Heated Rivalry is a book by Canadian author Rachel Reid. It is the second book in the ongoing Game Changers series of sports romantic-drama books by the same author, focusing on the lives and loves of fictional queer hockey players in international leagues.
Heated Rivalry focuses on the tension between two star hockey players: Canadian golden boy Shane Hollander, who plays for Montreal; and cocky but gifted Russian player Ilya Rozanov, who plays for Boston. As the two continue to face off on the ice, a heated but secret affair blooms between the two young men away from the limelight. But the stakes are high for the two players if they are found out — especially since both of them seem to have growing feelings for each other in a sport known for its toxic masculinity.
This entry will focus on the character of Ilya, one of the two leads. Reid’s style goes back and forth between Ilya and Shane in omniscient third-person form, so we get to get insights into Ilya’s inner emotional life, which he rarely speaks about out loud. This allows us to see that not only is he deeply attracted to Hollander for more than just hookups, but in early chapters, he notes that he is also attracted to women as well. One of the best descriptions of this is in Chapter 6, when Ilya sees Shane before a press conference months after their first sexual encounter:
He loved shit-talking [Hollander], because his eyes would get all squashed up and angrier, and his pink lips would curl up into an adorable little attempt at a snarl, like an angry kitten …
Ilya had always been this way. He loved sex, and he loved it more when it was dangerous. When it was with someone he knew he shouldn’t be with. Whether it was his coach’s son or his teammate’s sister, Ilya couldn’t resist a bad idea. And Shane Hollander was a really bad idea. Too unimaginable.
Though he remains closely guarded in his public life and on the ice where homophobic slurs are still thrown around, Ilya is open with Shane about his sexual fluidity. From Chapter 13 during a more domestic moment with Shane after they’ve been intimate:
Rozanov didn’t reply for a moment. Then he turned back to the television and said, ‘I like girls.’‘Yeah, no shit.’
‘But I also like you.’
However, Ilya is very clear about how much of a risk it is for him to be queer in his public life in Chapter 17:
‘I’m not gay. And I can’t be anything close to it, ok?’
Shane laughed. ‘Well, you’re doing a shitty job of that.’
‘Not in public. I can’t. I wouldn’t be able to go home.’
‘Your family?’
‘Russia! I could not go home to Russia!’
“Shane looked horrified. ‘What would happen to you?’
‘I do not want to find out.’
He seemed to consider this. ‘Would your parents … help?’
Ilya shook his head and set himself on the floor against the wall. ‘My father is a cop.’
‘Oh, Shane said. ‘Jesus.’
‘My brother is [also] a cop.’
In addition to his bisexuality, which he never backs down from with Shane, Ilya is a well-developed character. He is funny, smart, tender, good with kids, charming, thoughtful, incredibly good and successful at his work, and mindful. He has hopes, dreams, and fears that he thinks about often without bringing them to the surface, a coping mechanism he learned from his youth as he was not surrounded by emotional support growing up in Russia. His growth does not have to do with bi self-acceptance but rather opening himself up to the possibility of queer love and true support from a partner in an otherwise heteronormative environment. And while we wish he and the book used the term “bi” more often than a smattering of times (Ilya does not use the term for himself), it is still solid representation in a genre that rarely sees it.
While Heated Rivalry gained praise at first, it took about a year for book sales to take off. Currently, as of late 2025, the book has sold over 650,000 copies and become a New York Times bestseller.
In 2025, Heated Rivalry was adapted into a television series for the Canadian streamer, Crave. The adaptation stars Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov. HBO Max soon picked it up for distribution, and it quickly became a global sensation, rocketing the two actors to stardom. A second season, based on Reid’s 2022 book The Long Game (a sequel to Heated Rivalry), is set for release in 2027. Check out our Bi Media entry for the television adaptation of the novel here!
In January 2026, hockey player Jesse Kortuem came out as gay, citing Heated Rivalry as inspiration for him to come out.
In the same month, Reid announced that in September 2026, there will be a third and final installment in the Hollanov romance, titled Unrivaled.
Heated Rivalry does what few other books have done — it places lovable queer characters at the center of a hyper-masculine sports world and celebrates their queerness. She has created an endearing, multifaceted bi male lead in Ilya Rozanov. For that reason, we believe Heated Rivalry offers strong bi male representation in modern literature.