Cleat Cute
A Novel
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4.3 • 26 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
* USA TODAY BESTSELLER *
A sapphic rivals to lovers rom com for fans of Ted Lasso and A League of Their Own, where two soccer teammates are at odds before falling in love as their team gears up for the World Cup.
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.
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.
As the World Cup approaches and Grace works her way back from injury, a miscommunication leaves the women with hilariously different perspectives on their relationship. But they’re on the same page on the field, realizing they can play together instead of vying for the same position. With every tackle the tension between them grows, and both players soon have to decide what's more important—being together or making the roster.
The perfect blend of funny and steamy, Meryl Wilsner’s Cleat Cute is about being brave enough to win on and off the field.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this kicky sapphic soccer romance from Wilsner (Mistakes Were Made), rookie Phoebe Matthews joins the U.S. women's national team in New Orleans to fill in for injured veteran Grace Henderson, and sparks fly as the women challenge each other both on and off the pitch. As the team prepares for the World Cup, brash Phoebe and laconic Grace enter into a teammates with benefits affair. But with the game of their lives approaching, the differences in Phoebe's and Grace's personalities become impossible to ignore. They must work through a series of misunderstandings if they want to get to the World Cup with their team—and their hearts—intact. For the high heat level, the romance is surprisingly wholesome, and the grumpy/sunshine dynamic between the leads is good fun. The characters' wordy internal monologues occasionally get in the way of narratively satisfying developments, but the undeniable chemistry between the heroines does an enormous amount of heavy lifting once the story gets moving. Wilsner makes this sports romance a winner.
