i LOVED this book!! every book that i read of meryl wilsner is better and better, which is hard to do because i already loved the past 2 novels i read! i felt captivated from the very start of the book and there truly wasn’t a moment where that was lost. i also loved that both the main characters were lesbians and neurodivergent, grace was so relatable. thank you netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was an absolute delight, scratching an itch I didn't know I had.

All of Phoebe's dreams are coming true: not only has she been signed to play professional women's soccer, she's also invited to the US national team's camp, and it's a World Cup year. The cherry on top? She's getting to play with her idol, Grace Henderson. Neither of them are looking for a relationship. Obviously. And yet...

I adored Phoebe and Grace's dynamic! Phoebe is our ray of sunshine rookie, the perfect counterpart to Grace's mildly grumpy, set-in-her-ways veteran captain. They were absolute opposites, but the chemistry was there and the way the relationship unfolded made perfect sense, and all of their interactions were so good. There's some excellent ADHD representation as well, and the other character, while not explicitly named as neurodivergent, is heavily implied as such.

Wilsner delivers on the steam - it's sexy and fun. There IS miscommunication, but it's honestly more funny than dramatic, which I appreciate. Calling all sapphic sports fans - this is for you!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I loved this. I'm always looking for queer sports romances, since the alternative never do it for me. I love that this wasn't a college romance and that it was centered around the women's national team. I did knock one star because I found Grace to be really annoying at times, like almost to the point of unbearable, and then coding her as autistic to be the "reason" for her behavior felt kind of icky to me. Phoebe was so good at communicating her feelings, I felt, and still Grace was like "I don't know how she feels". That part just didn't make sense.

3.25⭐️

Rep: Lesbian MC with ADHD. Autistic coded Lesbian MC. Trans SC. Sapphic SC’s.

Cleat Cute is a slow paced romance novel written in third person while switching between the two MC’s. While the book picked up towards the end and I finally started to enjoy it, it took way too long to happen.

Something about the writing style just really held me back from getting into this novel. It felt way longer than it needed to be while still not giving enough information about soccer to be easy to understand. The relationship felt forced to begin with, but that could just be because I don’t enjoy immediate attraction.

There was a huge miscommunication trope in this that was so painful to get through. There’s also so many references to Tiktok that I kept cringing at.

I did enjoy the last ten percent. Grace’s character got SO much development which I was grateful to see. And the relationship really came together at the end and had me kicking my feet.

Overall, I really think this is gonna be one of those books that divides readers. If you’re in it for the spicy scenes and don’t mind immediate attraction, you may enjoy this. But if you don’t enjoy slow burn/ slow paced or miscommunication, this probably isn’t for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Meryl has done it again. Not being a fan of soccer I wasn’t sure I would fully enjoy this book but I adored this book. It is well written, funny when it needs to be and sexy as hell. They not only wrote a great story but they captured the fine nuances of a person with ADHD making their way through this world. This will most definitely be a book I read again.

I received an ARC through NetGalley for an honest review.

#cleatcute

The neurodivergent rep was fantastic, however I wish it was explored more earlier on instead of towards the end. It would have been nice to see them go through the diagnosis instead of it being thrown in at the end.

I loved Pheobe and Grace's relationship. Pheobe is outgoing, up for anything, and always ready with random facts about some out there topic she picked up recently. Grace, reserved, private, driven, by the book, and a little grumpy at times.

I didn't love this book as much as I LOVED Mistakes Were Made, but I still enjoyed it. I almost DNFd it at about the halfway point, because the constant internal monolguing, and miscommunication between our two MCs Grace and Pheobe. BUT I put it down for a few days, gave myself a little break and came back. This was definitely not a one sitting book for me, but I still enjoyed it.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

3.5 ⭐️

Just started this, I’m not sure about the third person narrative. Not really liking that aspect.

I picked it up bc of this description “ A sapphic rivals to lovers rom com for fans of Ted Lasso and A League of Their Own, where two soccer teammates are at odds before falling in love as their team gears up for the World Cup.”

I’ll keep reading but adding my initial thoughts here

I simply adored this book! I'm not at all surprised, as I loved Something to Talk About as well. Phoebe has always looked up to Grace, who has been a soccer star from a very young age. So when Phoebe gets drafted to Grace's professional team (and gets called up for camps with the women's national team), she's put directly into Grace's orbit. Naturally, sparks fly.

Where Phoebe is loud and charming and flirty, Grace is guarded and reserved and slow to trust. Seeing these two women come together is a fun and funny and sexy and heartfelt journey. The dialogue is spot-on, and it's fast-paced without feeling rushed. I truly enjoyed reading about these two and didn't want the story to end.

I also loved the representation in this book, from queer, non-binary and trans characters to neurodiversity. I appreciated the nuanced care the author took when showing this representation on the page.

Apparently I do love miscommunication when it’s between two undiagnosed neurodivergent babygirls that are “not looking for a relationship” but jump straight into one and call it benefits! From now on, these are my conditions to read a miscommunication trope.

This was so amazing. Sapphic books are treating me so well this year, 5 stars are the default at this point. The first thing that caught my attention (and everyone else’s) in this book was the cover because have you seen those thighs. I remember how we all lost our minds the day the cover was revealed. I am very happy to say that Grace (the owner of said thighs) has raised the bar again because we cannot settle for less. She’s so caring and kind that she usually forgets to take care of herself, and Phoebe noticed almost instantly and made it her mission to make Grace feel as good as she gives. I adored the beautiful atmosphere they created for themselves. Even though they refused to call it a relationship, the little steps they took together made my heart squeeze in the best possible way.

Miscommunication is always present but trust me, it’s good. I am very easily annoyed by this trope and can dnf a book for it, but it makes sense for Phoebe and Grace. As I said, both women are undiagnosed (Grace is autistic and Phoebe has ADHD) and on top of that, both are having personal issues. Add unexpected romantic feelings to that mixture… and you end up with several misunderstandings. In their case I loved it because they never hurt each other and it led to figuring things out. This book has one of the most satisfying HEAs ever!

Bonus points for the amazing steam and for the women’s soccerrrr!

Rating: 5/5
Steam level: Open door, 3-4 scenes, high level of detail

ARC provided by St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley. Opinions are my own!

3.5 stars

I am a HUGE women's soccer fan and love a good sports romance, so my excitement for this sapphic romance was SO HIGH. I think, though, that may have hurt my experience of this book? This had the set up that I love. Phoebe is the newbie on the national team and a professional team and has idolized (and had a crush on) Grace for years. She even had her poster in her bedroom, which is one of my favorite super-specific tropes in a sports romance. Grace has been playing professionally for ten years and takes her job very seriously. Phoebe, though, is a whirlwind of a person who crashes into her life and makes her feel things. I loved their dynamics and the moments we got of them at practice and playing together. The beginning of this book? Perfect. But as the book went on, the plot really slowed down and I just wanted so much more. This book is definitely spicy, which I always love, but I wanted so much more from them as the story went along. Grace was injured and that's where the plot was just them more separate and just dealing with their own feelings. They are both neurodivergent, which I really appreciated about their characters and the exploration of their identities they had, and they were both so lovable. It just felt like that took over the plot and the romance started to lack. I can't put my finger on exactly what was missing, but this was not the epic soccer romance I was expecting.

I’ve been drafting a review since I started reading this book, largely because I anticipated enjoying it but myself mentally willing it to end. Like Meryl Wilsner’s previous book, Cleat Cute was a huge miss for me.

I’d like to start by saying that I admit that after the third time, I am simply unlikely to enjoy Wilsner’s future work thus acknowledge if my review has more bite than others. I haven’t vibed with their work and I can now say conclusively that it’s simply due to their style and how unlikeable I find one of their two main characters (literally every time).

I have come to realise that Wilsner’s books are almost like reiterations of their previous works. Their characters all have the same personalities (grumpy versus sunshine) and end up as unoriginal copies of other popular works. In this case, I found Phoebe almost unbearable. She was Cleat Cute’s sunshine character; she was objectively beautiful but everything about her personality made her incredibly annoying to me. As I read I felt like Wilsner themselves couldn’t really pinpoint Phoebe’s personality only really nailing her “being really good at sex,” wearing the cringiest outfits, and being generally corny. Phoebe sounded—and seemed—like her preceding sunshine characters and I was too annoyed too early on.

To be very honest I cringed every time Phoebe called Grace “baby girl” and would have DNFd this book were it not for my commitment to giving it a fair shot. The more I read the less chemistry I found between the main characters and Phoebe had a lot to do with it.

While I liked Grace a lot more, I sensed a weird shift some 40% into the book where suddenly her personally became heavily—almost extremely so—coded for autism. Upon checking the author’s Instagram I did see that this was intentional, and that’s not where the problem lies, but rather that it felt like the author decided on that way later into their writing. They exacerbated her personality as if to make it as explicit as possible without revising the earlier chapters. As someone who is VERY similar to Grace in personality, and also undiagnosed, this is coming not from a place of resentment at representation but confusion at its execution.

Despite the cover and the synopsis, this book is loosely about soccer. There were zero stakes when it came to the soccer “plot” and even less overall presence through the book. Realistically speaking—please mind mild spoilers ahead—, Cleat Cute was 1/4 soccer (and that’s being generous), 1/2 sex, and 1/4 Phoebe’s undiagnosed ADHD subplot. None of them were all that brilliantly executed.

I will say, positively, that this relationship’s age-range and its execution were much more realistic. I’d say the author succeeded in making this relationship more believable than their age-gap romances.

At this point I want to make sure I note that this author is popular for a reason and their books are enjoyed for a reason, but I simply cannot bring myself to do so. Their style isn’t one I love, let alone like, and that’s okay.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to honestly review this ARC: thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin.

3.5 this was a lot of fun to read, do I care about soccer? not really but I did care about watching these two characters' relationship blossom.

This book begins with our main character Phoebe being called into a training camp who just so happens to run into her idol; Grace a veteran soccer player- she's been playing for at least a decade and has everything sorted and scheduled until Phoebe arrives in her life, 10 minutes late to practice.

Why would you want to read this?
- Sapphic relationship
- Neurodivergent representation
- Grump x Sunshine
- Lots of inner monologue (if you like those...I like those)
- Dual POV
- Steamy scenes if that's what you're into
- Lots of queer representation

What I liked:
- NB Rep, I always love seeing it even if it's small
- I felt like the miscommunication trope was handled pretty well (I usually hate this trope but I didn't mind it so much with this story)
- I personally loved all of the inner monologing, it was easy to tell Grace and Phoebe apart which was such a big plus
- I learned about soccer, which was cool


What I did not love:
- As things stand a lot of characters are autism-coded but aren't really ever confirmed to have it; Grace fell into that (I still love the girl though)
- Characters beyond Grace and Phoebe felt a bit flat

Overall it was a really cute story and if you're interested in literally anything mentioned above I would recommend checking it out.

Reading this book and watching Ted Lasso are probably the only two times I remember caring about soccer. While this book would definitely be perfect for any sports fans or sports-romance lovers, it also totally won me over as neither of the two. And if you're already a Meryl Wilsner fan, I think you'll love this book just as much as their past ones, if not more.

This novel had everything I hope for in a romance book. There's great tension, the story holds your attention even when you could guess where it's going, and the characters make you root for them every step of the way. When the characters finally get together, it's definitely spicy and deserving of the build-up to the moment. But even if you took all those scenes out of this book, I think it would still really hold up as an innovative story of characters getting to know each other while getting to know themselves better in ways that I've seldom seen represented in books before.

*Thanks to St. Martins and NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

I have nothing but positive things to say about this!! It was amazing! I loved the premise, the settings, the pacing, the characters, and the neurodivergence rep. Quick touch on the rep real quick, this was handled in a way I haven’t really seen yet in that it was a part of the story but it wasn’t THE story. And it was more of a journey while still staying a tad understated in such a normalized way.

I loved the dynamic and budding relationship between these two, truly a joy to read. The conflicts are well placed in that there is character development but the angst never gets too high.

The spice… y’all. This is incredible! Yes it’s fire in the hot pepper sense but more importantly it’s just straight up beautiful and so intimately accepting. It was a real expression of who the characters are and their connection to each other.

This is the sapphic romance of my dreams. I also found the world of USWNT so fascinating and it was such a compelling premise for me, I did not want to put this down. Thank you so much to st martins press and NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own. If I could give this more than 5 stars I would.

I'm not really sure where to start with this one....
I was excited for the Rookie/Veteran aspect between the two love interests, but there was so little chemistry between Phoebe and Grace that I wasn't invested in their relationship. There's also very little soccer going on, either. What there is a lot of is internal monologues. And I mean a lot. You are reading their stream of consciousness and it's repetitive and borderline annoying.

I had heard such amazing things about Mistakes Were Made, but Cleat Cute fell short for me.

Thank you NetGalley, St Martin's Griffin for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Meryl Wilsner does it again! I was absolutely reveling in the tension between Grace and Phoebe’s will-they-won’t-they flirting. And when they finally did… it’s not often that I blush from reading romance but WHEW. Such a beautiful story of what it means to love a person, not simply the idea of them. Maybe I’ll watch some women’s soccer games now.

This reading experience was like riding a rollercoaster that ends by exploding. Some highs and some lows throughout the story till the end in which I figuratively through my kindle across the room and screaming "WTF".
Things I loved- Phoebe's energy was contagious and I LOVED having a confident and sex positive main character. Also loved the soccer of it all. That was fun. Accurate? I have no idea, I haven't played soccer since second grade. But still very entertaining.
Things I didn't love- the pacing was off. Major relationship moments happened super early in the book while others basically never came up. It was odd and not very believable. Also Grace was supposed to be a grump but instead she just kind of talked down to Phoebe and treated her like crap.

**** Spoilers ahead *******

What I DETESTED was the ADHD bit (I will not refer to it as representation) of the story. The audacity of Grace to assume a diagnosis and treatment for Phoebe with out even asking?? And then Phoebe set a clear boundary that she didnt want to discuss it and Grace goes and talks to her sister about Phoebe's personal information?? This left absurd and turned into problematic and ableist. This line, (in response to Grace's sister saying it's a big deal that she is going to make a drs appointment for Phoebe behind her back), was the real kicker for me: "No, it's not. That's the point. It's not a big deal to someone without ADHD, that's why I can do it."

Anyways...that's it.

Thank you to netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, my favorite rep here is the adhd girlfriend autism girlfriend trope because as someone in that relationship I called it in a fucking second, and was so excited to see it actually talked about in the boom. I loved loved loved this book. It was steamy and sweet and I adored this. I don't know anything about soccer but this didn't make me feel like I had to. Phoebe and Grace were electric and I couldn't get enough of them. I didn't want this book to end.

I don't know how I feel about this one because plot-wise it goes above and beyond what one would expect from a traditional romance. Wilsner took us from slow burn (Something to Talk About) to sex in the first scene (Mistakes Were Made) to something with a more expected pacing.

The sex scenes were good, but I was unimpressed by the writing itself. Phoebe was too immature and it was hard for me to think that Grace could for her... The listening to TikToks without headphones would have tested my sanity. However, I was able to go with the story which just goes to show that I'll forgive Wilsner a magnitude of sins. Having said that, this was the first of their books that I did not give a five-star rating to... and now I want to read Mistakes Were Made for the fourth time.

Starting this review has been daunting, because how exactly to articulate how much I love this book? Meryl Wilsner has hit it again with the top-notch quality, and even if Mistakes Were Made had the tropes I love more than the soccer players dynamic here, I have to say that Cleat Cute is my favourite from them yet. It's clever, witty, and the way our loveable protagonists dance around each other is funnier than it has a right to be. But it's also thoughtful, in the way that Phoebe and Grace introduce new perspectives to each other, the way they think about different issues. Wilsner's writing is so comfortable and easy to fall into. And the chemistry? It's vivid, and grounded, and sparks some really hot scenes. Cleat Cute is the perfect light read... though maybe not in public, unless you're fine with crossing your legs a lot.