Heated Rivalry
Novel by Rachel ReidWikipedia
17
MENTIONS
7
EPISODES
6
PODCASTS
Search complete. 17 mentions across 7 episodes found for "Heated Rivalry".
Sep 13, 2026
DeclanHOST
Hi everyone, welcome back to Long Game Heat at Rivalry podcast.
DeclanHOST
My name is Declan and you might notice that Sylvan isn't actually here today.
DeclanHOST
It's because he's working on a very special project.
DeclanHOST
So instead we have Jen from the Book Refuge who is going to join me for a little bit of a deep dive into the third entry in the Game Changer series which is Tough Guy.
DeclanHOST
Jen, this is your first time reading this book funny enough.
DeclanHOST
Even though you've read quite a lot of the fan fiction for Heat at Rivalry, tell me like what did you think of this book because it's quite different from the first two
JenGUEST
Yeah.
JenGUEST
Yeah.
Karen YatesHOST
You know, the trauma bonds.
Karen YatesHOST
And the director says, and the author, so the director says, "I want to see films which get into the specificity of diverse queer experiences, films which allow queer characters to be messy, not simply ambassadors for a form of queerness that's palatable to the mainstream," such as, like, Heated Rivalry, which was written by a cis heterosexual woman.
Karen YatesHOST
Adam Mars-Jones, the author, says, um, "How about a leve- level playing field? Gay people can be perfectly horrid.
Karen YatesHOST
There are aspects of real life bes- beyond the fantasy." And do you have a thought about that, about more diversity or diverse experiences being seen in, by the mainstream?
Sarah SloaneGUEST
I would love for them to be.
Sarah SloaneGUEST
What I don't wanna have happen, though, is for this to be the only thing that we see.
Sarah SloaneGUEST
You know? Like, I'm listening through all of the Heated Rivalry books.
Sarah SloaneGUEST
But those are like Harlequin romance for, for gay men.
NatalieHOST
As much as you can research new titles, there is also that unpredictable nature, like you kind of said, the book clubs or even pop culture.
NatalieHOST
What does, you know, book talk or the overnight popularity of something like heated rivalry mean at your desk?
Aileen ClearGUEST
Yeah, I mean, it's always fun when books become popular and mainstream news.
Aileen ClearGUEST
And so it's always great to see, but then it does add an extra pressure that you have to all of a sudden purchase a lot more copies of it.
Aileen ClearGUEST
But there are some exceptions to that, because sometimes local authors that we purchase books from may not necessarily be available through our vendor, but we would like to purchase them.
Aileen ClearGUEST
But yeah, people can suggest through that form.
TamaraHOST
How do you decide that sweet spot for how many copies of a title that you order, and how quickly can you bring them in for something like Heated Rivalry, where you may not have had that initially in your collection?
Aileen ClearGUEST
Yeah.
speaker_0HOST
Right out of the gate, we had two massive hits.
speaker_0HOST
There was HBO Max's romance series Heated Rivalry.
speaker_1HOST
Adapted from Rachel Reid's wildly popular books, yeah.
speaker_0HOST
Right, and then over on Netflix, the adaptation of Emily Henry's The People We Meet On Vacation, both just massive, undeniable hits.
speaker_1HOST
And our guide for this is a fantastic article from Pink News by Emily Maskel.
speaker_1HOST
She outlined six major differences between Rachel Reid's smash hit hockey romance novel, Heated Rivalry, and the HBO television adaptation.
speaker_2HOST
Yeah, she really breaks it down well.
speaker_1HOST
She does.
speaker_2HOST
They heavily guard their intellectual property, and they are notoriously strict about the context in which their brand is used.
speaker_1HOST
Right.
speaker_2HOST
And Heated Rivalry is a very mature, steamy romance.
speaker_2HOST
The NHL generally aims for that family-friendly mass market appeal.
EmilyPANELIST
I was born in Moscow.
EmilyPANELIST
I also served as inspiration for the character of Ilya Rozhinov in Rachel Reid's novel Heated Rivalry.
EmilyPANELIST
So it's not about my life, just kind of based off me.
John IrelandHOST
Um, I'm gonna take a shot.
EmilyPANELIST
Yeah
John IrelandHOST
... and then I remembered Sidney Crosby is born in Canada.
EmilyPANELIST
And fun fact, they are both kind of the inspiration for Heated Rivalry, though we know that they didn't do what they did in Heated Rivalry, they were just mimicked off those characters.
Andy KamenetzkyHOST
Yeah.
IanHOST
But I think if you've got a story and you want to tell it and it's told well, then it doesn't really matter what your background is.
IanHOST
I think that we're all capable of stepping inside someone else's shoes and sort of imagining what life is like for them and, you know... i'm there to read all that sort of stuff i don't i don't think that you know i'm not going to not read a book about gay people because it's written by a woman for instance but of course i wouldn't want to read you know a fictionalized memoir or something like that you would need to have some sort of distance i suppose But it is also kind of obvious sometimes, again, talking as a gay man, when you read something like, I don't know, not that I've read Heated Rivalry, but say Red, White and Royal Blue, things like that, that have become quite popular, that are clearly not written by gay men.
IanHOST
And I mean, for me, it's always the sex scene that gives it away.
IanHOST
I don't know if you wanted to add to that, Allo?