Some book series are slow burns in the romance world. A book or three is out before anyone’s even heard of them. The full series has dropped before one book randomly goes viral. Then, suddenly, everyone’s obsessed. Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series did not slide quietly into view. It skated in sporting full pads, wielding a hockey stick and a whole lot of innuendo, smashed into the boards, picked a fight, snogged its rival, and was somehow suddenly the defining MM hockey romance series of the last…well, ever.

I was very late to the hockey romance party, only picking the genre up a couple of years ago. Now, suddenly, I’m obsessed. Finding good MM romance is tough. It never occurred to me to want MM hockey romance until I discovered Rachel Reid and the Game Changers series. And (weirdly for me) I came to it via the TV show first.

Everyone was suddenly talking about Heated Rivalry, Shane Hollander, Ilya Rozanov, hockey, queer sports romance, and my girls on BookTok kept messaging things like “I don’t even like hockey but…”

If You Love Hockey Romance You Need To Read The Game Changers Series

So yes, Heated Rivalry is the viral breakout TV show that suddenly made everyone aware of an incredible series that had lurked pretty well under the radar previously. It clearly had a fandom, it just hadn’t broken into the mainstream yet.

Now? It’s about to become your next obsession.

The TV show sparked interest in the book series. Now the series has a lot of otherwise perfectly reasonable readers (myself included) searching for the closest Victorian fainting couch. 

And for good reason.

The Game Changers books aren’t just hot hockey men falling in love. I mean. They absolutely are hot hockey men falling in love, and we thank the romance gods (and Rachel Reid) for their service. But the series is really about what happens when love unapologetically crashes into the world of professional sport. And all the public image, masculinity, secrecy, shame, loyalty, ambition, family, fame, and the fear that go with it.

This series is going to keep you up at night for a while once you start it. And you won’t be sorry. But to save you trying to figure out where to start with the Game Changers series, whether you need to read the books in order, why Heated Rivalry became such a big deal, and whether the rest of the series is worth your time, here are my unvarnished (and somewhat feral) thoughts…

What’s Rachel Reid’s Game Changers Series About?

The Game Changers series is a collection of interconnected MM hockey romance novels set around professional hockey players and the men they fall in love with. These are genuinely romance novels, so yes, every book focuses on a central relationship. But they are also proper hockey books. The world of pro hockey isn’t just the backdrop, it’s the entire mechanism for forging these couples. 

These are men dealing with fame, contracts, injuries, team politics, locker-room culture, public expectation, internalised shame, media attention. They’re living with the reality that being openly queer in a hypermasculine professional sports environment can still feel like stepping onto the ice with no helmet and a crowd waiting for blood.

And that is so compelling it hurts.

If these books were just about attractive athletes having feelings, or fit lads hitting the same gym hitting it off with each other, they’d still be fun. 

But they wouldn’t lodge in your brain in quite the same way. 

What makes Game Changers so special is the way Reid uses hockey culture as both the fantasy world we’re drawn into, and the antagonist of the series and every relationship in it. The hockey is intense, physical, glamorous, sexy, feral, and full of spectacle. 

But it’s also image-obsessed, rigid, and quietly brutal when someone doesn’t fit the approved mould.

The tension of the whole series is drawn from that dichotomy. And it’s exquisite.

Love wants privacy. Fame makes privacy virtually impossible. Desire demands honesty. But image is everything. And the world only rewards performance. 

These men are celebrated for being physically fearless. And terrified at the thought of being emotionally exposed.

It’s horrible. And delicious. 

Rachel Reid’s Game Changers Books In Order

If you want to read Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series in publication order, start with Game Changer, which follows Scott Hunter and Kip Grady, with a closeted hockey star falling for a barista.

Next comes Heated Rivalry, the first Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov book, centred on rival hockey stars, a secret relationship, and a years-long obsession.

The third book is Tough Guy, which follows Ryan Price and Fabian Salah as an anxious hockey player reconnects with his teenage crush.

After that is Common Goal, featuring Eric Bennett and Kyle Swift in a retired goalie, younger grad student, friends-with-benefits romance.

The fifth book is Role Model, which follows Troy Barrett and Harris Drover, pairing a disgraced hockey player with a sunshine social media manager in a redemption arc.

The sixth book, The Long Game, returns to Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, exploring the emotional cost of years spent hidden. The seventh book, Unrivaled, is a forthcoming continuation of Shane and Ilya’s story.

Unrivaled is the upcoming seventh book in the series, currently expected in June 2027. It continues Shane and Ilya’s story after The Long Game, which means it is very much not the place to start. Unless, of course, you like walking into a room halfway through a screaming match and spending the rest of the evening pretending you know what’s going on.

Do You Need To Read The Books In Order?

The sensible answer is yes.

The chaotic answer is also yes, but I understand why you might not.

The Game Changers books are interconnected novels, rather than one continuous story following the same couple all the way through. My Cheshire Set works in exactly the same way. It’s great because, in theory, people can pick up any book as the entry point. In practice, events, crossovers, cameos, and just the chronological passage of time in-world all stack up.

You can read some of the series purely as standalones. But in real world reader experience, the books work better when you read them in order because characters recur, relationships ripple outward, and the world becomes richer as you go.

All that said, a lot of readers are here because of Heated Rivalry. They want Shane and Ilya. They want rivals. They want hotel rooms and Olympic tension and emotionally catastrophic eye contact. They want the hockey romance equivalent of sticking a fork in a plug socket and calling it literature.

And … yeah. Fair.

So, there are options for those of you who aren’t keen on reading in pure publication order (despite that giving you the broadest understanding of the world, recurring characters, and the series’ ongoing interest in queerness, hockey culture, public identity, and what it costs to love someone when the world is watching).

Best Reading Order If You’re Here For Shane And Ilya

Read:

1. Heated Rivalry
2. The Long Game
3. Unrivaled when it releases

This is the emotionally reckless route, but it is efficient.

You’ll miss some wider context, especially around the series’ world and surrounding characters, but you’ll get the core Shane/Ilya arc. And let’s not pretend that isn’t what a lot of people are crawling through the window for.

Best Reading Order If The TV Adaptation Pulled You In 

Start with Heated Rivalry, then read Game Changer, then continue in publication order.

This is slightly unconventional, but it makes sense if the adaptation is what pulled you in. Heated Rivalry will give you the couple you’re already invested in, while Game Changer will then fill in important wider context, especially around Scott and Kip, before you move through the rest of the books.

For the full series experience, start with Game Changer. That gives you the series as Rachel Reid originally built it, beginning with Scott and Kip before Shane and Ilya take centre stage in Heated Rivalry.

For the famous one, start with Heated Rivalry. This is the book most readers associate with the series, and it’s the natural entry point if you’re here for Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov.

For Shane and Ilya only, read Heated Rivalry first, then go straight to The Long Game. Those two books form the main arc of their relationship, from secret rivalry romance to the emotional consequences of spending years hidden.

For the strongest non-Shane/Ilya romance, go with Role Model. It has Troy and Harris, a redemption arc, and one of the most satisfying emotional payoffs outside the central Shane/Ilya orbit.

For a softer emotional book, choose Tough Guy. It follows Ryan and Fabian, with more tenderness, anxiety, reconnection, and teenage-crush ache than big dramatic fireworks.

For age gap and later-life self-discovery, read Common Goal. That one focuses on Eric and Kyle, with a retired goalie, a younger grad student, and a romance built around wanting more than you thought you were allowed to have.

Game Changer

Book one gives us Scott Hunter, a closeted hockey star, and Kip Grady, the barista who becomes a much bigger problem than Scott was emotionally equipped to deal with.

Like many book ones in the series it suffers from being the setup book. Its job is to introduce us to the world, the characters, the premise (hot hockey guys falling for each other in a world that doesn’t want them to). And it does that job very well.

But it also suffers for it.

It’s not a bad book at all. It gives the series its first public coming-out storyline, establishes the pressure of queer love inside pro hockey, and starts building the wider world. 

But would I use it to convert a sceptic?

No.

Sorry, Scott.

You can feel Reid honing the shape of what she’s trying to create in this one. And I get it. First books in a series can be like that. Bane suffers from being a book one. All the pieces are there, but the full emotional carnage and feral chemistry of the later books haven’t broken in their skates yet.

Read it for context, foundation, and the proper series experience. Just don’t be shocked if Heated Rivalry is where the obsession actually kicks in.

Best for readers who want:

• Closeted athlete romance
• Public coming-out stakes
• The proper foundation for the wider Game Changers series
• A softer entry point before the series fully loses its mind
• Context before Heated Rivalry starts kicking emotional furniture around

Heated Rivalry

This one’s the main event. The feral one. The book that made people who’ve never voluntarily watched hockey in their lives suddenly develop dramatic opinions about line changes and Olympic tension.

Heated Rivalry is book two, and it follows Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, two elite hockey players whose public rivalry hides a private relationship stretching over years.

On paper, it’s rivals to lovers.

In reality, it’s rivals in public, lovers in private, emotional damage in…everywhere.

Shane is controlled, disciplined, and very aware that wanting Ilya could blow up his whole carefully managed life. Ilya is cocky, provocative, infuriating, and far more emotionally vulnerable than he’d like anyone to notice. Together, they’re a hot mess waiting to become a disaster.

Which, naturally, is the appeal.

And yes, the book is hot. Obviously. Nobody is reading this one for the chaste hand-holding over cups of tea and thoughtful debates about puck control.

But reducing Heated Rivalry to spice would be offensive. It’s spicy, for sure. But intimacy is the thing in this one. 

Every private encounter shifts the relationship: power, denial, tenderness, fear, resentment, want, and the catastrophic inconvenience of catching feelings for the one man who could ruin everything by meaning too much.

It’s messily structured and that won’t work for everyone. The book spans years in fragments, stolen rooms, absences, returns, and moments that can’t yet become anything resembling a normal life.

But that’s the point.

Their relationship is painstakingly stolen in the gaps between the versions of themselves they’re forced to be in public. And it’s only with each other they can be themselves. 

Every soft moment hits harder because they don’t have the luxury of ordinary softness.

Rude, frankly. 

Impossible to put down. But rude.

Why Heated Rivalry Became The Breakout

Many things make Heated Rivalry a great book. But what makes it a phenomenon is that it understands secrecy is fiercely erotic … right up to the point it curdles into grief.

At first, the hidden nature of Shane and Ilya’s relationship gives the book its charge. Their public rivalry makes the private intimacy feel sharper. The contrast is intoxicating. On the ice, they’re enemies. Behind closed doors, they’re something neither can name without panicking.

But the longer the relationship continues, the more the secrecy mutates. It goes from forbidden and thrilling to lonely. It becomes limiting. There’s this life they can visit but not fully inhabit.

That’s what makes the book so much more than a tropey romance with a heavy dose of spice. The rivals-to-lovers setup gets people in the door. The emotional claustrophobia keeps them there.

Best for readers who want:

• Rivals to lovers
• Secret relationship
• Forbidden romance
• Queer sports romance
• Years-long emotional slow burn
• High heat with actual emotional consequence
• A couple who become more devastating the longer you think about them

Tough Guy

After Heated Rivalry, Tough Guy is definitely a shift. It’s softer, quieter, and a lot more…bruised.

Ryan Price is our hockey player in this installment, and he’s up to his neck in anxiety and self-image issues. Enter Fabian Salah, the musician from his past. 

This is a very different flavour to the first two books but I really like what this one’s doing.

It’s not going to be everyone’s favourite. Which, tbh, is a shame.

Sports romance can get very lazy with masculinity. Big man. Big muscles. Emotional constipation. One gravelly “Baby” and we’re all meant to swoon. 

Fine. 

Sometimes I will.

Okay. Most of the time I will.

But Tough Guy is more interested in what happens when the intimidating macho man feels painfully fragile inside his own skin.

It’s not the explosive spice of Heated Rivalry. It’s a gentler story about being wanted as you are, instead of a smoother, stronger version of yourself that’s more palatable to the world. And I love it for that.

Best for readers who want:

• Mental health themes
• Second-chance energy
• Tenderness over fireworks
• A softer hockey romance
• A challenge to rigid masculinity
• Emotionally vulnerable athletes

Common Goal

Common Goal is book four in the Game Changers series and follows Eric Bennett, a retired goalie, and Kyle Swift, a younger grad student and bartender. 

Age gap. (We all know I love an age gap!) 

Friends with benefits. 

Later-life self-discovery.

This is probably the one I’d be most careful recommending. Not because it’s bad. It just isn’t chasing the same high as Heated Rivalry. Not even close.

If you’re here for rivalry, obsession, secrecy, and emotional devastation in a hotel room, Common Goal is not that book. Nobody is throwing a Kindle into a hedge over this one. 

Probably.

But I do still appreciate it, even if it’s doing something very different to the rest of the series.

Romance can get weirdly obsessed with youth, as if nobody over thirty has ever experienced desire without immediately turning into a pumpkin. Eric’s older, retired, and still figuring out what he wants.

This one’s a lot quieter, with far less angst. Whether that works for you depends entirely on the itch you’re trying to scratch.

Best for readers who want:

• Age-gap romance
• Friends with benefits
• Later-life self-discovery
• Retired athlete romance
• A quieter entry in the series
• Less rivalry, more personal exploration

Role Model

This one really deserves more attention.

Role Model follows Troy Barrett, a disgraced hockey player traded to a struggling team after a messy public situation, and Harris Drover, the team’s cheerful social media manager.

On paper, this could have been very simple: grumpy hockey man meets sunshine cinnamon roll, becomes less of a disaster, everyone claps.

But Role Model is far more interesting because Troy’s arc isn’t just about becoming lovable. It’s about accountability. And what happens when someone has benefited from a toxic culture, then has to decide whether he’s actually going to change or just feel bad in a way that keeps him comfortable.

Way more interesting.

A lot of redemption arcs in romance are basically hot man feels mildly guilty for a second until the heroine/hero rewards him with emotional absolution and great sex. Role Model demands more. Troy is forced to fester in his discomfort. He has to recognise what he ignored, what he accepted, and the kind of person he wants to be when nobody’s handing him a medal for just showing up.

Harris isn’t just the token sunshine. His warmth has depth. He’s kind, but not pointless. There’s a difference between the nice guy and the doormat, and romance forgets that at its peril. A soft character can still have standards. A cheerful character can still force change. 

A gentle person can still be the moral core of a book.

Role Model is probably the strongest non-Shane/Ilya entry, because it gives us a romance that is emotionally generous without being flimsy. 

It’s sweet, sure. But it also kinda burns.

Best for readers who want:

• Redemption arc
• Grumpy/sunshine dynamic
• Emotional accountability
• Found safety
• A warmer romance with substance
• A book that engages directly with toxic sports culture

The Long Game by Rachel Reid

If Heated Rivalry is the book that sends you feral, The Long Game is the one that will make you curl in a ball and stare at the wall.

This is Shane and Ilya years into their relationship. They love each other. They know each other. The question is no longer whether this thing between them is real. It very obviously is. 

Horribly, inconveniently real.

The question in this book is whether love can survive being stuffed in a locker forever.

That’s why this one works.

Heated Rivalry makes secrecy feel intoxicating. The Long Game shows what it costs when the secret stops being a temporary shelter and becomes your whole life. As TayTay so eloquently put it, what starts in fancy rooms ends in sordid meetings in parking lots.

It’s less sexy when it becomes years of absence, compromise, loneliness, and one person needing more public truth than the other is ready to give.

This isn’t just more Shane and Ilya (although, obviously, yes please!). It’s the book that refuses to let the fantasy retain the rose tinted glasses and forces it to look in the mirror. Sometimes love has to stop being beautifully hidden because everything you’re hiding is eating you alive.

Again, rude.

Such a good read though.

Best for readers who want:

• Shane and Ilya’s relationship after Heated Rivalry
• Established relationship tension
• Emotional consequences
• Mental health themes
• The cost of secrecy
• A romance about choosing a life, not just a person

Unrivaled by Rachel Reid

Unrivaled is the planned seventh book in the Game Changers series, and the next Shane and Ilya book after The Long Game.

It isn’t out yet, so I’m not pretending to have opinions on it.

For now, all you need to know is this: don’t start here. Read Heated Rivalry, then The Long Game, then worry about Unrivaled when it actually exists in the world.

Why You’ll Love The Game Changers Series

The obvious answer is: hot hockey men, spice, and angst.

True, but insufficient. 

You’ll love Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series because it understands something very important about romance: the fantasy is stronger when the obstacle preventing the love story is heavy.

These books don’t hinge on miscommunication, or misunderstandings that could be solved if two adults stood in the same room and used their mouths for language instead of …other things. 

The shit getting in the way cultural, professional, emotional, public.

Reid’s characters aren’t just afraid of rejection. They’re afraid of exposure. Of losing careers, safety, respect, family, sponsorships, team trust, and the version of themselves the world rewards them for performing.

That is so much more depth than your average sports romance.

Masculinity can be a costume men are punished for removing. 

These books understand that.

Hockey is the perfect crucible for these love stories because it is so physical, so public, and so invested in toughness. These men are allowed to be battered, bruised, aggressive, and injured. 

They are not usually allowed to be soft, afraid, queer, needy, uncertain, or openly in love.

The whole series breathes that contradiction. At the same time, the found family vibes of this community grow from book to book. Everything gets increasingly connected. Couples overlap. Players reappear. The series starts to feel less like a set of isolated romances and more like a slow cultural shift happening one relationship at a time.

It’s not particularly subtle, but it’s deeply satisfying to read.

What Readers Might Not Love

Not every Game Changers book works equally well. Heated Rivalry is such a force that it warps the gravity around everything else. Once you fall for Shane and Ilya, the other couples have to compete. 

With years of longing, secrecy, rivalry, chemistry, emotional damage, and fandom momentum.

Not a fair fight.

Some readers will absolutely prefer other books. But in terms of sheer reader obsession, Heated Rivalry is the giant on the ice.

The other problem you might experience is tonal whiplash. These books have very different vibes, because they’re tacking different polar bears. If you start with Heated Rivalry, you’d be forgiven for expecting the same intensity throughout and being a little disappointed. Some installments of the series are softer, quieter, more introspective.

Personally, I didn’t feel that was a flaw, but it’s definitely a shift in mood from one book to the next.

Heated Rivalry might also frustrate you if you like a nice, neat, linear, or traditional structure to your romance. Its time-jump, encounter-based structure really works, but only if you’re up for the bounce. 

If you’re a reader who prefers a clean arc…well, Heated Rivalry gives you a relationship in flashes, pressure points, private rooms, and emotional bruises.

I was quite happy to take the beating, but you have been warned.

Rachel Reid Was Playing The Long Game

The biggest part about the Game Changers series that made me do a double take is that the noisy book isn’t necessarily the one that proves the series.

Heated Rivalry is obviously the doorway. It has the rivalry, secrecy, hotel rooms, terrible decisions, Olympic tension, and enough heat to require ventilation. There’s a reason they launched the show on that book.

But The Long Game is where the whole series earnt the chaos.

Lots of romance makes the wanting the addictive part. The yearning is what we crave as readers. Fewer books are interested in what happens when reality kicks in, and the fantasy burns away leaving only the desire to build a real life around all that passion and heat.

That’s the genius of Game Changers.

Not that it’s a series of flawless books. It’s not.

But it’s a series that very eloquently circles one brutal question from many different angles: once you realise you have to tear down what you have and rebuild it, in order to get what you want, are you actually willing to do it?

Sure, there’s the whole super hot hockey men appeal. And that is a BIG appeal, don’t get me wrong. Top-notch spice. Yes, Shane and Ilya are ridiculous. Yes, you may develop a slightly terrifying level of devotion to a team that doesn’t exist.

But what lingers long after reading is the cost of making the fantasy real.

And the fantasy of a man who is actually willing to pay it.