Heated Rivalry

I'm still learning things weekly about the romance genre - I read the expression MM romance a few weeks ago and put a few books from a 'best of' MM list in my library Wishlist. This was one of them. Along with the Nothing Special series by AE Via.

OMG, I thought this was close to perfect as a novel. The forbidden love theme created suspense and excitement. I don't think I've seen that theme used to such good effect before.

There were so many brilliantly hilarious moments, and so many touching heart wrenching moments - how satisfying a combo is that!

I've just seen that the Audible blurb agrees with me! “Sexy, hot, funny and sweet, Heated Rivalry is a game changer in sexy sports romance.”

The narrator, Tor Thom - Audible, you nailed show more it! I just love the tone he gives to Illya compared with Shane - it added so much to the story! Once again, brilliant.

How is it possible I haven't heard of him before and not listened to one of his books unfortunately - I just watched an interview with him on YouTube.

Jan 2025 - so 3 years of reading romance - and being lifted above the fray of real life! for good or bad...

I don't suppose there are many fiction readers who aren't somewhat stuck behind a curtain of daydreams and distraction...instead of being focused, as they should be, on building a better reality.

Heated Rivalry has been my go to re-read over that time. I can't believe I am still enthralled by it and pulled forward to finish it in no time. I listen for new phrases, descriptions, dialogue I haven't absorbed before; I'm always rewarded.

The plot line of Shane and Ilya's long running relationship (about 10 years) before they get to the point of knowing, and later declaring, they have fallen in love, is unusual ... something I know after consuming several hundred romances in the past 3 years.

This isn't a friends to lovers, or even really an enemies to lovers, trope. Shane and Ilya are concurrently enemies and lovers! They resist with all their might any transition to anything permanent, or significant - due to the mores with elite sport during that period (the 2010s). Yet from the start, when the MCs are 17?! there is a tentacle attaching them that ensures an unlikely loyalty to each other.

That's the magical thing about this novel. You feel love's complexity...around loyalty, the need to care for someone and to protect yourself against being alone, alienation and insecurity. show less

I cannot believe it. I’m rating a romance novel 4 stars.

Granted, it’s probably just under four stars in reality. I can’t actually say it’s better than some of the books in the Raven Cycle, which I just read and gave half the books in it 4 stars. But goddamn, did I enjoy it.

I, in a massive act of reader sacrilege, watched Heated Rivalry before it read it, and I absolutely adored the show. That’s probably part of why I enjoyed the book so much, but honestly it was just a fun read! The tension throughout was well done, and I enjoyed both main characters’ internal monologue. There were a lot more random side characters, which is just a consequence of the show having a limited budget, but I liked that quite a bit.

I probably show more enjoyed the show more, which is typical of romance adaptations for me, but people online have VASTLY exaggerated the problems with the book in comparison to the show. There were changes I liked in the show, there were things in the book I liked better. Particularly, some of the book side characters’ traits were changed in strange ways in the show, for reasons unknown to me, and I didn’t like that. The show is, however, an incredibly faithful adaptation, to the point large sections of dialogue are identical. A lot of the issues I have with the book are present in the show, and vice versa.

As a hockey fanatic, I can solidly say the people claiming this is hockey RPF with the serial numbers filed off are wrong. Both Shane and Ilya are amalgamations of several hockey player archetypes, and honestly their characters and their dynamic aren’t really identical to anything that exists in real life. There are certainly aspects of this that are reflective of real life (the Montreal/Boston rivalry is probably the most famous in hockey, although Leafs fans might fight me on that), but you’d have to squint pretty hard to say this is RPF. I guess the comparisons to Ovechkin and Crosby are there, but the Weird Probably-Has-Undiagnosed-Neurodivergence Canadian Hockey Machine is a very common type of guy and Ilya reminds me more of some of the early 2010s party boys than Ovechkin. Ovechkin and Crosby never even had a particularly large rivalry, outside of the general “two great players” thing. Pittsburgh’s traditional rival is Philadelphia, and it was Crosby’s teammate and Ovechkin’s draft-mate, Malkin (another Russian superstar), who actually had a brief beef with Ovechkin.

If you know hockey, you have to straight up ignore quite a bit of that. They both score 67 goals as rookies, which is, frankly, insane any time and particularly in the low scoring era they were rookies in. Even Ovechkin, the only NHL player to surpass 900 goals in his career, capped out at 52. The rest of it makes sense, but, as I see in a lot of sports romance/stories, the numbers are really inflated. Additionally, both begin their rookie careers a full year after being drafted, which is a bit weird in my opinion, but not impossible. Most people aren’t in it for the hockey as much as the vibe of hockey, which is definitely there. Honestly, there isn’t a ton of hockey action, but I’d rather that than inaccurate hockey. Rachel Reid clearly knows quite a bit about hockey culture (the language used and actions of the players are very accurate), so I’m not mad about it.

All in all, really fun time! Sorry about the derail into IRL hockey talk, I’m frankly quite insane about these things. As I chug through the rest of the series, prepare for more of that. Although I still 100% enjoy regency romance and other historical romances more than contemporary romance as a whole, this may have been my favorite romance read of the past year, to the shock of everyone including me. Also, great distraction from my college’s basketball team not making March Madness. show less

This was just too good

This isn't even a good enimies to lovers story, it's a freaking amazing enimies and also lovers romance. They don't just dislike each other for one chapter and then fall deeply in love. These two really don't like each other for a good chunk of the book which makes the sex so much hotter.

I love this authors writing style. This is my first book by her but I'm very impressed. She is particularly good at writing dialogue, especially funny dialogue.

I was dreading, but secretly looking forward to a little more heartbreak before their HEA, which was alluded to often but didn't happen. Which is fine.

The characters felt very real. And yes i think I'm in love with Ilya

this book had me barking like a dog!

i am a recent convert to the HEATED RIVALRY religion after the new HBO show, and lemme tell youuuuuuu - i love the intensity of the yearning here. this is a queer romance that fulfills every secret wish of my heart.

the conceit is thrilling, the characters are memorable, and the spice is 👀 really well done. but the best part of this book is how it’s both enemies to lovers AND a slow burn. two extremely hot tropes with some real emotional resonance. that’s JUST MY TYPEEEE.

ilya and shane are great, the writing is pretty good for the genre, and its some world class

Good writing. Many like me will come to this from the runaway hit television series, and will enjoy anew the quality of the writing. Much of the dialogue here was used verbatim in the TV production, a marker of just how well it advances the story, fills out the characters of the two protagonists, and entertains us. The book makes use too of interior monologues to fill out the progression of Ilya and Shane, from lustful sex to love and togetherness.
The bonus feature included here at the end, “My Dinner with Hayden”, also wraps this up sweetly and neatly. The book is an enjoyable read in its own right, but also discovering directly the source material as here brings even more clearly to mind just how well portrayed this story was by show more the TV show’s superb acting and directing. show less

If you loved the TV adaptation, it was extremely faithful to this well-written love story, so you’ll likely enjoy this just as much.

I’ve mentioned in many reviews that an overabundance of sex scenes isn’t my favorite thing. It’s not about being a prude, it’s that too often excessive sex scenes end up feeling like filler, like the author doesn’t know what else to do to stretch out their story so let’s get naked. Again. And again. And again. For me, that just gets old and boring, fast.

Fortunately, here, at least half of the sex scenes felt like they were actually advancing story, showing growth in the characters and/or growth in their relationship, so I had less of a problem with the extremely high frequency of them than I show more generally do, though admittedly, I do still think there were more than necessary, I’m always going to crave more variety in the types of scenes on offer throughout a novel, that’s just my preference as a reader.

I loved Shane for his sweet sincerity, and Ilya for his snarky comments and thinly-veiled vulnerability, and I loved them together. The arc of their relationship was so well done, gradually and believably progressing from lust to love. Too many romance novels I’ve read in recent years have such a forced quality to them, but here, their chemistry is so natural, off-the-charts strong, where sparks fly just from the tiniest brush of elbows at a press conference table and where something as everyday simple as eating tuna melts together feels achingly romantic. show less

Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are elite ice hockey players who've long had the hots for one another. As the NHL is a fundamentally homophobic organisation, they've had to bone each other secretly for the better part of a decade. Eventually their insane chemistry overflows, and the two finally give in to their feelings... but not before panicking big time.

By now (almost) everyone and their pet chihuahua has heard of Heated Rivalry: the insanely popular TV show that took the holidays by storm.
As I have a serious case of FOMO and a BFF who's a male/male romance connoisseur, I've done it all:
- read the original source material
- watched the TV show
- and got lost in the online fandom, which is how I found out that Threads (by Instagram) show more is the unofficial app for all things Heated Rivalry.
No, I'm not touching Twitter, thank you very much.

If you've yet to take the plunge and are wondering if the hype is worth it: well, it depends.
Are you a newbie when it comes to romance novels?
Or have you only read stories starring heterosexual couples?
Are you fine with lots of on-page graphic sex scenes?
Even if they're gay ones and have very little plot?
If you answered yes to all/most of the above, then hell, yes! The story's well-written, not very long, and the chemistry between the two protagonists is through the roof!

If you've been a long-time fan of gay romance novels, however, things might look a bit different. Especially if you've explored a variety of genres and tropes, including the indie territory. While the story itself may easily come off as something innovative on TV, fans of the genre have probably read better books.

Frankly, if you take away the sex scenes, the story is left with very little substance. In fairness, the TV series makes a valiant effort to fix this issue. Even the ice hockey scenes are more window dressing than actually relevant to the plot. Though, arguably, this can be a good thing if you're not a big sports fan. Although, in my case, that also meant that I had to watch the TV series to get all the boy aquarium references. Hint: look up hamstring stretches.

Score: 4/5 stars

I rarely rate books highly for their vibe, but this time I feel like it's deserved.
Long story short: we probably all emerged from this experience with a bit of a crush on Ilya and his clipped Russian accent. This coming from someone who'd happily listen to Stephen Fry recite the damned phone book!

P.S. Yes, I have listened to the Quinn original audiobook (Ember and Ice) a few (dozen) times: it makes for an excellent bedtime story. 😏 show less