Heated Rivalry is a 2019 gay sports romance novel written by Canadian author Rachel Reid. The story follows a hidden romantic relationship between two rival hockey players, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. The book is the second in Reid's Game Changers series, which includes other novels about gay ice hockey romance. A television show based on the novel was released in November 2025.

Development and release

Rachel Reid's book Game Changer was published in 2018 by Carina Press, a part of Harlequin that focuses on LGBTQ+ stories. Other books in the series include Heated Rivalry (2019), Tough Guy (2020), Common Goal (2020), Role Model (2021), The Long Game (2022), and Unrivaled (2026). In 2023, Reid explained that Game Changer was inspired by her frustration with hockey culture and its history of being unwelcoming to LGBTQ+ people. She wrote the series to explore how a closeted hockey player might feel in a league with such a culture. Reid also considered how coming out might affect other players in the team.

Reid used the real-life rivalry between Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin as inspiration for her book. In the novel’s afterword, she mentioned HBO’s reality TV show 24/7, which followed the 2011 NHL Winter Classic between Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins and Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals. She also said that real-life athletes Jaromír Jágr, Teemu Selänne, and Ilya Kovalchuk inspired the character Ilya Rozanov, while Wayne Gretzky and Paul Kariya inspired Shane Hollander. She added that Mikhail Sergachev influenced how Ilya speaks. However, Reid clarified that she does not base her characters directly on real people. She also said she was inspired by other sports rivalries, fictional stories, and common story themes like enemies-to-lovers and forbidden romances.

Plot summary

Star hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov were drafted in the same year and play for competing teams, the Montreal Voyageurs and the Boston Bears. They are often compared to one another. Shane, a Canadian, is quiet and focused, known for his dedication and self-control. Ilya, a Russian, is confident and sociable, known for his skill and charm. Shane has a close relationship with his parents, but Ilya’s mother died when he was young, and he has a difficult relationship with his family in Russia.

Shane and Ilya first meet as junior players, leading teams for their countries. During the NHL draft, they meet again and begin to feel a rivalry and interest in each other. After working together on a video for a sponsor, they have a romantic encounter in Shane’s hotel room. Over several years, they secretly meet for romantic encounters when their teams are in the same city. Both believe their relationship can only be casual due to their rivalry and the presence of homophobia in their sport.

After one encounter, Ilya asks Shane to stay at his home. Shane realizes Ilya has romantic feelings for him and is surprised to recognize his own feelings for Ilya. Shane is not yet ready to accept his attraction to men and fears a relationship would harm their careers. Ilya is bisexual and has casual relationships with women, but Shane realizes he is gay after briefly dating Rose Landry, a famous actress with whom he remains friends.

Shane and Ilya are assigned to be teammates at an All-Star Game and agree to be friends. Later that year, Ilya suddenly leaves a game, and Shane learns Ilya’s abusive father has died after a long illness. Both confront their growing feelings for each other. Ilya considers ending their relationship, fearing it would conflict with their careers.

Shane invites Ilya to spend two weeks at his remote summer cottage in Ontario, offering privacy for them to be together. Ilya is hesitant at first but agrees after another famous NHL player, Scott Hunter, wins the Stanley Cup and publicly announces his relationship with a man. During their time together, Shane and Ilya admit their love for each other and decide to begin a romantic relationship. Ilya also shares that his mother had severe depression and died by suicide. Shane’s parents discover them together but eventually accept Shane’s sexuality and his relationship with Ilya.

To make their relationship easier, Ilya signs with an NHL team in Ottawa. Shane and Ilya plan to create a charity focused on mental health, named in honor of Ilya’s mother. They hope to use their influence to support a meaningful cause and end their public rivalry. They agree to announce their relationship publicly after retiring from the NHL. For now, they publicly share their charity and friendship, surprising the media.

Reception

Rachel Kurzius of The Washington Post praised Heated Rivalry and said the book helped her become interested in the gay hockey romance genre. Rolling Stone Philippines described the novel as "steamy" and called it a "prose masterpiece," noting that the author's writing style is direct and not subtle. In a review of The Long Game, Publishers Weekly stated that the characters are charming and attractive, and the author skillfully combines humor, hockey, and positive messages.

Heated Rivalry did not gain much attention at first. It took almost a year after its publication for people to notice it, which happened after romance novelist Cat Sebastian recommended the book on social media. The author called Sebastian’s recommendation a key moment that helped attract readers. The Sydney Morning Herald described the Game Changers series as "very popular." Heated Rivalry was a bestseller when it first came out, but sales increased much more quickly after the television series based on the books became popular. This also brought new readers to the book and the hockey romance genre. Several of the author’s other books later appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list. By December 2025, Harlequin had sold more than 650,000 books in the Game Changers series.

In January 2026, Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani encouraged people to stay home during a winter storm and announced that anyone with a New York Public Library card could access the Heated Rivalry e-book or audiobook for free. This caused the book’s downloads to increase by 529%.

Sequels

Heated Rivalry is the second book in Reid's Game Changers series. In 2022, Reid released The Long Game, which is the sixth book in the series and a sequel to Heated Rivalry. In this novel, Shane and Ilya have been secretly dating for ten years, but they face challenges as Ilya wants to make their relationship public. The Long Game appeared on the USA Today Best Seller list in 2023.

Unrivaled, the third book in the Shane and Ilya series, was originally planned to be released on September 29, 2026. In February 2026, Reid announced that the release would be delayed until June 2027. She explained that the delay was due to the demands of sudden fame and the worsening symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. This book will be the seventh in the Game Changers series.

In addition to the novels, Reid shared a short story titled "My Dinner with Hayden" on her blog in 2019. The story is set in Montreal in November 2018, before the ending of Heated Rivalry. In the story, Shane and Ilya host Shane’s teammate Hayden Pike and his wife, Jackie, for dinner. During the meal, a difficult conversation about relationships causes Ilya to think about his relationship with Shane and confirm his feelings for him.

Television adaptation

The novel was turned into a television series called Heated Rivalry, which began airing on Crave on November 28, 2025. The series was created, written, and directed by Jacob Tierney. It features Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov. Season one also includes parts from Reid's 2018 novel Game Changer, which tells the story of Scott Hunter, a closeted American hockey player played by François Arnaud, who falls for barista Kip Grady, portrayed by Robbie G.K. Season two will be based on The Long Game, the sequel to Heated Rivalry.