I would love to see this steam/spice rating come to fruition! I'm constantly looking books up on romance.io for an approximate spice rating.

Personally, I think it'd be nice to have some general definition/guidelines for what each spice level means (fade to black, open door, explicit, multiple explicit scenes, etc) so that it gives a more accurate/objective rating....kind of more like a "trigger warning" versus personal opinion like star ratings because I think everyone has a different opinion on what is considered a 1 versus 5 spice and I definitely think it should be more objective vs. subjective :) that's just my opinion though!

Just wanted to add my support for this feature. Would honestly be a game changer for me. I thought as well that there could be an option to hide books rated above a certain spice level (maybe more than fade to black) from your friends on storygraph. Honestly this prevents me from adding certain people especially work colleagues so this could help with that :)

Is there any update available on this request? would be really cool if we could have the star system but for spice level (🌶), which is built into the book review, you could then see an average spice level rating and decide from there :)

I think the TBR - Bookshelf had something like this for romance books, with levels of spice in the book reviews. It could be added to the general moods reviews but only become visible for books that are categorised as romances?

I love this idea and really hope to see it soon!

I think a rating system like this could be great depending on how it's implemented. My two cents…

Potential overlap with content warnings: Amount/intensity/explicitness are already built in to the content warnings system. Sexual content can be tagged as Graphic (explicit, detailed description), Moderate, or Minor (brief mention or description). So to avoid redundancy and to justify having both spice ratings and CWs on reviews, the features would have to be unique and distinct from each other.

No to a criteria-based rating scale: Two examples of criteria-based rating scales are the sensuality ratings at All About Romance and the steam ratings at romance.io. I think the more specific the rating criteria is, the less likely the feature will be used. From what I've gathered through being in online romance communities, readers either don't remember or have different perceptions about how frequent or explicit sex scenes are. I bet many users would choose to leave the spice rating blank rather than try to figure out if a book fits specific criteria.

Yes to a numerical rating scale (from 0 to 5): If TSG were to implement a spice rating, I would strongly prefer that it be completely subjective like star ratings, where it's left up to readers to decide on their rating criteria. A simple, numerical rating system would have the best usability for the broadest range of readers. Those who don't remember or track details can rate based on their overall feelings and perceptions. Others (like myself) who have their own spice/heat/steam scale can rate based on that, without having to convert it to match specific criteria.

Yes!! I am so excited to see that this is on the To-Do list!! :D

Love this! Excited for this feature when it gets released!

YES! I want this to, because I need as less as possible in my romance haha

This is part of our todo list already! :-D

I'm just going to edit your title to include "Steam" and "Spice" as these are the other terms used by users we've already discussed this idea with.