When I started this book I was hopping to get a five star read but the characters were quite grating and repetitive at times so I felt disconnected from them which therefore made me not lOVE the overall book. This book could definitely be a cute read for some people but as I am not in luv with how the 2 mcs treated each other. They both deserved better communication. Loved the representation tho so props for that<3

Cleat Cute, emphasis on the “cute.” A lot of emphasis on the “cute.” While it suffered from an excess of miscommunication, I had fun anyway, which was a surprise to myself as I had DNF’ed Something to Talk About several years ago. I’m glad I gave this book a shot.

My First Book by Meryl Wilsner and I'm blown away!
It had my favorite Features:

Soccer
Grumpy/Sunshine
Veteran/Rookie
Childhood Idol
Little to no relationship drama

I loved Phoebe and Grace together. They seemed an unlikely pair but Phoebe with her joyous personality melted Grace's defenses and made her fall in love with her. I loved their interaction which was so fun.
Despite being a sports romance the soccer parts didn't shadow the romance.
Overall an enjoyable read and in my opinion, it would be better with fewer inner monologues. Sometimes they disrupt the story's pacing. but it didn't make me skip those parts.
I did wish for a longer Epilogue.
Thank you Netgalley for providing an arc copy

i wanted to like this book so bad. the premise is cute, and i’ve been a huge soccer fan my entire life.

but i found the characters flat, and maybe i could have pushed through it, but it seemed like the writing was a lot of telling instead of showing. i couldn’t find the chemistry between the two convincing enough.

i might have enjoyed this a little bit ago when i was reading romance nonstop, but now i’ve been more in a fantasy reading kick. but i think i would still want to recommend this to people who want a diverse romantic book.

This book is perfect for anyone who is rightfully obsessed with the US Women’s National Team. It’s the perfect sapphic fanfic. I really enjoyed this book. I liked Grace and Phoebe. It was fun seeing relationship evolve from celebrity crush to teammates to friends with benefits to more. This book delivers a better twist on miscommunication, because while there is some scenes with it they work out to communicate and understand where their assumptions went wrong. Honorable mention to the full team because there are some fun personalities that I wish we could to see more of. This would totally make for a great series- think A League of Their Own but make it soccer. I would definitely recommend this book!

*I received the ARC for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Absolutely amazing sapphic soccer swooning. This made me watch the World Cup. A whole world of women's soccer knowledge in this book and plenty of sweat earned. Such a cute romcom, very sexy.

Fun, sapphic read about professional soccer players.

I love soccer! And most of the talk about it in this book I could relate to, since playing at a higher level. But some of it is petty and drama filled, which - yeah there's some of that IRL too. I loved the fact that the author included second jobs & financial struggles.

The 2 main characters, Grace and Phoebe, each had their own issues but seemed easy for them to get together.
Grace is introverted, and the captain of the professional team Phoebe or "Phenom" was drafted to in New Orleans. There are some New Orleans city scenes but I wished there were more.
Phoebe is extroverted to a fault. They get together, a bit of opposites attract, and it's spicy. The back and forth between the two of them is excruciating but not in a good way. SO much inner dialogue that is unnecessary. Half of the book could have been cut and it would be much better.

ADHD rep was good!

This was such a fun read and I really enjoyed it, but I found it underwhelming compared to the other works I'd read by Meryl Wilsner. I still would recommend it to my friends but it fell flat in a lot of ways, especially toward the end. The pacing for the development of the relationship was off — first it was really slow, then it sped up way too much.

This was a really nice read. A first from the author. I would definitely read it again. The story kind of reminded me of two famous soccer players that I shall not name but I feel like I know.

So happy I got an ARC for this book so I could read it during the Women’s World Cup. I wish it was already out so everyone else could experience it the same way! From a marketing perspective I do think the timing of the release date was a major missed opportunity and mistake on the publisher for not releasing this during the World Cup

I liked that it is opposites attract rather than your typical grumpy/sunshine dynamic. The contrast between the two of them has substance. Type A introvert and a Type B extrovert felt more believable than normal grumpy sunshine dynamics. Those usually come off almost cartoonish, but I could picture Grace and Phoebe as people I know. The neurotypical journey and representation was a great addition as well.

I appreciate how well they communicate even though they’re different.

I will say the book was a little slow and hard to get into l at first. The best part of the book is the sweet spot right as they’re getting together and the beginning of their relationship and then it just kind of because redundant and low again. Their inner monologues were very repetitive. The author seemed to tell us everything rather than show us.

However, I still loved it. I loved how the author was able to create two very different characters, show how they contrast and clash, without ever demeaning either of their personalities or characteristics. The story was cute and I loved the queer, neurodivergent, and soccer rep. Would recommend!

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest rating and review.

2/5

I wanted to love this book so bad! It’s sapphic fiction about soccer. Given that the World Cup is currently ruling my life, it felt like the perfect time to read this. But, wow oh wow, this book was not for me. I liked that the book was about soccer, and I appreciated the spotlight on the fact that many professional women soccer players have to have a second job. And that’s a comprehensive list of everything I liked about the book. The two main characters were unlikeable, one more than the other. The one was so incredibly obnoxious, I cringed every time I had to read dialogue from her or read her inner monologuing. There was no believable chemistry between the two mains - one second the one character was annoyed by the other and the next second they were joking up and infatuated with each other. It was also so so repetitive. Each time the book switched perspectives, it was just the same inner monologue and creating somethings out of nothings. Overall, I was very disappointing.

Add me to the lengthy list of those who were blown away by last year's Mistakes Were Made. Needless to say, I was thrilled to see we didn't have to wait too long for another hit from Meryl Wilsner.

Phoebe Matthews may be one of my all-time favorite characters. Completely aware of who she is at a young age and not willing to compromise for anyone, including her childhood hero. The writing in third person present tense was perfection for this story.

I kept waiting for the "A Star is Born" storyline to take over, and the outcome couldn't have been any better. Reading this during the WWC is perfect timing.

What a fun and exciting read for this summer! I really enjoyed every aspect of this book, including the diverse characters, the plot-line and the ending. The normalizing of ADHD and its affects on kids and adults was a great bonus to the story. I fell in love with Phoebe from the beginning and knew she would be a bad-ass main character. Throughout the book, we learned more about Grace and her background. I was so happy with the character development for Grace throughout the book! By the end, I was routing for them both in different ways than I was at the beginning! What a fabulous romance!

loved this book, especially reading it during the world cup (the women’s one, obviously ((the superior one))). sometimes felt like it leaned into stereotypes TOO much and also i wish the epilogue was longer. i did love the characters, i loved the conclusion, and i loved that the author used the inequities faced by female sports teams to further the plot. it’s a very important conversation that i think needs to keep happening.

Banter>>>>
story>>>>>



Thank you soooooo much netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advanced review copy if this book💗
"I voluntarily read and reviewed the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

This was a fun read with enjoyable main characters. .

I think you're either a Phoebe or Grace and will definitely understand the frustrations of both when it's their turn to share internal narratives.

The story flowed easily and you don't need to know anything about soccer to understand what is happening.

this was so cute! their dynamic reminded me of lexi and rae from the ultimatum which lowkey annoyed me at times but phoebe was so sweet and grace irritated me bc she was literally a robot however i think that was the point! good spice until the second half when it literally went fade to black. talked a lot about soccer which i didnt care about but i did enjoy the book overall

rivals to secret lovers
miscommunication
jealousy

Cleat Cute introduces us to Grace Henderson, a star of the soccer USWNT, and Phoebe Matthews, a fresh face out of college. Phoebe is ecstatic when she’s drafted to Grace’s NWSL team, as she had posters of Grace on her bedroom walls. They’re drawn to each other, and teach each other different aspects of life. A miscommunication could impact their relationship in multiple ways, such as teammates, national team players, friendship, and maybe a romantic aspect as well.

This was a fun summer read for me! I felt that I was able to relate to the players and put myself in their cleats, so to speak. While they are incredible and at the top of their game, Wilsner still showed depth around the characters. It was pretty spicy, so keep that in mind if that is or isn’t what you are looking for in a book.Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

*file under the main couple will break up six months after the epilogue*

I know that Wilsner is polarising. I personally loved their debut, and liked their second book. I did find that everything I enjoyed in their debut was no longer present in book 2 and Cleat Cute but they also had new strengths. While Something To Talk About was a slowburn that I found very akin to fanfiction (positive) Cleat Cute's main couple has very little actual *romantic* development that left me feeling like they didn't deserve to be together. Even I the reader was rooting AGAINST them being together.

This starts very early in the book, where Phoebe is a starry-eyed puppy and Grace is dismissive. Normally you'd expect Phoebe to have a never meet your heroes moment but no Grace is horny for Phoebe so we skip all the angst. Everytime there's drama in this book, or miscommunication or whatever boom someone is horny and it fixes everything. Don't get me wrong I really respect Wilsner for the many sex scenes, the dialogues they created, and just a healthy sex life. It's just that the supposedly adult characters act more like horny teens than anything else. Towards the end, Grace tries to bring up an important topic and is promptly cut off by Phoebe asking her to make out. While the conversation is resumed after this immediately told me that there's no way this couple will last and immediately turned me off rooting for their happy ending.

I was expecting a lot out of a friends with benefits to lovers situation but I felt like each step was a failure at convincing me to care about their relationship. The whole benefits situation was awkwardly brought on, each time there was an interesting tension between the characters it was immediately resolved in the same or following chapter. Overall I didn't believe that they were in love in the end.

Grace was an interesting character. I did see someone say that her autism is not really clear/mentioned but I did read her as autistic early on. She just exhibits more socially-complicated traits and less environment-sensitivity traits. There's a point where she mentions faking her emotions that was relatable. I did like her a lot more than Phoebe except every time she decided that being horny would overrule any valid introspection she had before.

But this is a soccer romance how is the team, the side characters? Well I couldn't tell you, because despite the two protagonists having many friends they're all as flat as each other, and I ended up mixing them up more than once. The side cast could not exist and it wouldn't change a thing.

and omg the constant tik tok mentions just made the experience worse

This is my preferred romance! Not terribly cheesy, mentions of real-world topics, and a believable love story. I read this during the 2023 Women's World Cup and I think that made me even more interested in the sport. Grace and Phoebe are such relatable characters in their own way. There is so much representation in this that speaks to how intentional Meryl was in writing this. I will plan to explore more of her work and am excited for the next release!