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\n\tAfter a push in publication date, Heated Rivalry<\/em> author Rachel Reid is sharing a progress update on the new Game Changers<\/em> installment continuing Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov\u2019s story: Unrivaled<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a new Q&A with Entertainment Weekly<\/em>, Reid previewed that she was steadily working through plot details for the hockey romance sequel and is \u201cvery happy\u201d with the draft thus far.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been writing it for about a year now,\u201d she said. \u201cI was working on it secretly right up until January, when it was announced. I like it. I\u2019m very happy with it. I\u2019m giving myself some time coming up in the next few months to just really focus on that and nothing else to make it as good as it can possibly be before it goes to my editor, because it\u2019s really important.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tShe continued, \u201cI feel like more than any other book I\u2019ve written, this one needs to be really good. I hope I\u2019m giving people what they want out of this. I hope what I want is what other people want. I still am making decisions about the plot with some things. I rewrite a lot. There\u2019s parts of the book I\u2019ve rewritten and changed so many times. But hopefully I\u2019ve made the right decisions and, generally, it\u2019s going well.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tUnrivaled <\/em>is as a direct sequel to The Long Game<\/em>, the sixth book in the series, which serves as the source material for the currently in-progress Season 2 of the Crave Canada show adaptation. The new book will pick up following Shane and Ilya\u2019s wedding and their progress on the same hockey team. Public with their relationship for the first time after a decade-long trumpeted rivalry, they must contend with both adoration and animosity. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201c[Unrivaled<\/em>] is really where the world\u2019s gonna judge them, right? \u2018Cause now they\u2019re on the same team, it\u2019s in people\u2019s faces, they have to decide how they feel about this. And they\u2019re gonna be loud about it. I think it\u2019s two sides. There\u2019s gonna be people that are extremely excited and supportive of it \u2014 some of it in maybe a parasocial way, which isn\u2019t at all based on reality. And there will also be the other side: just blatantly homophobic and bigoted and terrible,\u201d Reid said.<\/p>\n \n\tReid added that the book will also trace the realities of a relationship entwined with work.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cEven though they had their happy ending, it\u2019s a complicated happy ending, and there\u2019s still a lot of things that they\u2019re gonna have to deal with. That\u2019s why I decided to write the book \u2014 because I felt like there\u2019s still more story to tell,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n \n\tAs for the show, which is projected to return to HBO Max sometime in April 2027 and will trace the couple\u2019s early evolution in a committed relationship, creator Jacob Tierney recently teased at BookCon that the sophomore season will draw from \u201cmuch more serious territory. There\u2019s still lots of flirting, and there\u2019s lots of sex, but it\u2019s this kind of danger. This kind of \u2018hotel room, adolescent sex\u2019 stuff is largely gone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n