spicy romance books i actually recommend
i love a spicy book.
that is not exactly breaking news around here. (it shouldn’t be anways)
but i don’t love every book just because people are having sex in it. if i’m going to recommend something, i still need tension. i need chemistry. i need obsession, rash decisions, or at least one fictional man making choices that would get him blocked in real life.
preferably all four.
also, before we begin, you need to understand that my spice tolerance is high. i am not afraid to look at a book everyone else is calling “the spiciest thing they have ever read” and give it three chilis. please use my ratings accordingly.
if you’ve already read something in the bybookishbabe library, compare its rating to these before making any decisions. you can also read my full romance book spice guide if you want to know exactly what every rating means.
now that we have that established.
i may be slightly desensitized, these are the spicy romance books i actually recommend.
but first tell me about you…
📊 reader poll
how spicy are we usually picking up?
vote to see the results.
the quick list
| book | author | spice | read it for |
|---|---|---|---|
 | lola king | 🌶🌶🌶🌶 | enemies who genuinely hate each other |
 | lola king | 🌶🌶🌶🌶 | captor x captive and a morally black mmc |
 | jacqueline white | 🌶🌶🌶🌶 | dark romantasy with some twisted surprises |
 | leigh rivers | 🌶🌶🌶🌶 | a completely unhinged supernatural school |
 | h.d. carlton | 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶 | unreal tension and vicious bullying |
 | jescie hall | 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶 | stalking, obsession, and absolute psychosis |
please check the content warnings before reading any of these. apparently my favorite type of spicy book is also the type most likely to require a warning label.
beautiful fiend by lola king
spice rating: 🌶🌶🌶🌶
if you want a spicy enemies-to-lovers romance where the enemies portion is not just a minor misunderstanding that could have been solved through one text message, read beautiful fiend.
these two hate each other. seriously.
caden is a bully, billie refuses to make anything easy for him, and every interaction between them feels like it could end in either murder or sex. hot.
the spice works because the hostility is already there. they push each other, provoke each other, and somehow manage to make every scene feel like another round in a fight neither one plans to lose. i mean the come from opposite sides of the track.
literally.
read this if you want bully romance, enemies to lovers, gang rivalry, and an mmc whose devotion does not arrive in a particularly healthy package.
Beautiful Fiend
✓ on kindle unlimited
she wants out of their broken town… but the boy who ruined her now owns her fate and isn’t letting her go
lawless god by lola king
spice rating: 🌶🌶🌶🌶
apparently the north shore series needed to appear twice because lola king understands that hate and sexual tension should occasionally be indistinguishable.
lawless god takes everything several steps further. she is the reason nathan went to prison. when he gets out, he comes back for her.
romance!
this is captor x captive, revenge, forced proximity, and stockholm syndrome served with a man who is not morally gray. nathan white is morally black.
she’s not a good person and he’s not the knight in shining armor.
i still ate it up.
the spice is intense.
if you need your fictional men redeemable, this is not your book. if you enjoy watching an objectively terrible man become catastrophically obsessed with one woman, welcome.
Lawless God
✓ on kindle unlimited
she’s the reason he went to prison, and when he finally gets out, the first thing he does is come back for her.
souls in ruin by jacqueline white
spice rating: 🌶🌶🌶🌶
souls in ruin is for the romantasy readers who want their fantasy with something a little more twisted happening behind closed doors.
you’re getting a bastard princess, a forced marriage, captivity, dangerous gods, and the kind of sexual situations that make you pause for a second before continuing. and yes, i continued.
this one has more of an actual fantasy plot surrounding the spice, so it is not simply hundreds of pages of people finding increasingly questionable places to have sex. there is a darker element to get lost in, a man you feel things for when you shouldn’t and then one who makes you feel.
read it if you want enemies to lovers, captor x captive, touch her and die energy, morally gray men, and spice that is willing to get twisted.
Souls in Ruin
✓ on kindle unlimited
married off to a cold king and trapped in her own kingdom, she’s forced to survive two dangerous men… and prove she was never meant to break.
satanic shadows by leigh rivers
spice rating: 🌶🌶🌶🌶
satanic shadows is probably the easiest book on this list to explain badly. and by that i mean almost all of my explanations, but hey, stick around.
a human girl is dropped into a supernatural school where the students are learning how to interact with humans. and by “interact,” i do mean sex.
the entire premise is just a little weird, and the book commits to it immediately. it is fast, strange, spicy, and never boring. if you liked kiss of the basilisk and want something in that same realm of supernatural creatures, sex, and situations that require you to simply accept what you are reading, try this next.
this is one of those books where you either hear the plot and immediately add it to your tbr, or you slowly back away from me. both reactions are fair. (also ends on a cliffhanger and book #2 isn’t out yet 🙄)
Satanic Shadows
✓ on kindle unlimited
a human girl is forced into a deadly academy of immortals where the prince who hates her most may be the only one tied to her fate.
my dreadful darling by h.d. carlton
spice rating: 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶
now we are entering the heavy hitters. the big league. (do they even call it that??)
the spice in my dreadful darling is unreal, but the tension is what makes this book. dreadful and reverie do not merely dislike each other. he bullies her, she takes it until she doesn’t, and then she gives it right back.
every conversation between them feels sharp. every interaction has this vicious edge underneath it. you spend so much time waiting for all that hatred to finally go somewhere that when it does?
buckle in.
this is not a soft, flirtatious enemies-to-lovers romance. these two are cruel to each other. and i MEAN it. the dynamic will absolutely not work for everyone, but if you want a book where the tension becomes nearly unbearable before it finally snaps, this is one of my favorite spicy recommendations.
My Dreadful Darling
✓ on kindle unlimited
she carries her father's sins like a death sentence — and he's spent years making sure she never forgets it. but he's not the only one who wants her to drown.
that sik luv by jescie hall
spice rating: 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶
that sik luv is twisted, psychotic, obsessive, and spicy.
aero is not the man you recommend to a friend who is trying to make healthier dating choices.
he is a stalker.
he is unwell.
he has absolutely no intention of leaving briony alone, and the book takes that obsession as far as it possibly can.
this is the kind of dark romance that requires you to check the content warnings before you open it. not after the first shocking scene. before.
the spice is explicit and constant, but it is aero’s complete fixation on briony that made the book work for me. he is obsessed in a way that is horrifying in real life and, unfortunately for all of us, incredibly readable in fiction.
i said what i said.
That Sik Luv
✓ on kindle unlimited
a dangerously obsessive man becomes the voice of every forbidden desire she’s been taught to bury… and he won’t stop until she gives in.
which spicy romance book should you read first?
this depends entirely on the particular kind of bad decision you would like to make tonight.
read beautiful fiend if you want opposite side of the track enemies and bully romance.
read lawless god if you want captivity, revenge, and a man with no interest in redemption.
read souls in ruin if you want your spice wrapped inside a dark romantasy world.
read satanic shadows if the phrase “supernatural sex school” has already convinced you.
read my dreadful darling if tension and mutual cruelty are your love languages.
read that sik luv if you want stalking, obsession, and a book that is unwell from beginning to end.
personally, my dreadful darling and that sik luv are the two i would choose when you want the spiciest of the spicy. they are not subtle, they are not gentle, and they are definitely not where i would send someone who is only beginning to explore dark romance.
but if you already know what you like?
have fun.
want something spicy but slightly less psychotic?
not every spicy romance book needs captivity, stalking, supernatural sex lessons, or a man who belongs on several government watchlists. (some of us prefer less, and i get it)
you can also browse romance books by spice level to compare everything from one-chili slow burns to the five-chili books that waste absolutely no time.
my final take
spice alone cannot carry a book for me.
i need to care about the people involved. or, at minimum, i need to be fascinated by the terrible decisions they are making together.
the books on this list worked because the spice belongs to the story. it comes from the hatred, obsession, power struggle, or tension already building between the characters. take that away and these books would not hit the same.
so remember i’m not the fucking plot police.
please check the content warnings. please do not use these relationships as instructions. and please come back afterward so we can discuss which fictional man ruined your standards the most.
frequently asked questions
what are the spiciest romance books you recommend?
how spicy is my dreadful darling?
how spicy is that sik luv?
are these spicy romance books on kindle unlimited?
are these books dark romance?
how do your romance book spice ratings work?
join the society
your next ByBookishBabe email starts here.
get ByBookishBabe emails, then personalize recommendations and optional weekly streams in your reader account.
continue exploring
