September 28, 2026

By Jen Ortiz

Photo: Tonje Thilesen

Fourteen million, give or take. That’s roughly how many words of Heated Rivalry fan fiction I’ve read so far this year. If a novel clocks in at an average of 70,000 words, then I’ve read the equivalent of 200. That’s like getting through Robert Caro’s entire Lyndon B. Johnson series, then rereading it a dozenish times, all before the Halloween candy has even gone on sale.

Except it’s not like that at all. Obviously. In Caro’s books, is there a version of Lyndon B. Johnson who has the ability to turn himself into a dog so he can cuddle his downtrodden neighbor as the two of them fall in love? Or a veteran porn star who, instead of getting All About Eve’d by a young cocky camboy, lives happily and hornily ever after with him? The other versions of Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov I’ve read fall for each other (and, often, fall into bed, in exquisite and extreme detail) include: as neighbors in an apartment building; as Love Island contestants; as a Bachelor producer and the Bachelor himself; as the guy working the late-night shift at a 7-Eleven and a rich Russian mob boss; as a bounty hunter and a guy with a price on his head in the Wild Wild West; as a yoga teacher and his student; as best-selling authors; as a restaurant’s head chef and pastry chef; as one guy looking for a roommate and another responding to his Facebook Marketplace listing; as college roommates, rival fraternity brothers, and professor and student. I haven’t yet read the one where Shane is a kitten and Ilya adopts him, but it’s on my TBR list.

Gossip, revelations, and timelines.

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