I thought ice-hockey romance was too steamy for TV

“I write dirty gay romance novels about hockey players. You probably know that, but I’m only saying this because I’m nervous about telling everyone.”

Rachel Reid wrote these words on her blog four months ago. Now, the adaptation of “msmut,” as he calls it, is the most talked about show on TV: Heated Competition.

Its stars have appeared at the Golden Globes, on major late-night talk shows and podcasts, and in an endless stream of social media fan edits, leaving Reid with nowhere to hide.

But the Canadian author tells the BBC: “There’s no shame in it anymore.”

“People are very open about loving the show,” he continues. “It’s a shame not to like it.”

There’s no shortage of sex in Heated Rivalry, which follows the illicit affair of two rival ice hockey stars and is based on the second book in Reid’s Game Changers novel series.

“I thought they were unadaptable,” Reid says of his books, which he first published anonymously online under the guise of fan fiction.

But changes to its story for TV are few and far between. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a faithful adaptation before,” notes the writer from Nova Scotia.

Despite its frank depiction of LGBT relationships and representation in sports, some trivialized it, branding it a “gay hockey show”.

But Reid isn’t worried: “I feel very good about it. A lot of the community around me – all these events, watch parties, raves – it’s because the show is such a great source of excitement for people.”

“If you like this show, you’re probably on the right side of a lot of things.”

At one such viewing party in London, the packed pub fell silent as they waited for episode one to begin on the evening of its UK broadcast in early January.

A “shhhh!” This was heard when Canadian rookie Shane Hollander (one of the current beloved heroes) appeared shirtless on screen for the first time. The crowd of mostly young audience members listened.

Then there were cheers and applause: Standing next to Shane in the normally empty locker room showers was the confident Ilya Rozanov from Russia. Both men were naked, as the camera showed us in some detail.

Viewers, however, highlighted the sex as a way to show off their slowly building relationship, developed through clandestine meetings and secret messages throughout eight years of public sports rivalry.

“I went into this expecting it to be a 50 Shades of Gray kind of thing,” said Joe Leonard, one of the organizers of the West London Queer Project event.

“The first few episodes you’re kind of in awe,” he admitted, “but by the end you’re sitting there with tissues drying your tears… it’s a very, very sweet story.”

Another fan, Alana, 21, added: “If people are boiling it down to intimacy, people don’t say that about Bridgerton, about different shows where there’s intimacy between straight people, so how different is that?”

In a room almost evenly divided between men and women, some in the crowd were keen to address the show’s popularity among female viewers — dubbed “wine moms” by showrunner Jacob Tierney and the subject of some debate online from Reddit to TikTok.

“I don’t think it’s anything new for women, even straight women, to be interested in queer fiction,” said Bethan Smith, 26.

“I think it’s because it’s become mainstream that people are like ‘oh why are women fans of this?’ they think. Where have you been?”

Reid, whose real name is Rachelle Goguen, offers a simple perspective on this question: “Obviously the books have a huge female fan base because those are the people who read romance novels, those who read fiction in general.

“We’ve now gained a much larger and more diverse fan base with the show – yes – made up of a lot of guys, which is really exciting.”

Combining romance and sports may seem unusual to someone new to the subject, but to some readers in the room it made perfect sense.

Kayleb, 23, said Hot Rivalry was one of the few “sports novels” he had read. “I read some Formula 1 romance novels,” he explained.

The growing subgenre of romance novels set in the world of sports, from football to boxing to baseball, “has definitely had a snowball effect over the last four to five years,” says literary agent Saskia Leach.

“This is probably the breakthrough romance subgenre of the 2020s,” he said, calling Heated Competition’s success no surprise.

Aimee Cummings, who runs Love Stories Bookshop in Cardiff, agreed there was a “huge demand” for these books, “even though they are a niche within a niche”.

“Our first customer order was Chloe Walsh’s rugby romance, Binding 13,” he said, adding: “Since day one, we’ve had people wanting Hot Rivalry.”

But ice hockey is more than a backdrop in Reid’s world. The author says she wrote her books “to unravel my feelings about the widespread misogyny, homophobia and violence” in the sport of which she has been a lifelong fan.

According to Canadian broadcaster CBC, there are no openly gay active players in North America’s National Hockey League (NHL), and the spectacle has reignited the debate over representation in sports.

Reid says no one from the NHL has reached out to him since the show first aired in the U.S. and Canada in late November, “but a lot of people in the hockey world… have people that I like and respect, so that’s all that matters to me.”

The program, prepared by Canadian publisher Crave, naturally increased book sales. First published in 2019, Heated Rivalry and several of Reid’s other novels hit the New York Times bestseller list in early December.

Last week, Reid announced Unrivaled, a new novel by Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, aka “Hollanov.” Meanwhile, his other books will hit UK shelves for the first time from 20 January. Previously only available as e-books in the region, these books recently hit Amazon’s bestseller list.

Waterstones, the UK’s largest bookselling chain, said daily pre-orders for print series were up “nearly 700% week-on-week” since the new year (Heated Rivalry’s biggest), while publisher HarperCollins said it had to print several more batches of books than originally planned to meet demand.

For Reid, her hope is that the books will inspire more positive LGBT love stories.

“There haven’t been many shows that have a happy ending and a weird sense of joy.”

“Maybe we don’t have to kill one of them before the end,” he jokes. “It would be a nice change.”