Author Renee Savage

How do we rate spice* in our books? There is no universal system of measurement yet (and the US will probably have a different one from the UK) but we do have a common indicator. The Chili Pepper emoji.

Here is my take on the Chili Pepper Scale.

Yes. That is a pepper grinder. For me, this indicates kissing, but no spice. It may be alluded to (what readers call “closed-door” or “fade to black”) but there is nothing on the page besides nice, vanilla kissing. Usually, YA and Christian lit falls in this category or the next one.

The single chili pepper indicates that heavy petting, kissing, dirty talk, and maybe light descriptions occur on the page at a minimum of once on the page during the book. This can include oral, but may not include a full spicy scene. Some YA falls here.

Two chili peppers tell me that at least one, graphic sex scene occurs on the page. Usually, a combination of penetrative and oral. There is a female orgasm as well, or it was fiction written by a man. This is what you’ll usually find in bestselling romance at Barnes and Noble. Think Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis, Emily Henry, and Christina Lauren.

Three chili peppers are my sweet spot. Between one and three explicit scenes, with plenty of petting and romantically intimate scenes thrown in. This kind of spice usually means the plot is in charge of the story, but romance is key to the plot. The majority of romance mass-market books fall into this category. Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn, and Sarah MacLean are good examples of this kind of writing.

Four chili peppers. What separates this category from the next one is the storytelling. In this category, between 3-6, explicit scenes plus extras that build tension between characters. The story exists to help the main characters (you start having more than one love interest at this level) get it done. A lot of dark romance, reverse harem, and mafia romance falls under this category. No slow burns here. A lot of Tessa Bailey’s work can be found here and I would put A Court of Silver Flames here (mostly because I skipped a loooooot of that book to get to the good parts and we know the original draft had a threesome.)

The Sacred 5. To me, this represents erotica. The plot is them having sex multiple times on page in any configuration and combo you can think of. This is Katee Roberts or Sierra Simone. This is not where I like to hang out, but it is a nice palate cleanser every once in a while.

Does my spicy scale line up with yours? Let me know in the comments if you think I missed anything or if you have more author suggestions for the categories!