Before Season 2, Meet Ryan and Fabian of Tough Guy
Heated Rivalry's new couple are the leads of their own 2020 novel. Where Tough Guy sits in Rachel Reid's hockey series, what the book sets up, and what to read before spring 2027.
An enforcer with anxiety is traded to Toronto. He moves into the city's LGBTQ Village for a fresh start, and in his new neighborhood he runs into the musician he almost kissed in high school. That is the whole setup of Tough Guy, and it was the first book I reached for after Heated Rivalry cast Daniel Diemer and Shaheen Jafargholi as Ryan Price and Fabian Salah.
The short answer, then. Ryan and Fabian were not invented for television. They are the leads of the third novel in Rachel Reid's hockey romance series, a separate couple from Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov.
The setup, spoiler-free
Reid's own blurb carries the premise. Ryan is a pro enforcer who struggles with anxiety off the ice, newly traded to the Toronto Guardians. Fabian, the blurb says bluntly, "loathes hockey." He has not forgotten the almost-kiss, and he happily becomes Ryan's guide to the city's gay scene, from dance clubs to art exhibits.
Then comes the word on that page I like best. Ryan, it says, starts to feel something he has not experienced in a long time: joy. There is weight under it. Years of playing the heavy have worn on his body and mind, and a future with Fabian may mean retiring. That is as far as this goes. The ending belongs to the book.
Where Tough Guy sits in the series
| Year | Book | Couple |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Series opener (1) | Scott Hunter and Kip Grady |
| 2019 | Heated Rivalry (2) | Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov |
| 2020 | Tough Guy (3) | Ryan Price and Fabian Salah |
| 2020 | Common Goal (4) | Eric Bennett and Kyle Swift |
| 2021 | Role Model (5) | Troy Barrett and Harris Drover |
| 2022 | The Long Game (6) | Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov |
| 2027 | Unrivaled (7) | Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov |
Each book gives a new couple the lead while earlier characters drift through the background. That is how a pair from book three can land in a TV season built mostly on book six. It also means the romance you meet in season 2 already has a full novel behind it, with its own beginning, middle and end. Few supporting couples on television arrive with that much homework done.
Two small details about the author made me smile. Reid, born in Halifax and living in Bedford, Nova Scotia, played hockey as a teenager. And she picked her pen name, according to her Wikipedia entry, because it was easier to say, spell and remember than Rachelle Goguen. Her wider audience came partly through a 2020 social media recommendation from fellow romance author Cat Sebastian, the same year Tough Guy came out. One writer's kind word, a few years later, a television cast.
How the show meets them
Season 2 adapts The Long Game, and PinkNews reports it also draws on Role Model and Tough Guy. Entertainment Weekly's casting report describes Ryan as a retired enforcer and Fabian as his boyfriend, a popular indie artist in Toronto's music scene.
Notice the tense. Retired. Boyfriend. The series appears to meet them after their happy ending rather than restaging the chase, and I think that is the braver choice. Romance adaptations spend nearly all their time on getting together. Here viewers may see what together actually looks like.
Jafargholi seems to read it the same way. He told TV Insider's Swooon that Ryan and Fabian are "super integral characters to the story and Shane and Ilya's story." How much Tough Guy backstory reaches the screen, through flashbacks or passing lines, has not been announced as of September 26, 2026.
A reading order for spring 2027
If you only want Ryan and Fabian, Tough Guy is where their whole romance lives. To arrive fully briefed, read Tough Guy, then Role Model, then The Long Game, the three books PinkNews names. With a spring 2027 premiere window, there is time for all three. Reid's author page for The Long Game sums up its stakes in one line of promotional copy, "hockey or love," and that choice is where the season begins.
For the actor now playing Fabian, our main piece on Shaheen Jafargholi starts with a talent-show audition and a second song. It is a fitting match. The book's hockey-hating musician is going to a man who plainly loves this story.
Sources
Every factual claim above traces to one of these. Links open in a new tab.
