Cleat Cute stacks five things. Grace Henderson is twenty-six and a decade into the US national team. Phoebe Matthews is twenty-two and called up to fill the roster spot Grace’s injury opened. They are teammates, they are competing for the same place at a World Cup, they start sleeping together in secret, Grace works out mid-book that she has ADHD, and the sex is explicit and frequent. Forty-four thousand Goodreads ratings, and no sequel — Meryl Wilsner has not gone back.
Two things are worth knowing before you go looking.
Sapphic sports romance is bigger than it looks, but it is mostly hockey. Once you filter for two women in the central romance, a real teammate or rival dynamic, and a readership large enough to trust, hockey has the deepest bench by a distance, then football, then basketball and tennis. Rugby has essentially one book. A lot of the best entries are self-published and Kindle-only, which means no paperback to buy and often no audiobook either — the buttons under each entry only appear where an edition actually exists.
Neurodivergent representation is the thinnest axis by far. This is the one most Cleat Cute readers name and the one hardest to match. Across everything we checked, we found exactly one adult, high-heat sapphic sports romance with a lead who has ADHD on the page. It is number eight below. If that is what you are here for, skip to it.
This post contains affiliate links to Amazon, Bookshop.org and Libro.fm. If you buy through them we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes which books make the list. Our full review of Cleat Cute is here.
All 11 Books at a Glance
| Book | Sport | Teammates | Rivals | Neurodivergent | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cleat Cute (the original) | Football | Yes, same squad | Same roster spot | ADHD, on the page | 4/5 explicit |
| Magnetic Rivals | Football | Yes | Same starting role | No | Not rated here |
| Onside Play | Football | Yes, national squad | Second chance | No | 4/5 |
| Hoops & Heartstrings | Basketball | Same league | Yes | No | 5/5 |
| Set Point | Tennis | Forced doubles pair | Yes | No | 4/5 |
| Catch and Cradle | Lacrosse | Yes, with a rule | No | No | 4/5 |
| Edge of Glory | Winter sport | No | Same Games | No | 4.4/5 |
| Stick Around | Hockey | No, one athlete | Second chance | No | 4/5 |
| Rebound Play | Wheelchair basketball | Opposing clubs | Yes | ADHD lead | High |
| Overtake | Formula 1 | Driver and engineer | Professional friction | No | 3/5 |
| You Don’t Have a Shot | Football | Co-captains | Yes | No | 1/5, YA |
| Home Field Advantage | American football | No | No | No | 1.6/5, YA |
1. Magnetic Rivals by Isla Brinn
Two of the best players in the league end up on the same elite squad, both wanting the same starting role and the captain’s armband that comes with it. Neither will step aside, so every training session becomes a fight.
Why a Cleat Cute reader wants it: This is the structural twin. Same sport, same team, two women competing for the same spot, and a rivalry that has to survive being teammates. If you finished Cleat Cute wanting the exact shape of it again, start here and read nothing else first.
How it differs: Indie and Kindle-only, so there is no print or audio edition to buy. It also does not have the neurodivergent thread that a lot of Cleat Cute readers came for.
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2. Onside Play by Liz Rain
A World Cup campaign, and two women on the same national setup who have a history neither of them has finished with. Match-day detail throughout, and a supporting squad readers keep coming back for.
Why a Cleat Cute reader wants it: The only other sapphic romance built around a women’s World Cup cycle, with the same locker-room texture and the same pressure of a tournament running underneath the relationship. The football is real, not decoration.
How it differs: Second chance rather than rivals — the friction comes from what already happened between them, not from competing for a place. No print edition, and no neurodivergent representation.
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3. Hoops & Heartstrings by Eliza Lentzski
Professional basketball, two rivals forced into the same orbit, and a Black queer lead who is the best thing in the book. The sport detail is authentic and the sex is frequent.
Why a Cleat Cute reader wants it: This is the heat match. Five out of five, explicit and plentiful, which is a step up even from Cleat Cute. If the thing you want is elite women’s sport plus a relationship that does not fade to black, this is the one.
How it differs: Basketball rather than football, and the founding conflict asks you to accept a setup several readers found hard to swallow. No print edition, and no neurodivergent thread.
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4. Set Point by Meg Jones
A tennis professional loses her sponsorship to Chloe Murphy, the volatile American who took it — and is then forced onto the same side of the net as her in doubles. The research shows.
Why a Cleat Cute reader wants it: The veteran-and-newcomer collision that drives Cleat Cute, transposed to tennis, with the added squeeze of being made to play as a pair. It is the closest thing on this list to the specific misery of losing something to the person you now have to trust.
How it differs: An individual sport rather than a squad, so there is no team around them. Chloe’s temper arc is the most-criticised thing in the book, and there is no neurodivergent representation.
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5. Catch and Cradle by Katia Rose
College lacrosse. The captain has a rule about not dating within the team. She also has a two-year crush she had not noticed. The friend group around the two of them is what readers talk about most.
Why a Cleat Cute reader wants it: Teammates in the strictest sense — a rule against exactly this, a season to get through, and a locker room that will notice. Nearly six thousand Goodreads ratings for a self-published sapphic sports romance is a genuinely unusual number.
How it differs: College rather than professional, and the opening quarter is slow and domestic before the sport arrives. No print edition, and no neurodivergent thread.
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6. Edge of Glory by Rachel Spangler
Two Olympic-calibre winter athletes, one grumpy and one relentlessly sunny, working towards the same Games from opposite temperaments.
Why a Cleat Cute reader wants it: The best-reviewed sports romance we have covered. If Cleat Cute got you on elite competition and two women whose personalities should not fit, this is the most accomplished version of that on the list, and it is a slow burn that earns every step.
How it differs: Winter sport rather than football, and it is a slower and more interior book. No Libro.fm edition, and no neurodivergent representation.
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7. Stick Around by Eliza Lentzski
A sports journalist and the hockey player she used to love, put back in the same building by an assignment neither of them chose.
Why a Cleat Cute reader wants it: Hockey is the deepest bench in sapphic sports romance and this is one of the warmest entries in it, with a real interest in what it costs to be a woman covering or playing a men’s-money sport.
How it differs: Second chance rather than rivals, and only one of the two leads is an athlete — so no teammates. The first act leans hard on miscommunication. No print or audio edition.
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8. Rebound Play by Sasha Brennan
Naomi Saiki captains a wheelchair basketball club. Lucy Adams, thirty-one, is coming back from an injury that nearly ended her. They start as enemies.
Why a Cleat Cute reader wants it: This is the neurodivergent match. Lucy has ADHD, on the page and taken seriously, alongside disability representation the rest of this shelf does not have. It is also high heat and genuinely rivals-shaped, which almost nothing else with neurodivergent leads manages.
How it differs: Club captain and rival rather than two teammates fighting for one spot. It is available as an ebook rather than a paperback, and there is no audio edition.
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9. Overtake by Bryant Walker
Rome drives for Vanstone. Tessa’s father owns the team, and her promotion to head engineer puts her in charge of the car Rome risks her life in. They do not like each other, and they have a season together.
Why a Cleat Cute reader wants it: The highest sport-mention rate of any book we measure, which matters if what you actually loved about Cleat Cute was the sport rather than the romance around it. Forced proximity across a full season, in garages and hospitality suites.
How it differs: Motorsport, and the leads are a driver and an engineer rather than two competitors — the rivalry is professional friction, not a fight for the same seat. Open door at three out of five, below Cleat Cute. No print or audio edition.
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10. You Don’t Have a Shot by Racquel Marie
Valentina Castillo-Green and Leticia Ortiz fight during a playoff match and end up co-captaining a rookie team at the same summer camp, with college scouts watching.
Why a Cleat Cute reader wants it: Football, rivals, and forced teamwork that is actually forced — the two of them have to make a team work together, which is a sharper version of the Grace-and-Phoebe problem. It is also the only other sapphic soccer romance with a major publisher behind it.
How it differs: Young adult and closed door. One out of five on heat, which is as far from Cleat Cute as this list goes. A single point of view also keeps you out of the other lead’s head.
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11. Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler
Jack Walsh arrives as the new quarterback at a school still grieving the last one. Amber McCloud wants the cheer captaincy and cannot afford a scandal. The team does not want Jack there.
Why a Cleat Cute reader wants it: It takes a girl playing a men’s sport seriously and specifically, which is the part of women’s-sport romance most books skip. The hostility Jack faces from her own team is well drawn.
How it differs: Young adult and effectively closed door at 1.6 out of five. The leads are not teammates and not rivals — a quarterback and a cheerleader — so the central dynamic you came for is not here.
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If You Only Read One
For the same book again: Magnetic Rivals. Same sport, same squad, two women fighting for one place.
For the heat: Hoops & Heartstrings, at five out of five. Nothing else here goes further.
For the ADHD: Rebound Play. The only adult, high-heat sapphic sports romance we found with a neurodivergent lead written properly.
For the best-written: Edge of Glory. Different sport, slower burn, and the strongest craft on the list.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a sequel to Cleat Cute?
No. It is a standalone and Meryl Wilsner has not returned to Grace and Phoebe. Their other books — Something to Talk About, Mistakes Were Made and My Best Friend’s Honeymoon — share no characters with it. If you want more of the author rather than more of the sport, our Mistakes Were Made guide covers that side.
Which sports actually have sapphic romances?
Hockey has the most by a wide margin, then football, then basketball, tennis and volleyball. Figure skating usually turns up as the other half of a hockey book rather than on its own. Rugby has almost nothing — one title with a real readership. If you want a sport that is not on that list, it probably has not been written yet.
Are there other sapphic sports romances with neurodivergent leads?
Very few. Rebound Play is the only adult high-heat one we could verify. There is a young-adult volleyball novel with an autistic lead, but it is closed door and written for teenagers, which is a long way from where Cleat Cute sits.
Why do some of these have no paperback button?
Because there is no paperback. A lot of the best sapphic sports romance is self-published and Kindle-only, so there is nothing for Bookshop.org to sell. We would rather show you three buttons that work than four with one that does not.
What if none of these is quite right?
Tell us the book, not the trope. Our Books Like directory takes a title and routes you to the closest read-alike list we have — and if we have not written that one yet, it points you at the trope pages that get nearest and records what you searched for, so it gets built next.
Looking for read-alikes for a different book? Browse the full Books Like directory — search any sapphic title and we will point you at the closest match we have.