Cleat Cute

Several YMMV Issues But Nothing Objectively Wrong. This is one of those stories where there are a LOT of valid issues that people may have with the book, but ultimately pretty well all of them are matters of taste and not something truly concretely objectively *wrong*. Some may quibble about the rather obvious nature of having lesbians playing women's professional sports (in this exact case, soccer). Fairly or unfairly, this is almost insulting in just how much it plays into the stereotypes of women's professional sports in particular. Some may quibble about the extremely casual and flirting with erotica level sex that dominates most of the book, or the way that neither character actually knows much about the other before starting this form of "relationship". That last bit may actually be the most realistic thing about that aspect of the relationship here, however! Some may quibble about the lack of communication and arguably even consent in at least a few key aspects of the later story. Some may quibble about the insistence on medication and the glorification of a "miracle cure" that eventually comes up. Some may quibble about the rather blatantly obvious "bad guy ex" stereotype or the rather wooden and largely barely characterized at all extended cast of friends and teammates that play such crucial roles at various points in the tale.

And I could keep going, but you, *my* reader, begin to get the picture here. There are issues, but they are issues that any given reader may or may not actually have problems with, and that is completely for Wilsner's readers to decide for themselves here. Ultimately, I felt the book was fine for what it was, with nothing truly *jarringly* glaringly wrong about it, and nothing to objectively say "THIS IS WRONG!!!!" about. So read it for yourself if you're remotely interested in reading about lesbian romances. Recommended.

5 stars I read this 2 months ago when I first got the ARC and I already want to reread it again. Maybe it's because the World Championship has been over for a while and I miss it, maybe it's because I can't justify rereading Mistakes Were Made for a third time in less than a year.Either way, Cleat Cute is amazing and Meryl Wilsner can write no wrong. I absolutely loved this book and the two MCs Grace and Phoebe. It has a great cast of supporting characters and if you're into soccer, you might associate some of the characters to NWSL players. That was fun!And the tropes: enemies to friends with benefit to lovers, a sprinkle of miscommunication and great mental health representation <3 All my faves. Impossible not to enjoy this book!

2.5
I really wanted to like this, but I really struggled with Grace the entire book. I find it really infuriating when a character makes all these assumptions rather than just having a conversation with anyone and then they self sabotage and blame others. It was extra frustrating with these two because Phoebe is sooo communicative and really works with Grace to help her get more comfortable verbalizing her thoughts, feelings and needs, and while there ends up being a reason for why Grace has a hard time with it (and I'd like to mention I didn't particularly care for how that was revealed and casually tossed aside). I just really didn't enjoy being in Grace's head very much.

And I don't know if I just don't listen to enough romance (I definitely don't), but the dirty talk in this just didn't work for me, especially the use of the pet name “baby girl”....I had a big ick every time it was used.

***Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing me with the Audiobook for free via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.