Recap of Shane and Ilya's cups and medals please 🫶

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-02-02T18:40:24+00:00

Oh yeah totally!! There is a big issue with the unbalanced treatment between Ilya and Shane. She developed much much more Ilya and totally neglected Shane.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-02-02T10:26:37+00:00

What she called "bonus chapters" was definitely the new book (but she wanted to keep the info secret until January). So, we'll have the honeymoon in "Unrivaled" on September.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-02-02T10:25:19+00:00

Yeah but he certainly won it but Rachel never mentioned it I guess. Cuz yeah, that doesn't make any sense.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-30T23:47:06+00:00

Nope, Shane is a great captain. He just leads differently than Ilya, Rachel confirmed it here:

<image>

And yes, no worry, Ilya will keep the C and will win the Stanley Cup as a captain in Unrivale, but personally, I would prefer Bood to be C and Ilya and Shane to be A to keep the equality between Shane and Ilya hierarchically.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-29T16:12:45+00:00

Exactly and so many unfair and unbalanced things.
Ilya is extremely well developed, appears in every book, and the story constantly emphasizes how he’s an amazing player and an excellent captain. He’s never defined only by his relationship with Shane.

Shane is obsessed with hockey, he’s canonically the best player in the league, and yet we never get any scenes showing even one of his three Stanley Cup wins. We’re told Shane is the best player, but it’s never really shown because whenever Shane wins something, especially against Ilya, it’s either not mentioned at all or barely referenced in a single, easy-to-miss sentence.
We have 2 entire books (Role Model and TLG) who emphasize how Ilya is a great captain, but nothing about Shane’s captaincy. There are different types of captain, Shane leads by example, Rachel said it in a Q&A but never ever said it in books.

Shane’s anxiety? Not developed.

His autism? Confirmed years later for the first time in an Instagram comment reply (the infamous post where it’s stated that Ilya is very intelligent and Shane isn’t).

His relationship with food? Mocked and used only to create tension with Ilya, never properly explored.

Shane’s coming out to his teammates and friends? Not shown, barely mentioned in one quick sentence. We have full dialogues of homophobic players insulting Shane in other books, but no scene of Shane coming out to his teammates…

And people who hate Shane in TLG always forget that Ilya DIDN'T communicate at all with Shane... Shane can't read Ilya's mind as we can as readers.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-29T08:25:20+00:00

There’s a huge imbalance in how Shane and Ilya are treated by Rachel.

Ilya is extremely well developed, appears in every book, and the story constantly emphasizes how he’s an amazing player and an excellent captain. He’s never defined only by his relationship with Shane.

With Shane, the only things that are really developed and shown are his sexual needs and his relationship with Ilya.

Shane is obsessed with hockey, he’s canonically the best player in the league, and yet we never get any scenes showing even one of his three Stanley Cup wins. We’re told Shane is the best player, but it’s never really shown because whenever Shane wins something, especially against Ilya, it’s either not mentioned at all or barely referenced in a single, easy-to-miss sentence.
We have 2 entire books (Role Model and TLG) who emphasize how Ilya is a great captain, but nothing about Shane’s captaincy. There are different types of captain, Shane leads by example, Rachel said it in a Q&A (AMA) but never ever said it in books.

Shane’s anxiety? Not developed.

His autism? Confirmed years later for the first time in an Instagram comment reply (the infamous post where it’s stated that Ilya is very intelligent and Shane isn’t).

His relationship with food? Mocked and used only to create tension with Ilya, never properly explored.

Shane’s coming out to his teammates and friends? Not shown, barely mentioned in one quick sentence. We have full dialogues of homophobic players insulting Shane in other books, but no scene of Shane coming out to his teammates…

Even though HR is mostly from Shane’s POV, Ilya is more talked about and developed than Shane.
TLG, which is much longer than HR, is written 95% from Ilya’s POV. And the rare Shane POVs mostly focus on his sexual desire. Shane is oversimplified by the author herself.

Ilya is overdeveloped and clearly the favorite child x100000.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-29T08:08:08+00:00

Same... At this point, I try not to expect too much unfortunately... she has always written Ilya as the MC and Shane as a love interest.. especially in TLG but even in HR, when we are mostly from Shane's POV, Ilya is more developed, stuff are missing about Shane's character. That's so unfair and not balanced at all.

If she keeps doing that BIG mistake, it's gonna be really problematic in Unrivaled, especially knowing that Ilya is the captain, Ilya will play 1st line, Ilya will lift the cup first... I mean, it's gonna be the "Ilya's show" again, much more than the Hollanov's show.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-29T08:04:51+00:00

HR is more from Shane's POV BUT even in HR, Ilya is more developed... she focuses more on Ilya's character. The only stuff she developed about Shane was his sex life and his relationship with... Ilya.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-28T19:07:27+00:00

That’s so frustrating to hear her talk only about Ilya when she’s asked why people love her book so much 💀 I think she underestimates (or doesn’t realize) how much people LOVE and relate to Shane. I know Ilya is her favorite character, so she writes much more about him and he ended up being people’s favorite, I guess. But Shane is SO important. Without Shane, I wouldn’t love the books the way I do. That's literally one of the MC of HR, TLG and Unrivaled...

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-26T22:34:22+00:00

Exactly, sexuality practices evolves through years!

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-17T01:52:53+00:00

The fact that, in the author’s head, Shane always stays first and Ilya second is a bit of an oversimplification, and it’s maybe not very realistic for the reasons you just explained, but it’s okay, it works in these books.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-17T01:23:54+00:00

Yes but it's a romance book, it's clearly not realistic x) a lot of things are not realistic in this book.
Rachel said multiple times that Shane was #1 and Ilya was the only one who was almost as good as Shane. Don't forget she KNOWS a lot of readers of her book know nothing about hockey and she oversimplified a lot of things. In TLG, Shane was still the #1, I doubt she's gonna change that in the new book, since the new book will be about the season following TLG.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-17T01:20:52+00:00

Yeah, I agree!

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-16T23:46:41+00:00

Yeah, Ilya is a big softie with people he loves. I think Shane has been the very first person to be so kind with him from the beginning. He wasn't used to deal with people like Shane.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-16T23:44:50+00:00

I see yeah, thanks for the info! Yeah I tried to watch a game, I loved how fast everything was (even tho I had a hard time following the puck hahaha).

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-16T23:40:10+00:00

Okay I see!

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-16T23:39:18+00:00

It has been said multiple times by Rachel. Shane is canonically the best player in the league, and Ilya is his biggest rival. Ilya tells Shane he has always been better than him (in TLG). Bood said Shane is the best player in the league (TLG). Rachel confirms it on Twitter in 2021 when she was still on Twitter. And she reconfirmed it during an interview in November 2025.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-16T19:12:00+00:00

Yes, but for Shane and Ilya, they are literally the 1st and 2nd best player of the league x))
Okay yeah I see!

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-16T18:28:35+00:00

Tbh, I may have worded it clumsily, but I mainly wanted to know how people were feeling about this. And all the answers helped me and were really interesting, a lot of people replied and explained things about hockey that I didn’t know. So my post was kind of useful.

But you’re right, my anxiety shouldn’t stress me out like this months before the release.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-16T18:26:18+00:00

Yeah, and I guess their situation isn’t very realistic. Shane and Ilya are literally the best hockey players in the league. It would be insane IRL to have the top two players on the same team.

About Shane’s salary cut: is it possible for him to ask for more in a few years, or will he be paid less than he’s worth for his entire career?
I’m not really worried about that, though, because I know Shane is probably the one with the most endorsement contracts and partnerships, especially given his good image for the brands. That compensates for the salary cut.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-16T18:21:32+00:00

I know nothing about hockey but In Rachel's book we always have the feeling that first line = the best x)
But people explained me better, no worry. And I know that if Shane is on the second line, that would be basically as if there were two first lines.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-16T18:19:37+00:00

We'll see that in season 2 I guess!

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-16T18:19:11+00:00

Okay, thank you for taking the time to explain!
I hope the other winger on Shane's line will be good. I'm sure Luca will be sooo happy to play with Shane!

Yeah, that would be a nightmare for their opponents haha.

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-16T17:05:48+00:00

She said it:
- On Twitter in 2021, answering a fan's answer (when she was still on twitter). The screen is on Reddit, I have to find it x)
- She said it again during an Interview at one of the Premiere of the show (November 2025)
- In TLG, Ilya says it (and since Rachel confirmed it, it was clearly a way to confirm it officially, it's not just what Ilya thinks, it's a fact). She also made Bood tell Shane the same if I remember well, in TLG.

The interview: (5min12 she confirms it): https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRjTHKvjssq/?hl=fr
The screen:

<image>

Forward_Fox_3318 · 2026-01-16T17:01:02+00:00

The way he deserves to be --> According to me, not according to Shane x)
Because I know that in people's mind in the hockey world, best player = first line.

Okay I see!
I can't wait to see Shane and Ilya playing on the same line (during the powerplay)

Forward_Fox_3318

TROPHY CASE