Game Changers by Rachel Reid

I watched the first two episodes of Heated Rivalry. And it’s fine. I like it enough to watch all of it. And I’m very glad that a show like that is so popular. But I have to admit that what I liked the most out of these two episodes was Francois Arnaud as Scott Hunter. I don’t hate Shane and Ilya or anything like that, but I’m also not that interested in their ‘rivals-to-lovers with mutual pining while fucking’ romance. I don’t even know why, on paper is sounds like something I should be very into, and the lead actors are good and have great chemistry. But for some reason it doesn’t ping that part of my brain responsible for fannish obsessions.

And yes, the show is very explicit. But I probably would be more impressed by that if I didn’t have quite a few equally (or sometimes even more) explicit Thai BL dramas under my belt. 😊

I also mentioned in October that I loved the trailer so much that I started reading the book. Still haven’t finished it. It took me a week to read 18 chapters and then I kinda wandered off and never picked it up again. But after I liked those few short scenes with Scott Hunter in the show, I decided to read the first book in the series which is about him and his romance with a cute juice bar barista Kip. And you know what? I liked that book so much more, and I read it in three days. I love Kip and Scott separately and together. I’m very happy that the 3rd episode of the show will be mostly about them.

I heard before that Heated Rivalry is a better written book than Game Changer, and I do agree with that. But despite that I still enjoyed Game Changer so much more. I also heard that these books were very fanficcy. And yes, they are, very much so. Game Changer even more than Heated Rivalry. Sometimes I felt as if I was reading an explicit OW fic on AO3. Especially during smut scenes. But don’t get me wrong, for me that absolutely isn’t a deterrent. 😊

A bit more about Game Changer with spoilers.

When they first meet Kip is out at work, and to his friends and family. But Scott, being a famous hockey player, is very much closeted. At first it isn’t a problem, but later it becomes the main point of conflict between them. And I liked how it was done in the book, where I understood where both guys were coming from. And it wasn’t just that one of them is always right and one is wrong.

And oh, how much I loved all Scott Hunter’s coming out scenes. At first he comes out to his three closest friends at his hockey team, then to his couch. And it made me laugh so much that both times someone always suspects that Scott might be involved with Ilya Rozanov.

First it’s this:

“Thank god,” Huff said. “I thought you were gonna say you were secretly dating Rozanov.”

“Rozanov wishes,” Scott said.

And then this:

They shook hands, and Murdock said, “It’s not Rozanov, is it?”

“Jesus. No! Why does everyone—?”

LOL 🤣

And I loved that Scott (who wanted to do a sensible thing and come out to the world through the interview in Sports Illustrated), after his team won the Stanley Cup, thought: fuck it, why wait, I’m going to kiss my boyfriend hard and deep right there on the ice in front of all those sports fans and all the cameras. And he did just that. ♥

I think now I’ll try finishing Heated Rivalry. And then I’ll start the third book in the series – Tough Guy. And I do plan to read the rest of them, too.