Rachel Reid says seeing Shane and Ilya on screen made writing Unrivaled "very weird"

Rachel Reid says writing sex scenes for Unrivaled has become "very difficult" because she keeps picturing Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie.

"It's very difficult to write sex scenes when you're thinking about [Connor and Hudson]. It's very weird," Reid said in an interview published on 1 October Deadline. Reid is the author of the Game Changers romance novels on which the television adaptation Heated Rivalry is based.

Williams and Storrie play Shane and Ilya, two rival hockey players whose secret romance sits at the centre of the queer hockey story. Reid said she watched Heated Rivalry as episodes came out, then stopped. She wants to stay focused on her own version of the characters until the book is done.

That book is Unrivaled. It is the third instalment in Shane and Ilya's love story after Heated Rivalry and The Long Game, and the seventh book in the Game Changers series overall. Reid said in April that she was "very happy" with the draft so far while she worked through plot details Deadline.

The path to the finish line has not been simple. Unrivaled was pushed to 1 June 2027 while Reid manages a Parkinson's diagnosis, a progressive condition that affects movement. Reid has spoken about worsening symptoms making writing harder, and the delay gives her more time to complete the manuscript.

On screen, the same story is still growing. The Long Game provides the basis for Season 2 of Heated Rivalry, meaning the new season adapts that second Shane and Ilya book. Jacob Tierney is working on the season, which began production in Canada in August and is set to premiere in spring 2027.

For fans, this means the books and the show are now running side by side. Reid is writing forward while the actors' faces are fresh in her mind. Viewers will see Williams and Storrie return first. Readers will have to wait a little longer to find out where Reid takes Shane and Ilya next.