5 Book to Read After Finishing Heated Rivalry

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Let me set the scene.

You finished watching Heated Rivalry and you cannot stop thinking about Shane Hollander and Ilya Rosanov. It’s every minute of every day. Every time you hear the song “All the Things She Said” by t.A.T.u., all you can picture is those two boys, staring at each other from across the club with the most tortured look in their eyes. Whenever someone mentions a cottage, all you hear is Ilya. I’m coming to the cottage. I’m coming to the cottage. I’m coming to the cottage. So the only logical conclusion is that obviously you have to read the books.

And now you’ve read Heated Rivalry and The Long Game and you’ve even pre-ordered Unrivaled, which was just conveniently announced not long after the end of the first season. But… What do you do now? With no news on the release date for season 2 and seven months until Unrivaled comes out, how will you survive with no new Shane and Ilya content until then?

While I can’t promise you the next Heated Rivalry, here are five books to sink your teeth into and become just as obsessed with while you wait.

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch (Magic and Romance #1)

Sebastian Walsh has never liked Elethoir Tourael. A nepo-baby at the end of the long line of rich, privileged Touraels who use their magic for evil (well, to expand their magical weapon manufacturing empire to be specific, but you get the picture) and a grad student in the dreaded Conjuration program, Elethior is the opposite of everything Sebastian stands for. They have never gotten along. Never. But when Lesiara University decides to pick not one, but two winners for the Mageus Research Grant, Sebastian and Elethior must find a way or their research, and possibly their futures, are doomed.

In this Dungeons & Dragons inspired world, two rivals are forced to work together in order to graduate and find love in the most unlikely of places. The Entanglement of Rival Wizards is a rivals to friends-with-benefits to lovers romance that is perfect for fans who love two boys stumbling around in an undefined relationship because they can’t recognize that they’re in love with their rival.

Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell (Winter’s Orbit #1)

Politics have never been Prince Kiem’s speciality, but when the Emperor tells him to enter a political marriage with his recently deceased cousin’s widower, Jainan, to save a political alliance, how is he supposed to say no? While both Kiem and Jainan have accepted the situation they have been thrust into, the scandal-magnet prince and the duty-bound scholar don’t exactly get along. But when evidence begins to surface that Prince Taam’s death may not have been an accident, Kiem and Jainan must overcome the tension between them in order to solve the mystery of his murder before it is too late to stop the interplanetary war lurking just around the corner.

Winter’s Orbit is an arranged marriage romance where two people find friendship in the unlikeliest of relationships and learn what it feels like to be truly loved and accepted for who you are. This is perfect for fans who love a romance between two people who start off at odds with each other, but form a beautiful emotional connection as they grow closer.

Hazelthorn by C.G. Drews

Evander is a prisoner in his own home. After almost dying in Hazelthorn’s gardens, he is practically a ghost already, haunting the halls of Hazelthorn and never being allowed to leave. But Evander has never been good at following the rules. The garden calls to him, in ways he cannot explain. And then there’s Laurie. The boy who used to be his best friend. The boy who tried to kill him. And the boy he is still inexplicably obsessed with. His life isn’t easy, but it is simple. Don’t leave the estate. Don’t go into the gardens. And don’t, absolutely do not, be left alone with Laurie.

Everything changes when his guardian and Laurie’s grandfather, Lord Byron Lennox-Hall, dies and leaves Hazelthorn, the fortune, everything to Evander. Danger is everywhere as the Lennox-Hall’s come to claim what they think they are owed, but the biggest danger might lay within Hazelthorn itself: its garden.

Hazelthorn is part murder mystery and part botanical horror as two boys race to solve the mysteries hidden within the walls of Hazelthorn and buried deep in its garden, while skirting the boundaries of the love and hate they feel towards each other. This is perfect for fans who like reading about two boys with a complicated relationship in which they are oblivious to the fact that they’re in love with the one person they ought to hate.

You can find my full review of Hazelthorn here.

The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù (魔道祖师 [Mó Dào Zǔ Shī] #1)

“Rejoice, Wei Wuxian is dead!”

Thirteen years have passed since Wei Wuxian was killed. Thirteen years since he sought the path of demonic cultivation to end a war and save the cultivation world. Thirteen years since the same people he fought beside branded him a traitor, hunted him down and killed him.

When Wei Wuxian wakes up in the body of a young man who summoned his soul to exact revenge on his family, he is given a second chance at life. But, unfortunately for him, his past life won’t leave him alone. Or, more specifically, the esteemed cultivator Lan Wangji won’t leave him alone. Lan Wangji, who he is certain hated him, despite that they trained together and Wei Wuxian would have once considered them friends. As Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji work together to track down a demonic entity threatening the cultivation world, Wei Wuxian is surprised by how different Lan Wangji is from what he remembers and slowly begins to realize that maybe he didn’t quite understand how Lan Wangji felt about him thirteen years ago.

The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation is an epic, five book slow burn about two boys who don’t realize they’re in love with each other until it’s too late. And then they get a second chance. This is perfect for fans who enjoy the emotional torture of watching two people fall in love and completely misunderstand all the emotions involved, except this time it features a rule-following autistic top and a chaos bottom with ADHD.

The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic (All for the Game #1)

Disclaimer: The Foxhole Court contains darker themes than Heated Rivalry, so please do your research before choosing to read.

Neil Josten just wants to leave his past behind and joining the Palmetto State University’s Exy team is not the best way to do it, but here he is anyway. At least he fits in among the PSU foxes, as much as anyone can fit into a group of talented rejects and junkies. But even among other outcasts, he has a secret no one can ever know, that his father is the murderous crime lord known as The Butcher, who will most assuredly hunt him down and kill him if he ever finds out where Neil ran off to.

The only wrench in his plan is Andrew, one of his teammates and a friend from his past life. But as much as Andrew threatens everything he has worked so hard to run away from for the past eight years, maybe this is exactly where he was meant to be: on this team and by Andrew’s side. Maybe this is something finally worth fighting for.

The Foxhole Court is the first book in a found family series featuring sports shenanigans and a slow burn romance. This is perfect for fans who like their romance with a side of sports as well as characters whose biggest problems aren’t that they’re falling in love with someone they shouldn’t.

Hockey Romance Book Recs

Heated Rivalry was my first hockey romance book and because I am very new to the genre, I want to throw out a quick disclaimer that I have not read any of these books, but when doing some research, these three sounded like books fans of Heated Rivalry would enjoy (and that I most definitely added to my TBR).

Him by Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen (Him #1), a friends to lovers romance about two college hockey players who used to be best friends until one night at hockey camp a bet pushed their friendship into uncharted territory. Reunited at the national championship, Jamie and Ryan have the chance to rekindle their friendship or explore something more.

Face Off by Chelsea Curto (D.C Stars #1), an enemies to lovers romance between Emmy, the new left-winger for the D.C. Stars, and Maverick, her captain, who sleep together once in hopes of crushing the tension between them so they can be better players on the ice. But then once turns to twice and soon it becomes clear that they might never be able to stop.

The Kennedy Rule by K.C. Carmichel, an enemies to lovers romance between two rivals who are forced to share a room together when both are chosen to be teammates for the Olympics. As their rivalry turns into an obsession, the two must decide whether or not they’re willing to break a rule or two when both of their careers could be on the line.

And don’t forget to check out Ember and Ice by Colleen Schriven on Quinn, a fantasy romance between two rival princes, which is narrated by both Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie.

Happy reading!