'Heated Rivalry' Author Rachel Reid on What to Expect from 'Unrivaled' and If She Knows How Shane and Ilya’s Story Ends

Open Book with Jenna

NBC News

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4.8 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rachel Reid is the New York Times bestselling author behind Heated Rivalry, the novel whose television adaptation introduced her Game Changers book series to millions of new fans. Reid sits down with Jenna Bush Hager to talk about how the explosive success of Heated Rivalry has transformed her life, what it was like receiving a life-changing DM from filmmaker Jacob Tierney just days after her Parkinson’s diagnosis, and the pressure of continuing to expand the Game Changers series with millions watching closely. Plus, Reid teases what to expect from the series’ latest book, Unrivaled, and opens up about if she knows how Shane and Ilya’s story ends.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Rachel Reid once wrote a near complete isolation, keeping her work to herself and even submitting her first book without telling her husband.
0:17.3	Back then, she was writing hockey romances, stories she worried were too niche to ever find a broad audience.
0:24.2	As it turns out, people were more than ready for exactly what she was writing.
0:29.5	Today, Rachel's Game Changer series, including the beloved novel Heated Rivory, is a full-blown cultural phenomenon.
0:37.4	The television adaptation is averaging 9 million viewers per episode in the U.S., introducing
0:42.8	millions of new fans to a world she thought no one would ever see.
0:47.0	But Rachel's success didn't arrive in a vacuum.
0:49.9	Just days after receiving a Parkinson's diagnosis, Rachel got a message from Canadian filmmaker Jacob Tierney,
0:56.6	asking if he could adapt her books.
0:58.8	At a moment when her future felt uncertain,
1:01.5	that DM set a remarkable chain of events in motion.
1:05.8	When the TV adaptation of heated rivalry finally premiered,
1:09.1	it sparked a massive new appetite for Rachel's work,
1:12.3	sending her books back onto bestseller lists and making the response to her stories feel even
1:17.5	more meaningful. In our conversation, Rachel opens up about learning to trust her voice,
1:23.2	what it is like to write love stories that make people feel seen, and how she's continuing to write
1:28.4	Shane and Elia's story while the whole world waits to see what happens next. Plus, she shares
1:34.4	what she can about season two of heated rivalry and her highly anticipated next book, Unrivaled.
1:41.2	I'm Jenna Bush Hager. Welcome to my podcast, Open Book with Jenna.
2:19.4	Well, Rachel, I am so excited to get to talk with you. You have had quite a whirlwind couple months, and I just want to start with, like, how has it been? Surreal, I think, is the best word for it. It's, I mean, it's been amazing, obviously.
2:25.1	So many things have happened, things I didn't even dare to dream of have happened in the last few weeks and so quickly. And it has been a lot to process, but I'm extremely grateful.
2:33.0	You have dedicated your life to writing books, and I think
	...

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