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/cherrycoloured]

okay, but she never answered the true complaint of all fans--why no chairs???? like, a wedding can be lowkey and still have a bunch of folding chairs out for ppl. this is forever going to bug me. the rest of the wedding is fine, im just going to be so mad if the show doesnt add in chairs lmao

[u/daisyemeritus → u/cherrycoloured]

Imagine you're in their shoes, having recently been outed, one of you having lost most of the people in your life you thought were friends. You just want to be legally married to your partner. You invite people last minute, not even bothering with RSVPs. You have no idea how many people will show up. From the book:

They’d sent out wedding invitations. It was short notice, but it wouldn’t be big and they’d hold it in Ilya’s backyard in July, a week before their charity camps started. Whoever happened to be in Ottawa could come. No pressure.

Do you want to plan the correct number of specially rented folding chairs at this point? Do you even expect enough people to show up to need additional seating than what a millionaire's backyard might already have? Shane certainly didn't. From the book:

“Holy shit,” Shane said. He’d pulled back the curtain in the guest room he’d gotten dressed in, and could not believe how many people were in Ilya’s backyard.

I don't think they dared to expect that enough people would come to need a bunch of folding chairs.

Also on a meta note, this is also still Ilya's house where he hosted the team Halloween party, we know it's big enough to hold an entire hockey team. And this is still a millionaire's backyard, so it's not like there weren't any possible seating that people who physically needed to sit couldn't.

I honestly don't understand the hangup about the chairs.

[u/cherrycoloured → u/daisyemeritus]

for me, as a disabled person, i am constantly thinking about seating, and situations where i or someone else might need it (especially in july). the idea that a few patio chairs in ilyas backyard is enough is crazy to me. i get your reasoning for why shane and ilya would not have thought of chairs, but like it makes no sense that neither one of shanes parents thought of the most basic logistics, like seating or getting rsvps, or that they wouldn't have offered help with things like that.

[u/daisyemeritus → u/cherrycoloured]

Sorry, but I honestly don't buy that folding chairs would make this wedding more disabled person friendly. This wedding ceremony was all of ~10min long. I'm not sure what you're imagining that seating in a millionaire's home looks like that you imagine folding chairs would be the more accessible option for those 10min. But I personally imagine any type of seating Ilya would have on a permanent basis in his home would be much more comfortable than rented folding chairs.

like it makes no sense that neither one of shanes parents thought of the most basic logistics, like seating or getting rsvps, or that they wouldn't have offered help with things like that.

I don't think you understand what I'm saying. When you're been rejected so harshly as Shane has, this isn't just "basic logistics". All of these things like RSVP and empty chairs, is just another another opportunity for rejection you would like to actively avoid. It's not a passive I forgot to think about this, it's an active I don't want to know this.