Sarah J. Maas Books Spice Level Guide: 12 Rated 0 to 5
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This guide rates 12 Sarah J. Maas books from 0 to 5 for heat, so you know whether you’re picking up a kissing-and-tension fantasy or a fully open-door romantasy. It covers her three big series, Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses and Crescent City, with one content note per book.
Maas is the author most readers think of when someone says “spicy romantasy,” but her catalogue is uneven. Her early books are slow and restrained. Her later ones are some of the most explicit mainstream fantasy on the shelf. The ratings below describe each book on its own, because the heat in a Maas series is not steady: it climbs.
How the 0 to 5 Scale Works
- 0: No romantic content at all.
- 1: Longing, tension and kissing. Nothing explicit.
- 2: Sensual and intimate, but the physical side is brief, implied or fades to black.
- 3: Open door with real scenes, though they aren’t the main event.
- 4: Explicit and central. Multiple detailed scenes are a deliberate part of the book.
- 5: Explicit throughout, with heat driving much of the story.
These are one reader’s judgment calls, not official ratings. A low number doesn’t mean a gentle book: several Level 1 and 2 picks here are violent. A high number doesn’t mean the plot is thin either, since most of these books carry a war, a mystery or a long grief arc alongside the romance.
Why Maas Heat Is Hard to Predict
Three things make her books tricky to rate from the cover.
The same author wrote a teen-leaning series and an adult one. Throne of Glass began on the young adult shelf and aged up with its readers. Crescent City was written for adults from page one. If you start with the wrong series, the difference is large.
Heat climbs inside each series. Book one is rarely the spiciest. By the middle of a series the couples are established, and the books spend more time in the bedroom because the relationship has already been earned.
Spice and story are tied together. In the later ACOTAR books, the intimate scenes carry character work: recovery, trust, grief. Skipping them can mean skipping plot. If you read with a hard line, check the notes below before you commit to a whole series.
If you want the wider genre, our romantasy spice level guide covers fantasy romance beyond Maas.
Throne of Glass: Slow Burn That Heats Up Late
The Throne of Glass series follows an assassin named Celaena Sardothien across a long war. The early books are the mildest Maas writes. The heat arrives later, once the cast has grown and the stakes have shifted.
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Spice: 1/5. The opener sets up a royal competition, a love triangle and a lot of tension. Expect kissing and chemistry, nothing explicit. It’s the safest entry point if you want Maas’s world-building without any open-door scenes. If you finish it and want more like it, our Throne of Glass readalike list has next steps.
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
Spice: 2/5. The second book deepens the central relationship and gets more sensual than book one, though the physical side stays brief. The plot turns darker and more political, so the heat sits in the background while the mystery drives the book.
Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
Spice: 4/5. The first big jump in the series. Aelin and Rowan’s relationship moves into explicit scenes that matter to the story. If your limit is “kissing only,” this is where you’d stop reading the series.
Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas
Spice: 2/5. A companion novel that follows Chaol and Nesryn on a different continent while the main war continues. The romance is quieter and the physical content is light. For heat purposes it’s one of the gentler books in the series.
Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas
Spice: 3/5. The final book in the series. There are open-door scenes, but they are not the centerpiece. This is a long war book first, and a romance second.
A Court of Thorns and Roses: The Series That Started the Reputation
ACOTAR is the series behind most “Maas is spicy” posts on BookTok, and the heat does build with every book. If you want fae-specific recommendations beyond Maas, our fae romance spice level guide rates 11 more.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Spice: 4/5. A huntress is pulled into a faerie land, and her relationship with a High Fae lord shifts from captive and captor to something intimate. The first half is slow and atmospheric. The explicit scenes come in the second half. If you want similar books afterward, here’s our readalike list for ACOTAR.
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
Spice: 4/5. The sequel changes the romance and raises the explicit content, with more frequent and more detailed scenes. It’s also heavier emotionally, with trauma and recovery at its center. If book one worked for you, this is a step up, not a repeat.
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
Spice: 3/5. The third book is built around a war. There are open-door scenes, but the plot takes up more of the page count than the romance does. Expect battle, spycraft and politics alongside the relationships.
A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
Spice: 5/5. The most explicit Maas book in this guide. Romance and sex scenes run through a large share of the novel, alongside a story about healing and physical training. It assumes you know the world and the cast, so read it after the earlier books. If you want only a scene here and there, this is not your book.
Crescent City: Adult From Page One
Crescent City is Maas’s adult urban fantasy series, set in a city of humans, fae, angels and shifters. Content is consistent with an adult shelf, so don’t go in expecting the slow ramp of Throne of Glass.
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
Spice: 4/5. Bryce Quinlan, a half-Fae party girl turned grieving investigator, is paired with a former gladiator named Hunt Athalar to hunt a killer. The romance runs alongside a murder mystery. Scenes are explicit but fit into the plot. Grief and violence sit at the center of the story too.
House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas
Spice: 4/5. The second book keeps the same heat level and deepens the central relationship. It is a long, plot-heavy book with a lot of world-building, so the heat is only part of what you’re reading.
Which Maas Book Should You Start With?
If you want almost no spice: Throne of Glass. It’s a Level 1 and gives you a clear sense of her voice.
If you want a slow ramp: Read Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight, then decide whether Empire of Storms is for you.
If you want explicit and central: A Court of Mist and Fury or House of Earth and Blood. Both put the romance in the foreground.
If you want the spiciest option: A Court of Silver Flames, but read the earlier books first.
Heat Is Not the Only Content Note
A spice rating tells you about one kind of scene. It doesn’t tell you everything a Maas book might ask of you, so here is what else to weigh.
Violence. Even the Level 1 and 2 books are not gentle. Throne of Glass is built around an assassin, and the war books in every series include battle, injury and loss. If you came for a cozy read, the low heat level is not a promise of low intensity.
Power imbalance. Several romances start with one partner holding the upper hand: a captor and a captive, a ruler and a subject, a handler and an assassin. Whether that works for you is personal. Our enemies to lovers reading list covers the trope more widely if you want to test your taste on other authors first.
Grief and trauma. The middle and later books of ACOTAR and the Crescent City series spend long stretches on recovery. Readers who like that depth often rank those as favorites, while readers who want escapism sometimes find them heavy.
Series length. These are long series. Reading three or four books before you reach the peak heat means a real time investment, so it’s worth deciding up front whether you’re reading for the romance, the plot or both.
A Simple Way to Choose by Comfort Level
Think of the 12 books as a ladder. Levels 1 and 2 are Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight and Tower of Dawn. Level 3 is Kingdom of Ash and A Court of Wings and Ruin. Level 4 is A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, Empire of Storms and both Crescent City books. Level 5 is A Court of Silver Flames.
If you’ve never read her, the cleanest path is Throne of Glass, since it lets you meet the author’s voice at its mildest. If you already know you like open-door romance, start with A Court of Thorns and Roses or House of Earth and Blood, because both are the first book of a series and both are Level 4. If you’ve read the series and want only the high-heat parts, remember that skipping the connective books costs you context, because the couples’ arcs are built across volumes.
One more practical tip: sample the middle of a book before you buy it. Heat is consistent within a title, and a page from chapter ten shows the author’s register faster than a blurb does.
Common Questions About Maas Spice
Do I have to read the spicy books to understand the story? For ACOTAR, mostly yes. The intimate scenes carry real character development in the later books. Skipping them can mean missing plot. For Throne of Glass, you can follow the story with the lower heat levels.
Is the heat consistent across her series? No. Think of each series as a ramp. Early books are mild. Mid-series books peak. Final books return to plot and war.
Do the ratings change if I read out of order? Yes. The companion novels, like Tower of Dawn, are quieter than the main installments, so they’re a different experience.
Whichever series you pick, rate the book in your hands, not the whole shelf. A Level 2 opener can turn into a Level 4 series, and a Level 4 book can be one chapter away from a battle that stops the heat entirely.
Track which Maas series you’re reading, and mark your own heat ratings for each book, with Bookdot.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Which Sarah J. Maas book is the spiciest?
- A Court of Silver Flames is the most explicit book in this guide, rated 5 out of 5, with romance and sex scenes running through much of the story. A Court of Mist and Fury and the Crescent City books sit just below it.
- Is Throne of Glass spicy?
- The first book is a Level 1: tension, a love triangle and kissing. Heat climbs as the series goes on, and Empire of Storms is the most explicit entry, at Level 4.
- Where should I start with Sarah J. Maas if I don't want much spice?
- Start with Throne of Glass. It is the mildest opener of her three big series, and you can decide at each book whether the heat still suits you.