From TikTok to Goodreads, no one can escape the immense popularity of 'spicy' Fantasy Romance series. In case you aren't familiar, 'spicy' books are ones with steamy romance, hot characters, and a varying degree of love scenes, and we just cannot get enough! Here are the top series on #BookTok ranked by the spice that brought this hidden genre to the forefront of pop culture literature:
Shade of Magic - V.E. Schwab
Full of drama and tension with a touch of romance (including LGBTQ+!), Shades of Magic is firmly within the Young Adult genre and thus ranks 0/5 on the spicy scale.
Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas
Revenge, redemption, lies and secrets, a kick-ass female lead, and her morally grey love interests are what drive this Dark Fantasy romance series. But as the love scenes aren’t too descriptive and can easily be avoided, the series has a spicy score of 1/5 overall.
All Souls - Deborah Harkness
Though teeming with forbidden romance tension, the steaminess is mostly just a little warm with one fiery scene for the series. The All Souls Trilogy has earned a 2/5 on the spicy scale, bridging the gap between YA and NA.
Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
Firmly into New Adult territory and filled with kilt-dropping smut and allusions to BDSM, but generally hinted at more than described, giving this epic series a 3/5 for spice.
A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas
If handsome fae, medieval politics, and steamy love triangles are what get you going, or if you are just looking for a place to start in this new fantasy subgenre, this is the place. Dramatic, magical, and very sexy, ACOTAR gets a spice rating of 4/5.
And now *drumroll* the award for the spiciest fantasy romance series at Juniper Books goes to…
From Blood and Ash - Jennifer Armentrout
Dripping with detailed love scenes and reimaginings of classic fantasy tropes, FBAA takes spicy to the next level with a maxed-out score of 5/5. Phew...its getting hot in here...
Been reading the Bonds that Tie series- like I’ve gotten to the 4th book in a week and a half. I have a problem. But that’s beside the point.
I’m a sucker for the trope of main character did a thing to protect people that others don’t understand, so they hate them until it eventually comes out. This book has a lot of the tropes I like. Powerful women, men respecting women, supernatural powers, spiciness, spiciness with multiple people, etc.
My main gripe is how young she is? 19 is obviously of age, but thats barely an adult. I know they’re made for each other and whatever, but isn’t North like 29 and Gryphon and Nox 24? It’s just jars me a bit every time they bring up her age.
Life's all sunshine and roses now that Marcus is dead, right? Wrong. Now that the Inferno's former boss is no more, his second command, Roger van Statton, steps up to the plate, and demons are disappearing left and right. As Ciaran's best friend, Dimitri Romanov, struggles to identify the pattern of the kidnappings and murders, a mysterious guest shows up at the front door. Dimitri knew life was a bitch, but bringing in old flames was a new low.
When you're a killer, it's hard to prove you didn't, in fact, kill someone, and Red's all out of ideas. On the run from the cops who want to arrest her for the one murder she didn't commit, Reddina Leeyan decides to turn to some old friends. The trouble is, none of them want to see each other. As Roger's plans pick up new steam, Dimitri and Red are thrust into a fight they didn't see coming—and old feelings are brimming under the surface.
With everything catching fire around them, Dimitri and Red have two choices: lock themselves up in cages of their own making or fight for what they love. As the second installment in the Newborn City Series, Burn the Bone forces its heroes to deal with kidnapping, torture, and, worst yet, confronting their feelings.
Have you ever read a book and thought 1. How am I supposed to go on knowing this perfect specimen *insert character name here* of a being isn’t real? And 2. Why haven’t I been bullied to read this before now?? Well I’m almost done with A Kiss of Iron by Clare Sager and that’s exactly how I feel about it.
Oh my god, y’all. THIS BOOK. it’s so good. The tension. The spice. The plot. The setting. The characters. I’m obsessed with this book.
⚔️ morally grey characters
👩❤️👨 Fake relationship
👩🏼🦰 Forced proximity
❤️ Traumatized characters helping each other heal
🔪 Betrayal
👀 Spying
🥵 Spice with emphasis on consent
🗣️ Dirty Talk
👥 Fae x human relationship!!
🔥 Slow burn
The spice is top tier. Bastian will make you forget about every book boyfriend because he is Perfect™️ and everything he does is like the hottest thing I’ve ever read. He’s also very mature and doubles down on consent! He has so many wonderful lines (dirty talk and just general wisdom). I’d die for him honestly. And I also love the FMC Kat! She’s been raised in a patriarchal society that doesn’t value women and she balances this line of playing the game and obeying the rules and learning to take what she wants. She’s traumatized and smart af and Bastian is her perfect counterpart. The Court intrigue!!! The smut!!! Everything about it is perfection. How everyone isn’t talking about it is beyond me. READ. IT. It’s top tier fantasy romance. And it’s also on KU!!! This book wrecked me, put me back together, and wrecked me again. And it’s connected to her previous book series, Beneath Black Sails, which I will be reading next. Here’s my favorite line from the book:
BELATED VALENTINE'S DAY POST, but it's still the month of love and I might have taken these photos all the way back during Halloween month, so I didn't remember until I was cleaning out my computer just now😅🥰❤️ Anyhow, I hope you're having a wondering February full of love and warmth and good vibes unlike these books😘 I'm still working on my ✨💖🔪 s e r i a l k i l l e r 🔪💖✨ romance that's gonna be a stand alone, but it's almost done (and man is it a big one🤗☠️) and then I'll get back to working on Mia Thorton and her next sexcapade: Professor Weston ��👩🎓📚🎒 #instabooks #bookstoread #bookaddict #readersofinstagram #smutaddict #smutalicious #spicybookrecs #spicybooks #roses #rosepetals #booklove #bookphotography #bookseries #miathortonseries #herfavoritebrother #herfavoritedaddy #herleastfavoritehusband #magdalinlaine #valentines #happyvalentinesday https://www.instagram.com/p/Co8bfRXrWIF/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
Mondays are for APEX - one of the original series I’m working on! I am delighted to reveal the working cover, and to announce that the first 25 people who become patrons and are still patrons when their book comes out will receive a special surprise goody bag that will include a free paperback copy!
Please let me know what you think and I hope you’ll consider supporting me on Patreon!
Anybody else try reading any spicy published book recommendations only to realize that nothing even comes close to the spice level and romantic tension in a 150k word fanfiction written by someone running purely on adrenaline and ao3 kudos that was fully completed in 3 months?