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bernice_reads's review against another edition
5.0
Heated Rivalry is an MM Hockey Romance and the second book in the Game Changers Series and it was so worth the read.
Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander are known by fans and the world to be rivals,Shane is the golden boy of hockey,he’s polite,humble and respectful.Ilya is the opposite of Shane,he’s cocky but his talent matches his cockiness
Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander are known by fans and the world to be rivals,Shane is the golden boy of hockey,he’s polite,humble and respectful.Ilya is the opposite of Shane,he’s cocky but his talent matches his cockiness
thana0611's review against another edition
4.0
3.5/ 5 ⭐️‘s - So, I just finished this book, and it was pretty enjoyable! The plot was interesting enough to keep me hooked, and I read it all in one go. But, honestly, it didn't blow me away. There are tons of saucy scenes, maybe a bit too many for my taste, and I felt like the characters didn't really connect enough.
A lot of people seem to love the ending, but it felt super abrupt to me. I was genuinely surprised when my Kindle said I was done – I even thought it might be a glitch!
The writing style wasn’t my favorite. The book has a lot of really short sentences, which made it feel kind of choppy. Plus, it’s written in third person, and I think it would have been way better if we got the story directly from Shane and Ilya’s perspectives.
All in all, it was a cute and fluffy read, but I don't think it’s something I’ll remember much in the future.
A lot of people seem to love the ending, but it felt super abrupt to me. I was genuinely surprised when my Kindle said I was done – I even thought it might be a glitch!
The writing style wasn’t my favorite. The book has a lot of really short sentences, which made it feel kind of choppy. Plus, it’s written in third person, and I think it would have been way better if we got the story directly from Shane and Ilya’s perspectives.
All in all, it was a cute and fluffy read, but I don't think it’s something I’ll remember much in the future.
caomoli's review against another edition
3.0
Cute (and hot) short read.
Spoiler
paused for so long because i got anxious when shane and ilya were caught by shane’s parentsmegwoman25's review against another edition
2.0
MM Romances
Hockey Rivals to Lovers
I dont know what to rate this but I’m definitely in the minority. I’m left with a kind of mehhh feeling after just finishing it. Part of it is how unfinished the ending was like I wanted more, I expected it after how drawn out the first part was. I usually love flashback scenes into how people met but I felt they went on way too long especially when all they were doing was playing hockey and meeting up to have sex. Instead of having the same repetitive sex scenes, I wanted to see how it became more than that with real emotions and that aha! moment. I think there was always some sort of awe there for each other. They made each other strive to be better and I loved that but I wanted out of hookup land a long time before it stopped and it became a bit boring.
I did love Shane and Ilya and their banter but I wanted more of it off the ice. I wanted the Jacobs/Beck type of riling each other up but it fell kind of short at times. Enemies to lovers sports romances are usually my thing but something is just missing. Maybe it’s me.
Hockey Rivals to Lovers
I dont know what to rate this but I’m definitely in the minority. I’m left with a kind of mehhh feeling after just finishing it. Part of it is how unfinished the ending was like I wanted more, I expected it after how drawn out the first part was. I usually love flashback scenes into how people met but I felt they went on way too long especially when all they were doing was playing hockey and meeting up to have sex. Instead of having the same repetitive sex scenes, I wanted to see how it became more than that with real emotions and that aha! moment. I think there was always some sort of awe there for each other. They made each other strive to be better and I loved that but I wanted out of hookup land a long time before it stopped and it became a bit boring.
I did love Shane and Ilya and their banter but I wanted more of it off the ice. I wanted the Jacobs/Beck type of riling each other up but it fell kind of short at times. Enemies to lovers sports romances are usually my thing but something is just missing. Maybe it’s me.
aecidyk's review against another edition
4.0
ok. LISTEN. this is my 66th book i read this year, and 100th book i have marked as read on goodreads. and it’s a smutty book with a cringy ass wattpad cover that looks like it could’ve been written from a 12 year old. but hear me out. ok, well, GOING INTO THIS I DID *NOT* EXPECT THIS AMOUNT OF SEX SCENES!! jesus christ, usually that’s what makes me dislike a book, but here? the tension, the banter. and oh my god. this is such an important aspect. THE LOVE THEY DEVELOPED FOR EACH OTHER!! surprisingly this has become the biggest comfort read for me. the humor, the love, the deeper topics… amazing. i truly did not expect all that. i could genuinely feel their affection for one another. only the author could’ve done more with characters outside of the main ones, like there was a lot of potential with the rosa girl. or with more challenges in hockey in general.
ok ok ok, now time for my fav quotes, which i have quite a lot of…
-
“I have ruined you,” Rozanov said when they broke apart. “No one else will do.”
“God, fuck off.”
“Such a mouth on you.”
“Don’t say it.”
“I preferred it when it was on me.”
“Dammit, Rozanov.”
-
“Did you like sucking my dick?”
“Oh, those English words you know?”
-
“Your hands are so soft,” Ilya said. “Like a girl’s.”
“Fuck you.”
-
Hollander fumbled the phone out of his pocket and handed it to Ilya. Ilya took it and entered his number into Hollander’s contacts, under the name Lily. Hollander snorted when he saw it.
“Who should I be?” he asked as he picked up Ilya’s phone from the dresser. “Shannon?”
“Jane,” Ilya said.
“Jesus Christ,” Hollander muttered as he typed.
“No. Just Jane.”
-
“Ass fucking?”
Shane rolled his eyes. “You sweet talk all your sex partners like this?””
-
“I like girls.”
“Yeah, no shit.”
“But I also like you.”
“Well, lucky me,” Shane grumbled.
-
“Let’s be friends. And I don’t mean in an ‘I hope we can still be friends’ bullshit way. I mean it. Let’s be friends. Let’s be best friends. Because I really do care about you a lot, Shane. And I feel like you might not have anyone else to talk to about...certain things.”
“I’d like that. You’re right. I don’t. And I care about you too. We’ll be friends. You have my number. Text me. Text me all the time. Please.”
“Whenever we’re in the same city, we’ll hang out. I promise.”
She hugged him as her driver pulled up. He hugged her back and kissed the top of her head. He was surprised to feel tears in his eyes.
-
Shane shook his head. “We’re not. No. It was just a short thing. She’s great. We just weren’t, um...compatible.”
He looked seriously at Ilya then. Ilya wanted to kiss him.
“Anyway,” Shane said, gesturing toward the room with his beer bottle, “I should say hi to everyone.” He stepped away from the bar.
“Right.”
Ilya put his hand over his mouth to hide his ridiculous smile.
-
“Tell me everything you want to say,” he said. “In Russian. I won’t understand but...maybe it will help?”
There was a silence that was long enough for Shane to physically cringe at himself. He was about to take it back, when he heard Ilya quietly say, “Okay.”
The next several minutes were filled with Ilya’s voice, sounding more animated and flustered than Shane had ever heard him. He was used to Ilya saying more with a teasing smile or a calculating look than with actual words. But now it was like a dam had burst, and Shane sat himself on the stairs and let it wash over him.
Without the ability to translate any of it, Shane could just enjoy the sound of Ilya’s voice, which he barely recognized now. The words were so quick and confident, unrestricted by Ilya having to carefully piece together his sentences like when he spoke English. It felt intimate—like they were somehow sharing a bigger secret now than when they slept together.
And there was something undeniably sexy about hearing Ilya speak so fluidly in his mother tongue.
-
“I can see you a lot better if I leave them on.” He slid the thick black frames back into place. “What?” he asked, because Ilya couldn’t stop smiling.
“What were you reading? Your boring hockey book?”
-
“I told you...” Ilya grinned. “You love praise.”
When Shane didn’t reply, Ilya said, “And you like to hog it all for yourself. You asshole.”
-
And, so help him, in that moment Ilya wanted to tell him he would stay with him. That he would move into his apartment and help him with his recovery and make him sandwiches and watch the playoffs with him and read him his boring hockey book.
-
No human should be able to make that noise.
“You speak bird now too?” Ilya asked flatly.
-
“Yes. It’s very...” Fuck. What was the right word? Was there a right word for everything Ilya was feeling in that moment? He couldn’t think of one, so instead he said, “She would have loved you.”
-
“And when I retire,” Ilya said, “after I have won twelve Stanley Cups and thirteen MVP awards—”
“The hell you will.”
“And you have been retired for, like, eight years already because you got very bad at hockey...”
Shane laughed. “Okay.”
“Then I will bring you to that dock out there. I will have hundreds of candles all over it...”
“That sounds like a fire hazard.”
“Is on the water, Hollander. Fucking relax. Will be beautiful, you will love it. The candles. The lake. The full moon.”
“Oh, is it a clear night?”
“Yes. Of course. And I will get on one knee—”
“Ilya—”
“And I will say, ‘Shane Hollander, will you please marry me so I can become Canadian citizen faster?’”
Shane burst out laughing, and shoved him. “You’re such an asshole.”
-
“Hi, Hayden,” Ilya said, grinning.
“I still don’t like you, Rozanov,” Hayden said.
“Oh no!” Ilya mocked him. “How can I impress Montreal’s fifteenth best player?”
“Shane, I’m gonna punch him.”
ok ok ok, now time for my fav quotes, which i have quite a lot of…
-
“I have ruined you,” Rozanov said when they broke apart. “No one else will do.”
“God, fuck off.”
“Such a mouth on you.”
“Don’t say it.”
“I preferred it when it was on me.”
“Dammit, Rozanov.”
-
“Did you like sucking my dick?”
“Oh, those English words you know?”
-
“Your hands are so soft,” Ilya said. “Like a girl’s.”
“Fuck you.”
-
Hollander fumbled the phone out of his pocket and handed it to Ilya. Ilya took it and entered his number into Hollander’s contacts, under the name Lily. Hollander snorted when he saw it.
“Who should I be?” he asked as he picked up Ilya’s phone from the dresser. “Shannon?”
“Jane,” Ilya said.
“Jesus Christ,” Hollander muttered as he typed.
“No. Just Jane.”
-
“Ass fucking?”
Shane rolled his eyes. “You sweet talk all your sex partners like this?””
-
“I like girls.”
“Yeah, no shit.”
“But I also like you.”
“Well, lucky me,” Shane grumbled.
-
“Let’s be friends. And I don’t mean in an ‘I hope we can still be friends’ bullshit way. I mean it. Let’s be friends. Let’s be best friends. Because I really do care about you a lot, Shane. And I feel like you might not have anyone else to talk to about...certain things.”
“I’d like that. You’re right. I don’t. And I care about you too. We’ll be friends. You have my number. Text me. Text me all the time. Please.”
“Whenever we’re in the same city, we’ll hang out. I promise.”
She hugged him as her driver pulled up. He hugged her back and kissed the top of her head. He was surprised to feel tears in his eyes.
-
Shane shook his head. “We’re not. No. It was just a short thing. She’s great. We just weren’t, um...compatible.”
He looked seriously at Ilya then. Ilya wanted to kiss him.
“Anyway,” Shane said, gesturing toward the room with his beer bottle, “I should say hi to everyone.” He stepped away from the bar.
“Right.”
Ilya put his hand over his mouth to hide his ridiculous smile.
-
“Tell me everything you want to say,” he said. “In Russian. I won’t understand but...maybe it will help?”
There was a silence that was long enough for Shane to physically cringe at himself. He was about to take it back, when he heard Ilya quietly say, “Okay.”
The next several minutes were filled with Ilya’s voice, sounding more animated and flustered than Shane had ever heard him. He was used to Ilya saying more with a teasing smile or a calculating look than with actual words. But now it was like a dam had burst, and Shane sat himself on the stairs and let it wash over him.
Without the ability to translate any of it, Shane could just enjoy the sound of Ilya’s voice, which he barely recognized now. The words were so quick and confident, unrestricted by Ilya having to carefully piece together his sentences like when he spoke English. It felt intimate—like they were somehow sharing a bigger secret now than when they slept together.
And there was something undeniably sexy about hearing Ilya speak so fluidly in his mother tongue.
-
“I can see you a lot better if I leave them on.” He slid the thick black frames back into place. “What?” he asked, because Ilya couldn’t stop smiling.
“What were you reading? Your boring hockey book?”
-
“I told you...” Ilya grinned. “You love praise.”
When Shane didn’t reply, Ilya said, “And you like to hog it all for yourself. You asshole.”
-
And, so help him, in that moment Ilya wanted to tell him he would stay with him. That he would move into his apartment and help him with his recovery and make him sandwiches and watch the playoffs with him and read him his boring hockey book.
-
No human should be able to make that noise.
“You speak bird now too?” Ilya asked flatly.
-
“Yes. It’s very...” Fuck. What was the right word? Was there a right word for everything Ilya was feeling in that moment? He couldn’t think of one, so instead he said, “She would have loved you.”
-
“And when I retire,” Ilya said, “after I have won twelve Stanley Cups and thirteen MVP awards—”
“The hell you will.”
“And you have been retired for, like, eight years already because you got very bad at hockey...”
Shane laughed. “Okay.”
“Then I will bring you to that dock out there. I will have hundreds of candles all over it...”
“That sounds like a fire hazard.”
“Is on the water, Hollander. Fucking relax. Will be beautiful, you will love it. The candles. The lake. The full moon.”
“Oh, is it a clear night?”
“Yes. Of course. And I will get on one knee—”
“Ilya—”
“And I will say, ‘Shane Hollander, will you please marry me so I can become Canadian citizen faster?’”
Shane burst out laughing, and shoved him. “You’re such an asshole.”
-
“Hi, Hayden,” Ilya said, grinning.
“I still don’t like you, Rozanov,” Hayden said.
“Oh no!” Ilya mocked him. “How can I impress Montreal’s fifteenth best player?”
“Shane, I’m gonna punch him.”
mrsrozanov's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
One of the best books I have read this year, although I’m a bigger fan of the sequel, The Long Game.
nelele's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
freya_amber's review against another edition
5.0
Wow! The tension even though they were having sex all through the book.
Loved this romance that developed over several years.
Loved this romance that developed over several years.
jg1987's review against another edition
5.0
5 Stars
This book was absolute perfection!
There was just so much to like about [b:Heated Rivalry|48571357|Heated Rivalry (Game Changers #2)|Rachel Reid|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1571935581l/48571357._SX50_.jpg|65120637]; hockey, Canadian content, enemies-to-lovers (sort of), a sexy Russian (accent and all), and of course tons of steam. [a:Rachel Reid|17722552|Rachel Reid|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1564756296p2/17722552.jpg]really knocked it out of the park with this one. I originally read the e-book when it was first published and had to give it a re-read in audio. Even a few years later, my enjoyment of the book did not lesson one bit. I absolutely loved everything about Ilya, he definitely stole the show . His over the top personality and constant teasing was the perfect counterpoint to Shane’s calm and level headed nature. The rivalry, mostly fabricated or not, also added this level of intensity to their ongoing encounters that was almost too overwhelming. When their feelings started changing from just lust into something deeper, I was totally captivated. We are left off with a HFN ending, which would have been just fine as is, but now that I know there will be a sequel, I am beyond excited. The Long Game cannot be published soon enough!
This book was absolute perfection!
There was just so much to like about [b:Heated Rivalry|48571357|Heated Rivalry (Game Changers #2)|Rachel Reid|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1571935581l/48571357._SX50_.jpg|65120637]; hockey, Canadian content, enemies-to-lovers (sort of), a sexy Russian (accent and all), and of course tons of steam. [a:Rachel Reid|17722552|Rachel Reid|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1564756296p2/17722552.jpg]really knocked it out of the park with this one. I originally read the e-book when it was first published and had to give it a re-read in audio. Even a few years later, my enjoyment of the book did not lesson one bit. I absolutely loved everything about Ilya, he definitely stole the show . His over the top personality and constant teasing was the perfect counterpoint to Shane’s calm and level headed nature. The rivalry, mostly fabricated or not, also added this level of intensity to their ongoing encounters that was almost too overwhelming. When their feelings started changing from just lust into something deeper, I was totally captivated. We are left off with a HFN ending, which would have been just fine as is, but now that I know there will be a sequel, I am beyond excited. The Long Game cannot be published soon enough!
frauke00's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0