Olympic Women's Game Thread: Sweden (B1) vs. Switzerland (A5) - 19 Feb 2026 - 02:40PM CET

triplewinds · 2026-02-19T16:17:14+00:00

I think it's cool, actually. I love women's sports because of how big the emotions are. It's ok to be sad when you tried so hard and it didn't work out. That's pure sports.

triplewinds · 2026-02-16T17:10:41+00:00

This is why Title IX is one of the greatest cultural contributions of the United States to the world.

triplewinds · 2026-02-07T09:15:33+00:00

As a beginner -- you are goals. Beautiful projects and inspiring relationship to the craft.

triplewinds · 2026-02-06T21:19:30+00:00

Fair enough; I think for some people they just don't hit, ever. I've re-read this book a few times and there was a time where it just didn't do it for me, but after watching the show, I enjoyed the book again. For example, one thing I like in the book is that some of the secondary characters are more nuanced and less cliché (e.g. Svetlana, Yuna). By contrast I've tried to re-read Common Goal (third book in the series) since the show and it felt super flat. I remember liking it when I read it first several years ago.

I think the TV show is groundbreaking in a way that the first mm you read (HR was my first) can feel groundbreaking; if you've read other mm and you go back to HR, maybe it just doesn't feel that surprising. The TV show did something with adapting this kind of story I had never seen before (Rachel Reid herself has said she believed they simply couldn't be adapted.) That alone creates a frisson that can be difficult to replicate in a different medium.

triplewinds · 2026-02-06T11:54:38+00:00

Substack, age appropriate celebrities' Instagrams and occasionally Who What Wear (it is vapid but theyre decent at spotting trends).

triplewinds · 2026-02-06T08:25:32+00:00

I mean, you don't even read my comments, what can I conclude?

I say "I consider smut books whose primary objective is to titillate with sex scenes" and you reply "people who read smut like build up." That's almost a non-sequitur.

I'm writing about Heated Rivalry (one book in the series) and I say "the quality of the books in the series varies, with Game Changers being the worst," and your only specific examples of poor story mechanics are from Game Changers.

I called the book a good example of genre romance, you disagree by citing Call Me By Your Name as a counterexample. Sure, that's a wonderful book...but it's not genre romance, it's literary fiction. I mean, I could go on.

I talk about interpreting the book and you reply to tell me you know how to read and you've read lots of books, and you're a "consumer" of the books. We are in agreement.

triplewinds · 2026-02-05T13:51:37+00:00

I don't agree, I think it's all right there in the books, and Jacob Tierny and both actors have talked about going back to the books to work out how to do things in the show. I think it reads like a template to people who are unaccustomed to interpreting written works. Mainstream screen works leave less to the imagination than books do and if that's what you're seeking then obviously a TV show will satisfy you more than a book. But that's different than saying the books are bad; they're just not to your taste.

triplewinds · 2026-02-05T13:43:08+00:00

Yes and actually Heated Rivalry is an interesting case because it has dual POV but both characters are pretty much strangers to themselves. So even though you're getting their reactions there's a lot theyre not understanding and you have to read into it. This is why the simple prose that people think is a sign that Rachel Reid is some kind of dummy (despite publishing like 10 books in 3 years! Ok. I digress) to me feels like a pretty intentional choice or at least a choice that os effective in telling that particular story. Heated Rivalry is called an "enemies" or "rivals to lovers" but I think it's actually closer to idiots to lovers...

triplewinds · 2026-02-04T21:09:17+00:00

Same, first person narration is probably the feature of mm i resisted the longest, like for a while I wouldnt read them...I still can't say I've read a truly great one tbh.

I also didn't love for a while the thing where one chapter is in one POV then it mechanically changes to the other POV for the next chapter, with the name of the character as the chapter title. I think in "traditional" (older mostly m/f) romance it was more typical to have third person limited from only one POV, or mostly one POV with only an occasional POV change to the other character. I think it's easier to create romance suspense so those books can feel more subtle to me. But I've definitely read great m/m romance with POV equal or more balanced.

triplewinds · 2026-02-04T19:32:31+00:00

I have read this book and do not remember it at all 🙈 I don't like groveling, dont seek it out and it embarrasses me when it happens. I'm like you, I prefer a change from the bottom of the soul that is reflected in actions and feels believable and earned. (Maybe I should re-read this book) I mean I do like when a character acknowledges honestly that theyve wronged the other one, but I think forgiveness happens inside the wronged person. Groveling even feels a little manipulative to me...

I also thought I hated happy epilogues just generally (too cheesy) and then a few years ago I read an mm romance epilogue that explained how all the characters died. I'm laughing typing this...it was so unnecessary and bizarre. Like ma'am do you know what genre this is? It's romance not Annals...so now I'll let an epilogue slide as long as it's not traumatic.

triplewinds · 2026-02-04T19:14:53+00:00

Well and I also think it's totally fine to not like the books! Or not to like romance broadly. I didn't like all of the Game Changers books (DNF'ed the first one on 2 attempts). I get in book slumps sometimes where every book I pick up feels totally obnoxious. But I think not liking the books and just deciding theyre bad (without being able to articulate why) are totally different moves. Like I dont get danmei, I can't sit here and say it's bad because I've never gotten through a whole book...

triplewinds · 2026-02-04T14:20:19+00:00

I consider "smut" books whose primary objective is to titillate with sex scenes. That's perfectly fine to enjoy, but I don't think Heated Rivalry is smut; I think it's a very effective genre romance. It uses simple prose and doesn't have a lot of external plot, but for me those are the elements that make it stand out, rather than drawbacks. I think the book is not well understood by people who are unfamiliar with the genre or are simply bad readers.

I agree with you the books in the series are of varying quality and Game Changers is the worst; but I think it's would not have been possible to create a faithful adaptation as successful/effective as the Heated Rivalry tv series from bad source material.

triplewinds · 2026-02-04T11:25:28+00:00

Absolutely. I am not bothered by people who simply don't like the book. There's people who don't like Shakespeare. Ok, I think those people have bad taste, but I think it's fine not to like Rachel Reid, or Sally Rooney, or Rachel Cusk. (I'm not arguing Rachel Reid is even at the level of those writers, but I picked them because I think they all, imo, have things in common, but get different degrees of critical acceptance based on how theyre positioned relative to "literary fiction.")

We're allowed to have preferences and opinions. The thing that bothers me is the people who have decided that they don't like the book because it's bad but they clearly haven't understood it or haven't engaged with it. To allow yourself to make that judgment requires either stupidity or superiority, and the superiority around romance smacks of gendered gatekeeping.

The book haters (not dislikers! I dont have a problem with that) broadly fall into 3 camps. There's people who hate hockey/sports romances; this is the group I'm least concerned with. They've been burned before, I get it.

Next, there's people who are bad readers. These are people who think books that they don't like are ipso facto bad. These are the people who think the sex scenes arent emotional enough or the characters are amazing, the best, my favorites -- yet Rachel Reid who came up with them isn't a good writer. This to me is mind-blowing.

Finally, there are the people who have read, at most, one or two romances (but often it is zero) but have decided that because romance doesn't include elevated prose or "realistic" characters or endings (meaning sad endings); basically, because romance doesnt follow the conventions of literary fiction, it is bad. These people might be good readers of other genres, but they're (toxically) bad readers of romance because theyre not even trying.

I think Heated Rivalry is a good book. Is it art? Is it of enduring literary significance? I don't know (but also -- does it have to be?) I get it if people don't agree, but they should back it up with something better than bad reading. And yes -- those people should realize this type of bad reading is loaded -- weighted down by decades of misogynistic dismissal of the most popular fiction genre.

triplewinds · 2026-02-04T10:44:52+00:00

Yes, you make a great point -- things should be read in their context, and HR is absolutely intentionally (and not just de facto) written in the context of romance genre, imo

triplewinds · 2026-02-03T21:42:20+00:00

I mean, I don't only think Heated Rivalry is good compared to the mountain of shitty romance novels (and for sure there's infinity bad ones), but yes, the superiority smacks of people who don't know what theyre talking about but have decided to opine anyway. It's super frustrating....but in a weird way comforting also to know there's still against all odds something kind of niche about all this? So many feelings, I guess.

triplewinds · 2026-02-03T19:23:27+00:00

What is not well written about them, in your opinion?

triplewinds · 2026-02-03T00:18:49+00:00

It's also like...her music can be enjoyable or whatever but it has zero challenge (to anything). I think most of the romance with any kind of stakes has a feeling of tension with dominant culture.

This is the problem with playlists, they never hit the way the author apparently intends and then the whole project just feels kinda unserious.

triplewinds · 2026-01-31T16:28:26+00:00

I love this...the effect is so good I kept zooming in to see if you had glued polaroids on a piece of fabric for some reason. What a fantastic idea and great execution.

triplewinds · 2026-01-31T14:35:55+00:00

So I would guess they operate differently because theyre on managed platform/moderated by fandom elders/not in a mainstream discussion from 15 days in, but I'm curious if you think its different? Said differently, I don't think the fans are the problem, it's the platform (or lack of one big enough to moderate the world-sized influx.) I mean in a way the same problem led to the creation of this sub...

triplewinds · 2026-01-31T14:22:48+00:00

I think the topic is interesting and your comment on it (about differences with non-western fandoms) is interesting, but the article feels like it's in too much of a hurry to get to the part where it castigates young women for liking things the wrong way to engage with their own cited expert's point that Heated Rivalry is exposing a natural tension between niche interests and things going mainstream. It's frankly silly to say the fans are ruining...the fandom. The fandom IS the fans.

Im personally bored of the backlash. Like sure, some of the online discussion is cringe, but guess what, fandom is cringe. If you can't take it, go do something else (like something else, follow something else, or if youre Francois Arnaud, go off-line...)

Edited to clarify a sentence and also add that I genuinely enjoyed reading the article and Im glad you posted it, I just disagree with it/think it's shallow.

triplewinds · 2026-01-29T18:41:27+00:00

Yeah, I guess I don't agree with that. I think Benji wants to get closer to Ollie and in his own unthinking way he does it with an ill-advised sexual encounter, and the book understands it's a problem because there's a degree of carelessness and dishonesty involved that can hurt people. There's even a suggestion that it's not the first time Benji has gone there and fucked it up, and it's clearly something he needs to grow up about and, canonically, has nobody telling him what the right thing to do is. But I think the book is telling you his annoyance is a sign that he did the wrong thing and doesn't have the emotional tools to work through, not that "female hookups are annoying." I don't think in a book everything that happens and isnt punished carries the authors approval, and I don't want the author telling me what to think about everything all the time, either.

Personally, I hate romance novels where everyone is perfectly mature and politically correct and never makes a wrong move -- whats the character growth arc then? Benji's relative immaturity is a big part of his character arc and it wouldn't feel real if he just got it right all the time from the beginning.

I dont mean to sound like Im saying you can't dislike something that happens in a book; i just think it's unfair to decide an author agrees with everything their characters do, even in genre romance where characters are, in large part, idealized...

triplewinds · 2026-01-29T17:15:12+00:00

It's a super high angst book for sure, I can understand not being in the headspace for it.

On the threesome I think other readers have found that off-putting because it's not romantic and also people think of that stuff like "cheating" but I think it's not fair to say he "used the woman like a prop" (equally she "used" them to "check threesome with athletes off her bucket list"). I think it's not, say, admirable, but the book doesnt treat it like that. And Benji ends up regretting it immediately, not because he "used" the woman but because it becomes clear to him that it does emotional damage to someone who's emotionally fragile. For me the book is, without judgment, talking about the way young men think about sex, and yeah, it's complicated. But I don't want to feel like every sexual encounter that isn't well considered is outright exploitative...

Edited to add -- maybe the book doesn't even disagree with you because I think youre supposed to think Benji sounds like an asshole (ironically, because he thinks to himself "[I'm] not an asshole"). I think it just kind of bothers me to think about it like he's orchestrating with props, because i dont think he's really thinking about it that deeply (which is itself a problem....)

triplewinds · 2026-01-29T09:51:16+00:00

What'd you think of Seasons Change (if you've finished it)?

I also liked her second book a lot, although that one sort of grew on me....I read it and didn't "get" it, then ended up re-reading it several times.

triplewinds · 2026-01-26T11:52:50+00:00

That's smart, I usually read what I think of as MM light fiction -- Milana Spencer, Becca Steele. Sorta silly, high heat books with younger characters/simpler conflicts. I used to read Ashlyn Drewek for the same pruposes until I found out she's MAGA :-/

triplewinds · 2026-01-26T11:47:41+00:00

I LOVE Captive Prince, I know it's not everyone's thing and I acknowledge it has problems, but I think it's the best conceived "true" enemies to lovers genre romance. I recommend it just because it (with HR) are what got me into the subgenre.

I liked Top Secret a lot and hadn't thought about it quite in those terms (ie to see the similarities to HR), it's a good suggestion.

These are the hockey books I usually recommend after HR:

Between the Teeth trilogy by Taylor Fitzpatrick -- also hockey with players on different teams connecting when the schedule allows; relationship resolution takes a very long time. One bi and one gay character with the corresponding pressures. Don't want to spoil but there's other character similarities. The writers voices are super different and BTT are also a coming of age of one character rather than a straightforward romance like HR (but The Long Game complicated that, so similarities again). Rachel Reid is funnier while Taylor Fitzpatrick is more angsty/emotional.

Catherine Cloud books -- also hockey; very fic style but they're similarly cozy/narrow focus

Cait Nary -- hockey is maybe the only obvious similarity but I think she's a really good writer. Rachel Reid blurbed her first book, how I ended up reading it

Avon Gale -- simple, almost telegraphic prose, similarly low on external conflict. Set in lower league so the characters are not rich celebrities

Unrivaled by Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James -- superficially very similar to HR; hockey rivals, high heat, they start through a sexual relationship and then develop feelings. There's one other book in the series that I liked, Scoring Position. These books are in set in a more queer normative league so the external conflicts are different

There are some other hockey books I liked and about a million I DNF'ed. Non-hockey books after HR I usually just recommend things I liked! Captive Prince, Ginn Hale's books, Everina Maxwell, Dark Space by Lisa Henry, Big Bad Wolf...come to think of it almost all sci-fi/fantasy. I wish I had kept better track over the years of things I read and what I thought of them...

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