Woohoo!! I finally read one of my ARCs and read it in enough time to post my review prior to pub date! Let’s get into it.

Before I get too far into this review, I want to preface this with, I had one set of expectations based off of the synopsis and I didn’t think that it was an accurate representation of the book. Unfortunately, it highly impacted my experience of the book.

This was advertised as a sapphic, soccer rivals to lovers. I personally felt like it was more of an opposites attract type relationship. I didn’t see the two FMCS as soccer rivals, more so just opposite personalities. With that being said, I did enjoy the steamy scenes, but outside of that, I didn’t really see their chemistry.

This book does have a lot of soccer references and abbreviations, so if you have that background, you’ll appreciate it! I unfortunately do not, so I was a little confused from time to time.

Overall, I was really excited for this one, but I felt like it wasn’t for me. I didn’t see the synopsis play out until the last ~35% ish and then the ending took a right hook that it gave me whip lash. Loved the steam and thought it was bingeable, but felt like the plot was all over the place for my liking :/

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date 9/19/23.

I'm having a really difficult time getting into this book and I think it's just not for me.
I find the writing style, with short sentences, almost staccato like, to be difficult for me to follow. Some more variation in the sentence structures would have helped me. I also felt like it was very inner-monologue-y and not much dialogue or description of character interactions. Maybe if it had been written from first-person POV, with alternating between the FMCs, it would be easier for me to read. I don't know.

I also didn't like that a kiss was part of a bet. That just makes me cringe a bit.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC. Opinions are entirely my own.

This author does it again with this book. The last one I read from her had me blushing from beginning to end. This book did the same but this time a little more, we have Phoebe who is a wild card, she’s hella fun, and she finally gets drafted into the soccer team of her dreams working alongside her idol Grace. This is like grump/sunshine romance trope I adore, if don’t nicely and this was IT!!!!!! Grace being the grump of course, lol she’s composed, a planner, the captain of the team, she’s very private and Phoebe is just different. It was amazing seeing Grace come out her shell, it was even more amazing, seeing her support towards phoebe and how phoebe takes that support. This book had it all for me. But the STEAM YA’LL!!!!! The steam is always something to appreciate. Meryl does it again!

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

✨ Review ✨ Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner; Narrated by Dana Varden; Zim Avaltrades

This book was the absolute cutest! Rookie Phoebe Matthews and long-time soccer star Grace Henderson meet up at a training camp for the women's national team before their season will start on the same New Orleans women's team. Grace is cool and collected and Phoebe is a ball of chaotic energy, but as Phoebe arrives early for the pre-season they begin to build a friendship. Despite their very different backgrounds, they start to hit it off, and this story is just so adorable!

I loved how this book also explored neurodivergence in adult women -- both Phoebe and Grace have certain traits that lead to them exploring these things. I thought it was shared positively and in a way that was relatable!

The book is also just a really lovely celebration of queerness in women's sports communities!

Overall, I loved this read, and didn't want to switch from the audio to the ebook because the narrators were just so good at hooking me into the story!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5)
Genre: contemporary f/f romance, sports romance
Setting: New Orleans and with the national team's training
Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
Pub Date: 19 Sep 2023

Read this if you like:
⭕️ women's soccer + queer relationships
⭕️ friends to lovers
⭕️ New Orleans and delicious food

Thanks to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Griffin and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

This was one of my most anticipated release this year as I adored Mistakes Were Made. I was so disappointed by this book. It felt incredibly repetitive and just one massive miscommunication over and over and over. The whole obsession/stalking was super weird to me as well.

I liked this a lot! I am not usually drawn to books that heavily feature sports but this book did work for me. The only thing is that I couldn't super relate to either of the main characters as I can't imagine being THAT driven and focused on one thing (soccer in this case), my personality just is not like that and I have no experience playing team sports. That being said, I enjoyed getting to know both Grace and Phoebe and I thought their romance was sweet and perfect with the right amount of spice. I also really appreciated the representation of neurodiversity in the book - it's a bit of a spoiler but one of the characters helps the other to discover a potential diagnosis and the way this part of the story was told really hit me. I loved a lot about their relationship and the story was just overall a joy to read.

Did not finish book. Stopped at 56%.
I was really excited about this book. It looked so good and there were parts that were pure. 🔥🔥🔥 It had so much fun dialogue and the spicy was so good.

I just couldn’t get behind all of the internal monologues. The story would drag for pages of nonsense. It was to much for me. I just wasn’t having a good time.

I was given a ARC of this book in exchange for my review.

Gah I wanted to connect and love this one so much but it fell short for me unfortunately. I’ve played soccer my whole life so it wasn’t the soccer setting or terminology but rather after a strong opening, the plot just seemed to stall.
I connected with the undiagnosed ADHD/Autism representation and really liked/connected with Phoebe but overall found the connection between Grace and Phoebe to be immature and forced. The steamy scenes are well-written and super spicy but because I wasn’t invested in the couple’s connection they also fell flat for me. The heaps of miscommunication was what finally rounded out the shortcomings for me as well. Love the author, love the idea, and I think others will still connect and enjoy this book, but it was not a home run for me. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest feedback.

I thought the premise for this book was so cool but the actual book left me underwhelmed. I had a lot of trouble connecting to Grace’s character. She felt very one note to me. I felt like her chapters just talked about how much pressure she was under over and over. I also thought the ADHD plot line came in way too late.

I did not vibe with this book being written in third person present tense. I was so annoyed by the constant use of the characters names I almsot DNFd the book. I ended up mostly reading this ebook version because the audio was basically intolerable for me.

The book itself was fine, I liked the story line and the characters, I just couldn’t get past the writing style choices.

Thanks so much to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC copy of this book! I will get to writing and doing a full review of this on my primary reviewing platforms once my thoughts are finalized.

The plot is cute and the story flowed well with lots of inclusion.
Why did I rate it 3 stars then?
I hated Grace.
I hated her inner monologues, her general personality and her trying to tell Phoebe who Phoebe is.
She just rubbed me the wrong way in every single thing she said or did.
Loved Phoebe, and the sexytimes were hella hawt, so I would still recommend it, especially since I think I hated Grace so much because she reminded me of an ex.
Much love to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my ARC.

I read this 2 months ago when I first got the ARC and I already want to reread it again!

Cleat Cute is amazing and Meryl Wilsner can write no wrong. I absolutely loved this book and the two MCs Grace and Phoebe. It has a great cast of supporting characters and if you're into soccer, you might associate some of the characters to NWSL players. That was fun!

And the tropes: enemies to friends with benefit to lovers, a sprinkle of miscommunication and great mental health representation <3 All my faves. Impossible not to enjoy this book!

Women, Soccer, rivals to lovers....

Meryl Wilsner wowed me with Mistakes Were Made and I looked forward to reading another one of Wilsner's books. In Cleat Cute, Grace, has been the star of the US women's national team for ten years. She has made a name for herself and is anxious to compete in the World Cup. But an injury sidelines her, and her spot is taken by Phoebe Matthews, a new member of the team and a huge fan of Grace's skills. Phoebe is outgoing, loud and a jokester; basically, all the things that Grace is not. The last thing they expected was to be friends with benefits.

I had both the book and audiobook for Cleat Cute. I thought the narrators did a great job. You do not need to be a fan of soccer to enjoy this book. There is not a lot about it in terms of terminology or game play (but there is some). This book is more about the characters and the journey they both are on individually and together.

This was a fast read/listen and my one beef is that it felt like a steamy YA book at times to me. Like most romance books, there is an issue with communication and over thinking. Talk, talk, talk, I wanted to tell them. Otherwise, I enjoyed this book and the journey that both characters went on.

This book was such a cute read and perfect for the end of summer/start of fall. As someone who is a huge fan of soccer and the USWNT, I loved how the author took a lot of care to make that aspect of the story as accurate as possible. I read a lot of sports romance, and I feel like so many times, there is not this level of attention to detail. In addition to this, I loved the characters. Grace had my whole heart. The way she and Phoebe learned how to grow together and be together was so heartwarming. The book was fun while still being able to deal with more serious topics, such as Grace's struggles with anxiety and Phoebe's ADHD. Another little detail I loved was the attention to finances in the book. It sounds like a weird point, but the book demonstrated the lack of glamour that exists in women's sports in a good way. It drew attention to how much of a problem it is that female athletes at the highest level barely get paid a livable wage and addressed it in a way that was both delicate and strong. Finally, as a sapphic story, I feel like the romance was represented so well, without being caricaturized or overly sexualized. It was written really well, which made me happy, as I feel like I rarely find sapphic stories in the first place, much less ones that are written this well. Other than a few writing issues and being annoyed at the miscommunication that would happen in the book, I really had no issues with it. I would definitely recommend it.

I love anything meryl writes and this book did not disappoint! I couldn’t get enough of this story! I loved the premise and can see many readers enjoying this book! I can’t wait to read it again once it’s published

Unfortunately this book was a miss for me! I love sapphic romances but there’s something about the way the author writes that feels like fanfic to me. Also I can’t stand the miscommunication trope so that’s a no in my book. Swing and a miss!

This was a fun, quick read! I didn’t connect with either of the main characters necessarily, so that took me a bit out of the story. But overall, it was an enjoyable and very steamy read.

I realliy enjoyed this book! It was nice to see a cute female led sports story. This is the first time I've read Meryl Wilsner, and I will definitely be reading more.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC of Cleat Cute.

Loved this books so much!!!! There is never any good pro female sports book and this gave me everything I wanted. Loved the story so much I will be checking out the other stories by this author .