Book 858: Heated Rivalry (Game Changers #2) – Rachel Reid

What’s better than one enemies-to-lovers MM Sports Romance? TWO BACK-TO-BACK!!!! 😀

I hadn’t planned it this way, but I put this one on hold after finishing Game Changer and enjoying the preview, so when it popped up so quickly from my local library and I had a gap to read it in I went for it.

In Game Changer we meet one of the two protagonists, Ilya, an unlovable Russian jackass who’s been leading the Boston Bears (I see what you did there) to the championship multiple years in a row. But we never met Shane, Ilya’s biggest rival since the draft and their rookie year, who has led the Montreal team to success.

It’s amazing the parallels between this and Playing Offside when it came to internalized homophobia and toxic masculinity. And frankly it made it hard to read. I HATED how down on himself Shane was for most of the book and how Ilya used that and played with it in a way that made me uncomfortable. So much of the book is spent in the closet with Shane and Ilya sneaking around having dangerous liaisons and just not talking to each other.

Shane felt panicked. This was super fucking dangerous. And stupid. And confusing. And . . .
Shane kissed him back, just as angrily. Because fuck this guy for doing shit like this. Hiding away all night on a fucking rooftop, smoking a goddamned cigarette in the dark like the worst cliché of a brooding heartthrob. Making Shane feel bad for winning an award that he completely fucking deserved. And then, on a whim, pressing Shane against a wall and kissing him like he would die without Shane’s mouth on his. Kissing him until Shane’s senses were full of hard muscle pressed against him and the taste of cigarette and the slick heat of Rozanov’s tongue in his mouth. (82)

There were hints early on that it was more than this, obviously it’s a MM Romance with a HEA, and this did change halfway through the book when Shane accepted who he was and Ilya started to realize their years long hook-ups were more than just hook-ups, but it took a long time and it really bothered me.

That look, and that squeeze, had said so many things to Ilya. I know. We were supposed to stand alone at the top, but we will always be there together. We will keep climbing until no one else can reach us, but it will always be together. (29)

The sex scenes were hot and intense, but I got a bit tired of them toward the end of the novel because it felt like the same thing over and over. This was in part due to Reid writing Shane as a strict bottom and not really talking about Ilya’s preferences other than dominating Shane. Now this isn’t a bad thing in a book, it just got boring for me and all of the internalized homophobia and toxic masculinity between the two tainted a lot of the action between them until they spent a few weeks at Shane’s  remote cabin and then it became more loving with light touches and kisses instead of rough quickies.

Speaking of the week at Shane’s remote cabin, it provided one of the best scenes of the novel:

It was so eerily quiet—just the crackling of the fire, the occasional lap of water from the lake, and—
A fucking wolf. That was a fucking wolf howl.
‘What the fuck was that?’ Ilya said. He couldn’t conceal the terror in his voice. But who the fuck cared, because they were surrounded by hungry wolves!
Shane laughed. ‘It’s a loon.’
‘A what?’
‘A loon!’ Shane was really laughing now. ‘It’s a bird. Like a duck, kind of. Oh my god, you thought it was a wolf!’
‘What the fuck bird makes a noise like that?’
‘A loon!’ Shane said again. Then he doubled over in hysterics. Ilya wanted to push him into the fire.
‘Fuck you and your loon!’ Ilya said. ‘Stupid Canadian wolf bird.’ (242)

If you’ve never heard a loon in the silence of a remote lake you could easily mistake it for a wolf and I had to read the scene twice because it was just so hilariously written. Iyla’s fear was visceral and I was on Shane’s side giggling because I’ve been to lakes with loons before.

The end of the novel was a bit of a letdown, but that’s because when it comes to these MM Sports Romance novels, there are only three options: they come out and quit or they come out after they quit, they stay in the closet, or they come out and continue playing. In Game Changer, Scott did the last one and it was chef’s kiss perfect. In Heated Rivalry they plan out their future and make moves toward it in the end of the novel, after they’re discovered by Shane’s dad and Ilya’s sacrifice to become a Canadian citizen and move closer to Shane so they can slowly “become friends” in the public eye and then eventually come out was heartwarming if not as glowing as I wanted from the story.

And, I’ll close with my reading of “My Dinner with Hayden”, the short story I read that takes place after the body of the book but before the epilogue. It wasn’t as great as the .5 story for Game Changer, but I was so glad Shane put his foot down to both Hayden and Ilya who were being dicks to each other. He just wanted the most important people in his life to get along and they weren’t.

Recommendation: I enjoyed this one, but not as much as Game Changer. The enemies-to-lovers trope was well done even if I had some issues with the internalized homophobia, staying in the closet, and toxic masculinity. I wasn’t sure I would enjoy the full backstory of Shane and Ilya jumping backwards and then inching forward, but it provided a lot of context that ultimately made the book better. I hope book three, Tough Guy, is as good as book one with the steam of book two.

Opening Line: “Shane Hollander was as close to losing it as he ever allowed himself to get.”

Closing Line: “Ilya chuckled, set an alarm on his phone, and went to meet his boyfriend.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Heated Rivalry
“‘What is your room number?’ Rozanov asked.
‘Fourteen ten,’ Shane said, far too quickly.
Rozanov’s mouth twitched up. ‘If I knock on door of room 1410 tonight . . . maybe around nine?’
Shane fought to keep his voice even. ‘I might open the door.’
Rozanov smiled. ‘I might knock.'” (34)

“Ilya could not figure this guy [Ryan Price] out. He was even taller than Ilya, and much bulkier, with shoulder-length red hair and a beard that made him look like a biker gang member. He could knock a guy out with one punch. Some of the toughest opponents in the league were scared to face Price in a fight.” (86)

“Then Rozanov went very still and said, ‘Oh god. Shane . . .’ and he came in hot bursts, coating Shane’s hand and allowing Shane to use the slickness to bring himself off almost immediately, with the sound of his first name being spoken in a breathless Russian accent still ringing in his ears.” (135)

“Shane’s hands cradled Ilya’s face as he kissed him with the force of everything they had almost said out loud.” (169)

“That admission would have been embarrassing enough, but Ilya had also slipped in an ‘and on top of everything, I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you and I don’t know what to do about it.'” (188)

“Ilya couldn’t believe what he had been reduced to. He was . . . infatuated. It was disgusting.” (228)

“‘Since their rookie season,’ Shane heard his mother say. ‘I can’t believe it.’
‘Looking at them now, I kind of can,’ his father said.” (242)