Review: Cleat Cute

 So I’ve seen a lot of stuff pitching this as lesbian Ted Lasso, and alas, it simply is not. The side characters are charming enough, but they lack the brilliance of the Ted Lasso ensemble and aren’t given much attention throughout the book. Grace and Phoebe are very much the primary focus, and almost every scene revolves around them. And yeah, it is a romance, but those of you who follow my reviews will know that I firmly believe that the best romances have excellent side characters and spend time developing other relationships – not to mention, other aspects of the characters. This book is trying to touch on some of those things, but the proportions weren’t quite right for me. 

For instance, one plot element is Phoebe and Grace exploring their potential neurodivergence. I didn’t realize that would be a plot point going in, and I was excited when it was, but it wasn’t explored as much as it could have been. Grace in particular is really reduced to a throwaway line about maybe looking more into autism at some point, and I really wish that could have been fleshed out more. It would have actually been a great element of the romance story, because these two characters clashed quite a lot in ways that to me as a reader seemed directly linked to being neurodivergent and having different support needs. I think exploring the relationship through that lens would have both made the story more interesting and given me more confidence in the relationship, because honestly I had a hard time believing that this would be a long-term thing. They seemed more sexually than romantically attracted to me. None of this is to say it was bad. It was a fun little romantic read without too much angst. Just maybe nothing special, and certainly no Ted Lasso.