Cleat Cute

Product Information

As usual, Wilsner juggles a variety of identities and life circumstances with ease, flowing them naturally into the plot and characterization of the main cast and supporting characters. The world feels well-rounded and fully descriptive. And the sex scenes--scorching, unsurprisingly, as well as touching and enlightening. this book is literally repetitive internal monologue, soccer, miscommunication and sex (which this is arguably the only likable thing about this book). A frothy blend of heart, humor, and steam, this story about accepting love and embracing the unexpected will stay with readers far beyond its happily ever after. A vibrant, intoxicating romance." - Ashley Herring Blake, author of Delilah Green Doesn't Care Meryl Wilsner is a go-to author for sapphic reads." - Culturess, "10 queer romance releases to keep Pride Month going in 2023"

Wilsner contends that this sort of romantic confusion is almost endemic to lesbians and queer folks. “We’re all stupid and don’t know what we want!” they joked in the same interview. Wilsner calls this trope “idiots-to-lovers,” and explains that this is what much of their work comes down to. “They’re just idiots in different ways,” Wilsner said of Grace and Phoebe’s tendency to miscommunicate. Over a series of increasingly personal encounters, the two women end up becoming friends. More specifically, friends with very incredibly hot benefits. Grace Henderson has been a star of the US Women’s National Team for ten years, even though she’s only 26. But when she’s sidelined with an injury, a bold new upstart, Phoebe Matthews, takes her spot. Phoebe is everything Grace isn’t—a gregarious jokester who plays with a joy that Grace lost somewhere along the way. The last thing Grace expects is to become friends with benefits with this class clown she sees as her rival. Well, that was certainly a choice both my decision to continue listening to this book despite not liking it and the decision to write the book at all. I mean really? Can you really consider a book rivals to lovers if the characters are on the same team and they're not rivals at any point in the entire book? They're not even enemies? Hell they don't even dislike each other. In what world does this classify as a rivals to lovers?While I enjoyed the plot and premise of this sapphic sports romance, the writing let me down. The whole story was told in third person and had a crazy amount of internal monologue that was often repetitive and left me wanting more. Because of the writing, I had a hard time connecting with the characters and struggled to immerse myself in their relationship. Despite that, I loved learning about soccer and the found family vibes from the team! While this book may not be for me, I definitely see the potential and think Cleat Cute would work very well for someone who likes third person and internal monologue. all in all at the end of the day there doesnt seem to be an actual plot to this book, its more bad fan fiction than anything? What I did like was the representation we get from Wilsner. There are also quite a few side characters with the soccer teams and just about every gender identity and sexuality it represented. I liked that we are getting more and more neuridivergent characters as well. Although the assumptions Grace makes about Phoebe and how the whole conversation happens really didn’t sit well with me. Cleat Cute is a rivals to lovers story that is lighthearted and fun with splashes of seriousness folded in. Soccer is the setting but the story revolves around the players more than the game itself. We are inside the minds of both main characters riding their emotional ups and downs as they play out.

All right all right all right let me set the scene. We have Phoebe Matthews who is a rookie and has just been drafted for some level of professional soccer playing. Do I understand what level? Absolutely not because they switch between code names for these different teams so many times and have so many teammates but that's a different section. Phoebe starts and she is overeager and chaotic and loud and oh yeah, she absolutely idolizes one of her teammates Grace. Grace despite only being 26 has been playing professionally for 10 years and Phoebe has a massive crush on her. Grace finds Phoebe annoying to start with but she doesn't dislike her. She respects her skills and even though she wishes she would be on time and that she would shut up every once in awhile, there's no active dislike. Even knowing that they play the same position and Phoebe could replace Grace, that's never an actual serious contender of a situation for it to qualify as a rival situation. Also, baby girl. It was a thing. I hate it coming from a man and I hate it just as much coming from a woman. Nope to this. For some more specific rants, I did drop into this review about halfway through reading the book to jot down some notes in the event I gave into the DNF. I didn't, obviously, and most of these points still apply even after an additional fifty percent of reading. Enjoy. Grace Henderson has been a star of the US Women’s National Team for ten years, even though she’s only 26. But when she’s sidelined with an injury, a bold new upstart, Phoebe Matthews, takes her spot. 22-year-old Phoebe is everything Grace isn’t - a gregarious jokester who plays with a joy that Grace lost somewhere along the way. The last thing Grace expects is to become teammates with benefits with this class clown she sees as her rival. The perfect blend of funny and steamy, Meryl Wilsner’s Cleat Cute is about being brave enough to win on and off the field.

Meryl Wilsner

Cleat Cute features a well-developed romance, with plenty of miscommunication causing tension and growth, however, for me, my reaction to it throughout was mixed. Phoebe Matthews is too focused on her first season as a professional soccer player to think about seducing her longtime idol. But when Grace ends up making the first move, they can’t keep their hands off of each other. Which leads us to Cleat Cute! The novel stars Grace Henderson a 10 year veteran of the US National Women’s soccer team and captain of the New Orleans pro team who is suddenly challenged by a fresh face out of college - Pheobe Matthews who is drafted by New Orleans. I am probably going to get some of the terms around the soccer stuff wrong because it isn’t my jam but I assume the research is accurate. Interestingly considering that their last novel was an age gap, Wilsner does often remind us that Grace and Pheobe only have a 4 year age gap and their dynamic is more due to experience than age.

Moving on. This book is a mess because I could not tell you the time frame that it takes place over. They start out in a training camp and then then they're in New Orleans and then they're starting for one team but then there's so many discussions of playing world cup or nationals or whatever and as someone who is not a sportsball person, I was so confused the entire time because there's no underlying explanation of the fact that these are different teams. There are people that are in the training camp that are not in New Orleans and then there are people that are in the Nationals that are not in either and then some are in all of them and without a freaking flow chart of which teammate belongs to which team and where each team is located I was lost. The teammates also all blend together. I know that there's a couple with the baby, there's the asshole ex-girlfriend, and there's a non-binary goalie but that's it. I couldn't tell you what their names are or what they look like or anything about them. All of the teammates could have been either not existent or replaced and it wouldn't have made a difference. That's how little character development there is. Moving from Idaho to New Orleans will be a big change for Phoebe, but she knows she can make it work. Grace Henderson has been a star of the US Women's National Team for ten years, even though she's only 26. But when she's sidelined with an injury, a bold new upstart, Phoebe Matthews, takes her spot. 22-year-old Phoebe is everything Grace isn't-a gregarious jokester who plays with a joy that Grace lost somewhere along the way. The last thing Grace expects is to become teammates with benefits with this class clown she sees as her rival. I wanted to congratulate you on being drafted last month,” the person says. “You’ll do well with New Orleans. But more specifically, I wanted to invite you to training camp with the national team in a couple of weeks.”You then follow along with these women as they navigate their complicated friendship, as well as their equally complicated careers. Then throw in soccer on top of the writing style…and I was definitely hanging on for dear life. I don’t understand the rules of soccer and I quite literally know even less about it, so parts of the book were hard to follow. It’s definitely a book for people who already know soccer since there were a lot of terms and such that weren’t explained. Soccer was a main character—which I’m not complaining about since it’s literally obvious from the cover, title, and summary lol—it’s just on me for overestimating my potential interest in reading about it. Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about. It is a meme that I have loved participating in since I first started blogging, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme. * * * * * Cleat Cute is a fun, sexy read about two women falling in love regardless of what stands in their way." - The Mary Sue Grace Henderson has been a star of the US Women's National Team for ten years, even though she's only 26. But when she's sidelined with an injury, a bold new upstart, Phoebe Matthews, takes her spot. 22-year-old Phoebe is everything Grace isn't—a gregarious jokester who plays with a joy that Grace lost somewhere along the way. The last thing Grace expects is to become teammates with benefits with this class clown she sees as her rival.