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A review by sweetheartstitches
Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
described as a "sapphic rivals to lovers rom-com for fans of ted lasso and a league of their own", cleat cute is about two soccer teammates (veteran grace Henderson and rookie phoebe matthews) who fall in love as their soccer team gears up for the world cup.
i picked up this book because i was in a horrendous reading slump; i've found that reading light-hearted rom-coms helps get me out of my slumps. i picked up cleat cute because i enjoyed meryl wilsner's other work, mistakes were made. however, cleat cute fell very flat to me.
i'll start off with what i did like about the book. the pacing was very quick, and i finished the book in about 4 days. i also enjoy wilsner's writing style. they write characters very well, in my opinion - they feel like real people. they talk and act like regular people do, which is important to me in a contemporary romance. i know not everyone loves pop culture references, but i honestly don't mind them, and they're something i've come to expect within the genre. the romance itself was very sweet. the few smutty scenes were very hot and heavy, but in a romantic way, which is a lens i really appreciate when reading intimate scenes.
however, in terms of what i didn't like, there's, well, a lot. i don't think i've read a book where the characters inner monologue so much. yes, it was an established character trait for both the main characters - as they're both neurodivergent - that they tend to be in their own head a lot, but how that translates onto the page is a lot of word salad about nothing; they're constantly going back and forth with themselves inside their heads, ruminating on the same thoughts over and over. wilsner is very guilty of telling, not showing. stop telling me that "grace does this" or "phoebe likes that" - show me!
i also hate the miscommunication trope and this book is very guilty of that. it was hard to believe the characters in this book were in their mid to late 20s, post college, with how they acted. yes, confrontation can be hard. yes, it can be difficult to explain how you feel or why you acted a certain why, but getting upset at something that was misconstrued or misinterpreted, not talking about it for a few days, but then one simple conversation clears everything up and now we're having make-up sex felt very juvenile. nothing felt 100% resolved, and most of the conflicts were based on either a misinterpretation of events or a miscommunication that could have been resolved with a simple conversation.
this book being described as "rivals to lovers" is very misleading. rivals where? wilsner really could have leaned more into this dynamic, with actual stakes and tension, rather than what was given. there is an attempt at such a dynamic, but it ultimately fails and falls flat. phoebe, the rookie, is vying for a spot on the women's national soccer team, but not necessarily grace's. grace assumes (she does a lot of assuming, mind you) that phoebe wants her spot because she's injured, but phoebe just wants a spot; phoebe even comes to the conclusion about which spot she wants, which is not grace's spot. phoebe never actually feels like a true threat to grace's existence on the team - they don't even play the same position. the rivalry boils down to grace's injury, her worrying that she's getting older and thus, replaceable, and phoebe is the young, talented rookie who could fill her spot. once grace's injury heals and she gets the okay to play, the rivalry ends. it feels more like a marketing ploy than an actual relevant trope within the book, which just further reinforces my gripe with the "trope-ification" of books being published in recent years.
ultimately, i was disappointed by this one, and i'm unsure if i'll try another of wilsner's books. it did get me out of my reading slump, so there's that, but i was left unsatisfied and wishing for more from this one.
i picked up this book because i was in a horrendous reading slump; i've found that reading light-hearted rom-coms helps get me out of my slumps. i picked up cleat cute because i enjoyed meryl wilsner's other work, mistakes were made. however, cleat cute fell very flat to me.
i'll start off with what i did like about the book. the pacing was very quick, and i finished the book in about 4 days. i also enjoy wilsner's writing style. they write characters very well, in my opinion - they feel like real people. they talk and act like regular people do, which is important to me in a contemporary romance. i know not everyone loves pop culture references, but i honestly don't mind them, and they're something i've come to expect within the genre. the romance itself was very sweet. the few smutty scenes were very hot and heavy, but in a romantic way, which is a lens i really appreciate when reading intimate scenes.
however, in terms of what i didn't like, there's, well, a lot. i don't think i've read a book where the characters inner monologue so much. yes, it was an established character trait for both the main characters - as they're both neurodivergent - that they tend to be in their own head a lot, but how that translates onto the page is a lot of word salad about nothing; they're constantly going back and forth with themselves inside their heads, ruminating on the same thoughts over and over. wilsner is very guilty of telling, not showing. stop telling me that "grace does this" or "phoebe likes that" - show me!
i also hate the miscommunication trope and this book is very guilty of that. it was hard to believe the characters in this book were in their mid to late 20s, post college, with how they acted. yes, confrontation can be hard. yes, it can be difficult to explain how you feel or why you acted a certain why, but getting upset at something that was misconstrued or misinterpreted, not talking about it for a few days, but then one simple conversation clears everything up and now we're having make-up sex felt very juvenile. nothing felt 100% resolved, and most of the conflicts were based on either a misinterpretation of events or a miscommunication that could have been resolved with a simple conversation.
this book being described as "rivals to lovers" is very misleading. rivals where? wilsner really could have leaned more into this dynamic, with actual stakes and tension, rather than what was given. there is an attempt at such a dynamic, but it ultimately fails and falls flat. phoebe, the rookie, is vying for a spot on the women's national soccer team, but not necessarily grace's. grace assumes (she does a lot of assuming, mind you) that phoebe wants her spot because she's injured, but phoebe just wants a spot; phoebe even comes to the conclusion about which spot she wants, which is not grace's spot. phoebe never actually feels like a true threat to grace's existence on the team - they don't even play the same position. the rivalry boils down to grace's injury, her worrying that she's getting older and thus, replaceable, and phoebe is the young, talented rookie who could fill her spot. once grace's injury heals and she gets the okay to play, the rivalry ends. it feels more like a marketing ploy than an actual relevant trope within the book, which just further reinforces my gripe with the "trope-ification" of books being published in recent years.
ultimately, i was disappointed by this one, and i'm unsure if i'll try another of wilsner's books. it did get me out of my reading slump, so there's that, but i was left unsatisfied and wishing for more from this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Classism