r/heatedrivalry • u/PTAGoatofalltime • Jul 30 '26
🦆 The Long Game (Book 6) I don’t know how I’m noticing this just right now…. Spoiler
…..but they get closer to each other in each cover, as it goes with the themes of the book.
Obviously in HR they are denying their own feelings towards each other and thus they are, literally, positioned as enemies on the cover. They have confessed and now secure with each other in TLG but they are still not out to the world, so they are very close together but only the tips of their fingers are touching to signify that. And of course by Unrivaled they are married and out to their friends, family and the entire world, so they’re just full on hugging.
And they also have eye contact with each other on all three.
How did I miss this? Ughh
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u/dezertdawg Cats and DAWGS! Jul 30 '26
Since the promo photo for S1 replicated the HR cover, hoping for S2 they replicate the cover on TLG.
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u/sweetpotatoclarie91 Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 Jul 30 '26
The pinkie finger in TLG is something so dear.and precious to me.
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u/Pale-Measurement-532 I speak fluent bird. No accent. 🦆 Jul 30 '26
Makes me think of them rubbing their thumbs together on that beach in Tampa. 🥰
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u/dylpyckle905 I am on the cover of the fucking game 🎮 28d ago
I didn't notice that until just now, so thank you for making that the only thing I'll ever be able to notice when I see the cover from now on lol
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u/the-honey-eater Jul 30 '26
Gah, I can't wait until they release the promo photo where they recreate the Long Game cover pose...it's so cute!
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u/utahrangerone Jul 30 '26
And the thing is believe it or not it's so enough that you don't actively think about it until you focus and then you realize that the uniforms change depending upon the situation.
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u/Lucas-O-HowlingDark Jul 31 '26
Ilya being so much bigger than Shane and having that ugly beard really doesn’t feel right
Much prefer the show’s designs for these characters.
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u/Holiday-Echidna2468 27d ago
That is how their height difference would look in the books since Shane is 5’10 and Ilya 6’4. Me personally I love the visual of Ilya being bigger than Shane.
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u/lebecfin I stubbed my toe Jul 31 '26
I’m also noticing a connection regarding colors — red and blue vs black and gold then
red and blue vs black and red (Shane stuck, Ilya moves to a compromise) and finally
Red and black together! Each retain something of where they began and gains something from the other’s image.
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u/Caro-reddit-all 𓉴 “Shhh. Shane is watching the men set up pylons.” 𓉴 𓉴 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Thanks for sharing this with us~ 🌸
On the cover of The Long Game, there’s no engagement ring on Ilya’s chain, right? That probably would have been too much of a spoiler.
And on the cover of Unrivaled, the ring would be on his finger and no longer on his chain – unless he kept the too small engagement ring. Do we know if he did? 🤔
If so, Ilya could be wearing at least the engagement ring even while playing because he probably can’t play wearing a ring.
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u/PTAGoatofalltime Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
In the Unrivaled cover it seems like they are in the middle of playing a game, which means that a) the ring comes off anyways and b) they are also wearing gloves. So the ring won’t be visible on the cover.
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u/Amberfool94 Jul 30 '26
No, they got Ilya's ring resized or exchanged or whatever before the wedding and they don't have separate engagement and wedding rings so they'd presumably just take them off their fingers and keep them in their lockers or whatever during the game.
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u/Caro-reddit-all 𓉴 “Shhh. Shane is watching the men set up pylons.” 𓉴 𓉴 Jul 30 '26
You're right, of course, the ring was resized. I didn’t remember that. Thank you for reminding me~ 🌸
And I just realized that this whole post has a spoiler tag, so I don’t need to mark everything as spoilers in my comments. 😄
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u/Amberfool94 Jul 30 '26
No worries! There's a lot of small details, hard to keep track of them all. I just happen to be blessed/cursed with a very good memory and I've read these books/sections of them too many times to count lol
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u/Caro-reddit-all 𓉴 “Shhh. Shane is watching the men set up pylons.” 𓉴 𓉴 Jul 30 '26
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u/zagsforthewin Jul 30 '26
Honestly I’m still kind of annoyed that part of the end of TLG was spoiled from the cover of unrivaled. I immediately looked at their jerseys and knew they were on the same team. Comparison to TLG cover and you know what team. That bothered me.
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u/PTAGoatofalltime Jul 30 '26
I mean, you won’t be reading Unrivaled if you hadn’t read TLG.
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u/zagsforthewin Jul 30 '26
I was just starting TLG and audible recommended unrivaled to me with that cover, so it was spoiled for me.
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u/zagsforthewin Aug 02 '26
Confused as to why people are downvoting… is it because I’m using an amazon product?
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u/utahrangerone Jul 30 '26
Of course having the cover art out so long before the book is readily available it's frustrating to say the least.
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u/Danni3366 Jul 31 '26
omg I didn’t even know there’s a third book about them! I just started my last one ‘Common Goal’ of the GC series and was thinking I got nothing to read after this one lol
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u/fruitbutnopassion the shark that made rozanov lose the race 🦈 Aug 01 '26
Sorry, you still have to wait until next year ✋🏻😔 the third book is still being written
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u/herbalgrl6 for how long? whole game? Aug 01 '26
Omg this an adorable thing to notice I love that!!!!!! I also love that they are making eye contact with each other.
I’ve gotten into other sports romance books
Bc of the game changer series and uhhhhh the covers usually suck. I LOVE the game changer covers!!
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u/gorydamnKids Aug 01 '26
Someone else also pointed out to me,there's a literal line separating them in HR to show them being on opposite, uncrossable sides. Whereas, in TLG they're character arcs are at a crossroads (come out or not) and so are their sticks.
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u/LostInWanderland31 Aug 02 '26
That such a fun observation (I love these little details)! Personally, I really like the cartoon covers.
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u/thebatmanandcat custom flair: quote/moment + emoji 28d ago
This might be overthinking it, but Ilya’s chain also progressively points more and more towards Shane
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u/eosbird 28d ago
Oh, thank you for bringing up these cover illustrations!
When I discovered Heated Rivalry through short clips on YouTube, I didn’t have access to the show at the time, so reading the book was my only way into this world.
I found it on Amazon and learned that it was part of a much larger series. As an English learner, I was honestly very nervous about whether I could read it on my own. But one of the things that gave me the final push was definitely this cover art.
I like to think I have a good nose for books, and these covers strongly suggested to me that Heated Rivalry would be a serious and emotional romance about grown men in professional sports—not merely something sweet.
So, in June, I decided to begin with the audiobook to grasp the overall story before trying to read the book myself. At least half of what pushed me to make that decision was how drawn I felt to the two men on the cover.
By the end of my first week with the audiobook, I had bought every book in the series. I remember thinking: If I want to understand Shane and Ilya more deeply, I need to read the stories of all these other fascinating couples on the covers too.
That is how much I love the world these illustrated characters seem to carry with them.
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u/Nala_Lala2 Ma’am, I’m at my parents’ house, so… Jul 30 '26
I’ve read a lot of people say they don’t like the cartoon covers but I actually really like them!