EW caught up with the best-selling romance author at BookCon 2026 in New York City.

Rachel Reid talks new Heated Rivalry book, Jack Innanen’s casting campaign, musical parody, and more (exclusive)

EW caught up with the best-selling romance author at BookCon 2026 in New York City.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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April 19, 2026 11:00 a.m. ET

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Rachel Reid at the 'Heated Rivalry' Toronto premiere in 2025. Credit:

Harold Feng/Getty

- *Heated Rivalry* author Rachel Reid talks to EW about *Unrivaled*, the next Ilya and Shane story in her *Game Changers* book series.

- The best-selling romance writer also shares her reaction to the unauthorized *Heated Rivalry *musical parody and Jack Innanen's campaign for a role on the show's second season.

- Says Reid of Ilya and Shane in *Unrivaled*, "This is really where the world's gonna judge them."

In a February video message to her thousands of social media followers, best-selling romance author Rachel Reid announced the delay of her next *Heated Rivalry* book, *Unrivaled*. She cited a combination of health reasons and her "very, very busy and overwhelming" new life after the Connor Storrie– and Hudson Williams–fronted TV adaptation of her work propelled her to stardom.

"My life has gotten very different in the last couple of months," she said at the time, "and although it's all good, it's also taken away my ability to have quality time to write."

But since she was already at BookCon 2026 — the fan convention at New York City's Javitz Center that celebrates the publishing biz — a fresh interview couldn't hurt. As she puts it, if it brings more attention to her books, that's fine by her.

Following a *Heated Rivalry* BookCon panel featuring Reid and the series' showrunner, Jacob Tierney, ** spoke with the author on a great number of things: *Unrivaled*, using her newfound fame as inspiration for the continuing Ilya and Shane saga, her reaction to the upcoming unauthorized *Heated Rivalry* musical parody, *Big Mistakes* star Jack Innanen campaigning for a role on the show, and former First Lady Jill Biden losing out on a charity bid for a walk-on role in season 2.

Rachel Reid attends a 'Heated Rivalry' panel at BookCon 2026 with Jacob Tierney.

**: *****The Unauthorized Musical Parody* that's coming to New York**** — how much have you been following that?**

**RACHEL REID:** Very little, but it's kind of fascinating to me. I think, in a way, it's an honor, right? If you get to that kind of level, you have to be flattered. I don't know if I'll see it or if it'd be weird to see, but it's definitely intriguing. It's kind of cool that it's happening.

**That was my next question — if you had plans to see it.**

I don't have plans right now. I have not spoken to anybody there... There are some things, like the raves and things like that, I don't think I could go to because I think it would be too much, too overwhelming, too weird for me, just from the clips I've seen. And this might be a similar thing. But I hope other people enjoy it.

'Heated Rivalry' creator addresses toxic fandom: 'We have a non-white lead. I think that's f---in' important'

'Heated Rivalry' creator gives major update on season 2

**Another thing I wanted to get your reaction to is the incredible bid ****Jill Biden made to get on season 2 of the show****. She got outbid, but I find a personal joy in knowing that the former First Lady is watching *Heated Rivalry*, maybe with Joe Biden.**

She had to call and be like, "We didn't do it, Joe." [*Laughs*] Sorry.

**I set you up. You had to do that.**

She didn't want it bad enough. [*Laughs*] I mean, yeah, that was amazing. I didn't know she was going to be there, but [it was] really, really thrilling when she bid. I thought that was really cool. There's so many people that I've been just stunned [to learn] have watched the show and maybe read the books and talk about it and our fans. From very early on, there were people I was like, "Holy smokes!" Like, my name is in Donatella Versace's mouth. Oprah. People like that... They know who Shane and Ilya are. It's crazy. So Jill Biden is another one, but, yeah, I was really, really touched by her attempt at winning that.

Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov on 'Heated Rivalry'.

Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max

**You talked a little bit at the panel today about the ways in which the publicity of the show has infringed on the writing process, even beyond the logistics of actively needing more time to write. Can you divorce Connor and Hudson from the way you see these characters playing out as you're writing *Unrivaled*?**

I think I have done a pretty good job of that while I've been writing. One thing I've done is, I have not watched the show since December. I've been open about that with them and Jacob and everybody. No offense, everyone, but I really need to not have that in my head when I'm writing. The characters have been with me a long time. It's getting close to a decade now. So it's not hard to go back to the original versions of them. There are other characters on the show who changed more. I can't write those versions, so I can't have it influence me too much.

I think the most challenging thing has been, besides the time, being in the right headspace to write. I could maybe give myself a day to write, but if my brain's not really set up for imagining a story, that makes it tricky. Everything's been so overwhelming lately, but I've still been writing a lot and I've made quite a bit of time. Things have started to get a little quieter lately.

**So where are you right now with *Unrivaled*?**

I've been writing it for about a year now. I was working on it secretly right up until January, when it was announced. I like it. I'm very happy with it. I'm giving myself some time coming up in the next few months to just really focus on that and nothing else to make it as good as it can possibly be before it goes to my editor, because it's really important. I feel like more than any other book I've written, this one needs to be really good. I hope I'm giving people what they want out of this. I hope what I want is what other people want. I still am making decisions about the plot with some things. I rewrite a lot. There's parts of the book I've rewritten and changed so many times. But hopefully I've made the right decisions and, generally, it's going well.

Rachel Reid; 'Heated Rivalry' book 'Unrivaled'.

Caleb Latreille; Harlequin

**Do you edit as you go?**

Oh yeah. I know you're supposed to just write a bad first draft and not worry. I've never done it. I am writing the last chapter, like, the day before it goes to the editor. Usually, I'm just terrible at doing that first draft thing. Especially the first few chapters of the book. I need those to be as clean as possible before I can move on. The rest of it maybe I can do quickly, but the beginning takes me forever.

**You mentioned at the panel that the characters Troy and Harris were a big impulse for you to write this next book. What about them kept resonating with you?**

*Role Model — *that's one of my only books that doesn't have an epilogue, because I knew *The Long Game* was going to continue their story a little bit. Then I still felt like their relationship is quite short. It's only set over a few months, so I wanted to dig a little deeper. I also just think it's interesting that Shane and Ilya are on a team together with this other player who's also dating somebody who works for the team. So they're not alone. It's like, how does all of this work together? I really like Ilya and Troy as friends. I also really like the idea of Shane coming into that friendship, because I think Shane's very different from Troy and it's almost like having two Ilyas in the space now, but then Harris is very different from all of them. So those four characters together I find very fun.

**Speaking of Troy, I know there are a lot of fan casts across social media. What has been your reaction to Jack Innanen...?**

Just being Troy now?

**Yeah, exactly.**

I mean, he's very handsome, he's very funny, he's a great actor. I don't know if he's gonna be Troy or not, but he seems to want it. I wouldn't hate it. I sometimes wonder if he's too famous. He already has a pretty big fan base, it seems, because I hear people tell me every day that he should be Troy. One of my favorite things about season 1 is how we made stars out of so many young actors, and I would love to keep doing that, but I also wouldn't be mad about it if it was him. I'd like to meet him. I'd like to be friends with him.

Jack Innanen; Hudson Williams on 'Heated Rivalry'.

Jason Mendez/Getty; Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max

**I'm wondering if he's just channeling Connor and Hudson's press tour vibes.**

Well, it's not stupid. The thing that's different about this is, unlike with Connor and Hudson, as soon as Troy gets cast and people know who it is, their life changes before they even step on the set. It's gonna be completely different. So, yeah, he may as well practice that now if he thinks he's gonna be Troy. But I don't think anything like that's been decided yet, so he can keep trying. And maybe he should've bid on that walk-on role!

**The fandom reacts even when you or Jacob follow someone on Instagram.**

Oh, I know! I don't do that anymore. I was joking a couple months ago, I should follow a random actor who kind of looks like Troy. And then I also joke about unfollowing Jacob. But, yeah, I'm very careful about who I follow now 'cause I got in trouble. I followed Connor and Hudson early, before they were announced, and there were TikToks that were like, "Hey, she's following these two actors who kinda look like Shane and Ilya." And then I screwed up following HBO Australia before that was announced because they were like, "Weird! She's following HBO Australia specifically." I kept getting in trouble for following people.

**Are there other habits you've adopted now that season 2 is going into production, just knowing how people reacted to season 1?**

I'm much quieter now. Also, I have a million times the followers. I definitely had under 15,000 followers when season 1 was being made, and now I have close to 400,000, which is a pretty big jump. I know it's not the four million that Connor and Hudson have, but for an author it's a lot. I'm very aware that if I post something, it's gonna have legs, it's gonna be a headline probably. So I have to be really careful. I have a pretty dry sense of humor, and sometimes that gets misinterpreted, and that's why I'm not on Threads — because I think I would tank the whole show in one day.

Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams on 'Heated Rivalry'.

Sabrina Lantos/HBO Max

**To bring it back to *Unrivaled, *in the previous books you really focused on queer joy and happy endings. Not to say that *The Long Game* didn't have a happy ending, but that one grappled with both queer joy and the realities of a world reacting to a relationship like this. How are you balancing those things as you're thinking about *Unrivaled*?**

*Unrivaled* is very much about that second thing. This is really where the world's gonna judge them, right? 'Cause now they're on the same team, it's in people's faces, they have to decide how they feel about this. And they're gonna be loud about it. I think it's two sides. There's gonna be people that are extremely excited and supportive of it — some of it in maybe a parasocial way, which isn't at all based on reality. And there will also be the other side: just blatantly homophobic and bigoted and terrible.

And then on top of that, we have these two still relatively young men who are trying to be in this now-marriage together when they've always had this secret relationship. Now they're living together, working together, traveling together, openly a couple, openly married to each other. Everybody knows, and they also have to be role models in that way. It's all new, all at once. It's a lot. So I can definitely relate to life changing very quickly. That's definitely helping influence the story a little bit, but, yeah, that's mostly what it is. Even though they had their happy ending, it's a complicated happy ending, and there's still a lot of things that they're gonna have to deal with. That's why I decided to write the book — because I felt like there's still more story to tell.

*This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.*

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