Book spice levels explained: what the peppers actually mean

If you have spent five minutes on BookTok, you have seen the chilli peppers. Two peppers, four peppers, “this one is a five, bring a fan.” Useful, right up until you notice nobody agrees on what a three is. This is my attempt to pin it down, and to explain the scale I use on this site.

What does “spicy” mean in books?

Spice means sexual content. How much there is, how often it happens, how much detail you get and how far it goes. A spicy book has sex on the page. A very spicy book has a lot of it, in detail, and some of it might be kinky. A book with no spice either has no sex or closes the door before it starts.

That is all spice measures. Nothing else. Nothing else. It does not measure how dark the book is, how violent it is, or whether the relationship is healthy. That is a separate score, and confusing the two is the most common way readers end up with the wrong book. I wrote a whole essay about it, Dark is not a spice level.

The book spice level scale, 1 to 5

Different sites use different scales, and some reviewers just go on feel. Here is the one I use on every book page on this shelf, with the names we give each step. The full method is on how we rate.

Spice 1: Embers

Closed door, or close to it. Kissing, tension, maybe a fade to black. If there is sex, it happens off the page. Plenty of dark books live here, which surprises people. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is a good example: a cruel love interest, a lot of danger, and almost no heat. Browse the full list at spice 1.

Spice 2: Warm

The door opens a crack. There might be one or two scenes, kept short and fairly soft. You know what happened, but the camera does not linger. Paper Princess sits around here. See spice 2.

Spice 3: Hot

Open door. Sex is on the page and described, but it is not the main event, and there is not a scene every chapter. A lot of romantasy lives at a 3: A Court of Thorns and Roses and Fourth Wing are the famous ones. See spice 3.

Spice 4: Explicit

Detailed, frequent, and a real part of the book’s appeal. This is where most of dark romance sits. Twisted Love, Lights Out and Butcher & Blackbird are all 4s on this shelf. See spice 4.

Spice 5: Scorching

Very explicit, very frequent, and often kinky. The sex might be a big share of the page count. Haunting Adeline, Neon Gods and Den of Vipers are 5s here. See spice 5, or the curated spiciest dark romance list.

Why reviewers disagree about spice

You will see the same book called a three by one reviewer and a five by another. A few reasons:

• Some count frequency, some count detail. One long, explicit scene in a long book might be a three to one reader and a four to another.
• Kink pushes ratings up. A book with less sex but more kink often gets rated hotter.
• Darkness leaks in. When a scene is dark or non-consensual, some reviewers rate the “spice” higher because it felt intense. That is really a darkness score wearing a pepper costume.
• Different starting points. A reader who mostly reads closed-door romance and a reader who mostly reads erotica will not agree on what “a lot” means.

My fix is to score spice only on what is on the page, and score darkness on its own scale. If a scene is explicit and dark, it gets a high spice score and a high darkness score, not a blended number.

Spice is not consent, and it is not darkness

This is the part that matters most for dark romance. A high spice score tells you there is a lot of sex. It does not tell you whether that sex is consensual. Dubious consent and non-consent are warnings, and they live on each book’s warnings page, not in the pepper count.

So if dubcon or noncon is something you need to avoid, do not rely on spice ratings at all. Use the dark romance without non-con list, or check the dubcon and noncon warning tags before you buy. I go through how to read warnings properly in dark romance trigger warnings, explained.

How to choose your spice level

What I have learned from years of handing people books:

1. Start one step below what you think you want. A four that you enjoy is better than a five that makes you skim.
2. Decide whether you are skipping scenes. If you find yourself skipping the sex in a book, go down a level. If you find yourself skipping the plot, go up.
3. Pick spice and darkness separately. Want dark but not explicit? Low spice dark romance. Want explicit but not very dark? Look for a 4 or 5 on spice and a 2 or 3 on darkness.
4. Use the “books like” pages. Every book has one, like books like Twisted Love, and they match on spice as well as tropes.

The darkness scale, briefly

Since I keep mentioning it: darkness on this shelf also runs 1 to 5. Moody, Grey, Dark, Pitch and No light. A 1 is a moody romance with some edges. A 5 is a book that will not let you feel safe for long, with warnings to match. You can browse darkness 5 if you want to see the deep end, though I would read the warnings first.

The two scores together tell you far more than either alone. Captive in the Dark is a 4 for spice and a 5 for darkness. Twisted Love is a 4 and a 3. Same heat, very different nights.

Spice levels FAQ, in one breath

I get the same questions every week, so, fast: chilli ratings on TikTok are not standard; a “fade to black” is a 1; romantasy is usually a 3 but not always; dark romance is usually a 4 but not always; and no, you do not have to read the spicy books to be a “real” dark romance reader. Some of the darkest books on the shelf are a 1.

Where my own book sits

My serial, Zade Masked, scores a 4 on spice and a 4 on darkness on this shelf. I score it the way I score everyone else's, no thumb on the scale, and the warnings are printed before the first part. The free parts on this site are the gentle end, and the heat goes up later.

If you are new to all of this, start with what is dark romance or dark romance for beginners. If you already know your number, the spice level pages are the quickest way to find your next book.

Book spice levels explained FAQ

What does spicy mean in books?

Sexual content: how much there is, how often and in how much detail. It does not measure darkness, violence or consent.

What is a 3 on a spice scale?

Open door. Sex is on the page and described, but it is not the main event. A lot of romantasy, like A Court of Thorns and Roses, sits at a 3.

What is the spiciest level?

On our scale, 5, Scorching: very explicit, very frequent and often kinky. Haunting Adeline and Neon Gods are 5s on this shelf.

Can a dark romance have low spice?

Yes. Some of the darkest books have almost nothing on the page. The low spice dark romance list collects them.