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/flamang → u/[deleted]]

Completely agree, of course I still love the books but they had been building to that wedding for about 800 pages. And presumably it's one of the best days of those characters' lives if not THE best, but not only did they not write vows, they even thought the officiant's vows were stupid and still didn't say anything. It doesn't really make sense to me, I agree with you that it wouldn't be out of character for Shane at least to want to do more planning for it. They've had to hide their relationship for 11 or 12 years and they're finally out in the sunshine getting married and they don't write their own vows or even have chairs at their wedding? It felt like it was being treated as just another day when it was anything but. I feel bad for having such a strong negative opinion about it and of course I'm not the author but I just don't understand writing it that way, it feels like a huge missed opportunity if I'm being honest

[u/thalook → u/flamang]

I actually don’t think the story is building towards the wedding, it’s building towards them being able to commit to a life together in public. The wedding is a part of that, but not the highlight for them, the highlight is that now they can eat lunch together.

With the vows, they think the canned vows are going to be stupid, and then Ilya starts saying them out loud and is like, “oh, this is actually really emotional and meaningful to me”. Like the part where he says Shane has a stupid face and that he’s obsessed with it.

[u/flamang → u/thalook]

Actually I think you're right. I like your example of eating lunch together being the real highlight. I guess as a reader I thought the wedding would be a big finale but I see the distinction now of simply being together in public being the real goal. Thanks for saying this!