Yes yes, I’ve joined the hype train. While I may not have seen the screen adaptation yet, I’m so glad that the hype surrounding this book convinced me to finally pick this up after having it on my TBR for three years. It’s loved for a reason and I now understand it!

TL;DR: Heated Rivalry was a great tension-filled, angsty, and swoony MM sports romance. Shane and Ilya have such great chemistry—there’s a tension created by enmity and attraction from the very moment they meet each other and I loved the opposition of their characters. Shane and Ilya are fantastic characters and I loved watching their feelings grow and their romance develop over the years. I loved how we see the evolution of their connection and how much their character arcs do change over the years. Reid does a fantastic job bringing these characters to life and by the end, my heart felt like it was being squeeze with all the feelings I felt for them. This queer sports romance is the perfect one-sit binge and if you love the enemies-to-lovers trope (or even if you have yet to be convinced), stay seated for this because it’s probably one of the best books this trope has to offer—no lie!

I have to admit that when I started reading, I wasn’t immediately blown away by Reid’s writing. It felt a little stiff, clunky, and awkward. In hindsight, this could be because we meet our characters at the tail end of their teen years (18/19), and as they grew older, I also enjoyed the writing more. I loved Shane and Ilya and their opposing personalities, but that deep down they were plagued by a similar loneliness and a deep, aching, and “forbidden” longing for each other.

Shane is the shy good-boy people-pleaser who’s generally quite positive and thoughtful. He has a wonderful relationship with his parents, which I really loved seeing on-page! He cares so much about them but he also cares a lot about how people perceive him and his actions. He’s often anxious and sometimes comes across as feeling unsure about himself, but he’s also a well-loved and great team leader, and deep-down, he does enjoy being a little bad (especially when it came to Ilya). 😉

In contrast, Ilya is the Russian womanizing bad-boy who loves to push everyones buttons and doesn’t care what people think of him. He’s brash, a bit of a jerk at times, but beneath that, there’s more depth to him that he ever allows to be shown. I so often wanted to scoop him up into a massive hug! He’s had so little in his life, especially in the way of love, friendship, and family, and seeing his reaction to every day interactions involving appreciation and affection really tugged on my heartstrings.

They are both star athletes whose careers begin at the same time and with their talent, love for hockey, and big dreams for their NHL careers, it’s little wonder the sporting world capitalizes on it and really pushes the rivals narrative between them—and it fueled heat in more ways than one! 🤭 Their relationship begins on a very hot and heavy sexual note, which does persist throughout their story, and I loved that it started out that way. Reid does a great job of showing how their feelings thaw, however reluctantly, over the years and how they grew to slowly love each other despite being high-profile public enemies. And their chemistry behind closed doors was absolutely incendiary. Their moments together were fraught with so many emotions from feeling “wrongness” for being attracted to their arch-nemesis to bone-deep longing, desperate aching, and as their feelings evolved, the unexpected feeling of “coming home” when they were together. It was so good and evolved so naturally! I loved the intensity and the vulnerability between them and how what started off as very sexual encounters, turns into this healing and comforting romance!

A favourite romance reader I follow (@b.andherbooks) described this as being “the softest with the most banging” and that’s so spot on. 😂 It’s so well-balanced and made for such a fun, sexual, and emotionally charged read! There were some serious heart-melting moments between Shane and Ilya as they matured and they were less willing to let each other go or to deny their feelings anymore.

Honestly? I have no notes, lol. This was a fantastic time and I’m keen to check out the other books in this series (and also to continue Shane and Ilya’s story in The Long Game!). But first, I really hope I can find somewhere to check out the adaptation, lol… 👀

Have you read Heated Rivalry or is it on your TBR?

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