You’ve seen the reel. You’ve read the breathless caption. Somebody in the comments has typed “how spicy though??” with the urgency of a person making a genuinely life-altering decision. Fair enough. If you’ve ever asked what spice level is this book, you’re not being fussy. You’re trying to avoid the very specific reader disappointment of expecting tender kisses and finding chapter-long steam - or the reverse.

Spice has become one of the quickest ways readers sort their TBRs, but it’s also one of the messiest. One person’s “quite spicy” is another person’s “that was basically a prolonged stare across a kitchen island”. The problem is not that readers care too much. The problem is that the language around heat levels is all over the place.