Rachel Reid's 'Heated Rivalry' empire reaches 5.2 million copies sold as fandom intensity grows

Rachel Reid published "Heated Rivalry" in 2019 and sold about 5,000 copies in its first year. That was respectable for a second novel. It pales beside what came after.

Her Game Changers series — queer sports romance centred on male hockey players — has now sold over 5.2 million copies, with 260,000 physical books sold in Canada alone. A new deluxe edition of "Heated Rivalry," with gold-sprayed edges and endpapers illustrating the characters Shane and Ilya, is dominating bestseller charts. Midnight release parties at bookstores are already being planned for her seventh novel, "Unrivalled," releasing June 1, 2027.

The catalyst came late last year when a Canadian-made Crave Original series adapted "Heated Rivalry" with showrunner Jacob Tierney. It became a global hit. Stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie were suddenly Hollywood's hottest property. Season two is on the way.

For Reid, a Nova Scotian author who started midnight scribbling on her iPad while her children slept, the explosion has redrawn her life. "I kind of was alone," she told the Star at HarperCollins' Toronto offices. "What was happening to me was very separate from what was happening to everyone else in the show. I didn't make the show, so I didn't have the same connection that everybody else had."

She quickly assembled a team — a publicist, a stylist, lawyers. "It's not a one-person job being me anymore," she said.

The surge has changed how she meets fans. She removed her email address from her website; the volume of mail was unsustainable. She's stopped doing in-person signings, something she could still manage earlier this year. "There's an intensity to the fandom that's new," Reid said. "People did always have some strong feelings about these characters, and I always was blown away by it, but it's maybe too much for me to handle one-on-one these days. I do appreciate it, it's just I need to feel safe."

The series has drawn debate too. Some readers have questioned Shane's speculated neurodivergence — Reid has publicly addressed this, explaining she initially wrote the character without a full understanding of autism — and the books' limited diversity and representation, which she has not addressed.

Throughout the series, Reid explores homophobia, mental health, and familial pressure. A core theme is what she calls "the way that men are miserable by their own design." She said: "There's no reason why any of my characters should feel uncomfortable being who they are, loving who they want to love, or even things like panic attacks being something that they have to keep a secret. I really like to explore how much better off everyone would be if they just allowed themselves to be happy."