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Booktok Recommendations… Spicy Edition? Yes, please! 18+

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Erin Hill
The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Mass Boston chapter.

Welcome back to the second installment of Booktok Recommendations! Go check out the first part “The Rise of Booktok” for more tame recommendations. 

Tiktok’s book lovers community has spoken…These are THE spicy books of Booktok.

In order to be fair to the spice and not spoil the content, I did not put the book’s overall rating and did not include a synopsis. It is important to remember that books with mostly spice and limited plot cannot be reviewed the same way as books with no spice at all. In the recommendation list, you can find the book title and author, the book’s rating on the Spice Scale, and a few key ideas or tropes that appear in the book. Trigger Warnings for every book are hyperlinked as the title and author, and it is highly encouraged that you read through them especially when they are listed as dark romance or kinky. 

Genre & Key Word Review

When you see the word spice in this article, it is characterizing mature content such as explicitly intimate scenes between characters, also known as smut. Spicy content sometimes includes “kinks” which are certain intimate preferences that could appear in the book. To not spoil the books or the spicy scenes, I did not mention which kinks were in each book, but I did label them as 

  1. Kinky – normal or low level (Spice level between 1 and 3)
  2. KINKY – medium to high level (Spice level between 3 and 5)

Dark Romance is a genre that can encompass numerous factors and is entirely based on what you, as an individual, consider “dark.” For example, there are a few books below that are considered “taboo” meaning some of the aspects do not fit into the “societal standard of normal”… like being in a relationship with your ex-boyfriend’s dad or your (not blood-related) step-uncle and step-cousins: Birthday Girl and Credence by Penelope Douglas. Dark romance could also mean there are dark elements such as stalking or murder (referred to as “unaliving” in the Booktok community), and sometimes kinky elements that fall outside of the normal/ comfortable standard.

Reverse Harem and Why Choose are both tropes that appear in a few of the books listed below. “Harem” is used in reference to a relationship between one man and three or more women and “reverse harem” is used for a relationship between one woman and three or more men. The “Why Choose” trope is used to define a book whose main character does not need to pick a primary love interest: they could pick all of their options, some of their options, none of them, etc. (this could be considered harem or reverse harem depending on the circumstance). 

Now, let’s talk about SPICE. I have been told my spice ratings are lower than what others believe, so I made a Spice Scale that is similar to some other Booktok community members’ scales. Every rating you will see below is how I interpret Spice and the book’s overall content, and may not be cohesive with others’ opinions.

spice scale

🌶/5 : The book has one or two descriptive scenes and limited or low-level kinks. The spice is added to reinforce the plot and is more like an afterthought. 

🌶🌶/5 : There are more than two descriptive scenes and introduces more kink. The spice does not overshadow the plot but it is more of a factor.

🌶🌶🌶/5 : The book has an even spice-to-plot ratio or more extensive kinks. The spice is equally as important to the book as the plot. 

🌶🌶🌶🌶/5 : The book has spice that is beginning to overshadow the plot or has more mature kinks. 

🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶/5 : The book has a lot more spice than plot and may have extensive, mature, or dark kinks.

Now that all of the boring introduction stuff is over, here are 28 Booktok-recommended Spicy books:

  • 🌶
  • Small town romance
  • Enemies to lovers trope
  • Very light spice, no kink
  • Content Warning

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

  • 🌶 
  • Fake dating trope
  • Light spice, not many mature scenes
  • Content Warning

All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata

  • 🌶
  • Slow burn
  • Single dad
  • Grump x Sunshine
  • Starting Over
  • Almost entirely plot
  • Content Warning

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

  • 🌶🌶
  • Fake dating trope
  • One bed trope
  • Workplace romance
  • Light spice / some kink
  • Content Warning

Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas 

  • 🌶🌶
  • Childhood friends to enemies to lovers trope
  • Some kink, not overly dark
  • Content Warning

The Ravenhood Series by Kate Stewart

  • 🌶🌶
  • Spice does not overpower the plot
  • Amazing, heartbreaking series
  • Morally grey characters
  • Forbidden romance
  • Content Warning

Dirty Air Series by Lauren Asher

Twisted Love (Twisted #1) by Ana Huang

Twisted Games (Twisted #2) by Ana Huang

  • 🌶🌶🌶
  • Mostly plot, but more kink 
  • Princess x Bodyguard trope
  • Content Warning

Twisted Hate (Twisted #3) by Ana Huang

  • 🌶🌶🌶 
  • More extensive kink than other books in the series
  • Enemies to lovers trope
  • Content Warning

Twisted Lies (Twisted #4) by Ana Huang

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

  •  🌶🌶🌶
  • Hockey x Figure Skater
  • College romance
  • Reverse Grumpy x Sunshine
  • Content Warning

Forever Never by Lucy Score

  • 🌶🌶🌶
  • Slow burn 
  • Small town romance
  • Still mostly plot, but more than 2 scenes and some kink 
  • Content Warning

Hooked by Emily McIntire

Priest by Sierra Simone

There Are No Saints & There Is No Devil by Sophie Lark

  • 🌶🌶🌶
  • Very dark romance
  • Struggling Artists
  • Serial Unaliver 
  • KINKY
  • Content Warning

Mindf*ck Series by S.T. Abby

Flawless by Elsie Silver 

  • 🌶🌶🌶
  • Have not personally read
  • Small town romance
  • Bull rider
  • One bed trope / Kinky
  • Content Warning

Crooked Paradise Series by Eva Chance and Harlow King

  • 🌶🌶🌶
  • Why choose 
  • Dark mafia romance
  • Reverse Harem
  • Content Warning

Birthday Girl by Penelope Douglas 

  • 🌶🌶🌶
  • Have not personally read
  • Age gap
  • Taboo romance
  • Ex-Boyfriend’s dad
  • Content Warning

Corrupt Series by Penelope Douglas 

  • 🌶🌶🌶
  • Dark romance
  • KINKY 
  • Reverse Harem 
  • Sharing is caring
  • Content Warning

Credence by Penelope Douglas 

  • 🌶🌶🌶🌶
  • Dark taboo romance
  • Kinky
  • Reverse Harem 
  • Sharing is caring
  • Content Warning

Neon Gods by Katee Robert

Praise Series by Sara Cate

The Never King Series by Nikki St. Crowe

  • 🌶🌶🌶🌶
  • Dark romance
  • Peter Pan retelling
  • Lots of spice and KINKY / Limited plot
  • Reverse Harem
  • Why choose trope
  • Content Warning

Does It Hurt? by H.D. Carlton

  • 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶
  • hate/ dislike to love
  • KINKY 
  • Dark romance
  • Forced proximity
  • One bed trope
  • Content Warning

Haunting Adeline and Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

Scream For Us & Melt For Us by Molly Doyle

  • 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶
  • Dark romance 
  • KINKY
  • More spice than plot
  • Reverse Harem 
  • Why choose trope
  • Characters from a larger book Bloodshed
  • Content Warning
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Erin Hill

U Mass Boston '25

Erin is a second-year transfer student at the University of Massachusetts Boston and is majoring in Biology with a double minor in English and Dance. She is a certified EMT and plans to pursue Paramedicine studies over the next few years. In her free time, she can be found dancing, listening to music, reading, or appreciating the sunset.