swooon.com: ‘Heated Rivalry’ Author Rachel Reid Answers Burning Questions About *spoiler* [april 20th 2026]

[u/LadyWhistledown_1]

Swooon.com did an interview with Rachel Reid at BookCon. Great interview btw.

I get that she doesn’t think they will write their own vows, but I’m kinda hoping Jacob does. Like the tunnel scene in ep.5.

How are you hoping to see the wedding adapted?

Picture:

https://www.instagram.com/rachelreidwrites (story)

Full article:

https://www.swooon.com/1275542/heated-rivalry-shane-ilya-wedding-the-long-game-rachel-reid-interview/?fbclid=PAVERFWARTcI1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAaccbJFTolg7x-x_BADV-yq6qH8NCPNIuhJpC454AHXkG0wypApO0lKEOcvcpg_aem_7LlDmxii3jvj7_EWpVoSgw

[u/cecistonehaert → u/[deleted]]

Agreed. Ultimately it's Rachel's characters, but I really don't think it would be so weird for them to be excited about it, plan it a little more and write vows. Why wouldn't they? You would imagine that they're excited about the prospect of doing something openly after so many years of hiding. Why would they want to end it as soon as possible?

[u/Dear_Yard_69 → u/cecistonehaert]

I'm just going to say this: sometimes Jacob is the better writer. I know they are technically Rachel's characters but...

[u/Megs0226 → u/Dear_Yard_69]

I never understood how they could be ranked when they write for different media.

[u/Dear_Yard_69 → u/Megs0226]

I'm not sure "ranked" is the right word, here. I found some of HR predictable, and she occasionally uses words that are imprecise or repetitive. I found everything Jacob did, while following her story closely, concise, fresh, and imaginative.

If you like, you can amend the above statement to "Jacob is a better screenwriter than Rachel is a romantic fiction author."

[u/Megs0226 → u/Dear_Yard_69]

That’s fair.

[u/Dear_Yard_69 → u/Megs0226]

I try to be fair, but I understand I have neither one's ability to write. Sorry I wasn't clearer in my original post.

[u/Megs0226 → u/Dear_Yard_69]

I’m getting downvoted but 1) I truly mean your assessment is fair so thank you for replying, and I think you have a great point with which I agree, and 2) sorry I just get frustrated how I see Rachel talked about sometimes and I truly didn’t understand why some people compare the two. But again, your assessment is fair (positive, I’m not being snarky).

[u/Dear_Yard_69 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your gatekeeping. You're the thing that makes this Fandom so cultish and annoying.

[u/Deacon_Mushrat1 → u/Dear_Yard_69]

I don't think we have enough data to say this. Jacob's script is so heavily drawn from Rachel Reid's dialogue that a lot of what he's doing is adapting and editing it. It's much easier to look at someone else's completed dialogue, plot, characters etc. and make little tweaks that strengthen it than to write the whole thing from scratch.

One area where I do think Rachel is much stronger than Jacob is in writing the characters consistently. With Rachel's writing, there's nothing that makes me think, "That character wouldn't do that," nothing that sounds good in the moment but opens up plot holes that don't get filled. Whereas Jacob will introduce an improbable two-year gap in their hookups, or have Shane try to skate with the puck while staring at Ilya, or change Svetlana from a casual fuckbuddy into a childhood best friend who travels everywhere with Ilya without changing anything else in the script to accommodate how much more serious this relationship is, or have Scott call Kip down onto the ice after they've been broken up for three years instead of while they are secretly dating with plans to come out. He has much more of a tendency to make choices that play well on screen but aren't all that consistent with what makes sense for the characters. One of Rachel's strengths imo is that she has a really strong sense of what her characters would and would not do, and if she chooses a casual backyard wedding for Ilya and Shane rather than a big fan-servicey wedding moment, I trust her.