A rivals to lovers that centers around a woman's soccer team?! Yes please.
Cleat Cute follows Phoebe Matthews as she moves from her small town in Indiana to stay playing professional soccer in New Orleans. Where she will be playing on the same team as Grace Henderson, a girl she has looked up to, and had a crush for many years.
Phoebe comes into NOLA as a ball of energy and excitement, pretty much the exact opposite of Grace. They end up at training a week early and find themselves spending more and more time together, both on the field and off.
When Grace is sidelined with a hip injury she was trying to hide, and only mentioned to Phoebe, Phoebe has a chance to make her way onto to US National Team.
Grace starts to think that Phoebe is only friends (with benefits) with her to replace her in NOLA and the US Team and starts to wonder if Phoebe was ever actually interested in her at all. While Phoebe is wondering why Grace is holding back and finds herself wondering if other people know Grace's identity.
There was a lot going on in this book at times, and sometimes I really wanted to like it but it would fall short. I loved the descriptions of playing soccer and the feelings on the field. I liked the competitions on and off the field, but then there were times where I felt like both Grace and Phoebe missed the mark. Phoebe seemed pretty committed to the idea of making sure Grace was 'out' which I always find issues with since it should be their choice to tell. Grace near the end of the book starts to think Phoebe has ADHD, but brings it up at an awful time and with pretty harsh wording that makes it seem more like an attack than something she just wants to help with.
There were definitely a few subplots I could have lived without and would have liked the book a little bit better. I did enjoy how accepting the team was in whole, and the extra little snippets of the lives of the other teammates.
Overall the book had a lot of ups and downs for me when it came to deciding a rating but I would love to know what others think once it comes out!
This book was a solid 3/5 for me, but I'm sure there are others who probably loved it.
Cleat Cute is scheduled to be published September 19, 2023.
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