Inside Heated Rivalry Night & Author Rachel Reids Game-Changing Year

Exclusive

This time last year, Rachel Reid had no idea that her life was about to change. The Canadian author had been consistently publishing novels, mostly within her Game Changers book series, since 2018. In 2023, Jacob Tierney reached out about adapting her hockey romance books into a TV series, and the rest is history. By the end of 2025, the Crave adaptation of her Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov-focused romance, Heated Rivalry, was a global phenomenon.

Heated Rivalry is a pop culture supernova, with Reid’s novels selling out across the world and the show’s stars becoming household names. On August 31, fans came together to celebrate all things Heated Rivalry at Fenway Park. Instead of a hockey rink, fans watched the Boston Red Sox take on the Seattle Mariners, with Reid serving as a special guest. For the author, the chance to spend a Monday night in Fenway Park was a total no-brainer.

“I was excited because there’s a lot of Red Sox fans in my family. “My dad is a lifelong Red Sox fan, and I thought this would be a nice thing to do with him because he’s been very supportive and wonderful about the books and all the success,” Reid told Swooon, who was on site for the entire celebration. Her father also threw the first pitch at the game.

“I also just think it’s cool that a major league sports team, a men’s major league sports team, wants to have this tribute to a queer romance night,” she added. “I think that’s huge, and I wanted to say yes to that because I want to support that.” A portion of the ticket proceeds will benefit OUT MetroWest, a nonprofit that provides free, year-round programming for LGBTQ+ youth.

The lucky fans who got their hands on VIP tickets were decked out in special Shane and Ilya baseball jerseys that you could see from any spot in the stadium. “I can’t believe enough people to even fill a fraction of the stadium have heard of my characters. It’s very cool,” Reid pointed out.

Swooon

Anything Heated Rivalry-related practically turns to gold at this point. Heated Rivalry Night broke records as the largest ticket promotion in the Red Sox franchise’s history, with over 12,000 tickets selling out in 48 hours.

“We’re not surprised because what people don’t understand is the books have been out for quite a while, and they sold very, very well, and they had already built up this incredible fan base,” Harlequin CEO Craig Swinwood told Swooon about the success of Reid’s books and the adaptation. “What it needed was a spark, right? There was a lot of gas there. It just needed a spark, and I think the show gave it that sort of viral opportunity that is hard to do with books, especially books that had been out for a while. So, for us, obviously, it ignited a lot of book sales. But more importantly, it got people sort of into the series, so it wasn’t just Heated Rivalry.They wanted to read all of it.”

While Shane and Ilya’s athletic prowess is on the ice, Reid knows which character would likely throw the better first pitch. “I think Shane because I think he’d just have generally maybe more familiarity with baseball,” Reid said before adding, “Ilya would be like, ‘Yeah, okay,’ and walk off,” likely with a cigarette hanging from his mouth.

In addition to her Game Changers book series, Reid is known for her Shane and Ilya short stories (“My Dinner with Hayden,” anyone?). Could we see Shane and Ilya show up at a Red Sox game in a future Heated Rivalry short story? “They’d probably go to a Blue Jays game more likely,” Reid said, referencing the Toronto-based team. “I could see Shane getting really into seeing every Major League Baseball park, and they’d probably start with this one because this is the prettiest.”

Swooon

The author isgearing up for the release of her deluxe hardcover edition ofHeated Rivalry on September 29 andher next Game Changers novel, Unrivaled, which will hit bookstores on June 1, 2027. Reid is a hockey romance titan, but given her love of baseball, could a baseball romance be in her future? “I love baseball romance generally, and I’ll leave it maybe to other people who are good at that,” she told Swooon.

The success of Heated Rivalry has put the spotlight on queer sports romances across all forms of media. For Swinwood, Harlequin has been making publishing diverse stories a priority. “For the longest time, to be fair, publishers didn’t really cater to those groups of people who were underrepresented in the books. I think partly, to be fair, I think partly because the gatekeepers were the retailers, and if I’d gone to Walmart 10 years ago and said, ‘Here’s a book about hockey, number one, and two gay hockey players,’ they wouldn’t take a single copy. I’m glad to see that’s changed. All the big chains, and certainly Walmart and Target, they’re all on board with this franchise. That’s the exciting part for me as a publisher: to really allow you to take the handcuffs off everybody and go write what your heart wants to write, and we’ll find a place for you.”

As Reid looked out over the crowd at Fenway Park, where the Red Sox beat the Mariners in extra innings, she was beaming with pride — for her beloved team and the fans supporting the world she created. Reid is excited about the months ahead with her upcoming book tour and Heated Rivalry Season 2, which is currently filming, and will adapt her Shane and Ilya-centric sequel, The Long Game, and more of her novels.

“The fact that so many people know who Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are and have opinions about them, and they really matter to people… To have the characters be on this Mickey Mouse level of recognition is pretty wild,” she said.

Heated Rivalry, Season 1,