New ‘Heated Rivalry’ Book ‘Unrivaled’ Set to Continue Ilya and Shane’s Romance in 2026
by Ethan Shanfeld · Variety“Heated Rivalry” author Rachel Reid is advancing the puck with another hockey romance novel, “Unrivaled,” due Sept. 29.
The seventh installment of the “Game Changers” novel series will continue to follow Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, the forbidden lovers now further immortalized in the hit HBO Max series “Heated Rivalry.” Potential spoilers ahead: the athlete pair is newly married and openly out as gay, and face public backlash while navigating love, life and playing on the same hockey team.
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Per the book’s synopsis: “They’ve gotten a lot of love from fans who are thrilled for them. But some people in the hockey world are still reeling from their relationship reveal, and the backlash — led by popular hockey podcast Top Shelf and the #TakeBackHockey movement — is getting louder.”
The description continues, “Ilya and Shane are finally able to stand together in the light, the way they’d always wanted. And now they might be facing their biggest challenge yet.”
While the book series kicked off with the 2018 publication of “Game Changer,” the story of Shane and Ilya has amassed millions more fans in the past couple of months, after a steamy Canadian TV adaptation titled “Heated Rivalry” was picked up for streaming by HBO Max. The show took off, scoring a Season 2 renewal in December and catapulting its stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie onto the Golden Globes stage.
“I’m really excited to have the chance to continue their story with ‘Unrivaled,'” Reid told People magazine about Ilya and Shane. “I’m writing this one for all the Hollanov fans, old and new. I can’t tell you how much the love my characters have received over the years means to me. It has been a blast writing these guys again, and revisiting the entire ‘Game Changers’ cast.”