Rachel Reid wishes 'Heated Rivalry' was first 'Game Changers' novel

Rachel Reid, author of the bestselling Game Changers hockey romance series, is admitting she sometimes wishes she'd structured her books differently, wishing her breakout novel Heated Rivalry had launched the series instead of arriving second. 

Speaking at a book event in New York on September 29, Reid told moderator Ira Madison II, "I think I knew that Heated Rivalry would probably be more popular." 

She recalled her own excitement building even before the first book, Game Changer, was released. 

"Before Game Changer came out, I said, 'I'm excited about my first book, but I'm really excited about this.'"

Reid debuted the interconnected series in 2018 with Game Changer, but it was Heated Rivalry, the 2019 sequel centered on rival hockey stars Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, that became a global phenomenon, eventually inspiring a Crave television adaptation that premiered in November 2025 and became the streamer's most-watched original series, later picked up by HBO Max for U.S. distribution. 

Reid described how much she enjoyed writing Ilya as a supporting character before he got his own book, saying, "I started writing more books in the series where Ilya just started showing up. I liked having him as this kind of Nick Fury showing up."

Reid also reflected on watching her characters come to life on screen, calling the experience "immensely satisfying" given how strong she felt the adaptation turned out. 

She noted one creative choice the show made that diverged from the source material, depicting Shane's coming out to his team onscreen, something she'd left off the page in the original novel because she didn't feel it was necessary to the story at the time.