Heated Rivalry

Rachel Reid
Completed 3/5/2026, Reviewed 3/9/2026
4 stars

Well, between Game Changer and this book, I watched the Heated Rivalry series.  So I had a lot of images already in my head, regardless of the fact that Ilya is described differently in the book (dark and hairy vs. blond and smooth).  My impression of the book was skewed by this.  I liked it much more than Game Changer, mostly because it shed a lot more light on the internal conflicts of the Ilya and Shane as their relationship progressed.  Despite the overuse of adverbs, I think this is the better novel.  I think the character arcs were stronger because of their inner dialogues.  Yes, the spicy content is as good as Changer.  And yes, I will continue to read this series.  And just to be clear, I was a hockey fan before the series 😊 from the early days of the Colorado Avalanche when I was living in Denver, with a nod to the Jersey Devils rubbed off from my hockey playing brothers.  

Since the series has become one of the most watched in recent history, with one of the episodes being the most watched ever, a plot summary seems moot, but here it goes.  Ilya is a Russian prospect for the NHL.  Shane is a Canadian prospect.  They meet at a junior championship match where they hook up.  They are drafted by two different teams and become the two hottest players in the NHL, and bitter rivals on the ice.  However, their hook ups continue when they play in the same city.  Eventually, their relationship becomes an obsession, hiding their true feelings for each other.  Both are afraid of their feelings and the repercussions if their story leaks.  Ilya, who is bisexual, has never felt this way with anyone before.  He also carries the weight of his exceedingly critical father and the financial demands of his brother and stepmother.  Shane struggles accepting that he is gay, and fears coming out to his hockey-crazed domineering mother.  So they try to find ways to hide their feelings and relationship until Scott and Kip from the previous book have their infamous kiss on the ice after Scott wins the championship cup.  And the floodgates of feelings are breached.

As I said above, it’s hard to separate this book from the series.  My biggest observation is that we see more of the internal struggles of Ilya and Shane, with neither wanting to admit they have fallen in love with each other.  This helped a lot, particularly with Ilya, who constantly throws barbs and sarcasm around as a way to hide his true feelings.  The series made him out to be more of a jerk in the first few episodes compared to the book’s first half.  His internal dialogue softened that behavior, making me more empathetic toward him.  Shane, in comparison, was vulnerable in both media.  

I don’t have much else to say about the book.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, though it took me a while to finish it, trying to read it while on the fun- and activity-filled Star Trek Cruise.  I do have the next couple of books in the series, so I’ll be getting to those soon after catching up on my genre fiction TBR and book club lists.  I give this book four stars out of five.