Heated Rivalry show vs the book: every major change in season one explained

Hockey team names

When we first meet Shane and Ilya in the book, we learn that Shane is playing for the Montreal Voyageurs and Ilya is on the Boston Bears. The show couldn’t use these names so they had to change them to the Montreal Metros and Boston Raiders.

Ilya Rozanov’s look

In the book, Ilya is described as being much taller than Shane at 6 feet 3 inches tall, but in real life, Storrie is around the same height as Williams. He is also missing Ilya’s signature bear tattoo on his chest — though this was likely changed because the show had to switch up the names of the hockey teams.

Despite looking different than he was described in the book, Storrie perfectly embodies the character and after seeing the way he smolders at Shane or how caked up the actor is, fans don’t really seem to mind.

Shane’s apartment building

In the book, we learn that Shane purchased an entire apartment building so that he and Ilya can have a private place to hook up. This shows us just how deep Shane has fallen despite refusing to admit it to himself, while Ilya becomes frustrated over the course of the book that he never gets to see inside Shane’s real bedroom.

But when the two men meet up at Shane’s apartment in the show, it’s Shane’s actual apartment and not just one he bought specifically for their trysts. It’s a shame that it had to be cut for financial reasons because in the book, this perfectly encapsulates the push and pull Shane feels between wanting Ilya and his fear of getting caught, and shows Ilya’s desire to know more about Shane.

The prologue

In the prologue of the book, we get a scene in the future where Ilya and Shane are already hooking up on the regular. This time, they meet up at Shane’s apartment building for a rendezvous that leads to the pair having sex and then continuing the fun in the shower, where they give each other blow jobs. The show starts the timeline when the boys meet for the first time, so although we haven’t gotten this scene so far, that doesn’t mean it won’t show up at some point. The trailer shows a hot and steamy shower scene, so we may get it in a later episode.

Early O scene

The first time they have sex in the building Shane bought for them, Shane goes down on Ilya and is so turned on that he manages to have a hands-free orgasm. This scene is changed in the show so that instead of it happening while going down on Ilya, Shane climaxes while being topped, and then Ilya teases Shane about it later.

In the book, the scene is both hot and hilarious, and gives us a glimpse into how close the two rivals have gotten despite their best efforts not to. After it happens, Ilya laughs at him, and Shane tells him to shut up, “But Ilya laughed harder,” Rachel Reid writes in the book. “He laughed until Hollander joined in, and then they were both holding each other and laughing until they were wiping tears from their eyes.”

Texting

The second episode of the show opens with time jumps that span two years, punctuated by Ilya and Shane texting each other, but never shows them meeting up. In the book, the longest they ever go without hooking up is between the Olympics and when they have sex in Las Vegas. This change doesn’t really detract from the story and allows them to be able to condense the book into a six-episode show. Plus, it means we got to see Ilya’s hilarious texts on screen, including some new additions that weren’t in the book.

Russian phrase

In the book, Shane hears Ilya say something in Russian while they’re having sex for the first time in Las Vegas, but doesn’t know what it is. This is left out of the show entirely, but author Rachel Reid has that same chapter written from Ilya’s point of view on her website, where we find out that Ilya is falling for Shane and doesn’t know what to do about it, so he says in Russian, “Why does it have to be you? Why are you so perfect? It’s fucking awful.” Our hearts!

Sasha and Svetlana

In the book, Ilya tells Shane that he used to sleep with his Russian coach’s son, Sasha, but he’s not an actual character. In the show, Ilya not only tells Shane about him, but we also meet Sasha when Ilya goes back to Russia for the summer.

While Svetlana’s backstory — being the daughter of a former hockey star and a knowledgeable fan herself — is present in the book and show, in the novel, she and Ilya have a friends-with-benefits situation, but weren’t childhood friends like they are in the show. The series also shows Svetlana with Ilya and Sasha in Russia, but these scenes are absent from the source material.

Shane and Scott brawling

In episode 3, after Shane mildly chirps at Scott, we see Scott taking his frustration out on Shane by implying that Shane and Ilya know each other a little too well, leading to an all out brawl on the ice. In the Game Changer novel this episode is based on, this scene doesn’t happen at all, instead Ilya says something rude to Scott during a game, and Scott decks him.

Scott and Kip’s sex life

The show hints at both Scott and Kip being vers, and gifts us with a few — much too short — sex scenes between the two of them. But fans of the show might not know that when the men sleep together for the first time in the book, Scott asks Kip to top him, and it isn’t until later on that they reverse roles. The show cut out a lot of their sex scenes for the sake of brevity, but that means we missed out on hot moments like Kip putting on a show for Scott, Scott telling Kip what to do to himself over Skype, and Kip coming hands-free while they have sex.

Scott’s backstory

At the end of the third episode, Scott gives a speech where he tells people attending the charity gala that his parent died in a drunk driving accident when he was 12 years old, but in the book, Scott tells Kip about his past when they are alone, and the facts are a little different. In the novel, we find out that Scott is an only child who grew up poor and was raised by a single mother, and that she died of an undisclosed illness when Scott was 15.

Banana socks

The socks play an important thematic role in Scott and Kip’s love story in both the novel and the show, but there is one difference. In the show, Kip gives Scott blue banana socks to represent his lucky smoothies when he’s on the road, a touching moment that leads to symbolic significance at the end of the episode. There are no bananas in the smoothie in the book or on the socks (they’re just blue), but we appreciate the sexual innuendo this added to the show, so we’ll let it slide.

Moving in

Scott and Kip’s romance is all about insta-love, but their relationship moves at a much faster pace in the show (which had to get through 3/4 of the book in the span of a single episode). In episode 3, Scott asks Kip to move in after their first night together, but in Game Changer, Scott asks Kip to stay at his apartment even when he is on the road after they’ve been dating for about a month.

When Scott and Kip break up

Both in the book and the show, Kip walks out on Scott when the feelings of isolation and loneliness that come with living in the closet become too much for him, and he realizes he needs more than Scott can give him right now. But while this happens directly after attending the gala in the show, the two keep dating in the book for a while longer before the third-act breakup.

Ilya and Shane's nap

The much-talked-about “tuna melt” scene is almost identical in the book as it’s portrayed in the show. But leading up to it, there are a couple of small changes that have a big emotional impact on the characters. The show added in that the two men fall asleep spooning in Ilya’s bed, and in the book, Ilya calls Shane “sweetheart” while they’re having sex, but that diminutive was absent from the episode.

This might not seem like a big change from book to screen, but it's another example of Ilya being vulnerable and tender with Shane in the lead-up to Shane freaking out over his feelings for Ilya.

Ilya paying his brother

When Ilya steps away from Shane to have a private conversation with his father, we learn that Ilya has been paying his older brother to look after his father, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, but his brother keeps bailing. This detail is never revealed in the book, though it’s made clear that Ilya’s brother takes advantage of his generosity and is always asking for more money.

Conversation about Shane’s heritage

After meeting Rose, she asks him what it was like to grow up as the only Asian kid playing hockey. Shane admits he had it easier than the one other Asian kid who faced more bullying because of his last name. “He hated me though, I have a western last name so it’s like the other kids kind of forgot to make fun of me,” Shane says. This isn’t part of the conversation Rose and Shane have in the book, but both Williams and director Jacob Tierney have talked about the importance of Asian representation and including Shane’s Japanese-Canadian heritage in the show.

Miles dancing with Shane

The club scene at the end of the episode is intense for a multitude of reasons, but it also gets a very sexy addition that wasn’t included in the book. Instead of Shane dancing alone with Rose, Shane becomes the center of a Rose and Miles sandwich on the dance floor. We also see Miles try to pick up Ilya at the bar, but that interaction doesn’t happen in the novel either.

Sex with Rose

In the novel, we know that Shane and Rose are sleeping together because Shane’s internal monologue tells us it’s been disappointing, but none of the sex scenes are in the book. The show, however, ends the fourth episode with the two characters having sex while the camera cuts back and forth between them and Ilya taking care of himself in the shower.

Ending the club scene with Shane going home with Rose is vastly different from the book, where Shane goes home alone. We also learn in the follow-up book, The Long Game, that Shane was so upset about seeing Ilya making out with a woman on the dance floor that he had to pull his car over because he couldn’t stop crying.

Skype sex

In episode 5, we see Shane and Ilya talking on Skype while Ilya is in Russia for his father’s funeral, but the scene ends shortly after both men remove their shirts. In the book, this scene is much longer and much spicier (It starts on page 236, in case you're curious). It’s too bad it was cut for time because not only do we get to read about Shane and Ilya having extremely hot phone sex, but you can also feel the level of intimacy rising between them when they end up wanting to see each other’s faces instead of what’s happening below the belt.

Ilya's fight with his brother

While Ilya is in Russia to attend his father’s funeral, his brother confronts him, demanding that Ilya continue supporting him. They get into an argument that turns physical when his brother has the gall to call Svetlana a “whore.” None of this happens in the book, including his brother having a daughter, whom Ilya says he will set up a trust fund for before cutting his brother off.

Ilya’s side of the Russia phone call

In the book, when Shane tells Ilya to talk to him in Russian about everything he’s feeling, even though he won’t understand, and we only get to hear the final sentence — Ilya’s admission that he’s in love with Shane. For the rest of the monologue, we only get Ilya summarizing it after the fact, whereas in the show, we get subtitles for the entire phone call, so we hear everything Ilya says.

The show also slightly changed the end of Ilya’s call to make him more certain about his love for Shane. They changed, “I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you, and I don’t know what to do about it” to “I love her. But not like I love you. That’s the worst fucking part of all of this, is that all I want is you. It’s always you. I’m so in love with you, and I don’t know what to do about it.”

Scott and Kip’s game changing kiss

Episode 5 ends with Scott pulling Kip onto the ice after winning the Stanley Cup and kissing him in front of everyone in the stadium and on national TV, inspiring Ilya to grab onto hope and take Shane up on his offer to stay with him at his cottage. We see all of this in the show, but in the Game Changer book that Scott and Kip’s story appears in, you get so much more. We get the whole scene from Scott and Kip’s perspective instead of Shane and Ilya watching it on TV, and we get to read about the press conference afterward, where Scott officially comes out.

Mutual blowjobs and cuddles

In the show, we see Shane go down on Ilya after showing him to his bedroom at the cottage, but in the book, when they arrive, they give each other extremely hot blow jobs before spending more than an hour where Shane plays with Ilya’s curls and Ilya traces Shane’s freckles with his fingers as they snuggle on the couch.

Scott and Ilya at a gay club

At the end of Game Changer, there is a Scott Hunter night at a local gay bar that Ilya ends up attending and meeting up with Scott and Kip, where he tells the Admirals captain, “Is good. What you did. It will be good for…others.” This doesn’t happen in the show, but in the Heated Rivalry book, Ilya also tells Shane about the surreal experience while they are spending time at the cottage.

Hickey and rimming

In a super spicy scene that didn’t end up making it into episode 6, Ilya gives Shane a hickey because they realize they have enough time at the cottage for it to heal before they are in public again. After claiming Shane in this way, Ilya flips him over and rims him until Shane forces him to stop before he comes so Ilya can top him. If White Lotus can have a salad-tossing scene, surely Heated Rivalry could have managed, too!

‘I love you’ sex scene

The scene where Shane and Ilya finally say “I love you” is beautiful in both the book and the series, but the book wins hands down when it comes to the spice that follows. Afterward, Shane says he wants to have sex while sitting in Ilya’s lap so that he can see him, but before they get to it, Ilya takes control and tests Shane’s submission and endurance by making Shane jerk off in front of him without coming.

Hand jobs on the deck

In another spicy scene that didn’t make it into the finale episode, Shane and Ilya give each other sloppy hand jobs while still wearing their swim trunks, and both end up coming in their pants outside on the cottage’s dock as Ilya tells Shane to keep a lookout so they don’t get caught.

Celebratory oral

The finale ends with Shane and Ilya driving off into a happy, if uncertain, future, but in the book, after coming out to Shane’s parents, they go back to the cabin where Shane is busy stressing out and planning their future, but Ilya wants to celebrate. So Ilya gets on his knees and gives Shane a blowjob before he tells Shane that after they retire, he will cover the cottage’s dock in candles and then get down on one knee and ask Shane to marry him.

The epilogue

In the novel, the epilogue picks up 16 months after Shane and Ilya make their plan to be together. Ilya is now playing for Ottawa, Shane has come out to his team but not to the public, and Hayden guesses that he and Ilya are sleeping together. The novel ends with Shane and Ilya holding a press conference to announce their charitable hockey camp to the world, and Ilya opens up publicly for the first time about his mother’s struggles with her mental health issues that ultimately claimed her life.

Sex in the show vs. the book

In both Game Changer, which tells Scott and Kip's story, and Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid manages to pack the pages with emotionally driven character development and a ton of really spicy sex scenes. Critics and fans have made much of the intense gay sex shown in the series, and while we may not be used to seeing it on our TV screens, the books gives you so much more. The sex scenes in the romance novel are not only plentiful, but they are longer, more graphic, and more experimental than anything seen in the show. Season 2 has already been greenlit, and the stars have teased that it will follow the plot of the sequel novel, The Long Game, which means there will be many more opportunities for the show to push the boundaries!