#6 in Romance
The Long Game
- NYT bestseller · 9 weeks on the list, peaked at #6
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Our view
“The Long Game” gives Shane and Ilya, the rival hockey stars of “Heated Rivalry”, an emotional and hopeful continuation. Ilya, funny and outgoing, is the heart of the book, and the story takes his inner struggles seriously. Some readers find the first three hundred pages short on conflict and feel the plot only tightens near the end. It overlaps with events from earlier Game Changers novels, so it is best read after them.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Heated Rivalry is a 2019 gay sports romance novel by Canadian author Rachel Reid. It follows a secret romantic relationship between rival hockey stars Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. The novel is the second in Reid's Game Changers series of gay-themed ice hockey romance novels. A television series based on the novel was released in November 2025.
Reading order · Game Changers
Full order & progress →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.8 across 330 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 69% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Romance average of 7.6. That is how 8.5 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 8.8 | 330 | 100% |
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Romance — with scores between 8.4 and 8.5, closest to this book.
