8 books like Heated Rivalry
Shane and Ilya set a high bar: two men at the top of their sport, a rivalry that's really foreplay, and a relationship that can't be spoken aloud. These are the books that get closest to one part or another of that — the ice, the secrecy, the ache, the filthy banter.
Updated September 2026
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Hockey players who can't go public
Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy 2015
Two elite hockey players with years of unspoken history and one of them firmly in the closet, written with the same heat-plus-tenderness balance; the setting is a summer camp and college rink rather than the pro spotlight.
The Understatement of the Year by Sarina Bowen 2014
A closeted college hockey player and the boy from his past, carrying the kind of long-buried shame that gives Shane and Ilya's secrecy its weight; it's more bruised and less playful than Reid, with a heavier backstory.
Hockey romance that will hurt you
Thrown Off the Ice by Taylor Fitzpatrick 2017
The same magnetic, wordless pull between two players who keep coming back to each other in private; Fitzpatrick offers none of Reid's comfort — go in knowing you'll cry.
Breakaway by Avon Gale 2015
Minor-league hockey with a prickly, mismatched pair working out what they are to each other; the stakes are career survival in the bus leagues, not superstardom.
Icebreaker by A.L. Graziadei 2022
Two rivals at the top of the draft board whose loathing is obviously something else, chemistry and all; it's young adult, so the heat is off the page and the focus is on depression and the weight of a hockey family name.
Enemies-to-lovers off the ice
Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston 2019
Two public figures who've built careers on disliking each other and then have to hide what they actually feel from the world's press; the arena is politics and the voice is much more comic.
Top Secret by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy 2019
Two young men who spar in person while getting increasingly filthy in secret, from the same pair who wrote Him; it's a campus story with an anonymous-messaging hook rather than a decade-long double life.
Think of England by K.J. Charles 2014
Mutual suspicion curdling into want between two men who absolutely cannot be caught, with the secrecy genuinely dangerous; it's Edwardian espionage, so the risk is prison rather than a press conference.
If you also liked…
- Fifty Shades of Grey by E.l. James
- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
- Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan
Questions
- Is anything as spicy as Heated Rivalry?
- Top Secret are at least as explicit, and Thrown Off the Ice is very graphic indeed. Him is close in heat but a little softer around the edges.
- I want the rivalry specifically, not just hockey. Where should I start?
- Icebreaker for two players who genuinely can't stand each other at first, and Red, White & Royal Blue for the same dynamic in a completely different world.
- Are any of these safe if I don't want to be devastated?
- Avoid Thrown Off the Ice unless you actively want your heart broken.