Hockey, Heat, And Secret Hearts

What happens when a TV adaptation drops you at center ice without telling you who laced your skates? We dive straight into the Game Changers universe, admit how the Heated Rivalry series dazzled and confused us, and trace why reading book one first changes everything. Scott and Kip’s post–Stanley Cup kiss reframes the whole league, turning secrecy into a shared tax—and once that clicks, Shane and Ilya’s seven-year, cross-division affair becomes a masterclass in logistics, longing, and the cost of staying hidden.

We pull apart how the show structures its season—opening with heat, then rewinding for context—and where that sprint trims the backstory readers rely on. That leads to a broader chat about spice pacing: when immediate flirtation deepens character stakes and when it shortcuts them. From dinner-table confessions to hotel-room strategy, we map the beats that make the rivalry burn on the page and why some of those moments feel thinner on screen without the novels’ interiority.

To keep our brains fresh, we take a quick detour into Ruthless Titan, a hockey smut reset that proves “less plot, more pleasure” can be the perfect palate cleanser. Then it’s a sharp turn into epic fantasy with Tower of Dawn, where Chaol’s healing forces a reckoning with shame and rigidity. We debate Nezryn’s role, celebrate Irene’s impossible task, and talk about how great series use side characters as circular payoffs. Along the way, we untangle retellings, series fatigue, and the eternal question of when to pause a show to catch up on the books. If you love sports romance, character-driven fantasy, or just need help triaging a towering TBR, you’ll feel seen here.

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Transcript

Cold Open And Show Vibe

Emma 0:01

Welcome to the Wrecked by Fiction podcast.

Amanda 0:06

Yes, it is.

Emma 0:07

Did I read it on my lunch break?

Amanda 0:08

Yeah. I made I made notes because I didn't know that there was gonna be a quiz.

What We’re Reading Now

Emma 0:13

Hey, everything's for a great while I was watching a movie with my six-year-old. Yeah. I didn't know I could be both right and so fucking wrong. Wrecked by Fiction, where we read, cry, and question our emotional stability.

Amanda 0:31

How many books are you currently reading?

Book-To-TV Adaptation First Impressions

Why Backstory Matters In TV

Emma 0:34

Uh just one. At the moment, I'm only reading one. Um I just finished um book two from the Game Changer series, which is Heated Rivalry. Okay. I read Game Changers First, which is book one, and then Heated Rivalry, which is book two. Heated Rivalry, which took the internet by storm. Uh unsurprising to me, but surprising to most of the world. Right. Um is very good. It is I will say, so most people in the book community know by now and have watched the series The Crave streaming series. And I think they did such a good job on the like adaptation from book to TV. Right. Which is not always the case. It's not. You don't always get a good version. They cut things, they add things, and then it's like it's not like the book at all, right? Right. That's not the case. Um Heated Rivalry uh was so good once you got into the series. Okay. I will say that it lost me in when I first started. I hadn't read when I started the TV show, I hadn't read the books yet. And I was very confused. I didn't know who these people were. And you know, you start a movie and you're like, cool, that's characters I have never met. I don't know who you are. Right. Let's do a little backstory. Who are you? What do you do for work? Whatever. You get my name, I play hockey, and I fuck men. In the first 25 minutes of the show. That's it.

Amanda 2:27

I mean, let's just lay it all out.

Reading Game Changers Before Heated Rivalry

Spoiler: Scott And Kip’s Public Kiss

Emma 2:29

That's it. That's all it is. It's just playing hockey and fucking for 25 minutes. And then Damn God. Such a bummer. Right. Imagine that. That's the worst TV show in history. Um. But instead, it's for me, I didn't realize that how much I rely on those little bits of like personality information in the beginning of books. Yeah. When they adapted, that's a weird word. When they adapted it into TV, there was very little background. And so I was like, the book can't be like that. Yeah. Right. But then I realized that it's book two. Right. And so I went back and I downloaded the first book. The first book. Only the first book first. I was like, well, because what if I hate it? Why would I get all six of them or whatever it is? Five of them. And so I read the first book. And the first book was Scott and Kip. And that book was absolutely necessary for me on background of like, why are we in this hockey universe? Right. How did we get here? Um at the end of Game Changers, uh, Scott wins the uh Stanley Cup. Right. That's what it's called. Thank you. You're welcome. And is not an out player. Okay. He's not publicly gay. Nobody knows he's gay, even on his team. Like, nobody knows. And he calls, he yells at Kip, who's in the stands, to come down on the ice. He's and Kip is a civilian. He makes smoothies for a living. And he's in his little sandals and he like slides out on the ice. And then they're making out on national TV.

Amanda 4:33

Whoa.

Spice Levels: Page One Or Page Twenty

Emma 4:33

He comes out in the most public way possible. Hey. Um, however, there is so much sex in the books. I was so surprised. Like, with TV, sex sells. You they need that piece, right? Right. Um, I was not expecting it to be quite so heavy in the books.

Amanda 4:54

I thought it would be like Are we talking like page five or page 20? Where where are we?

Emma 5:02

Like so in Game Changers, probably like page 20, I would say. Maybe not, you know, not exactly, but like I would say that there's a more background. Okay. Heated rivalry, which is book two, is like page one.

Amanda 5:15

Okay.

Seven Years Of Secret Lovers

Teams, Divisions, And Logistics Of Desire

TV Season Structure Vs Book Arcs

Spoilers, Sequencing, And Investment

Emma 5:15

Is like they meet. And then you get immediately the flirtation, immediately the heat, immediately the sex, fuck me eyes across the gym. And then you don't necessarily get the fucking right away. Right. But you do get the build-up to right away. The flirting and the Yeah. Yeah. But the whole point of heated rivalry is to build their relationship over the years. And by the time in the TV show, when you get to the end of the season, they have been together. Not publicly, but they have been together for over seven years. Holy cow. They have been secretly sleeping together for seven years. I cannot imagine. Before anybody caught them. How do you Okay, I'm gonna have to read these. Yeah. It's wild. They played for separate hockey teams in different uh Ilya was a he's a Russian transplant who plays for an American team in Boston. And Shane Hollander, who is a Canadian who plays for Canada. And so they but because of the placement of their teams, they're in the same division. So they play each other, I don't I I'm gonna fuck up the numbers, but like 30 times or something. Because hockey schedules are insane. Yes. Like in the real world, hockey they play like 92 games a year or something. Um that's probably a pretty accurate number now that I think about it. It's like a lot. Yeah. And because of that, in the books, they played against each other all the time. So yeah, it would be like maybe a month between when their teams played, but every time their teams played, one of them would sneak to the other's house or hotel room or interesting. Yeah. But so I just finished Heated Rivalry, and I did not jump into book three. I've told you this a million times. I like to go in blind, and watching that TV show did not allow me to go in blind. So in the TV show, episode one is Shane and Ilya fucking right off the bat from the get-go for a hundred and two minutes, right? Episode two is Scott and Kip's story. You don't get all the way to the end of Scott and Kip in episode two, but you get their foundation, you get their relationship, you get their secrecy, right? Kind of it lays that piece down for their step, that stepping stone in how to keep things secret and private and separate from Scott's hockey career. Right. And then you jump back in episode three to Shane and Ilya, where they're still private, they're still sleeping around when they see each other, but Ilya is sleeping with other people, um, and Shane is figuring out that he is gay, so gay, never wants to kiss another woman in his life, so gay. But has a girlfriend. Awkward because he needed a hag essentially.

Amanda 8:41

Yeah. Does the girlfriend know?

Palette Cleanser: Ruthless Titan

Emma 8:44

Not at the beginning. Okay. She did not. When she she liked him and he thought he could like her. And she realized it after a little while that he was not into it. And she took him out to dinner and sat down and said, You know, my best friend is so jealous. And he said, Of what, of me, like for dating you? And he she was like, No, of me for dating you. Yeah. And he was like, Oh my god, what are you talking about? And she was like, You don't think he's handsome? You don't think he's attractive? And he like sputters out his drink, and he's like, No, God, why would I ever? And she's like, You don't have to lie anymore. She's like, No, it's okay. You can tell me. And he goes to say, Well, here's the thing. I kinda like to be the whole. And I'm like, Shane, we're at dinner. Shane's just out here raw dogging conversation about his preference in the sack. I mean. I guess if you're gonna come out to somebody, it better be the woman you're s pretending to sleep with. Yeah. That's how he tells the first person he's ever told.

Amanda 10:11

Clear, concise communication.

Amanda’s Stack And Throne Of Glass

Tower Of Dawn: A Hot Take On Chaol

Emma 10:13

Right. A w award. First place. Um I have not finished the TV series because I saw so many damn spoilers on the internet. Yeah. That I couldn't, I didn't want to I didn't, I didn't want to ruin it for myself, and I wanted to read. I get that. And so I finished the books, and now I think I have either two or three episodes of the TV series. But the next season of the show is the next book, from what I understand. Because right now, the first season of the show has covered in entirety both Scott and Kip and the this foundational piece of Ilyan Shane's relationship. So I think it'll be interesting. I hope that I get I am I will be finishing the series before the next season comes out. There's like I can guarantee that that's what will happen.

Amanda 11:13

Yeah.

Healing Magic And Character Growth

Emma 11:14

But I hope that because I do that, I am able to grow more invested in the characters. Um because I am not as invested as I would have liked to be, and as I normally am. Right. Um and because I got stuck in hockey land, romance book land, um, I'm reading something insane called Ruthless Titan now. That's my current read. It's called Ruthless Titan, and Titan is the hockey team, Titans. Okay. The Titans. And it is book five in this is the first full length. The end the rest of the series, the first four books, are all novellas. So they're all like 200-ish pages. Right. Book five is over 400 pages, so it's the first full-length book, which is interesting. Yeah. Weird choice, in my opinion, on the author's part, to make the last book in the series the longest. Yeah. Or I guess not even longest, because that's normal, right? You get fantasy books where the last book is 12,000. No, that's insane. 1,200 pages. Um, whereas like the first book was, you know, 400, 500 pages. Yeah. But to be the only full-length book where the rest are novellas is crazy. Shorties. But it's just interesting. It's also basically just smut with very little plot, um, which is a nice palette cleanser for me. That's how I was gonna say sometimes you just need that. That's how I uh cleanse my palate in between, switching in between book series.

Amanda 12:52

Sometimes you just need a Wam Bam Thinkie Mayum. Yeah. Sometimes.

Nezrin’s Arc: Tension Or Filler

Emma 12:57

So Amanda, uh considering we are wrecked by fiction, please tell me what you are currently reading is wrecking you. I really fucking hope so. Um, no. God damn it. Okay, what are you reading?

Amanda 13:12

We've talked about this. I'm cold hearted.

Emma 13:14

Ah, you're not, though. I think it's a lie. I must we have to break through. Somebody get a chisel.

Amanda 13:22

Break through the ice walls around my heart.

Emma 13:25

Uh-huh. What are you reading?

Amanda 13:26

Um, so currently in the middle of a couple of things. Audiobook-wise, because you asked me to do the series Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Moss. I'm in the middle of Tower of Dawn. Um, I'm almost finished with Tower of Dawn. Okay. Actually. Okay. I will say out of the series, this is probably the one that I've liked the most.

Emma 13:57

Hot take.

Amanda 13:58

So far. I like Kale, and I don't care what anybody thinks about that.

Emma 14:04

Ready to go to battle over it.

Amanda 14:05

The internet's gonna come at you with pitchforks and bring it. I'm not reading comments.

Side Characters And Circular Payoffs

Emma 14:12

Why? Because he's boring. Oh. I disagree. I like Kale. Yeah. I thought he I didn't love him at the beginning of the series. I thought that he was kind of stupid. If I'm being honest. I thought he was like dense, I think is a good word. Um I also thought he was in love with Dorian. I could like romantically.

Mystery Side Series: Luck Of The Devil

Amanda 14:34

Yeah, I could see that. Um, yeah, no. But this one I've I've paid attention more to this one than the others. I have been on the struggle bus. Uh-huh. I'm trying. I'm trying. Um, yeah, no, this would be so far the one that's actually held my attention. I just think I really like his healing journey. I think has been very intriguing, especially with it coming from not just an actual physical injury, but the magical, like mental damage that's also a part of that.

Emma 15:16

Yeah.

Amanda 15:17

Um, yeah.

Emma 15:18

Because his, I mean, his partner in this book is Irene. Right. And you get not only her, like, the magic system in this book series is insane. Right. Right. And so you get not only her kind of this inherited fundamental piece of who she is as the magic that she's creating to heal him. Right. But you also get that the point of KO is that you she has to break down everything that is mentally fucking wrong with him in order to fix his fucking legs. Right.

Sobriety, Crime, And Found Allies

Amanda 15:57

Which is why I relate. Because your legs are fucking broken.

Emma 16:05

No. You need someone with magical abilities to break down your mental barriers?

Amanda 16:10

That might be better than a therapist.

Emma 16:12

It would cost more money. It would. I think. For sure. Uh, I wonder how much Kale is paying Irene to Insex. No, the other day you texted me and you said, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. I'm in the car, and Irene and Kale just started getting busy, and my daughter is in the backseat. I have to listen to something else. I had to switch. What did you switch to?

From Blood And Ash Detour And Retellings

Amanda 16:35

Okay, so you're reading something else then at the same time. I switched to music, but then but then she got boring. My daughter got distracted by her own thing, and so I just turned the volume down. Oh my god. And listened very, very quietly. She could not hear it. So I almost couldn't hear it either. I also, so when we're in the car, if we're on a long trip, I also turn the sound, like I adjust to where it's only the front speakers. So yeah, she couldn't hear it. I also could barely hear that part. I almost went back and listened. How far are you? Almost done? I have. I have like two hours left. Two and a half. Almost done. Almost done.

Emma 17:13

So where are they then?

TBR Triage And Series Fatigue

Amanda 17:15

Uh the spider thing just happened with uh Nazaren. Just went to go get or just like met the the um Falcon just like freed them from the spidery things stuff. Yeah. That's where I'm on that.

Emma 17:33

Um what do you I don't know how we're not I'm gonna get I don't want to get super into this, but I want to know how you feel about because we've discussed Irene's magical ability. You like the journey that Kayle has been on, not only physically but mentally. Right. In his character development. What do you feel about Nezren's character development?

Amanda 17:58

And I would have been okay if she had never been in the book.

Emma 18:02

Interesting. Really? I just You don't love that she's finding her own way, her own journey?

Amanda 18:10

There is a part of me that likes that, but there's also a part of me that wishes she would have just done it, right? Like I feel like she tried to let Kayle hold her back, and she was tentative about going at first, and she didn't want to hurt him and by leaving, and it was like, just go, just go, right? Because it wasn't like she was really doing anything with K.O. while he's being healed, right? But she was letting that kind of keep her from just saying yes in the beginning to leave. Okay. And then when it came time to extend it, she felt guilty for that too. And it was like, mm-hmm, why? You're doing your part of the journey, you're doing what you needed to do, right? And you're helping.

Emma 19:02

Right. Yeah, you're not not for no reason. Right.

Amanda 19:04

Don't feel guilty about it if you're doing what you need to do. And don't let don't let him hold you back, right?

Emma 19:09

Yeah. So I can see that. I think that for me with Nezrin, if she felt unnecessary, she was meant, in my opinion, when she was introduced, she was meant to cause tension. That was her only placement.

Amanda 19:27

I can see that.

Emma 19:28

Um and that's not necessarily true, but at the time of her introduction, that's what it felt like.

Amanda 19:34

Right. Jack's made a made an entrance. You can come make an entrance too. Just don't throw up somewhere.

Emma 19:47

Oh your ears are cold, that's why.

Amanda 19:53

Okay.

Emma 19:54

Ready? My name is Roshi. I'm currently reading. Um, but I think that her introduction was the in the intentionality. The intentionality of when it happened was very interesting to me because and then this journey of her and Kale, where it didn't necessarily feel like I never really felt a connection between the two of them.

Amanda 20:28

It seemed forced. Okay. Almost, in my opinion. Or like they were trying to make something more out of it than what it really was.

Emma 20:37

Okay. I could see that. I think that's probably exactly what was happening because where I felt this intentional tension because Ailen is, you know, coming back, and then all of a sudden there's Nezrin. Right. There's Nezrin and go on. He says, I'm gonna visit everybody. And we get so little about her until you get to Tower Dawn. Right. Um and even so, then it's really the story's not about her. Right. And but I love the one thing about this series that I love is the side character uh where everything connects, right? Yeah. Um, where do you know the spoiler of Tower of Dawn for me is do you know how Irene paid to get to the healing school? No. Okay. So we will revisit that conversation once you have finished this book. Okay. Um, because that's huge. Um and it's it's a very like it's a prime example of how this series everything become everything is a circle. Right. Um, her entire life story is a circle. She did everything that happened to her, happened exactly the way it was supposed to for her to get to where she needs to go. Right. Um, and for me, that's exactly how it is with every single character. Where every thing that happens to Kale as fucked up as both of its legs and now, you know, everything. Okay.

Amanda 22:41

What else are you reading? Um I started a series ages ago by Denise Groverslink. Um what she take category of writing is that um I'm not up on all the lingo. She is the series started out with a woman who had lost her parents, her grandmother was raising her, and she discovered that she had this like psychic-ish ability. Okay. Um, and so she started to help solve crimes that were happening. Okay. And I think it's like Does it so thriller, mystery? Mystery. Okay. Yeah. I think it's like 20-something books in the series.

Emma 23:33

Damn.

Amanda 23:34

A lot, and I've read all of them. And then what I'm currently in is a side shoot of that. And it's called Luck of the Devil. Um, and it's the third book in this little side series of a woman who was a police officer/slash detective and um had a line of duty shooting and ends up quitting the force and moving back home with her parents. Okay. And has had some crimes occur where she is living, and um, people have ha asked her because of her expertise to help them with those crimes, and so she kind of becomes a pseudo-private detective, um, investigator kind of deal.

Emma 24:23

Does she also have psychic abilities?

Amanda 24:25

No, she does not, but she she does have an issue with alcohol.

Emma 24:30

Okay.

Amanda 24:31

Um, and she becomes friends with one of the initially was a crime mob guy in the original series, and he has since opened a bar, and she becomes friends with him, and he is now helping her to stop drinking.

Emma 24:52

Interesting.

Amanda 24:53

While also helping her solve these cases, because he had helped the initial woman also solve her cases because he was involved in some of the crimes that were happening, so he had inside information. So yeah.

Emma 25:06

He said, I'll just feed you little pieces of things. Yep, pretty much. So you can put it together. Okay. You're reading that. Yep. You're in Tower Dawn. Is that it?

Amanda 25:19

That's it.

Emma 25:20

Okay, so I want to read um The Primal of Bud Blood and Bone. Okay. Which um is Jennifer Lee Armitrout. Okay. Jennifer L. Armitrout. And um it's the from Ash and Blood series. Okay. And so in order to do that, I have to finish reading, because I have been putting it off, um, A Soul of Ash and Blood. Um, because I was not really interested in an entire retelling of the series, but inside one book, which is essentially it's just the male main character revisiting every single thing that has happened because the female main character is in a deep state sleep, and to keep her company, he is just telling her their story at her bedside. Why why?

Amanda 26:21

Why do authors do that?

Emma 26:23

My opinion? Because I don't know why they do that. My opinion on why they do that is because of uh it the last book was taking her a really long time. Gotcha. Because Primal is the last book in the series.

Amanda 26:40

And so she said, Well, I could do this and get something out real fast.

Production Credit And Sign-Off

Emma 26:45

Right. And then here's this. Right. And you guys have something to read. But then Primal wasn't released for almost I I could be wrong. It's gotta be at least 18 months between releases. Um, I think. Maybe just feels that long. I'd have to look at exactly at dates. But at a certain point, I'm just like, I don't want to read. I don't want to I just read it. I just read all of that. Why do I want to read it again from a different point of view? Right. Um so I have been putting it off. So I ha I did start it, um, but in order to read the final installment, I have to finish it. Uh I've been putting it off. It's not high on my TBR. I get that. And my TBR is long. And it's not high on the list. Yeah. Wrecked by Fiction is recorded and produced by West House Productions. They handle all the audio, video, and post production so we get a clean sound, smooth edits, and zero tech headaches. Westhouse Productions aligns with podcasts, live music, and creative projects that want to sound professional without losing their edge.