You’ve probably seen invitations to ‘the cottage’ and what makes a good Russian accent on your timeline for the past few months. Rachel Reid, a popular MLM romance author, got her novel Heated Rivalry greenlit for a television adaptation by Canadian streaming platform Crave a few months ago, and since then, it has taken the world by storm. The ice hockey community already battles BookTook lovers, CTE allegations, and the ‘don’t say gay’ movement on the regular — now here’s another thing they’ll have to spend time giving their players PR briefings about. The smash hit queer TV show follows the decade-long-situationship between Russia’s Ilya Rozanov and Canada’s Shane Hollander — two top hockey players on rival teams. Their fans are out for blood, but little to no knowledge of the sneaky links and romance brewing between the two players.
The book is a part of Reid’s popular ice hockey romance series Game Changers that follows the lives of various queer hockey players with all of your favorite romantic tropes. But where does the line blur between enjoyment and obsession? Hudson Williams (Hollander) and Connor Storrie (Rozanov) were two relatively unknown actors before they crash landed on Fame Island and got stranded there nearly four months ago. Williams worked at a chain restaurant, and Storrie was previously featured in a myriad of small roles in other projects — even a blockbuster or two like The Joker. The show’s distributor, HBO Max, ensured that the series reached audiences all over the world. This inspired fanworks, inside jokes, memes, crossovers with other series, and, of course, controversy.
Some fans bemoan the lack of WLW and Sapphic content and mourn the amount of lesbian media that was cancelled unceremoniously by misogynistic network executives who prefer to have their queerness with a side of white and male. Hit lesbian TV shows like I Am Not Okay With This, We Are The Lady Parts, and First Kill all lost the battle with their respective studios and suffered near immediate cancellations after one or two seasons. It’s hard to even name a TV show with a lesbian romantic subplot that goes on for more than one season, let alone one starring women of color. Whereas shows like Heated Rivalry, Heartstopper, and Young Rivals are cranked out at an alarming frequency and tend to feature all the gayness that society can handle before it starts to crumble. Fans of Heated Rivalry have also taken to the streets in protest of the recent occupation by ICE in Minnesota. Popular picket signs feature slogans like ‘ICE are so not invited to the cottage’ and other HR-themed references. It’s hard to stomach fandom culture when it is paired alongside people’s lives and livelihoods being ended for good.
This level of performative activism has been made apparent by fans and haters alike of the show, who command that this subject matter be taken more seriously than a funny slogan to put on a sign. Despite all of the negative press and parasocial fan interactions with the cast, a lot of good has come out of the show’s existence. Both Williams and Storrie have been contacted by many unnamed queer hockey players to express how much the show meant to them, how much it mattered to see a representation of what they’ve gone through on the silver screen. Many women who hadn’t been able to get into hockey before found themselves at games, in sports bars, and with season tickets to see their local teams. The NHL might have issues with the show that stem from bigotry, but even they can’t deny that more bodies in seats means more money in their pockets. Reid’s other Game Changers novels have received just as much attention as Heated Rivalry and the Shane-and-Ilya sequel The Long Game, inspiring a third book following the pairing to be released sometime within the next year.
Unrivaled will be the 3rd book in the saga but the 8th book in the series, releasing September 29th, 2026, and (hopefully) not including any career-ending injuries for Shane or Ilya with good vibes all around. Some argue that the series has done more harm than good, while others say it’s inspired a whole community of closeted athletes to step into the limelight — in whatever way that may be. As for me, I greatly enjoyed the two books I read. They’re certainly very fast-paced, following nearly ten years of Ilya and Shane’s relationship with frequent cuts of the ‘in-between.’ The show follows a similar format and takes a gratuitous approach to the explicit scenes that many have said felt overdone. If you read the book, that’s exactly how it came across, so I think it’s a pretty faithful adaptation on that front. Both actors did an amazing job with them, having to channel a level of intimacy on screen that I was quite impressed with. Sexual content aside, I think a lot can be gleaned from Heated Rivalry — both the book and the TV show. Representation comes in all shapes and forms. I can only hope that other members of the LGBTQIA+ community get their very own ‘Heated Rivalry’ in the near future!