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Zee

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Zee’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (2001)
currently-reading‎ (5)

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vaseline‎ (49)

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2021-reading-challenge‎ (10)
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Zee is Currently Reading

Zee is currently reading

Heated Rivalry (Game Changers, #2)

by Rachel Reid

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 4th time

read in August 2021

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Zee said: " I think I'm going insane, I'm going absolutely freaking insane.

This is literally one of my top 5 hockey romances. This is literally...amazing. I had a smile on my face the entire freaking time, and my cheeks hurt, but I'm totally gonna re-read this a I think I'm going insane, I'm going absolutely freaking insane.

This is literally one of my top 5 hockey romances. This is literally...amazing. I had a smile on my face the entire freaking time, and my cheeks hurt, but I'm totally gonna re-read this at all times.

We met Ilya Rozanov in the previous book briefly, and he wasn't someone that MC was a fan of, but disclaimer, I mcfreaking love him. I loved getting to know him more in this book. He's a cocky hockey player out of Russia, and we meet him during his first visit to America, right at the same time he meets Shane Hollander. Shane intrigues him on many levels, but especially when they strike up this rivalry between two-equally matched players that fuel the competitive nature in both of them.

Ilya makes no secret of the fact that danger heats his blood faster than anything else, and there's no one more dangerous than Shane. Their rivalry is always in the spotlight, and their careers, as closely as they're aligned, are followed and compared by everyone.

The summer before rookie year starts up this rivals-with-benefits situation that's like nothing else, for both of them. Shane's new to encounters with men, and any previous relationships he's had with women have always felt like they were lacking something. So even as he pretends to hate the idea of wanting Ilya, he always comes back because even off-the-ice, Ilya ignites a fire in him that he doesn't have with anyone else.

The thing I enjoyed the most about this book was how not once did Ilya and Shane take cheap shots at each other. They didn't put each other down, and the rivalry they share isn't toxic. It's simply just...is. They don't play differently on the ice, but there's an amusing layer to knowing that they have a years-long secret hidden in each interaction, that it means something different to them than it does for the world around them.

The sex was more romantic than I thought it would be, for two people that claim to do this to scratch an itch. They stuck to using each other's last names but the minute they had sex with their first names on the table, I think the top of my head exploded? Because that's such a god-tier trope; the intimacy of using someone's given name being more than when they're pressed together in bed.

Another trope I'm a huge fan of? A character confessing their love in a language their significant other can't understand, and there was a lot of that going on in this house. The awe Shane places on Ilya's Russian accent, and the way his accent wraps around the words was beautifully described. I did laugh when Shane attempted that little bit of Russian, but it was all just so adorable.

Watching their rivals-with-benefits go to friends-with-benefits, to boyfriends was like being dropped from the top of a seven-year high rollercoaster. The repeated 5-6 month time jumps are not something I'm usually a fan of but it worked wonders for them because we got to see pretty much each encounter they had with each other, since it wasn't on the regular. There were still bits and time leftover to see that even when they weren't with each other, they were thinking about the other.

They're unbelievably supportive of each other when the going gets tough, and when they're making plans that include a whole future together. It's never a question of someone giving something up because they just have this healthy communication thing down pat, and I love that for them. Any conflict in this book isn't as much between them as much as it's with the situation surrounding them, and with other minor characters. I do wonder if the sequel will change that though...

If I could give this more than five stars, I would've. I can't wait until the sequel comes out because I need more of them! ...more "

Sep 28, 2025 01:22PM · see review

Zee is currently reading

Gleam (The Plated Prisoner, #3)

by Raven Kennedy (Goodreads Author)

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Nov 27, 2025 02:21PM

Zee is currently reading

One Manic Lie (One Lie Book 2)

by Addison Beck (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Sep 24, 2025 06:43PM

See all 5 books that Zee is reading…

Zee’s Quotes

“I say, 'I will not be your weakness, Sean Kendrick.'
Now he looks at me. He says, very softly, 'It's late for that, Puck.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races

tags: puck, sean

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