Cleat Cute

Product Information

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. It's also a deeply lesbian book, with Phoebe being an out lesbian and Grace not quite out, not to the world, and I think it had some really lovely things to dive into with queer atheletes and what it means to be out and be representation vs protecting parts of yourself from the ever present public eye. I was treated to a fine romance between Grace and Phoebe with the game of soccer beautifully interspersed in the storyline. The last thing Grace expects is to become friends with benefits with this class clown she sees as her rival.

But when she’s side-lined with an injury at just 26, a bold new upstart, Phoebe Matthews, takes her spot. The story was great and a bit spicy;) Literally need a part 2 as I've got some unanswered questions lol. Both Grace and Phoebe are so annoying and they're not annoying because of their autism or their ADHD. I don’t know if it’s just that my personality has limited patience with Phoebe’s personality traits or what but I never liked her. Okay, and now for the important part: The word lesbian is used MULTIPLE times on page to describe our two lesbian main characters and it means so much to me you have no fucking idea.It’s not my favorite book ever, but if you don’t have my same hangups, it definitely has great potential! Phoebe Matthew’s chances of playing professional soccer is very slim as she played for a small college in the midwest. bc unlike cassie (who was straight up an asshole, a terrible friend, an imature partner, and a cocky dick) phoebe WAS actually a kind person. Even if I found some of the specifics of their communication cringey, I liked that they checked in with each other, that they talked, and really got to know what the other person needed. I just enjoyed the way she's so very clearly autistic but was like "yeah, I don't have time to unpack that right now, so I shall look into it later".

Can you really consider a book rivals to lovers if the characters are on the same team and they're not rivals at any point in the entire book? We also use them to help detect unauthorized access or activity that violate our terms of service, as well as to analyze site traffic and performance for our own site improvement efforts. 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. Both of those statements remain true after reading this book: I still don’t like soccer, but I sure do love when the women playing it fall in love!I liked the commentary that was included about how women’s sports don’t always pay their professional athletes enough. I devoured the book in a week, only taking that long because I didn't want to finish it too quickly. there is no actual rivalry whatsoever unless you count grace just having impenetrable walls of trust issues as rivalry? but it onl further added to phoebe's cockiness for me and it genuinely made me holler out loud (bringing that old goodie back from mistakes were made, i yelled 'nooooooo' and 'gross', and 'get away from her' out loud many times during my listen as i did with mistakes we made, haha). The spicy parts were spicy but there was a lot of character development between them and a lot of cluelessness (is that a word?

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Then when Phoebe is upset about something talking to the trainer she casually lets it slip that Grace is the one who really should be talking to them about her own injury. Wilsner has wooed me once again with CLEAT CUTE, a tender, sexy sapphic romance between two soccer lesbians. But no, they go out to a Mardi gras pride float thingamabob of some sort and Phoebe flirts with someone else and Grace has the absolute audacity to be mad.It's also very steamy which is nice to see but as someone who is checking out of sex scenes more and more. While this book may not be for me, I definitely see the potential and think Cleat Cute would work very well for someone who likes third person and internal monologue. 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? Superficially its very much a Grumpy and Sunshine with Grace being the taciturn vet and Pheobe being a bundle of energy and laughing and having chemistry with everyone.

In summary if you are looking for a sports romance story between two women in their 20’s, one a “grumpy” veteran and the other a exuberant rookie and you want a simple story that will leave you smiling you have found it here. You then follow along with these women as they navigate their complicated friendship, as well as their equally complicated careers. When Phoebe asks Grace to show her around the city, the two forge a friendship that quickly evolves into more as they get to know each other. The undiagnosed ADHD is discussed more and I think that that was better representation but even that wasn't stellar for me.While the friends with benefits is pretty fast, the actual relationship development is pretty slow burn. It was fun seeing Grace and Phoebe going from rivals at their first national team camp together to begrudging friends and then friends with benefits.