‘Heated Rivalry’ Fans Are Rightfully Freaking Out Over This ‘Game Changers’ Book News

Warning: Heated Rivalry and The Long Game spoilers ahead.

Big news for Heated Rivalry fans! It appears Rachel Reid is releasing a second follow-up to Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov’s love story.

For those who don’t know, Reid is the author behind Game Changers, a queer romance book series centered around professional hockey players. While there were six books to choose from, Heated Rivalry creator Jacob Tierney adapted the second novel into the hit Crave Original series, which follows two rival hockey players that fall in love over the course of a decade.

Tierney has already confirmed the second season will jump straight to the sixth book of the series, The Long Game, in order to stick with the show’s central love story. Now that Shane (Hudson Williams) and Ilya (Connor Storrie) have figured out their next move at the cottage, fans can expect to see them navigate their secret relationship in much closer proximity after Ilya leaves the Boston Raiders to play for a Canadian team.

Fans have widely predicted that Tierney would split The Long Game into two seasons in order to do justice to the heavier themes and because, frankly, they’re hoping for at least three seasons of their new favorite show! While Tierney may give some other Game Changers couples the Scott Hunter (François Arnaud) and Kip Grady (Robbie G.K.) treatment in season two, he’s been pretty clear that he intends to “keep it spiritually the same show.”

Well, he’s about to have even more material to work with. On January 10, fans discovered a Barnes & Noble listing for a seventh Game Changers novel that’s set to be released on September 29, 2026. Okay, here’s where you stop reading if you don’t want to know what happens in The Long Game.

According to the Barnes & Noble listing, the seventh book is called Unrivaled and will pick up after Ilya and Shane’s wedding. Unfortunately, not everyone in the hockey world is ready for the couple to play on the same team, literally and figuratively. Here’s the full description:

A line has been drawn—and the hockey world is divided.

For the first time in their professional hockey careers, Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander have nothing to hide. For more than a decade, they kept their love a secret, but now they’re out, married, and even playing on the same team. The support is incredible.

Most of the time.

They’ve gotten a lot of love from fans who are thrilled for them. But some people in the hockey world are still reeling from their relationship reveal, and the backlash—led by popular hockey podcast Top Shelf and the #TakeBackHockey movement—is getting louder.

Ilya and Shane are finally able to stand together in the light, the way they’d always wanted. And now they might be facing their biggest challenge yet.