellent entrance into that space.

Firstly, Meryl Wilsner really know how to write a spicy sapphic romance!!! I really enjoyed reading this book and cannot wait to annotate my favorite parts in physical copy! The love story between Phoebe and Grace is very chaotic but in a good way. There are not many sapphic books with neurodivergent main characters and the representation makes me so happy! My only complaint is that I wish it was explored even further.

DNF- I’m sorry I tried to like it. I loved the spice. But the characters felt one-dimensional and just not interesting. I really wanted to love it.

'Cleat Cute' was, for lack of a better word, so cute!

I really enjoyed the back and forth between our two main characters, Phoebe and Grace. They spent a lot of time in their own heads about their feelings/each other, which is hysterical for me, an avid overthinker and generally anxious human in most situations. Growing up a yearbook nerd and (sometimes) dancer, the soccer lingo was a little bit confusing for me at first, but didn't take away from the storyline for me at all!

Overall, I thought this book was super fun and unique and will be recommending it to some of my friends/coworkers!

This is the second book by this author I have read and the second book that I really did not like. The characters are incredibly one dimensional, even within the grumpy/sunshine trope. While I initially was super interested in the pro soccer setting, it quickly fell away to juvenile interactions and sorry - extremely cringey sex scenes. There is no plot to speak of and everything feels forced and childish. Maybe I’m too old for books like this? I sped through the end just to finish but this will be the last book from this author I ever read.

Meryl Wilsner for the win again. Her characters are always interesting and complex, and the chemistry is always off the charts. Phoebe Matthews is a bubbly and energetic soccer player who wants to move up the ranks. Grace Henderson is an idol of Phoebe’s even though they are only four years apart in age. They are instantly attracted to one another, and at the same time, they are two very different people. Phoebe has undiagnosed ADHD, is chronically late, and has a hard time focusing if it’s something she’s not interested in. She’s also super open with her feelings. Grace keeps things much more tightly wound. She’s been burned from starting something with another soccer player in the past, so is reluctant to do so again. Of course the two can’t stay away from each other. The sex scenes are HOT, and their talks about dates are also really very sweet. I just loved the character development between these two as they navigate how to be in an adult relationship, communication, the soccer world, and New Orleans. I loved this book.

Phoebe thinks all of her dreams are coming true after signing with a professional soccer team- and that’s before she even gets to meet her childhood idol and team captain, Grace. Their rivalry turns into a friends with benefits situation but do they want the same thing?

What I loved:
- spicy!
- ADHD representation
- loveable characters
- grumpy/sunshine

I really enjoyed this book although the narration style did take away from the extremely loveable characters and their evident chemistry for me. There is some miscommunication in this one which is typically a pet peeve of mine, but there were also some parts with excellent communication so I’m calling it a win overall. If you’re looking for a spicy, sweet, sapphic Ted Lasso-esque romance, this might be the book for you!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced reading copy!

Officially 4.5!

It's got a grumpy/sunshine sports romance plot like Everything For You by Chloe Liese & alllll the spice like Delilah Green Doesn't Care 🥵 Best of both worlds!!!

A little too much of internal monologues & felt like it wrapped up a little quickly, but absolutely loved it otherwise!!

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC :)

This book was incredibly cute. Not often there’s a football (soccer) story that has a good plot and focuses on the sport as well. It was a great balance.

This was an ARC I was given in return for an honest review.

Liked:
⭐️ Cute banter here and there
⭐️ LGBTQIA+ rep! 🌈
⭐️ Good descriptions of soccer games

Disliked:
⚫️ Using 3 different names for the characters— a nickname, first name only, or last name only. Really confusing and hard to keep up with.
⚫️ I was not expecting this “rom-com” to be so open-door spicy!
⚫️ Weird mental health assumption and making of a doctor’s appointment for a friend without consulting her first.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

<b> Thank you to Meryl Wilsner, St Martin's Press/St Martin's Griffin, and NetGalley for the ARC for this book. </b>

Small town, Pheobe Matthews can't believe it. She was an early draft to play for the New Orleans Krewes and has been called up to train with the Women's World Cup Soccer team with her childhood idol Grace Henderson. Grace a soccer prodigy, is introverted, serious, quiet, and slow to trust newcomers. Pheobe is the loud and proud, high-energy, class clown who flirts with all the cute girls. While she's the polar opposite of Pheobe new-kid joy and love for the game reminds Grace of what playing soccer used to be like for her when she started her career 10 years earlier. At first, Phoebe is star-struck by Grace but soon she finds that Grace is everything she wants to be as a player and be with as a partner. But how does she convince Grace (who isn't out to the public) that she not only isn't vying for her spot on the National Team but that she sees Grace as more than just a rockstar soccer player?

Pheobe Matthews is one of the best embodiments of a dynamic woman with ADHD I've read in a very long time. The way she is written is textbook and yet quippy and fun. It isn't until the end of the book that she is diagnosed as an adult but if I could show you my copy you'd see almost every page is marked by moments of impulsivity, overthinking, oversharing, time blindness, and more. Her communication style is somewhere between awkward oversharing and timid is incredibly poignant. Grace is clearly coded as Autistic and the end of the book implies that she too will consider looking for seeking a diagnosis. But Grace's lack of understanding of social cues combined with Phoebe's class clown self-defense mechanism leads to an interesting combination of misunderstandings in which two people so much on the same page actually end up being almost lost in translation.

This is a beautiful neurodivergent, sapphic, and sporty romance that hit on a lot of the stigmas that surround the queer and neurodivergent without being preachy about them or making light of them.

I'd give this book 4.5/5 stars and round up to 5. The reason for this is the narrator's voice was slightly off from what I prefer/am used to and at times I found this pulled me from the story. But it didn't detract from the overall awesomeness of the book.

This book was so good! I do wish it would've had some longer conversations to resolve things but I do think it resolved things well! It was fun and cute! It balance the romance with what they were all going through.

I am pre facing this review with the mention that I know nothing about soccer but what I learned from watching Ted Lasso. So as I started reading all I could picture of Grace was Roy Kent and Phoebe as Jamie Tart and they fall in love. I love the grouchy loner with a million responsibilities Grace and how Phoebe just barrels into her life. I am not a huge miscommunication trope but this was perfect and completely on brand with how I picture these two opposite attraction women.
I enjoyed how Phoebe makes Grace open up with who she is and how Grace takes care of Phoebe. I loved the teams and the soccer games. It was enough disruption that I felt I understood the game buy not so much that I got lost or bored.
There was tons of mental health representation which wad great and I loved how TikTok which is so relevant to this age was a huge part of diagnosis.
Major props for an excellent romance with good representation with seeming like it was checking boxes. Very much enjoyed this book and Grace is one of my favorite character this year.
One issue I had and maybe they will fix in the finished copies was the text messages where a little mushed in and it was hard to tell who was typing and when the typing stopped. I had to read some of the dialogue a few times yo figure out where the conversation was.

I would recommend to anyone that like Sapphic, sports, grumpy sunshine opposite attract with great representation and a fun sexy soccer story.

My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed Mistakes Were Made by this author, and was a bit apprehensive about reading a book about professional soccer players as I am not interested in sports whatsoever but it was a fast and well written story. I found it easy to connect to the characters.