Exclusive Interview
‘Heated Rivalry’ Author Rachel Reid Reacts to Shane Criticism After ‘The Long Game’
What To Know
- In The Long Game, the sequel to Heated Rivalry, explores the strain on Shane and Ilya’s relationship.
- Readers have criticized Shane’s behavior in The Long Game.
- Author Rachel Reid addressed the criticism in an interview with Swooon.
Fans of Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series know that The Long Game makes Heated Rivalry‘s angst look like a walk in the park. Though hockey players Shane and Ilya have finally come to terms with their feelings for each other by the end of their first book, hiding their relationship takes its toll in the sequel, which will be adapted in Crave’s Heated Rivalry Season 2.
Ilya starts to pull away from Shane, concealing his worsening mental state as his boyfriend doesn’t budge in not wanting to come out publicly yet. As much of the story unfolds largely from his perspective, Ilya’s doubts about whether Shane loves him more than hockey surface. That, paired with some fumbles on Shane’s part, has led to criticism of Shane’s character by some readers. In an interview at BookCon on April 19, Swooon asked the author if that reaction was something she anticipated.
“I remember telling my agent early on, when I was writing The Long Game, I was like, ‘So, Shane’s a little bit selfish in this book, or he’s a little bit self-centered, a little bit unaware,'” Reid recalled. “And my agent was like, ‘No, he’s not.’ I was like, ‘No, no. It’s not that he is [selfish], it’s just that he does it without meaning to be.'”
One of the biggest moments of contention for readers occurs during Shane and Ilya’s big fight during the holidays. The tension comes to a head when Ilya asks Shane outright if he would choose him over hockey. Shane throws the question right back at him. Devastated, Ilya responds that he already chose Shane. He left a better team in Boston to be closer to his boyfriend in Canada. Shane — who’s been struggling too — has no idea that Ilya’s been feeling this way.
“He needs things spelled out for him, and Ilya is not spelling them out,” Reid said. “And it was a lot of miscommunication. I wasn’t too surprised that people didn’t like Shane’s behavior in the book, but it was kind of necessary for the story. He had to have an arc where he figures out what he’s doing wrong and fixes it. But I did it out of love.”
