The show, created by Canadian streamer Crave, has naturally boosted book sales. Heated Rivalry, first published in 2019, and several of Reid’s other novels hit the New York Times bestseller list in early December.
Reid announced a new Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, or “Hollanov”, novel last week, Unrivaled. Meanwhile, the rest of her titles will line UK bookshelves for the first time from 20 January. They have previously only been available as e-books in the territory, and recently entered Amazon’s best-seller chart.
The UK’s biggest bookselling chain, Waterstones, said daily pre-orders for the series in print had increased “by about 700% week on week” since the new year – the bulk for Heated Rivalry – while publisher HarperCollins said it had to print several more batches of the books than originally planned to meet demand.
For Reid, her hope is that the books inspire more positive LGBT love stories.
“There just haven’t been many shows that have had a happy ending, and queer joy.”
“Maybe we don’t have to kill one of them before the end,” she jokes. “It would be a nice change.”