I read all the Heated Rivalry books so you don't have to (but you should)

Unless you're living under a rock, you've surely heard of Heated Rivalry, a TV series that made it's debut on HBO last November. It's about Shane and Ilya--rival hockey players who begin a secret sexual relationship as rookies and eventually can't stop themselves from falling in love. It's a really amazing show that is both intensely romantic and very hot. It's exactly the kind of show we need right now, when queer rights are once again under fire. Because this is a show about hope. This is a show that says, yes, you can be exactly who you are and you will be loved for it. 

And I discovered, to my delight, that the books the show is based on (the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid), leans even more into those themes of hope, love, and removing people who hurt you from your life so you can fill it with people who love you. This last point is the key to everything that is wonderful about Heated Rivalry. The story isn't "if the sex is good enough and you love each other enough, you will have a happy ending". It's "if you take steps to make needed changes in your life and ask for support, your life will get better...and you just might have a happy ending." Obviously, these books are in the romance genre, which banks on "happy endings guaranteed". This is a very different philosophy than I am used to, especially in my movie-watching habits. I do like happy endings, but they have to be earned. And they are only powerful and meaningful if you also have sad endings and ambiguous endings. Romance is a tricky genre for me because I am a romantic but I also hate bullshit. And while the books in the Game Changers series have some bullshit, they also have a lot of really good character building...and a lot of sex.

Before I get into my reviews of each book, I'd be remiss to not mention the loads of discourse around both the show and the series. The discourse seems to run along two main themes: 1) the parasocial relationship fans have with the young breakout stars of the show, Hudson Williams (who plays Shane) and Connor Storrie (who plays Ilya) and 2) the fact that this is a show/series about gay men written by a woman and primarily enjoyed by women.

I can't really speak to the first theme since I'm not at a place in my life where I get obsessed with actors. I'm glad I grew up in an era where all I could do was buy magazines about actors I had a crush on or look at shitty early-aughts websites about them. I didn't have access to their social media and up-to-the-minute information and gossip about them. I hope Williams and Storrie come out of this with a million awesome movie and TV offers and they get to do whatever they want with their careers. 

The second point is an interesting one. The show was adapted from the book and directed by a gay man, Jacob Tierney. But reading the books, you can very much feel a woman's touch. Mostly because the gay male characters in her books fall in love INSTANTLY and end up wanting monogamy and marriage. Now, now, now...I know that these are stereotypes about "what women want" versus what gay men may or may not want, but I've consumed enough media created by gay men (Looking and Queer as Folk are some examples) to know that it's a bit...different. I saw a meme that said "the men of Heated Rivalry are actually lesbians", which made me laugh. I don't know. Gay guys who read my reviews---what do you think of the show? And what do you think of women writing gay male characters? 

In any case, I've not going to explore the discourse in my reviews, but actually review the books themselves. 

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Game Changer

If you've watched Heated Rivalry are were charmed by episode 3, which focuses on Kip Grady and Scott Hunter, consider reading the first book in Reid's "Game Changer" series, which follows Kip and Scott's entire story, from the blueberry smoothies to the grand gesture Scott makes after leading his team to a Stanley Cup victory. 

I liked Game Changer but I didn't love it. More than any of the other books, Kip and Scott fall in insta-love and I'm not gonna lie...it's kind of gross. Like, gross in the way it's gross to watch a couple who really love each other make out in public. It's a little much. Especially since Kip is Scott's first boyfriend. The deeply closeted Scott has had sex with men before, but only while on vacation in other countries where he won't get recognized. He is absolutely terrified of being outed and it's a bummer because he basically holes Kip away in his apartment and pretends like he doesn't know him in public.

If you've seen the show, you know that Scott redeems himself in the most public way possible, and it sets the stage for all the other closeted hockey players in the series to have the courage to come out. But the journey there is painful. 

I give this book a "B" because I really liked Kip and the sex is mostly hot. I say "mostly" because by the time Kip and Scott are in love, it's a lot of exhortations of "I love you!" and "you're so fucking beautiful" when they have sex and while that's nice...the praise kink of it all was a bit much for me.

Grade: B

***

Heated Rivalry

The OG. The book Heated Rivalry hits all the same beats as the show. If anything, the show might actually be a little better (for one thing, the character Svetlana is fleshed out WAY more in the show). However, this book may be the ultimate winner of the series because 1) it's the sexiest and 2) Shane and Ilya's relationship builds over years which makes it more believable and more intense.

All of the books in this series have a lot of sex, but this one is definitely an erotic romance versus a romance that is erotic. This is because the sex actually moves the relationship along. The sex is critical to the relationship and if they weren't having it, there would be no relationship at all. Also, the sex is pervasive and consistent throughout the book. I mean there's probably like 10-15 sex scenes in this 370 page novel, including in the first chapter. So if that's what you're after, you're gonna get it here. If that's not your cup of tea...well, there are a lot of "sweet romance" authors out there, too!

Heated Rivalry is also a winner because of the undeniable chemistry between the characters. I used to think I hated the "enemies-to-lovers" trope...but when it comes to Shane and Ilya, I am happy to be proven wrong. A lot of the "enemies" aspect hinges on Ilya Rosanov, by far the best and most interesting character in the entire series. Ilya is an asshole who loves to get under the skin of other players. But he's also extremely handsome and confident, so you can see why someone would be attracted to him. Throughout the series, we learn a lot more about Ilya's background and depressing upbringing and see why he is the way he is.

Meanwhile, Shane Hollander is an anxious over-achiever. I've heard him described as boring. I would say he's just boring enough for a lot of readers and viewers to relate to him and project themselves onto him. Why do I have a feeling that there's a lot of former "High School Honor Roll" people watching this show and going apeshit over it? Heated Rivalry just gives that vibe. It's dumb (sexy) enough to turn your brain off, but not so dumb that you feel dumb while watching it.

Heated Rivalry is one of the strongest books in the series and probably tied with Role Model as my personal fave.

Grade: A

***

Tough Guy

Tough Guy is a tough sell. The characters, Ryan Price and Fabian Salah, are really not that fun to read about, quite frankly. Ryan is an enforcer on Toronto's hockey team (a team full of assholes). He's a gentle giant with so much anxiety and self-esteem issues that it makes it hard to root for him. While it's relatable and makes the reader sympathize with him in a "poor guy" way, it's not exactly sexy to listen to the main character of a romance constantly put himself down, refer to himself (and his penis!) as "ugly", and convince himself he's not worth anyone's time.

Fabian is not much better. He's thinly written and seems more like a collection of quirks (he dresses femininely and is a beautiful singer) than a complex human being. It's like Reid had the idea to pair a 6'7" giant with a slight, feminine man and wrote the characters to fit that vision rather than building the characters from the ground up.

As far as the sex goes, it takes forever to get to the fuckin'. I think I was 50% of the way through the book and was like "can we get on with it??" The lack of sex did not make the story more romantic--it took a weak story and made it worse by not at least having some hot boning in it. To be fair, the lack of sex in the first half makes sense because of Ryan being extremely shy, nervous about being vulnerable, and having trouble performing due to his medication--all very realistic issues. But overall this book was a bummer! To me, there wasn't any payoff that made the pain worth it, unlike in Game Changer where the agony of Kip feeling like Scott's dirty secret had a beautiful payoff in the end.

Some folks will probably love Tough Guy for it's realistic depiction of severe anxiety, and that's awesome! It was just not what I wanted or expected.

Grade: B-

***

Common Goal

It seems that readers consider Common Goal the worst or most boring book of the series and while I don't agree, I do see where they're coming from. This book follows Eric Bennett, an "older" goalie on the edge of retirement (he's 41, which is apparently ancient for hockey players) and Kyle, a 25 year old grad student and bartender. The big obstacle is their age difference and, frankly, it's not a very good obstacle because all the private agonizing could be put to an end with one or two honest conversations.

Instead, most of the book until the very, very, very end (I'm talking the last chapter) is Kyle thinking "He'll never really want me--he thinks I'm too young" and Eric thinking "He'll never really want me--he thinks I'm too old". There's a little more to it, but that's basically it. Now, don't worry, Eric and Kyle absolutely bone (although, like in Tough Guy, they take their time getting to it). Eric is bisexual and recently divorced from a woman he was married to for 20 years whereas Kyle is an Experienced Gay Man (tm) who offers to "teach" Eric how to have sex with another guy. This is a very intriguing set-up and the sex in this book was some of the hottest in the series (in my humble opinion). 

So the sex is good but the romance is lacking and I also thought that Kyle was kind of a jerk. Any time it felt like they were getting close to an emotionally honest moment, Kyle would make a joke or dismissive comment that would kill the vibe. It's kind of understandable when you learn his backstory, but it also made me feel like maybe Eric was too good for him and would actually find more happiness with a man his own age who had a little more maturity and less snark. They're not really a couple you want to root for. 

Like Game Changer, Common Goal is just fine--but not great.

Grade: B

***

Role Model

Ok, so now we get to a great book in the series. I actually think that Role Model is the best written book in the entire series. My only complaint is that it's not longer, and I don't mean that in a cutesy way, I mean that there's literally not enough time and space to develop the characters more fully. And they are REALLY GOOD characters! 

Role Model is about Troy Barrett, a player who had cameos in previous books as a homophobic jerk and who in this book ends up traded from Toronto to Ottawa because he calls his teammate a "rapist" (because, well, the teammate raped a bunch of women) and Toronto takes the rapist's side over Troy's. 

Troy starts out at Ryan Price-levels of self-loathing. He is secretly gay and hid behind his piece of shit "friend", Dallas Kent (the rapist), to avoid any suspicion falling on him. He gets dumped by his secret boyfriend, gets banished to Ottawa (which has a very low ranked hockey team), and everyone hates him--either because he called Kent out or because he was friends with Kent in the first place.

But this is a story of redemption. This is also "grumpy meets sunshine" story. Harris Drover, the out and proud social media manager for Ottawa's team, is an indomitable ray of sunshine who bursts into Troy's life with--quite literally--puppies and rainbows. I love how Harris is written because sunshine characters can be the worst. People who are happy and positive all the time can be the worst. But he's given enough of a sense of humor and grit that he comes off as just a really good guy who likes himself and not a Pollyanna.

I was so curious as to how Troy would make the transition from self-loathing, closeted sad-sack to out and proud and in love. The book's main weakness is that the transition happens too quickly and too smoothly. There's a trope in romance called "The Magic Peen" where a character's problems just fall away after having sex with their love interest and we get a bit of that in Role Model. 

Now, I will say that the precipitating event that pushes Harris and Troy from flirtation to sex and then love is a genius one. I was like "How are we going to make the jump here? Troy is too hesitant and Harris won't push him". Then when it happened, I was like "I 100% believe that experiencing this would push someone to take a huge leap of faith". You'll know what I'm talking about when you get to the scene.

Once Harris and Troy finally get together, it's smooth sailing. A bit too smooth. I do wish there were more obstacles and complications before Harris and Troy get their happy ending. But there's enough angst in the first half of the book that I didn't mind it all that much.

Grade: A

***

The Long Game

The Long Game continues Shane and Ilya's story. They follow through on their plan for Ilya to leave Boston for Ottawa and start a charity with Shane--bringing them closer together and giving them an excuse to interact publicly without coming out as a couple.

The timeline in The Long Game is roughly the same as in Role Model, and since Ilya is the captain of the Ottawa Centaurs, he plays a prominent role in Role Model, where he comes off as a strong leader and a good friend. Well, The Long Game shows us the same events, but from Ilya's perspective and the boy ain't doing too well. He's isolated, closeted, depressed, and suffering from acute imposter syndrome. Meanwhile, Shane is fully out as gay to the world and out to his parents and his best friend, Hayden, about his relationship with Ilya. He has a large support network and is the captain of the Montreal Voyageurs, one of the most highly ranked teams in the country. 

Ironically, the one truly good thing in Ilya's life (outside of Shane) is his shitty, low-ranked Ottawa team. The Ottawa Centaurs are truly a fantasy hockey team that could only be real in a romance novel. The team is full of good guys who aren't homophobic, aren't misogynistic, and are all just really good buds. Totally unrealistic, but let's just suspend disbelief.

The Long Game is a book about how just because you're in love doesn't mean all the problems in your life go away. Ilya becomes so depressed he seeks out a therapist. He is haunted by the specter of his mother, who took her own life. He is convinced that he can't come out to his teammates--either about his bisexuality or about Shane. It's one thing to be queer, it's another to be in love with your rival.

This is a really, really satisfying book...and, yes, there are sex scenes out the wazoo. Ilya's depression doesn't keep him from fucking Shane senseless in about 100 different ways. So again, if you're here for the boning, you've come (ha) to the right place. 

One of the most profound aspects of The Long Game is the sort of reversal of fortune that happens between Shane and Ilya. The whole story, it seems like Shane has everything he needs and Ilya is desperately grabbing onto what he can...but when shit hits the fan, Ilya finds out he has a lot more friends than he thinks and Shane finds out that friendship is fickle. But don't you worry, this is romance and the happiness is guaranteed--especially for our beloved "Hollanov". 

Grade: A

***

Should you read the books?

It depends! 

If you are OBSESSED with the show and also like to read, there is no reason not to read all of the books in the series. I'm a moderately-paced reader (not a slow reader or a fast reader) and I got through all 6 books in under six weeks. Even if they're not all great literature, they're fun, sexy and give you a lot more context for what you see in the show.

If you're OBSESSED with the show, but only want to read *good* books, I'd say make time for Heated Rivalry, Role Model, and The Long Game since these really are the best books in the series (in my opinion). They add depth and continue Shane and Ilya's storyline.

If you're OBSESSED with Shane and Ilya as a couple, read Heated Rivalry and The Long Game (unless you're trying to avoid possible spoilers for season 2, which will likely be adapting The Long Game). Again, you just get more content if you read the books, so why deprive yourself?