Rachel Reid Is Right There With You

All month long, Bustle’s annual The Entertainers Issue is celebrating the performers and creators who lit up our screens and beyond in 2026.

By New Year’s Eve, Rachel Reid knew she’d made it. During CNN’s coverage of the Times Square ball drop, a giggling Andy Cohen told an already tipsy Anderson Cooper, “You’re Ilya, I’m Shane.” Cooper disagreed: He was more of a Kip. “I thought, ‘This is really, really surreal. They’re talking about my characters by name, and everybody knows who they’re talking about,’” Reid recalls. “It’s mainstream enough that they can just talk about this on this broadcast and assume most of the viewers are going to know what they’re talking about. My mom was impressed for sure.”

Now, nearly a year after Heated Rivalry first aired in North America, it’d be hard to find anyone who isn’t well aware of the world of Reid’s Game Changers novels. The show is Canadian streaming platform Crave’s most watched original series of all time, and, with more than 10 million U.S. viewers, it’s also HBO Max’s most watched acquired, non-animated scripted series. The screen adaptation also inspired what her publisher has called an “unprecedented” surge in book sales, leading to shortages and empty shelves in bookstores around the globe. (A collector’s edition of the Heated Rivalry book just hit stores.)

Basking in the moment that inspired an off-Broadway parody musical and maybe even a pop star’s baby name, Reid also admits to feeling some pressure: Serving as a consulting producer on Season 2 of the show as she finishes the edits on Unrivaled, the next in the book series, means she’s still unfolding Shane and Ilya’s story “at the same time that the whole world has discovered them.”

“For the last year everyone’s been kind of obsessed with these two characters, and I’m like, ‘Nobody’s been thinking about them more than me,’” Reid, 46, says. “I get to be the person who decides what happens next, which is a huge responsibility.”

On her favorite scene from Season 1:

When I was writing that first book years and years ago, Scott and Kip’s kiss on the ice was something [where] I was enjoying a little fantasy of, “What if this was a movie?” That scene was something I’d love to see more than anything, and actually seeing that was huge for me. I missed being on set to see it by one day. I showed up the next day and was like, “Oh no!”

On visiting set for the first time:

I was very nervous in the car on the way there because part of me thought, “Oh God, what if it’s awful? What if I get there and the characters aren’t right?” But also: “What if I make people uncomfortable? What if people think I’m there to judge everybody?”

But getting there and seeing all these people working so hard to not only bring your characters to life, but the sets to bring scenes to life, was amazing. There was an attention to detail, and people were making sure everything was perfect. I couldn’t believe all those people were there to bring my story to life. Meeting the actors and watching them play the characters, it was definitely surreal. And I didn’t sleep that night before, so it was extra surreal.

On the vibe of Season 2:

You wouldn’t guess that the stars are probably the biggest celebrities in the world right now. It’s different, obviously, in a lot of ways, but you wouldn’t guess on set. It feels very much, like, really great vibes. Everyone’s just getting along, having a good time. There’s more security, but not in a way that you feel. Sometimes there’s paparazzi or fans trying to take pictures, but at least not in the way I was expecting.

On the expectations around Unrivaled:

Instead of just being something fun for me, it feels like it’s become really important suddenly. I think I’ll breathe a sigh of relief the moment my editor says it’s sent to print. That’s the surreal moment where I’ll say, “This thing that’s been hanging over me basically for a year and a half now is done.” But it will only feel really good if I think the book is as good as it can be.

On Carly Rae Jepsen maybe naming her baby after Ilya:

I’m still processing it. I’m a big Carly Rae fan. I love Emotion and also the B-sides. I mean, usually with the B-sides artists are like, “Here’s the garbage from the first one,” but this one is actually better. To release that one, and it’s also wall-to-wall bangers? Come on. It’s one of those moments where you almost have to disconnect because you’re like, “I can’t think about this right now.” But, that said, I also think Ilya is a beautiful name.

On her favorite fan interactions:

People have told me things that are really lovely. People travel from really far to meet me. I’ve had people tell me stories about losing their own parent the same way that Ilya did. I’m also touched by the people that went through something really awful, and the books helped them get through it: It got them through chemo, it got them through the loss of a loved one — things like that really hit hard. I’ve had former hockey players tell me that the books really resonated with them because they had secret relationships with men when they were playing hockey. I think when you write a romance novel, you’re not sure that it’s going to land with people in that way or affect them that way, and it does mean a lot that it has.

On delighting in Off Campus:

I’m really happy for Elle Kennedy. I was really excited to see that her books were all over the New York Times bestsellers when the show came out because I was worried people would compare it directly to Heated Rivalry — I don’t think that they’re super comparable beyond the obvious of hockey and romance. I was worried people would be dismissive of it because it came second, even though, out of the gates, that was the much bigger IP and the much bigger show. I’m really happy that people really seemed to love it and embrace it, and that now there are Heated Rivalry x Off Campus raves happening.