The Long Game

Rachel Reid
Completed 6/9/2026, Reviewed 6/12/2026
5 stars

This book made me feel so many emotions: joy, fear, pain, exhilaration.  It brings back Ilya and Shane from Heated Rivalry into the foreground again, with Troy and Dallas from Role Model and a few other characters showing up in featured scenes.  It was a joy to read, but also very honest about the fear of coming out.  I remember those days in my late teens and early 20s; I had both the exhilaration and terror of coming out to the people important in my life.   This book made those memories bubble up as I read about Ilya and Shane.  It’s good to remember this when people ask “Why do we need Pride?”

Shane and Ilya have been together for about eleven years, give or take.  They’ve been together as an official couple for three.  Ilya is getting tired of the hiding and the long periods away.  Shane is too, but terrified of coming out.  Both men are miserable.  This book is told mostly from Ilya’s perspective, so we also know he has been depressed.  He believes that if the two of them come out and get married, it would relieve the depression.  This leads to many discussions and convincing between them, but they both agree it’s time to choose: risk everything and come out or stay in the closet and be guaranteed to stay in the sport they love.

This book sounds like there’s a lot of anxiety being portrayed.  Well, it is.  It comes out in their thoughts and their conversations.  It may sound tedious, but it’s very realistic.  Of course, it is intermixed with a lot of hockey, interactions with other teammates, and of course, the spicy stuff, so it keeps the pace moving quickly.  Except for falling asleep while reading late at night a few times, I read it voraciously.  

The toughest thing for me is that Ilya’s tall, dark, and hairy in the book, but smooth, blond, and about Shane’s height in the TV series.  Other than trying to keep one picture in my head, I’ve really come to like Ilya so much.  I relate more to him as he makes the decision to go to therapy to work on issues in his past and present.  Whereas Shane is an obsessive perfectionist.  I can only relate to that a little (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).  But both characters go through so much emotionally, it’s hard not to empathize with at least some of their struggles.  

I enjoyed this book so thoroughly and deeply, I have to give it five stars out of five.  I know there’s a seventh book coming out soon (ha).  I can’t wait!!  So I looked it up and the release date is…July 2027?!?!?  Aaaaaack!  I guess I’ll suffer and wait.  Really, that’s how much I enjoy this series.