Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid: A Book Review

I watched the first episode of the HBO series and wasn’t sure it was for me. Then I listened to the Worst Bestsellers podcast episode on the book, and they raved about how great this book was, and how it wasn’t necessary to read the rest of the series first. So, I added it to the library waitlist (which was enormous), and when it rolled around, I figured I’d give it a go. Three days and 337 pages later, I was very glad I did.

Synopsis

Heated Rivalry is the second book in Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, though it reads as a standalone. Shane Hollander is the captain of the Montreal Voyageurs; talented, disciplined, spotlessly respectable, and deeply in the closet. Ilya Rozanov is his Russian counterpart, captain of the Boston Bears, his most visible rival on the ice, and the person he has been secretly hooking up with for years. Publicly, they are enemies. Privately, the lines between rivalry and something far more complicated have been blurring for a very long time. When they both start to want more, everything they’ve carefully managed threatens to unravel. 

My review

I came to this book sideways. I watched the first episode of the HBO adaptation and didn’t love it. There’s nothing wrong with it; it seems like, in hindsight, maybe the first episode just didn’t grab me. But I happened to listen to Episode 285 of the Worst Bestsellers podcast, which covered Heated Rivalry, and something about their take made me think I’d been too hasty. I added it to my library waitlist, waited out the queue, and dove in.

I finished it in three days. That’s the review, really, but I’ll keep going.

This is my third ice hockey romance, after Icebreaker by Hannah Grace and Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy, and it’s the best of the three. What Reid does here that the others don’t quite manage is pace. The smutty scenes arrive early, which in lesser hands would kill the tension entirely. But Reid keeps building anyway. The physical relationship between Shane and Ilya is established quickly; it’s the emotional one that takes the whole book to arrive, and that gap, between what their bodies are doing and what neither of them will say out loud, is where the tension is.

I found myself smiling constantly.

The banter is sharp and genuinely funny. Shane is buttoned-up and quietly yearning. Ilya is cocky and, underneath it, just as terrified. They are well-matched in a way that feels organic rather than engineered.

There is a moment around page 272 where Shane remarks that a kiss between them feels strange, and then realises it’s because they are both smiling. Adorable! 

I should say: you do not need to know anything about hockey to enjoy this book. I don’t. It doesn’t matter. The ice is a setting, not a subject.

What I liked / what I didn’t

What I liked

The pacing is confident and well-judged. Reid starts the smut early, but the real slow burn is in their emotional attachment (plus more bedroom experimentation). The banter is genuinely funny. Shane and Ilya are well-drawn, distinct characters whose dynamic feels believable. 

What I didn’t

Four stars rather than five because, in the end, this is a light, fluffy romance and I’m stingy with my five stars. 

Final verdict

Heated Rivalry is a warm, funny, genuinely moving romance that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys the genre, not just MM romance readers, just anyone who likes a well-constructed slow burn with characters worth caring about.

It made me smile, and I got through it quickly. Had I been on holiday, I could have read this in one day. For what it’s worth, it made me want to give the HBO show another chance.

If you’re on the fence, listen to the Worst Bestsellers episode first. That’s what got me here. Listen to them anyway, particularly their episode on Dan Brown’s The Secret of Secrets, because like me, they shouted ‘this book is so stupid!’ at it.

Where can I read it?