Rachel Reid’s New Heated Rivalry Book May Become Season 3
Though it’s the seventh book in her series, it might be adapted very soon.
There are six books in Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, but after the hit TV adaptation Heated Rivalry was renewed for a second season, there was a big problem looming over the show. The Crave and HBO Max program succeeded largely due to the explosive fandom around stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, who perfected the enemies-to-lovers story of Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. But Reid only published two books centered on Shane and Ilya — could the show continue without its beloved stars? Thankfully, it may not come to that now, as Reid has announced a new Hollanov book is coming.
Reid confirmed the seventh book in her Game Changers series is called Unrivaled, and it will be released on Sept. 29. The announcement comes about a month after the streaming adaptation of her 2019 book Heated Rivalry became a massive hit. Both the timing and the new book’s plot seem to heavily suggest that if the TV show gets picked up for a third season, Unrivaled will likely serve as its source material.
The upcoming second season is all but confirmed to adapt Reid’s 2022 novel The Long Game, in which Shane and Ilya deepen their relationship and discuss coming out publicly. Unrivaled will directly follow up The Long Game, as Shane and Ilya deal with the backlash to their relationship.
“They’ve gotten a lot of love from fans who are thrilled for them,” Unrivaled’s synopsis reads. “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. 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.”
With Unrivaled, Williams and Storrie can continue starring in Heated Rivalry for at least two more seasons. But once the Hollanov story is over, the show may shift focus to other characters. Reid’s novels also include Tough Guy (revolving around Ryan Price and Fabian Salah), Common Goal (about Eric Bennett and Kyle Swift), and Role Model (Troy Barrett and Harris Drover). The first season of Heated Rivalry also adapted much of Reid’s first book, Game Changer, with the beginnings of Scott Hunter and Kip Grady’s romance being chronicled in the midst of Shane and Ilya’s story.
