Rachel Reid is the brilliant, smutty mind behind everyone’s favorite new hockey romance series on TV, “Heated Rivalry.” 

The show, which started on Canada’s Crave but quickly moved stateside via HBO, is based on her Game Changers series of books. So far, there are six books in the series with a seventh—“Unrivaled”—expected in 2027. The first season of the TV series is adapted from the first two books in the series, “Game Changer,” which focuses on Scott and Kip’s relationship (Episode 3 in the series), and “Heated Rivalry,” which is all about Shane and Ilya. 

In interviews with the show’s creator, Jacob Tierney, it’s pretty clear the second season of the show, which is expected to be released sometime in 2027, will adapt the sixth book in the series, “The Long Game.” That book also focuses on Shane and Ilya’s relationship, but judging from the discourse surrounding casting, we’re guessing they’ll include one of the other books as well. 

Book 3, “Tough Guy,” involves musician Fabian and hockey enforcer Ryan, whom Ilya mentions in an aside in Episode 4; “Common Goal” is about goalie Eric and bartender Kyle—TV show fans know him as “Thank you, Kyle!”; and “Role Model” follows hockey player Troy and team social media manager Harris. 

Reid has made her name for herself as something of a queer hockey romance godmother as fans have become enamored with Shane, Ilya, Scott, Kip and a whole team of other men breaking the mold of masculinity and what it means to be a professional hockey player in North America. 

But her oeuvre goes beyond just the universe of the Game Changers series—she’s written two standalone books about queer hockey players. In 2023, Reid published “Time to Shine” about shy backup goalie Landon and the charming hotshot player on the team, Casey. 

“Time to Shine” follows Landon, who is the top goalie for a minor league team, as he gets called up to the big show. He’s now the backup goalie for the Calgary Outlaws team, so while he’s fulfilling a dream to play for the NHL, he ends up sitting on the bench most of the time. Landon comes with some baggage: his sister died at a young age, and he’s had trouble connecting with his family ever since. He clearly carries a lot of trauma and PTSD from that earlier time in his life and keeps to himself most of the time.

Already in Calgary, though, is Casey. He’s a young forward who scores lots of goals and is expected to be the star of the franchise for years to come. Casey is openly bisexual and has a healthy sex life but doesn’t seem to do the serious relationship thing. Casey has his own baggage—he’s afraid of the dark and gets a little anxious when he’s alone with his own thoughts for too long. Casey is a goofy, talkative guy who seems to wear a little on his teammates’ nerves but is generally well-liked.

When Landon comes to town and has no place to stay, Casey offers up an extra room at his house hoping to get a friend out of the deal. He gets a little more than he bargained for when the two strike up a sexual and romantic relationship. Conflict comes when they realize Landon will have to go back to his minor league team when the main backup goalie recovers from his injury. 

And last year, we were introduced to former hockey star Riley and the recently retired Adam in “The Shots You Take.” This book is a little less hockey-centric since neither man is still playing. 

Adam and Riley were best friends, roommates and sometimes a little more while playing in Toronto together. 

Things took a turn for the worse, when, after Adam got married and started a family, he let his guard down and slept with Riley again on the night they won the Stanley Cup together. Rejected, Riley left Toronto to play for another team, but mental illness forced him to retire from his career early. 

Fast forward to present day and Riley is mourning the death of his father, with whom he worked at the family sporting goods store in Nova Scotia. Now divorced, Adam travels to the small town to attend the funeral and see Riley for the first time in years. Riley’s defenses to protect himself from Adam are slowly broken down as he learns of his former best friend’s divorce and the fact that he’s come to terms with being gay. 

Neither of these books has any overlapping characters or storylines with the Game Changers series or with each other. So, what are the odds they’ll be adapted at some point? Pretty decent, I’d say, even if not right away. 

To be fair, hockey romance is a niche genre that’s pretty saturated at the moment between multiple promised seasons of “Heated Rivalry” and “Off Campus,” which debuted on Prime Video in May. But if there’s room for two dozen new big-city-to-small-town country romance stories each Christmas on the Hallmark Channel, surely there’s room enough for a couple more hockey romances. This is especially true for “The Shots You Take,” which has little-to-no actual hockey involved in the main plot. 

Either movie would work well as a standalone film, something akin to “Red, White & Royal Blue.” Alternatively, they could be made into separate series or, heck, even wrapped into “Heated Rivalry.” It wouldn’t be difficult for those stories to exist in the same world as Shane, Ilya and the rest of the Game Changers crew. 

Surely there’s enough room at the cottage. 

About the author

Danielle Haynes is the co-founder and co-editor of Booked & Screened, covering book-to-screen adaptations, film and TV development. Just a few months ago she had no idea queer hockey romances would become a special interest of hers. But here we are!