#game changers series

[iammistressofmyfate]

Here is the most beautiful Hollanov art from the incredible @cecikiwi 😍 I cannot be more amazed by their talent and how amazing they are!!

[damianwaynedefenseattorney]

walk with me now…

shane hollander and ilya rozanov….

[ashes0909]

one thing i've always found comforting, whether i'm in my 00s, 10s, 20s, or 30s is that there will always be a new fandom to fall into. whether its hitting me like a speeding train or pulling me under like a soft pillow, whether its canon is brand new or decades old, whether its a rare one or a popular one—i won't even know to look for it. until one day i'm ready for it, and it'll be waiting for me with open arms.

[rocketpunchhh]

Commission for the lovely @iammistressofmyfate

Shane and Ilya from the Game Changers series. ty so much for commissioning me, loved working on this!

bonus: me trying to figure them out

[frizzyanya]

Ilya Rozanov: I should break up with Shane Hollander

Scott Hunter: wins the Stanley Cup and comes out

Ilya Rozanov: I'M GOING TO GO TO THE CABIN AND TELL SHANE I LOVE HIM AND WE'RE GOING TO PLAN A FUTURE TOGETHER AND TALK ABOUT FOREVER

[notlayingroses]

honestly the one of the things that makes me the most sad about this hockey romance / booktok drama is that now so many hockey fans have a negative impression of hockey romances and sports romances. There are so, so many wonderful, queer romances out there that are doing wonderful, nuanced, and intentional things within the sports romance genre, and I hate that now people are looking down on them.

Here's some reasons that I love sports romances:

It’s a celebrity romance, but more of a niche celebrity romance. This isn’t a Hollywood super star that everyone in the world knows their name, BUT they often do have a dedicated fan base and are still in the public eye. It brings up really interesting discussions of fame and power and how much of yourself you keep private. So you get a lot of the good celebrity romance tropes and settings (like secret relationship, having to do interviews, traveling to new cities) but on a more niche and interesting scale

And bouncing off of that, with queer sports romances you get a lot of really interesting discussions of coming out, how you present your queerness to the world, how much of yourself is “owed” to the people around you vs yourself, which is very interesting when explored through a sports culture lense and I really enjoy the discussions of queer identity, culture, and community that come out of it. And particularly if it a romance between two players, there's a lot of really interesting queer nuances to explore

There are so many different pairings that can happen, but most of them kind of boil down to player/player, player/sports professional, player/normie, and each of these dynamics are interesting to me every time, especially when exploring teammate dynamics! And exploring how fame affects each of these things!

Found family! Your team is your family! And everyone has silly nicknames and rituals with each other and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy

With every romance, you pretty much know that it’s gonna end with a Happily Ever After, which is why we love the genre. But sometimes that can take the “surprise” out of a romance and its structure. Within sports romances, you don’t know how the game is going to go! They could win! They could lose! That affects the characters either way! And there’s been several sports romances that had me on the edge of my seat cause I genuinely had no idea which way the championship game was gonna go! I like that extra plot element to keep things interesting 

I also like it when you can tell the author is a big fan of their sport, and even if EYE don’t know anything about the sport, they’re generally good at writing things in a makes sense and makes the action interesting and keeps me hooked. It’s also just nice to step into the world the author loves!

Genuinely I just think that queer sports romances are doing so many interesting things, and have such interesting niches and nuances to the stories they’re telling! And they should not be looked down upon by hockey fans OR romance fans who have witnessed this booktok drama go down and now don’t want to touch hockey romances with a ten foot pole.

Here are some of the queer sports romances I recommend for anyone who wants to get into the genre:

[curiouschlideverreviled]

may i suggest tom hardy as ilya rozanov? an after-retirement, 40-ish ilya

[weathereyehorizon]

Shane has his first NHL fight.

Read it on AO3

[iammistressofmyfate]

And yet another amazing Hollanov piece from the ultra talented @cecikiwi

I cannot express how much I adore her art and would commission her for every piece of art until the end of time

Thank you for doing such an incredible job with my fave boys 😭

[caliscalistoga]

My Fics

Shane and Ilya - Heated Rivalry/The Long Game by Rachel Reid

Most Recent

Summer Fundraising (M)

Ilya and Shane help out with a fundraiser for The Irina Foundation. Mostly a few different fluff ideas that are very loosely tied together. Featuring: a conversation about menstruation and birth control, bilingual struggles, sexy car repairs, kissing at work, and enjoying an outdoor summer concert in the park.

Overwhelm Me Until I Can't Think of Anything Else (E)

"They would play tomorrow night, their second game of the season. Montreal had been in Boston for their season opener in October. Boston had won in overtime, and Hollander had been in a terrible mood when he’d shown up at the room Ilya had booked in the hotel down the street from where Montreal was staying. Ilya liked it when Hollander was angry. He liked it when Hollander took out his frustrations on Ilya’s body. He liked him cursing him as he fucked Ilya’s mouth." Heated Rivalry, Chapter 9 My take on the missing scene after the 2013-14 season opener game in Boston. Title taken from the "Vegas Remix" story (Ilya's POV) posted to Rachel Reid's blog.

And a few more! mostly fluff!

[frier-n]

Shane Hollander is autistic

[frizzyanya]

Someone convince me to read Troy Barrett's book please. Everyone talks so highly about it, but he was AWFUL to Ryan Price and I hate him. I don't want to root for the guy, but people talk like he's a good lead.

Like Ilya's a dick, but he's lovable and I wanted to root for him.

I don't want to root for Troy Barrett.

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (4-10 Feb 2024)

top 5 personal HO fave - he was he was super thrilled to be there, had a great time, lost his mind a little & flexed (literally). Incredible.

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😊 Throuple Honey (Brent Archer) - short, sweet & simple with lots of domestic details

🥰 "Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole" (Isabel J. Kim) - love a skillful response to the classic original story. I just kept saying 'wow. wow.'

😍😍😍 Reread the entirety of Rachel Reid's Game Changers series. I just love them all SO MUCH!!!! 😍😍😍

Game Changer (Game Changers #1) [Scott & Kip]

Merry Christmas Scott & Kip (Game Changers #1.5)

Heated Rivalry (Game Changers #2) [Shane & Ilya] {here's a really great review of this book, which is THEEEE GREATEST rivals-to-lovers story ever!}

My Dinner with Hayden: A Heated Rivalry Short Story (Game Changers #2.5)

Tough Guy (Game Changers #3) [Ryan & Fabian]

Common Goal (Game Changers #4) [Eric & Kyle]

Role Model (Game Changers #5) [Troy & Harris]

The Long Game (Game Changers #6) [Shane & Ilya, Part 2]

🥰 The Supersoldier's Amnesiac Groom (casspeach) - 48K, very canon divergent arranged marriage AU - reread for Stucky Book Club

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

A Word on Words | NPT: Starter Villain - John Scalzi

Hot Ones - Tony Hawk

Hot Ones - Sterling K. Brown

Hot Ones - Mark Ruffalo

Hot Ones - John Oliver

Hot Ones - Barry Keoghan

Hazbin Hotel - s1, e2

D20: Fantasy High: Junior Year - "Mall Madness" (s21, e5)

D20: Adventuring Party - "Can I Offer You a Nice Shrimp in This Trying Time?" (s16, e5)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Desert Island Discs - Graham Nash, musician

⭐ Up First - The Sunday Story: Tiny Desk, Big Stage

⭐ What Next: TBD - Streaming Is Cable Now

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Taquile Island

Short Wave - Wolves Are Thriving In The Radioactive Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

The Sporkful - Undercover Dining With NY Times Restaurant Critic Pete Wells

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang - The Top 10 Places We Would Love To Visit

Pop Culture Happy Hour - 2024 Grammys Recap

Vibe Check - Hey, Sis: featuring Audie Cornish

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Moynaq

Shedunnit - The Green Penguin

Vibe Check - Hell Has Flooded

⭐ It's Been a Minute - Sam Reich on revamping the game show - and Dropout's success as a small streamer

Ologies with Alie Ward - Theoretical & Creative Ecology (SCIENCE & ECOPOETRY) with Madhur Anand

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Welcome Home

Short Wave - After 20 Years, This Scientist Uncovered The Physics Behind The Spiral Pass

99% Invisible #569 - Between the Blocks

Switched on Pop - Brittany Howard's Chaos Theory (with Brittany Howard)

⭐ Song Exploder - Green Day "Basket Case"

The Assignment with Audie Cornish - Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce: Cultural Supernova

⭐ Throughline - The Scent of History

⭐ The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Kam Wah Chung & Co. Museum

Alt.Latino - The greatest Boleros of all-time

The Sporkful - Deep Dish With Sohla And Ham: Tacos Al Pastor

Today, Explained - When one (airplane) door opens …

Dear Prudence - Is My Work Husband Keeping Me A Secret From His Wife? Help!

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Lisa Frankenstein And What's Making Us Happy

Endless Thread - Recess Therapy's Julian Shapiro-Barnum is skeptical of kids becoming social media stars

⭐ Strong Songs - "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel

Today, Explained - Why Taylor left TikTok

Short Wave - Clownfish Might Be Counting Their Potential Enemies' Stripes

You're Dead to Me - Simón Bolívar

Consider This from NPR - What Makes A Football Movie Great?

It's Been a Minute - A Super Bowl in 'new Vegas'; plus, the inverted purity of the Stanley Cup

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - Lena Waithe

Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - Putting the Awe in Audio

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

The Very Best Of Buddy Holly And The Crickets

My Mix #5 [Simon & Garfunkel, Carpenters, John Denver]

Presenting KISS

Presenting Black Sabbath

[curiouschlideverreviled]

soooooo, i'm curious: who are we fancasting as Shane and Ilya? i came to the realisation a couple weeks ago that i can't think of a single celibrity that reminds me of any of them.

i kinda thought about brenton thwaites for shane but he's missing the ✨half japanese✨ looks (i saw a picture of brenton with his long hair tied in a bun/ponytail, and he kind of had this soft look to him? Like a good/chill aura? The typical vibe in a person that'd make you look at them and be like "oh he seems nice! He looks like a good person!" -vibe that i don't often get from celebrities *AND* I think is Shane's fundamental essence-, and also he's bi!!!) (ugh i hope brenton is actually nice or this is going to age poorly and come back to bite me in the arse, but hey! the point here is to discuss looks i guess)

[franticvampirereads]

Is it to early in the year to claim a favorite book? Because this book ripped my heart out, stomped on it a little bit, dusted it off and then put it back together. I actually cried! And it takes a lot for a book to make me cry, so you know The Long Game was good!

I loved that we got to dive back into Shane and Ilya’s story! We got so much more character development and growth. I loved that we got to see more of Ilya’s mental health journey and that he was able to finally make friends that he felt comfortable sharing his biggest secrets with. I also loved that we got to see Shane being more confident and comfortable with their relationship. I think the thing I hated was that they were outed and then had to deal with all the shitty ways that people treated them. I just wanted to hug them so badly.

Honestly, this book was everything that I wanted it to be and more. I’m pretty sure this is my favorite book in the the Game Changers series. The Long Game is getting a solid five stars and is definitely in the running to be my favorite book of the year.

Reading Challenge Prompt Fills:

Read Queerly 2023: bi/pan main character

Shop Your Shelves 2023: book review

Popsugar 2023: a book with a pet character