Review | Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner

Meryl Wilsner’s Cleat Cute has become something of a BookTok favourite, and on paper, it delivers everything you’d expect: queer romance, a sports setting, friends-with-benefits tension, plenty of steam, strong representation, and timely themes. But while it’s an easy sell for many readers, it wasn’t quite my cup of tea.

The story follows Grace Henderson, a veteran of the US Women’s National Soccer Team navigating a chronic injury and the pressure to maintain her polished public image. Enter Phoebe Matthews, a rookie who’s loud, chaotic, and more than a little enamoured with Grace. Their friends-with-benefits arrangement starts off hot but quickly tangles in miscommunication: Grace hides her feelings while Phoebe assumes they’re already dating.

The novel flirts with a rivalry dynamic, but the stakes never feel especially high. Phoebe worries Grace might push her out of a roster spot, yet the competitive tension isn’t fully convincing. The emotional back-and-forth can veer into frustration, with boundaries being set, respected, and then punished. One key incident, Phoebe revealing Grace’s injury to a trainer and then lying about it, never really gets the reckoning it feels like it deserves.

Where Cleat Cute shines is in its representation. Grace’s implied autism and Phoebe’s possible ADHD are woven into their personalities and their frequent communication breakdowns. The supporting cast includes a trans sibling and a non-binary goalie, both portrayed casually and without fanfare. The book also engages with the reality of being an out queer athlete: the tension between public visibility and personal privacy.

However, the pacing sometimes sags under the weight of extended internal monologue. The third-person narration spends a lot of time in the characters’ heads, which can make the story feel static. And while soccer is central to the setup, on-field action is relatively sparse, with most of the sports flavour coming through terminology and team dynamics.

A screen adaptation is already in the works, with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe on board as executive producers, a fitting step for a novel so in tune with the current wave of queer sports fiction. It might be that Cleat Cute will play even better on screen, where its premise and steamy tension can unfold with more immediacy and less introspection.

Interested in other WLW YA and adult fiction? Check out my ultimate list of women's football books featuring wlw relationships.