Have you ever looked at a review for a book that included star (⭐️) or spice (🌶 ) ratings, and you just weren’t sure what it actually translated to? Unfortunately, ratings and spice scales are not standardized; just scroll through BookTok or BookStagram to see the wide variety one book receives.
It can be especially frustrating when the spicy (🌶) level varies so much – even from a favorite reader or creator. Often you’ll see that their spice scale has drastically changed over time, simply because they likely started by reading smut books and have then graduated to a darker romance (or other sub-genres).
While we’re not perfect, and there are some categories of books we won’t read (addressed below), we thought it would be helpful to provide a full breakdown of the ratings and health scores we use at Show & Tell Book Nook so you’ll always know exactly what we mean.
The Contemporary Romance Spice Scale
The Contemporary Romance Spice Scale (or steam meter) is a little more complicated; we felt like the clearest approach would be a 0-10 rating scale to help give readers the best understanding of what is within the pages of a book, especially now that you can’t always tell based on the cover or book synopsis.
To be completely transparent, this scale is constantly evolving and changing as we read new books and tweak descriptions. It’s also, unfortunately, not perfect and is subject to our interpretations. But it is a start, and will hopefully be beneficial to you too.
0. A traditionally “clean” book with no descriptions of intimate acts, no cursing, and no sexual references. Within a movie rating system, this would be seen as a “G” rating.
Think along the lines of Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson or any book by Sarah M Eden.
1. Books that are considered to be more of a “fade to black” or “closed door” romance with some references to intimate acts but no descriptions, innuendo, or some major instances of language. Within a movie rating system, this would be seen as a “PG” rating.
Refer to The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams or Roommaid by Sariah Wilson.
2. Slightly more obvious in spice or sexual nature, with more descriptive scenes but without overt descriptions of sexual acts. Within a movie rating system, this would be seen as a (barely) “PG-13” rating.
Think of People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry or When in Rome by Sarah Adams
3. Moving up on the scale, these books have more explicit descriptions of kissing with minor descriptions of sexual acts. Basically, books that are slightly more within the new adult category.
Think of The Soulmate Equation by Christiana Lauren or Every Summer After by Carley Fortune.
4. Books with more overt sexual innuendos, spice, and descriptive scenes. This would include all books within the new adult and intro to smut categories.
For reference, read Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan or Book Lovers by Emily Henry.
5. Non-excessive, slightly explicit descriptions of sex scenes that serve a purpose within the plot and are a natural progression of the intimacy within the relationship.
Think of The Simple Wild by KA Tucker or The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood.
6. Books with excessive and explicitly descriptive sex scenes. This would likely be a “R” rating within a movie rating system.
Refer to It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey or A Not So Meet Cute by Meghan Quinn.
7. Books with large amounts of extremely explicit descriptions of sex that don’t further the plot or contribute positively (read in a healthy manner) to the personal relationship of the couple. This would be easily a rated “R” or “X” movie within the movie rating system.
Think of Verity by Colleen Hoover or A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas.
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8, 9, and 10. We personally don’t typically read books that would be placed this far on our scale. These books usually fall into the dark romance or “why choose” subcategory and are usually extremely explicit and descriptive with sexual content. Some books within this category would include To Love Jason Thorn, Faking with Benefits, or Fifty Shades of Grey.
Conclusion
And there you have it, our spice scale! Obviously, it gets adjusted and tweaked as we go, but for the most part, you’ll find a spice scale number at the bottom of different blogs we’ve written as well as some general things you might want to know before going into the book. We’re also in the process of developing a “spice” scale for other categories like young adult/new adult, a horror gore scale, etc.
Let us know your thoughts about the spice scale, if you have any suggestions, or how you rate your books! Don’t forget to check out another blog and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube!
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