Grace has been at the top of her game for as long as she’s been about to kick a soccer ball. Phoebe is new to the US Women’s National Team, and she cannot believe she’s playing alongside some of the women she’s looked up to for years. Though their skills are among some of the greatest in the US, their personalities could not be farther from one another. And the last thing these rivals see coming is the friendship and possibly more that blossoms between them during training.

I loved the ADHD and Autism rep! Both were very well done and extremely believable/relatable. I have both ADHD and autism, and I loved the inner monologues!

Yes, from a prose perspective, they were a little much; however, in the context of properly capturing both ADHD and Autism, they totally made sense!

With ADHD, there are so many thoughts. It's hard to speak them all while making sure you added enough context from your inner train of thought. Also, Phoebe's negative self-talk is a total thing, especially if you're unmedicated, because you're often told the things you're doing are bad. Eventually, you will internalize that.

And with Autism, there is a ton of inner monologuing for different reasons, IE, "Did I respond to that accordingly and with the right inflection?" or, "Wait, was that said seriously or sarcastically?" Or my personal favorite: "Did I just accidentally overshare?"

With that being said, The spicy scenes were FIRE, the soccer scenes were really well written, and the romantic build-up was well-paced! I would give this book ALL the stars!

Overall rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Characters: 5/5
Prose: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. And I am choosing to post this review.

4/5 stars! Gimme a sapphic enemies-to-lovers Ted Lasso soccer book any d*mn day of the week! Those are some of my favorite things put together. I will say I didn't love the cover because it made me feel like this should be a YA story, which it absolutely isn't. Outside of that, I don't have any complaints except wishing some of the side characters were a tiny bit more developed. Phoebe and Grace were daring and smart and competitive. Their love story is one everyone should read.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

First- thank you to NetGalley for this ARC of Cleat Cute.

As a follower of women’s soccer, I was excited to get an ARC of this soccer romance. The concept was great and the representation was refreshing. The two FMCS were completely opposite from each other as a grumpy and sunshine trope. Now- why the 3 star rating? Their intimacy was great and respectful towards each other. However, like other reviews before mine, the internal monologue was exhausting. The constant first name to last name to nickname switching for both FMCs made it difficult for me to follow along in the beginning, but that is my brain with names anyway. The insistent badgering of one injury and the other ADHD problems would have annoyed me so much if I were to go through either- especially knowing a person for as little as they knew each other. The ending was kind of anticlimactic for all the problems they had surrounding the team. Random one time asshole coach that no longer has any problems around him. And then after all of the intentions of Phoebe to become great through her rookie season and try for the national roster, we get a small glance at the World Cup journey and assume the epilogue is about their World Cup Final game.

Thank you, Meryl Wilsner & St. Martin's Press, for allowing me to receive an Advanced Copy of Cleat Cute.

I was so excited to receive this arc. I'm a huge soccer fan and always a sucker for a good romance.

However, after 300+ pages, I'm wondering what happened. There is no plot except for a smidge of miscommunication. There are vague hints at a misogynistic manager, a sports injury, and a character semi-coming to terms with maybe having ADHD -- but none of this comes together to create an overarching story.

Furthermore, I did not jive with the writing style. Multiple times on the same page there are sentences like "Grace does this" ,"Grace doesn't like this", "Grace decided this", etc. It was distracting, and took me out of the moment.

Unfortunately, this book was a bit of a letdown for me.

Loved this book!! More than the normal steamy books I read. Explored relationships with neurodivergent characters. Loved how the characters were developed.

A cute grumpy/sunshine romance. An up and coming, care free soccer star meets the grumpy veteran carrying the world on her shoulders.

It was only a couple years ago that Meryl Wilsner burst into the scene and made a name for themselves for steamy sapphic fiction. Cleat Cute is exactly what we've come to expect from Wilsner. Compared to their other work, though, the sex in this one felt gratuitous and could have easily been off page without impacting the story.

Grace Henderson has been the star of the USWNT since she was a teenager. All she’s ever known is soccer so when an injury puts her out of commission during the lead up for the World Cup she’s not sure what to do with herself. Phoebe Matthews on the other hand is practically a nobody in the WOSO world. But, when she’s drafted to Grace’s club team and gets a look with the national team she’s not going to pass up her chance at making the World Cup roster. Despite being opposites, the two can’t seem to get enough of each other.

I’m not sure who the target audience is here. Is it hardcore WOSO fans or newbies? I expect hardcore fans to be the most likely to pick this up but it’s probably better for newbies. Wilsner attempts to subtly mix in definitions to accommodate newbies, but I found it to be a bit too much, especially at the beginning. Additionally, the mix of real and fictionalized references was mostly just confusing. Serious fans will likely find there’s enough truth to recognize the references while also being frustrated by the inconsistencies.

This wasn’t poorly written and the overall plot works, I just would have preferred it as a generic sports romance rather than WOSO specific. Pick this up not because it’s about WOSO, but because you’re a fan of Wilsner or looking for a sports romance.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

Another great read from Meryl Wilsner!
Grace Henderson established the well-known start of the US National Team starts the season on the sidelines as she deals with an injury. While newcomer Phoebe Matthews must step up to take her position. a miscommunication between the two led to drastic differences in the perspectives of their relationship.
Wilsner did a great job of bringing the reader into the world of football even if they have a limited understanding of the game. While also building the tension of the miscommunications between the two as the reader follows a friend with benefits to lovers story.
A fantastic read! Can't wait for the release!

This book was (phenom)enal! A dual-POV story from Pheobe and Grace - two new teammates on the New Orleans Women's Soccer team. It's a heartwarming story with funny banter and hilarious miscommunication (not in the way you think - it's cute!) I highly recommend this lgbtq+ romance to anyone who loves love and some great spicy scenes.

HUGE thank you to Meryl Wilsner, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

be still my sapphic, women's soccer loving heart. This story grabbed my interest and kept it, I finished it in less than 24 hours. Both characters felt full fleshed out, with more to them than just an instant love connection. I appreciated the slow burn of feelings, both being hesitant to get into anything serious with a team mate, while also being incredibly fast burn with the spice. the sex scenes were some of the best f/f sex scenes I've ever read.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

This was definitely out of my normal wheelhouse, but it was pretty fun. I don't gravitate towards romance often, but this one looked like fun.

In the story we follow our main characters Grace and Phoebe, both professional soccer players for the AWSL. Grace is a long time career athlete, and a big star, Phoebe is a rookie, with this being her first year playing out of college. The two meet, and sparks fly almost instantly. The story is fun and very spicy, and served every purpose I was looking for, nothing too serious or intense, just a fun romp. The characters were likeable, and the spice was really well written, which is sometimes hard to come by when you're hunting for good wlw content. I wouldn't say this is the book for you if you're looking for something very plot and content heavy, while we do see some plot development and progression, the story centers the romance, which I think is just fine. I enjoyed it overall, and will likely pick up Meryl Wilsner's books again. I rate this 4/5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

This was a cute sapphic sports romance between grace and phoebe! It’s marketed as a rivals to lovers but I didn’t see that, it’s more a friends to lovers. It reminded me a bit of Kulti by Mariana Zapata with a mix of Chloe Liese writing style.

The biggest thing was the amount of inner dialogue. It was a lot and tbh I skipped some of it throughout. There was also a bit of unnecessary drama but not a third act breakup.

But the SPICE holy wow🥵 it was spicing for sure. Probably one of the biggest reasons for not rating it lower was the absolute masterpiece the spice was.


I will be posting on my Tikok and Instagram 2 months, 1 month, and one week before release!! I will add links here after every post!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this advance copy in exchange for honest feedback. As the title says, this was cute!

This book is a compelling and nuanced romance! With its vivid characterizations and storytelling, it delves into the challenges faced by those who dare to be themselves in a sport that can be unforgiving to those who don't conform to traditional gender norms. With its powerful themes and engaging narrative, Cleat Cute is sure to resonate with readers of all backgrounds and interests.

SO OBSESSED WITH THIS BOOK!!!! Wilsner made me realize that I should’ve been a passionate women’s soccer fan all along. Such a beautiful grumpy/sunshine, rookie/veteran love story. “Cleat Cute” was an effortless read with gloriously steamy wlw scenes. Within the first few chapters, I was equally in love with Grace and Phoebe. My favorite part of the book was how well Wilsner wrote about neurodiversity. I absolutely CACKLED when Grace mentioned autism TikTok because that’s what I was thinking the entire book.

Fantastic read and I can’t wait to read the rest of Wilsner’s backlog!

Cleat Cute read a bit differently than Meryl Wilsner’s other two novels. I just didn’t like it and found it quite difficult to be engaged. At 60 percent complete, I really struggled to not DNF (I stayed up really late, not because the story thus far was so enthralling, but even with all the spicy very consensual sex, the story gave me a feeling of sadness and I wanted to keep reading hoping for it to become better/more positive). Sure Phoebe is super bouncy an energetic and always smiling – but the story as it came together, was just, depressing.

The main issue is all the inner monologue and telling rather than showing. Sure, this is a soccer rivals to lovers to friends with benefits to I don’t know what --- the writing was a turn off, and I really didn’t feel connected to the main characters at all and wasn’t particularly hoping for a HEA for them.

I appreciated that both characters were neurodivergent and played significant roles in interactions amongst the characters and to see how they navigated their difficulties. But I did find major problems when it came to medical disclosures and consent. That wasn’t cool.

I was hoping for more, especially with all the openings the story made way for in which direction it could have gone. But it just didn’t hit for me.

I loved Something to Talk About and Mistakes were made. I will definitely pick up whatever else they write even though Cleat Cute wasn’t for me

Really cute sapphic romance! Meryl Wilsner strikes again! I loved the grumpy x sunshine between the two main characters and their progression throughout the story. Like the touch at the end, with the miscommunication in the relationship, came off as really fun and the perfect ending for the book. The only criticism I had was that the blurb gave off rivals to lovers, while the books read as teammates to lovers. I think it was really confusing going into the book thinking that the characters would hate each other , then fall in love. But besides that I loved this book!

This book was a bit more superficial and surface level, with very light rivals tension. There were several plot lines that felt under developed and I wish we could dig deeper to know the characters and their situations a bit better. Overall it is a fun, quick read & set in New Orleans!!

Sincere thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars
This book had me obsessed!
I flew through it, and could not put it down.
It has:
-sports romance (obviously)
-sapphic
-FMC with adhd
-grumpy sunshine
-top tier spice
And truly what more could you want?
This book was so so cute, I really enjoyed it!

I didn’t expect to like this as much as I did as this isn’t my typical type of read. The characters felt unique and real. The plot had me hooked and I loved every part of this book. This will definitely be one I will be recommending.