Working title

When HBO started promoting the gay hockey romance Heated Rivalry, the phrase “gay hockey romance” probably confused some folks. Not me. I have a Kindle Unlimited account; Amazon figured out I was gay a long time ago, and makes recommendations accordingly.

Gay hockey romance is a whole genre. There are gay romance novels centered on other sports too – if you’re expecting pitcher/catcher references, you won’t be disappointed – but hockey’s the big one. Heated Rivalry is based on the second book in Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, none of which are available on Kindle Unlimited right now, and I’m cheap, so I’ve only read one. The first in the series – Game Changers – was only 2 bucks, so I read that one and was pleasantly surprised.

I’m not a big fan of gay romance novels. The vast majority of romance novels, both gay and straight, are written, and mostly read, by straight women, which is fine. But as a gay man reading those books, it often feels like someone wrote a straight romance and just changed one of the character names to a guy’s name without adjusting the personality or the relationship dynamics. And the inevitable sex scenes – oof.

Reading Game Changers, I got the distinct sense that Rachel Reid actually knows gay people. So I watched the Heated Rivalry series expecting good things and was not disappointed.

The two leads are great. I’ve seen many positive comments online about Connor Storrie’s (Ilya) Russian accent and actual Russian dialogue, as well as Hudson Williams’ portrayal of the neuro-divergent Shane. These are breakout roles for both of them and it seems they’re both poised for stardom.

I read today that Heated Rivalry was nominated for a Peabody Award, in the same category as The Pitt. It’s good, it’s not that good. Regardless, I’m looking forward to season 2, and whatever these actors do next. I might even pay to read some of the other books. Probably not though.