Wilsner is one of the hottest contemporary f/f romance writers right now, and the anticipation for their latest scorcher is at a fever pitch... USWNT fans who shipped Kristie Mewis and Sam Kerr long before those two made it official: this one’s for you." - Electric Literature, "The Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books for Fall 2023" Wilsner’s steamy, fast-paced secret-lovers contemporary romance features fully realized queer protagonists and secondary characters...It’s not a romantic comedy, but definitely has humor, as well as great dialogue and hot sex scenes." - Library Journal Early thoughts : I am frustrated by Grace's whiplash emotions about soccer. It's all she is, all she knows, because of how early she started playing, and how that makes her feel aged (which I'll get to in a second..) and she is grumpy and bad at being social -- she basically just sits silently whenever Phoebe is rambling or talking or asking questions about non-soccer stuff and I think there's something more to this, or at least I hope there is, because otherwise it feels kinda.. baity -- and then she'll get all bent out of shape and butthurt if Phoebe comes to her with soccer specific questions or inquiries. So like.. what is it? Are you only soccer or can you be both and if you're both why are you mad when someone talks to you about the former? This gave me a headache. Second issue is that.. this is a twenty-six year old person who acts and behaves like she's a hundred years old. Complaining about her body (but, despite being a pro athlete, refusing to deal with her injuries and potentially making them worse..) being old and broken down and acting the same and I just.. I don't know. I expected this to be a lot more fun and and wholesome based on the Ted Lasso pitch and it was not.

Cleat Cute also has it all if you’re looking for diversity and representation. Wilsner always does an excellent job writing queer and poc characters, and in this book they focused a lot more on neurodivergent characters. It was refreshing to read a book that included all of these characters. 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. There were moments I was completely invested and enjoying the topics that Wilsner was examining. Then something would happen that would turn me off completely. It always took a while after the turn off to become invested again. Still, she’d take him with if she could. Her only reservation about heading to Louisiana at the end of the month is how far she’ll be from her family. College was one thing—Mapleton was close enough to bring her laundry home. Moving to NOLA will be her first time living outside of Indiana in her twenty-two years. Eighteen-year-old Mallory Greenleaf is no longer interested in chess, not since her hypercompetitive dad left—the game calls up painful memories. But she grudgingly agrees to play in a charity tournament as a favor to best friend Easton Peña. After she unexpectedly beats current world champion Nolan Sawyer, she’s offered a fellowship that will prepare her to play professionally. Even though Mallory doesn’t want to play anymore, she needs the money that winning would provide; she’s delayed college to support her family, since her mother is chronically ill with rheumatoid arthritis and is unable to work regularly. The more time she spends with Nolan, the more Mallory comes to like and respect him—and the more time she spends playing chess, the more she remembers how much she loved it. But when she learns that Nolan has been keeping a big secret from her, she isn’t sure if she’ll be able to move past it to build a relationship with him. Filled with the author’s signature humor, well-developed characters, and realistic conflicts, plus the fully realized setting of competitive chess, this captivating romance will delight teen readers as well as Hazelwood’s adult fans. Mallory and Nolan are both cued white; there is some racial diversity among the supporting cast. Mallory and Easton are queer.Phoebe Matthews gets her greatest wish and is drafted to play soccer on the U.S. Women’s National Team. She develops a crush on the Captain of the team, Grace Henderson, and the two start a relationship as they manage life, career and outside pressures. Phoebe and Grace both present as neurodivergent, but when the topics are talked about, Phoebe reacts with anger and a seemingly internalized stigma against neurodivergence/ADHD. When Grace tries to help her, she turns to tiktok of all places for information on ADHD. Please, y’all, don’t self-diagnose on tiktok. This upcoming romance by Meryl Wilsner is everything I’ve ever wanted in a love story...Do not miss this book!" - Book Riot, "Books About Women’s Soccer to Read During the FIFA Women’s World Cup" there is no actual rivalry whatsoever unless you count grace just having impenetrable walls of trust issues as rivalry? they almost immediately become FWB with each other, which when the main characters are actually rivals and hate each other can be extremely hot but this was not the case here unfortunately.

Wilsner is such a fun author to follow, because their debut was the slowest of the slow burns, and then bam, their followup was the spiciest of the spicy (within trad pub contemporary romance), and so Cleat Cute really could’ve gone either way… and gives a great compromise by making you think it’s gonna be the former and then. Whew. You will know it when you see it, and you will like it." - Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, "September 2023 Queer Romances"Oh my God, I’m so sorry for—I shouldn’t have—I didn’t mean that. When I said to shut up, it was just an expression. I’m—wait, are you really serious? You’re inviting me to camp?”

In this story, we follow professional female soccer players, Phoebe Matthews and Grace Henderson. Grace is a veteran player, having played professionally since she was just a teen. While Phoebe is the hot new girl in the league, recently being called up after her stellar college career.

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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. Both Phoebe and Grace set out from nearly right at the beginning that they’re going to be friends with benefits. I felt like the “rivals” part was missing mostly. I also felt like they got together so fast for something marketed as “rivals.” Cleat Cute is a fun, sexy read about two women falling in love regardless of what stands in their way." - The Mary Sue