thank you to netgalley for my advanced copy of Cleat Cute!!

I picked this up in June in honor of pride month!! It was cute and enjoyable, but I was stuck in the middle of the book for a while because I thought it was moving pretty slow.

I really liked Phoebe’s personality! I thought that she grew a lot as a character. It took a while for Grace to warm up and it also took me a while to warm up TO Grace and understand why she was such a difficult character.

I enjoyed the teamwork and soccer games of course, I love soccer, so reading about this team was a lot of fun!

Overall it was a cute read and i recommend it but I definitely wasn’t too wow’d by it or think I’ll remember it in a year or anything.

i was provided an e-arc from the publisher and netgalley in exchange for an honest review. thank you!
i went into this book so optimistic, it was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. i was excited to read about grace and phoebes love story. unfortunately i dnfed the book at around 25% of the way in. i was really trying to just keep reading but i couldn't do it. the writing just felt... stagnant? stale? i could see the opportunity of what this book could have been but it just didn't live up to the expectations for me which really bums me out. i always look forward to sapphic books just to be able to read sapphic love stories, they're usually some of my favorites. i feel as though it's unfair to give this book a star rating as i did dnf it.
i'm hoping in the future i'll be able to try and reread this and hopefully change my review but until then it'll stay as is.

This is the second book that I have read from the author, and I have found that I enjoy this story much more than the other ones. I am not a huge fan of sports, but when you make it queer….maybe I am??

This is a hate to love, rivals turned lovers story following Grace and Phoebe. They are both on a soccer team, but Grace has been injured and cannot play, thus she’s sidelined. Phoebe comes in to replace her and lets just say that things have a rocky start. BUT, the banter is adorable and this will have you laughing, but also rooting for the girls to just get together already! I loved this rom-com queer sports book!

Meryl Wilsner did a fantastic job with this book. I was enthralled from the start and obsessed with their relationship. I would recommend this for my adult students. I am not always a sports person, but this book kept my attention enough that I finished it in a few sittings.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

I don't know a lot about soccer but I love Bend It Like Beckham and I'm a queer woman so the premise for this book sold me. It definitely reminded of Beckham with some Ted Lasso thrown in (I got some lesbian Roy Kent/Jamie Tartt vibes from this book).

It's a little rivals-to-lovers and not as much of a slow burn as I had originally thought. It's sweet and the sex scenes are very hot and delicious. I enjoyed being in the world Meryl Wilsner created here.

Cleat Cute is a very sweet love story between two professional soccer players who play on the same team. Phoebe Matthews is fresh out of college soccer and new to the professional soccer world when she gets a spot on the same team as her soccer idol, Grace Henderson. While there's a bet that involves who can do the best at a drill and one of the characters has occasional unfounded fears about the other taking her place, it's definitely not 'rivals to lovers' as the summary states. If I wanted to squeeze it into a rom-com trope, I'd say it's more teammates to lovers or idolized to lovers or even friends to lovers. To be perfectly honest, this book is kind of tricky for me to review. It had a lot of elements that I enjoyed and appreciated, but aspects of the writing made it ultimately not work well for me.

What I liked: (1) Grace and Phoebe are conceptually great. They're likable, their attraction to one another is compelling, I liked their individual character arcs, and their interactions with one another were enjoyable for me. (2) I appreciated that the author explores neurodivergence through the experiences of both the MCs (ADHD and autism). (3) The sex scenes are super hot.

What didn't work as well for me: As a non-writer, I'm not totally sure if this is correct... but it seemed like the book could have been more thoroughly edited? Like, there's quite a bit of redundancy and some long internal monologuing passages that not only didn't add to the arc, but detracted from it. These clunky writing(/lack of editing?) elements ended up regularly pulling me out of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

This was a 2 star book until about 70% of the way through. The voice was all over the place, and it read like very poorly written soccer fanfic. The descriptions of the gameplay and practices were the best part, and I enjoyed learning more about women’s soccer. I just couldn’t get past the lack of character background early on, and the fact that it was mostly dialogue and action, without any basic foundation for the characters.
I did really appreciate the trans, pan, bi, and general queer representation throughout, and wish the rest of the book had been strong enough to support it.

Thank you to the publisher for this eArc.

Overall, I have conflicting feelings about this one. There were some aspects I liked and others that just really fell flat.

First, I did like the sports aspect of this and even wish we got more of it. I think it would have been interesting to see more of the teams dynamic and friendships as they seemed like interesting characters.

My main issue with this book was that I found myself feeling bored throughout it and wasn’t really feeling attached the characters properly. I think part of this comes from the writing style and choices that were made as I found it to be written in a third person style that felt a bit more distant/impersonal than usual. Partnered with the fact that it felt like we were being told more about the characters than we were shown lead me to feel detached from them in a way I don’t want to be when reading a romance. There was also ALOT of internal dialogue from both of the leads that felt unnecessary and distracted from the reading experience.

I would still definitely recommend this to others if they’re interested, but unfortunately it just didn’t work for me and what I look for from a romance.

Another stunning romance from Meryl Wilsner!! I couldn't put this down, I cared so deeply about the characters and loved the queer soccer teammate romance trope. Also adored the conversations around ADHD - really recommend this for a fun, quick yet insightful read <3

the easiest way for me to describe this books is as bend it like beckham if jess and jules had ended up together (which they DEFINITELY should’ve!).

this book was a joy to read; a balanced amount of funny, flirty, emotional, and heartfelt. it also explores the important topics of personal boundaries and communication which i loved how the author included.
also i absolutely LOVED the amount of queerness in this book!

i enjoyed reading about Phoebe and Grace though i do wish that the relationship between the two had been a little more fleshed out. i could’ve done with one or two less scenes of them having sex if that meant the emotional aspect of the relationship would’ve been more developed.

in general i am kind of on the fence about this one. the inner monologues, and the amount thereof, REALLY overshadowed the rest of the book for me. to me they felt both excessive and overdone and i would’ve liked for more of the story to not have been direct character thoughts.

for me another downside to this was that we as readers were told much more than we were shown through the actions of the characters. and with as fleshed out characters as the ones we have here this was so unfortunate bc showing rather than telling would’ve only made them that much more compelling to me.

all in all i feel like this was a very middle of the road book for me and i was unfortunately left grasping for much more.

the publisher kindly provided this arc through netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley + St. Martin's Griffin for the gifted eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I really, really, REALLY wanted to like this book, but it just missed the mark for me. The story had so much potential, and I LOVED the amount of LGBTQIA+ representation, but something was just not working here.

First, the characters weren't super likeable. I didn't find myself rooting for or against Phoebe and Grace, and if I'm not invested in the characters, it makes it harder to be invested in the story. Grace felt particularly bland to me and she didn't lighten up too much, even after realizing she had feelings for Phoebe.

Their dynamic was also very strange. It was BIZARRE watching one of them refer to the other as her girlfriend during inner monologues and the other woman refer to all of it as a 'situation.' It took the miscommunication trope to a really unrealistic level that completely took me out of the story. And speaking of the inner monologues, there were TOO many of them. There was one entire page of a quote from Phoebe that I straight up skimmed because I didn't care. There should never be that much dialogue for one character in one sitting. If there is, it needs to be broken up way better than it was.

Also, I appreciate the *attempt* at having ADHD rep in the book, but it was...not handled well. First of all, it was SUPER rude of Grace, who would only refer to Phoebe as her fuck buddy, to assume Phoebe has ADHD and that she's medicated. She really came in hot with that one, as if she is a medical professional. Then she goes against Phoebe's wishes (after her page-long monologue) and peruses ADHD TikTok and all of a sudden is so sure she has it? Like did I miss the part of the book where she became a doctor???? And she, again, won't say they're in a relationship, but WILL take it upon herself to make an appointment for her to get tested????? I am in a committed relationship and I love my partner, and I know for a fact he would never do that for me NOT because he doesn't care about me, but because that's...extremely personal and a decision the person who's going should make. So, all of that to say, this is where the book officially lost me and low key pissed me off, too.

This really does have the potential to be a good story, but I think it needs to be tightened up and certain plot lines need to go. If ADHD is going to be part of Phoebe's story, it needs to be handled WAY better and not something we randomly start discussing at length at the end of the book, otherwise it should be removed. And the whole sex scene that happens in between that extremely personal and serious convo? I skipped it. It was out of place and unnecessary and I could not get into it to save my life.

I really like this author as a person, but this book just didn't do it for me. There are definitely some cute moments, but the lack of true character and story development just makes it hard to enjoy.

This review first appeared on Goodreads.

This book was so much fun! I adored Wilsner's writing and actually laughed out loud at various points which is a big mark in this book's favor. Phoebe had such chaotic golden retriever energy and my favorite parts of the book were when we were in her head. The soccer backdrop drew me in and fully satisfied my need for a sapphic version of Bend It Like Beckham as well as for another sapphic romance in general because we can always use more of those! I also appreciated the neurodivergence representation. The last few chapters did start to drag for me a bit because it felt like the quantity of internal monologuing increased significantly and we got less action/showing and more telling. Overall, this was a pleasure to read and I devoured it so quickly!

received this copy for free from netgalley for an honest review.

As someone who knows absolutely nothing about soccer I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book. It was lighthearted but yet had some very moving parts to it including talk about ADHD, transgender, and lesbian Pride. I'm so glad I got an advanced reader copy. It was definitely more spicy than what I was anticipating and I loved every second of it.

Cleat Cute is a sweet and spicy sapphic contemporary romance that was thoroughly entertaining and heart-warming from the beginning til the very end. Phoebe Matthews has been in love with soccer most of her life and after playing college ball she gets called up practice camp for the National Team alongside team captain (and her long time crush) Grace Henderson. One little dare changes both women's lives in more ways than they could've imagined. This was a fun, grumpy/sunshine rom-com that pulls at your heartstrings. Some possible trigger warnings include coming out as well mental heath (ADHD/anxiety).

This was cute and I love the representation, but it was a little too spicy for my taste. I know everyone has different opinions about that but I would have preferred more story to steamy scenes. I did enjoy the writing and it was a very fun setting!

The sex was good but the internal monologue annoyed me. I loved all the gender representation but there were a lot of inaccurate soccer plot points. Really glad this book exists though!

I absolutely adored this book. If you were a Bend it Like Beckham girly in the 2000s and partially credit that to your queer awakening.. you're gunna love this one!

Grace & Pheobe were rivals, to friends, to lovers and I found their chemistry to be pretty dang good!

I found the neurodivergent rep in this book to be well done for both main characters.

I wanted so badly to like this book but I simply couldn't get into it. The internal monologues, the bouncing from one thing to the next to the next. To be fair, Phoebe has ADHD so that makes sense (and boy do I appreciate the representation) but to read about it was just hard. As someone who is neurodivergent, this missed the mark on the challenges of communicating in a relationship. It really tried but for me, it wasn't accurate. I also didn't follow how Phoebe has Grace as her idol even though they're only four years apart- wouldn't it make more sense for a larger age gap? I liked the dual point of view but was not a fan of how it was in third person. It didn't make sense to do both. There was some miscommunication and the disagreements between the characters seemed to be solved with intimacy (kissing/sex) rather than that in addition to having a discussion. This book was not for me but I know there are many people out there who would enjoy it!

The Yays:
-neurodivergent representation (ADHD and Autism)
-grumpy / sunshine
-sapphic romance
-steamy sex scenes
-sports romance (soccer)
-dual pov

The Nays:
-internal monologue galore
-third person (simply not my jam)
-miscommunication trope
-resolving problems with intimacy rather than discussions
-tell rather than show
-shallow & unlikeable characters

Another great one by Meryl Wilsner. I loved the content of this book and I even learned somethings!

Wilsner knows how to write a great romance but the perfect amount of spice!

I absolutely loved this fun, very sexy and informative (more later) romance set around a soccer team and the very enjoyable characters. Grace (closet lesbian) was a well established star in the world of soccer, having been on the US Woman’s National team since she was 16. She was captain of the franchise in New Orleans, which drafted Phoebe (out lesbian, ADHD )with their first pick, straight out of college. Everyone speculated that the younger Phoebe was eyed as a future replacement for Grace. Thus, the creation of a friendly rivalry between the two gifted athletes.

Phoebe had always been a flirt, had a great, outgoing personality and people were easily drawn to her. She was a star in the making, loved being the center of attention and lived up to her boasting of what she could do. Grace had been her childhood hero. She even had a poster of Grace on her bedroom wall. Grace found her to be annoying, but charmingly irresistible.

Phoebe’s ADHD was reflected in ways such as being hyperactive, impulsive and constantly late for everything. She also didn’t complete tasks such as unpacking her luggage. The only time she was really able to concentrate was on the field.

Grace was displayed somewhere on the spectrum of autism, reflected in her being a quiet introvert and not being able to read social cues. She liked structure and adapting to change was unsettling since she liked to follow set routines.

During practice drills Phoebe would simply declare that she was going to win when everyone knew that Grace always won whichever drill. For one such drill the bet was that if Grace won Phoebe would not talk for the rest of the day, and if Phoebe won, Grace would have to kiss her. This bet led to a friends with benefits relationship.

In my first sentence I said this book was informative, and I found it to be so because, rather than just being given the symptoms of ADHD and autism, we saw how their minds worked and what they believed the other was actually saying, how they reacted in various scenarios and situations, including their relationship, especially since neither supposedly wanted a relationship. I enjoyed watching them learn how to understand each other.

My thanks to Bella books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review.