Rachel Reid, the author behind the hockey romance novel series that inspired HBO Max’s hit show Heated Rivalry, has pushed the release date for the next book back, due to her worsening symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.
Reid gave an update on her new book Tuesday in an Instagram video. Originally, Unrivaled — part of her larger “Game Changers” series which includes Heated Rivalry — was scheduled for a September 2026 release. Now, it won’t be out until June 1, 2027.
“My life has gotten very different in the last couple months, and although it's all good, it's also taken away my ability to have quality time to write,” the author, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2023, explained. “And there’s nothing more important to me than Unrivaled being the best book it can possibly be.”
“When good things happen, sometimes the universe hands you some worse stuff to balance it out. For me, that’s been that my Parkinson's symptoms have gotten a bit worse, and it's made it difficult physically to write, so I'm definitely a lot slower.”
She explained that she’s pushing the book’s publish date to have “a few more months for writing.”
“My publisher’s been gracious enough to give those to me,” she continued, before telling fans that if they already pre-ordered the book, it will be held for them.
Reid also reassured readers that Unrivaled will be worth the wait. “Ultimately, it’s going to be a much better book, and that’s the most important thing to me,” she explained. “I think it’ll be better for the readers, and it’ll be better for the characters.”
Based on the book series by Reid, Heated Rivalry follows rival players Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), two of the biggest stars in Major League Hockey. What begins as a secret fling grows into a years-long affair as they struggle to navigate their true feelings for each other.
In 2023, around the same time, director Jacob Tierney approached her about making an HBO series based on her book, Reid, 46, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. During an interview with Variety in December, she detailed some of her symptoms, saying she “can barely control a mouse.”
“I can’t type for very long. It’s hard for me to sit in a chair for very long. I need to figure out new ways to write. I don’t know if that will be voice to text,” Reid explained. “I don’t know if I can write that way. It doesn’t feel natural, but I need to figure out something because it is taking me a very long time to write now.”
However, she said something “amazing” happened to her when Tierney was doing press interviews for the series, which has been renewed for a second season.
“For whatever reason, the interviewer asked him about my Parkinson’s diagnosis. I thought it was kind of odd, but then the next day, one of the top Parkinson’s experts in the world reached out to me and asked if he could help me,” she explained of Tierney’s CNN interview. “I’ve never gotten to talk to a Parkinson’s expert. I’ve been on a five-year waiting list here because I live in a very small place. Now he’s found me a Parkinson’s expert, a neurologist.”
The Canadian show has become a phenomenon since its release in the US and Canada late last year. It landed in the U.K. on HBO in January and has continued to grow its audience by over 100 percent since the final episode aired in December.
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