A court has banned online publication of a book about the love between a Russian and a Canadian ice hockey player.

The Cheryomushki District Court in Moscow has banned the distribution in Russia of web pages featuring the novel “Heated Rivalry” by American author Rachel Reid. The court’s decision was found by Verstka.

The ban concerns three pages on pirate sites BookPlaneta, Siteknig, and Libsafe, where the text of the book had been published. On the first two sites, it now states that the novel was blocked at the copyright holder’s request, while the page on Libsafe appears to have been deleted.

The demand to ban the book pages came from the prosecutor’s office. The department claimed it had found “literature containing propaganda of the extremist ‘LGBT ideology’” on these pages. The court’s decision does not specify what exactly this “propaganda” refers to.

The court also noted that the pages contained “images promoting non-traditional sexual relationships.” According to Verstka, the only image present was the book cover, which shows two ice hockey players before a faceoff.

“Heated Rivalry” tells the story of a romantic relationship between two ice hockey players—Russian Ilya Rozanov and Canadian Shane Hollander. There has been no official announcement about a ban on the novel itself in Russia. In 2025, the Canadian streaming service Crave released a TV series of the same name based on the book; it was created by director and screenwriter Jacob Tierney. In January 2026, the series made it into the top three most popular shows among Russian pirates. The series has also not been officially banned, and its pirated version can be found on VK.