I just read The Long Game for the third time and I simply had to write a review! This is my favorite book in the Game Changers series and I love it so so much. After flying through books when I was off of work for 2 weeks, I have now only consumed Heated Rivalry. So it felt very fitting to write a review about one of these books today! Let’s jump in!
To the world they are rivals, but to each other they are everything.
Ten years.
That’s how long Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov have been seeing each other. How long they’ve been keeping their relationship a secret. From friends, from family…from the league. If Shane wants to stay at the top of his game, what he and Ilya share has to remain secret. He loves Ilya, but what if going public ruins everything?
Ilya is sick of secrets. Shane has gotten so good at hiding his feelings, sometimes Ilya questions if they even exist. The closeness, the intimacy, even the risk that would come with being open about their relationship…Ilya wants it all.
It’s time for them to decide what’s most important—hockey or love.
It’s time to make a call.
The Long Game (Game Changers, #6) by Rachel Reid
Published by Carina Press on 26/10/2024
Pages: 442
Goodreads
The Long Game is part of the Game Changers series. For those of you who don’t know, Game Changers is an interconnected series about queer hockey players and their romances. The Long Game continues Shane and Ilya’s story, so there will be spoilers for Heated Rivalry. Although I don’t think anyone not knowing the story will be reading this haha.
The Long Game takes place about two years after the end of Heated Rivalry. And where Heated Rivalry took us on a ten year ride, this one takes place over the course of only one year. In general I would say this is a completely different book. The pacing is (obviously) very different and while this is about Shane and Ilya’s love story, I would argue that this is mostly about mental health. With some of the other books in the series I already felt mostly connected to the mental health struggles of some of our main characters and I think that is what makes me love these books so much.
“Maybe therapy, like so many things worth doing, hurts when you first start.”
Ilya has made the move to Ottawa and is now part of a pretty horrible hockey team with awesome teammates. He and Shane see each other whenever they can, but it doesn’t seem enough for him anymore. Shane is still had the same team as he has been his whole career, has his family and has confided in his 2 best friends, so while he is also tired of hiding sometimes, he is in a very different situation. It is clear these two love each other so so much, but because of their different communication styles they don’t always understand each other.
A big part of this book is about Ilya coming to terms with the fact he might be depressed and how he goes about that. I have cried many tears reading about Ilya’s struggles. His inner monologue unfortunately was a little too relatable at times. While I do not struggle with depression, my ADHD can be really bad at times and lately has been a cause for a lot of my struggles. I love the way all of this was written and while Shane wasn’t completely aware of Ilya’s struggles or the depth of his struggles in the beginning, I loved where they were by the end of the book.
“Do you think we looked like that to them?” “What, sexy? I probably did.” “No, like…in love?” Ilya seemed to consider the question before answering. “We are very good at pretending to not be in love. Maybe we are bad at showing it when we are allowed.”
It’s interesting seeing readers talk about the book online and see some things about the characters differently from the writer. A lot of readers recognised their struggles with disordered eating (or even actual eating disorders) in Shane and I can totally see where they are coming from. I think there are multiple ways to look at Shane’s relationship with food but in my opinion it all has to do with control. There is a lot in his life he cannot control and this is something he does have control over. I know that struggle with control is something that is the start of disordered eating for a lot of people, not just their body image. So yes, I totally get that comparison!
One other thing I had to mention was the support systems I briefly mentioned before. At the start of the book it feels like Shane has all the support he could ever want, while Ilya’s support comes mostly from Shane’s family. If we skip to the end of the book it kinda feels like it’s reversed, Ilya has all the support he could ever want and Shane has found out he has less support then he thought he would. It was heartbreaking, but it also makes me so so so excited for the third book. I truly cannot wait to see what will happen with these amazing guys and I wish nothing but the best for them!
