The Ultimate Romance Beginner’s Guide: Spice Levels, Bookish Terms, and 2026 Reading Challenge

Are you new to the world of romance and feeling overwhelmed by the endless acronyms and specific spice ratings? Whether you’re trying to figure out if a book is sweet and subtle or scorching, or you simply don't know your HEA from your HFN, this episode of We Read Smut is for you. Host Alesia Galati breaks down the essential romance terms, explains her signature 5-level spice scale, and shares how to find the best diverse recommendations from BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ authors.

Key Takeaways:

• Understanding the 5 Spice Levels: Alesia categorizes books from Level 1 (Sweet & Subtle/Fade to Black) to Level 5 (Scorching/Heavy Kinks), helping you know exactly what level of graphic content to expect before you open the first page.
• Decoding Romance Acronyms: Master the terms of the bookish world, including character identities (MC, MMC, FMC), reading statuses (TBR, DNF), and genre requirements like HEA (Happily Ever After) and HFN (Happily For Now).
• Navigating Consent Dynamics: Learn the crucial differences between NonCon (non-consent), DubCon (dubious consent), and CNC (consensual non-consent roleplay), terms that are vital for informed and safe spicy reading.
• Archetypes You’ll Love: Discover common character types like the Alpha-hole, the Cinnamon Roll, and the Stern Brunch Daddy (a mix of disciplined, dominant, and doting).
• The 2026 Diverse Trope Challenge: Join Alesia’s annual reading challenge focusing on a different trope each month (like Fake Dating or Secret Identity) written exclusively by BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ authors.

Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy, so don't be afraid to use that DNF button! No matter what kind of reader you are, there is a perfect romance out there waiting for you.

BOOKS/AUTHORS MENTIONED:

And Everything Nice by Ada Maria Soto

You Never Forget Your First by Millie Perez

The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson

Roadside Attractions by Mara Quinn 

Mickey Chambers Shakes It Up by Cherish Reid

Curvy Girl Summer by Danielle Allen

Streams and Schemes by Rebecca Kinkade

Sweet Surrender by Viano Oniomoh

Diverse Reading Challenge hosted by bookasaurusbex Storygraph | Instagram Post

Diverse Trope Challenge 2026 Instagram | Storygraph 

Running list of books mentioned (Doc)

Transcript

Alesia Galati 0:00

New to romance, no problem. Today we're going to be talking through the basics of reading romance, some romance terms, romance spice levels, and so much more. Listener discretion is advised. This podcast contains mature content intended for adult audiences only. Before we get into this week's episode, I just want to say a huge thank you to Emily for the suggestion of this episode. Hey friends, I'm Alicia, your host. I'm so excited to be back for season three of the We Read Smut podcast. And in this podcast, we alternate between the words romance and smut. I understand that not all romance is spicy, which is why we're gonna jump right into what I determine as my spice levels. And this is something that I have found is really helpful for people who are trying to understand maybe the books I'm recommending or the types of books that I tend to read. So this is why I wanted to make sure that I share this with you right out the gate. The first level is the sweet and the subtle. This one has no activity described, or maybe it's a fade to black. And when I say fade to black, I mean the book literally says they go into the room and spend the rest of the night loving on each other's bodies. There's nothing there. That is like a fade to black in a movie. You don't really see anything happening. You get the idea of what's going on. For each of these, I am going to be giving some book recommendations or books that I found kind of fall into each of these levels. For level one, the books that I have found fit into that is and everything nice, and we'll have them all listed in the show notes as well as like links and all that fun stuff, and you'll see it on screen here. And Everything Nice by Ada Maria Soto. And in that one, it is a MM romance, their co-workers. It is cute and sweet, and there is no physical activity in that one. The next one is You Never Forget Your First by Millie Perez. And in that one, it is a brother's best friend snowed in. They kind of don't like each other, but they do that kind of stuff. And that one is a fade to black. Next level is level two, which is a spice level two. That one is warm. There are some physical details that are there, but it's not very graphic. They use a lot of flowery language to describe what's happening. And it's it's very basic vanilla stuff, right? That's kind of warm. And an example of that could be the band Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson. And I don't even know that I would consider this one a romance because the romance is a side story. Like that is not even the main point of the story. The main point of the story is this woman going to this very isolated, cultish small town and running the bookshop and having books she's not allowed to sell at this bookshop. So then, of course, you gotta get some bad books in there, and it gets very, very interesting. But then the side story is with her romantic interests. And again, this is very light language that's used in this one, not very descriptive, and still a really good book, though. I highly recommend it. Another one that I would recommend is Roadside Attractions by Mara Quinn. This one is about uh these two, I don't remember if they're friends, but they go on this road trip and there's some moments where they're kind of stuck with each other. That one is more of a slow burn, and it's just not really spicy. I wouldn't I personally wouldn't consider it spicy. More on the flowery language kind of side. Next is a three-spice level. That one is hot. It's graphic, the terms and the activities are graphic. And in that one, it goes just beyond vanilla, right? Maybe there's multiple positions, maybe there's some maybe dirty talk, that kind of thing. For that one, I would say Mickey Chambers Shakes It Up by Cherish Reed. That is such a fantastic book. This one has such an interesting dynamic, too. In season three, we're gonna be doing like trope roundups and like talking about different tropes and like digging deep into tropes. But one of the things that I absolutely find interesting about Mickey Chambers is it has a authority dynamic, but it's sweet, like it's both ways. He is her boss, and she's also a professor. So he owns a bar and he's trying to go back to school, and so she is also his professor in his class, and so it's got kind of that like power dynamic flipped both ways that I found really interesting, and that one's got some spice to it. Next one is Curvy Girl Summer. Now, just because the spice level is a three does not mean that they are not banging right out the gate. And Danielle Allen is fantastic for that. I highly recommend reading Danielle Allen, but curvy girl summer, it literally starts where she's banging somebody. So even though it starts that way, it's still, I would consider it a level three spice. All right, on to a spice four level. That one is burning. It is explicit with some lighter kinks, maybe some spanking, some light bondage, etc. An example of that, I think, would be Streams and Schemes by Rebecca Kincaid. That one's a good one where there's more kink to it, maybe a little bit of role-playing, things like that. Another example is Sweet Surrender by Viano Oniomo. And that one is a MM summon a demon to help me kind of thing. But there is some little heavier kinks in that one, and that one is really, really good as well. And then level five, scorching, and I use scorching in a loose kind of way because some of these can be difficult in the kinks that are used, but this one is very erotic in detail, it's heavier kinks, BDSM. Maybe think BDSM clubs, CNC, which is consentual non-consent, which we're gonna go like deep into the acronyms in a second. Maybe there's some extensive breath play or even some dubious consent. That I would consider a level five. Now, these spice levels do not mean that a level one book is inferior to a level five book because it's spicier. Those are different ratings. Like, like the way that I rate my books and how I enjoy them is going to be different than how I'm rating the spice. But the spice levels I find help people understand what to expect when they're going into a book, especially for those who are newer to smut or newer to romance. So it's interesting to see people, especially newer people into romance, tend to say, ooh, this was super spicy, five stars. And I find that really interesting because I personally do not group uh my spice levels with my stars, as like it was spicy, five stars. No, maybe it was spicy and then here's why I gave it five stars, or here's why I gave it four stars, or here are the things that I really enjoyed from it. But that's just my opinion and how I personally rate and review them. If you are someone who is newer to spice, I recommend if you're someone who prefers closed door romance, then go with the level one spice. Or if you are someone who is maybe just dabbling but are fairly open-minded to open door spice, then a level three, which is graphic with the activities, maybe just beyond vanilla, but not vanilla, but not exactly getting into kinks, then level three might be best for you. All right, so let's go ahead and now get into some of the terms that I have found are really, really helpful for people who are learning in this space or just starting in this space. Let's go ahead and start with the basics. The first acronyms that you will see a lot in either reviews or when people are quickly talking about books is MC, MMC, FMC, and NBI. So in that one, it's just a gender breakdown of the gender identities of the main characters. MC is the main character, MMC is the male main character, FMC is the female main character, and NBI is a non-binary main character. Next we have the ARC and ALC. This is the advanced reader copy and the advanced listener copy. If you're someone who is wanting to get some advanced reader copies or advanced listener copies, which listener copies, just audiobooks, then I recommend checking out some of the accounts that are specifically publishers who are giving away books. If you are someone who is part of a marginalized community, whether that's disabled body size, ethnicity, etc., then I recommend that you check out Berkeley's underrepresented hub. They currently have, I believe they're making some changes to it this year. So just be on the lookout for their account to see what they're doing. But they created that specifically to ensure that people in the underrepresented communities are getting access to the books that have their representation. And I'm someone who uses that. I like being able to get access to the books that have my representation. And I'm always super excited to get those. You can also use NetGalley, which specifically publishers use to match between the books that are coming out and the people who want to rate and review them. If you do use that, I highly recommend using some type of line that says, hey, I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest rating and review. Thank you to these people for giving me that copy. That keeps the trust between you and the people who are reading your reviews to understand exactly what it is that you maybe did to be able to get access to that free book early. Next is TBR and DNF. These ones are used very commonly. TBR is just your to be red pile. I actually delete mine. I did that for the first time at the beginning of 2025. Honestly, one of the best things I ever did. And then I did it again a couple months ago because I was adding books on there that I wasn't necessarily interested in reading, and I don't use my TBR to find the books that I want to read next. I'm a mood reader through and through. And so I kind of just decide what I want to do when I want to do it. DNF is did not finish. And that is something that can be hard for people, and I'm raising my hand here because I really, really struggle with not finishing books. And one thing that I've been trying to do more of in the last few months is release that expectation of myself that I have to finish every single book that I start. And it's so funny because like I see my I have two kiddos, they are 11 and 8, and I see them DNF books, especially my 11-year-old. He DNFs books all the time, and I silently judge him for it. I need to stop because if he's not into the book, he's not into the book, and that's okay. Like, read books that you enjoy and books that you like, because life is too short to be reading books that we don't enjoy. That does not mean that we don't challenge ourselves, though, to read diversely if we are not currently reading diversely. All right, I'm off my soapbox, but that's what DNF means and what TBR means. Last for this kind of basics of the acronyms is H E A and H F N. That's a happily ever after and a happily for now. These are a romance genre requirement. If a book is being advertised as a romance, it must have an HEA or an HFN, a happily ever after, or a happy for now. If it does not, then it is a romantic insert other genre, like a romantic suspense or a romantic horror or an erotic horror, right? I think we see this conflated a lot of, oh, I read this erotic romance, and it's like, nope, that that one definitely, and I'm I'm thinking of one specifically. Actually, there's a few that I can think of where I read an erotic horror where it was definitely erotic and it was spicy, but it was not a romance, and it did not end with a happily ever after for the characters together or happy for now for the characters together. So keep that in mind as you're maybe looking at that or thinking about that. Next is the consent dynamics. These are really important, especially as you're getting deeper into more of the nuance of those spicier books. I cannot honestly go into every single one in this conversation. But if you have a specific one that you see and you're like, I have a question, please send me a DM at WeReadSmut on Instagram. I am always more than happy to see my DMs and answer them, answer any questions you have. I will do my very best. And if I don't have an answer, I will find it for you. So first let's go ahead and go into non-con. Non-con is non-consent. It is the person has not consented to this, they have not agreed to it, and it is pretty much the word that I feel like would get me banned. And this is going on YouTube, so grape is like the best way that I can explain that. But that's non-con. The person has not consented to this interaction, or maybe one of the people have not consented, if there's multiple people involved in this, to this interaction. Dubcon is dubious consent, and that one is it's more in how the author writes it. So maybe the person didn't agree to it at first, and they kind of get into it. So it's a little more dubious in the original consent. It wasn't a wholehearted yes, I am totally down for this, and so it's more on the dubious side. And with the non-con and the dubcon, it's pretty easy to see the difference when you're reading it. Then we have CNC, which is consent non-consent. Consent non-consent is a role play between two consenting people, and in all of these, we're talking about adults. I am not talking about spice levels in young adult romances. I'm not talking about like these are romances for adults. Anyway, CNC is a role play between two consenting adults who have said and agreed. Usually there's a safe word involved, where they have consented to a non-consensual role play. For this one, you might see something like primal, which is getting chased. Maybe the person has agreed to be chased through the woods and pretend that they are didn't want to be chased through the woods, even though they have already had that agreement with the person beforehand, or somnophilia, which is when the person, one person is sleeping, and they have previously agreed to, yes, I am okay with you taking these actions on my body while I am in a technically non-consent kind of position, which is sleeping. So those are some examples of consent non-consent and can be super hot when done really, really well. Personally, I think opinion, right? Like people might not be into these, but these are some of those heavy hitter dynamics that we tend to see when it comes to romance. Now, when it comes to the coupling of these groups, there are tons of other uh kind of groupings that happen. We have trans for trans where it's two trans main characters, buy for buy when it's two by main characters, MM, which is male-male, FF, which is female-female, or SAFIC, which can be used for any femme presenting individuals. There's a lot of nuance when it comes to this. I did see someone post, and I know I might get a little bit of hate mail for this, maybe. I don't know. I have not watched Heated Rivalry and I have not read the book. I personally am not going to spend my time watching it in the near future. I might in six months, and that's fine too. Maybe when season two comes out, if they do a season two. But number one, I don't have HBO right now, so there's that. Number two, there are a lot of books that I want to read. And so watching TV is not on my list of things that I want to do. And I have not gotten to that book because I have a lot of books that I really want to read, and I tend to read primarily books by BIPOC authors. So if you like look at my story graph, you will see some white authors in there, sure. But the majority is BIPOC authors, and I already am a mood reader, so making myself read a book is really difficult. But the point I'm trying to make with this, what was the point, Alicia? The point is that someone recently said that Heated Rivalry, which is a gay romance between two male hockey players, is a sapphic romance because the author is openly bisexual. That's not how that works at all. That would not be a sapphic romance at all. It's just a bi-author who wrote a gay romance. That's it. So that would be considered MM. When you get into more dynamics than just two individuals, you might see reverse harem. We tend not to use that phrasing much anymore in the bookish space, tend to change it to why choose. I personally do not like using the term reverse when it comes to any type of tropes because it makes it seem like the opposite is always the default. And I think that's kind of crummy, especially when like grumpy sunshine, and then we have reverse grumpy sunshine, just because the female main character is grumpy. Like, no, there are tons of people who are female presenting and are very grumpy, raising my hand over here, who are in a relationship with someone who is a golden retriever or is like very happy-go-lucky or sunshiny. I wouldn't even say my husband's like that because he's grumpy too. We're just two grumps together, and I love that for us. But polyamory is just more than one person in a relationship together. That would be a why choose, but you might also see where the boyfriends are boyfriends. So in the case of a female presenting person and two male presenting people, if they are in a why choose relationship together in a romance, then you might see that the boyfriends are boyfriends and they're also with the girl as well. Or you might see that it is more of a thruple why choose in that she gets to have them both. There's no jealousy, it's a very polyamorous relationship, uh, but they might not interact together. There might not be any, as we call in the Roman space, sword crossing between the male presenting main characters. Okay. I hope I'm not confusing y'all because I know there's so many different details into the dynamics and the relationships and all of this stuff. So let's go a little more into these archetypes and personalities that I find really, really fun and interesting as well. So you have the alpha hole, which is like the aggressive lead. He's a jerk, and he's a jerk to everybody. It doesn't matter who they are, he's just super grumpy and he's a jerk. Then you have the cinnamon roll, which is more of a soft, a sweet. Kind tends to like care about other people. And then you have Golden Retriever and a Black Cat, which I've mentioned a little bit, but the Golden Retriever, they're high energy, they're excited to be there. People tend to showcase the Golden Retriever boyfriend as like Ryan Gosling or Chris Evans. In my head, when I think Golden Retriever, I think Pedro Pascal. Like high energy, just happy to be there, kind of hugging everybody, and just like a little like just happy to be part of the party and happy to be there. So that's what I imagine the Golden Retriever energy to be like. And then the black cat is more of that like grumpy partner. They don't really want to be around anybody. They'll knock the glass over if they're like if you touch them wrong, or they're tend to like side-eye you because they don't want to be there. They don't want to be around a bunch of people. They're not interested in doing all of this that the golden retriever is. The black cat is not interested in. And then finally, one of my favorite personality types is the Stern Brunch Daddy. Now, this one was coined by Andy J. Christopher, who mixed the alpha hole and the cinnamon roll together. Pretty much is what the Stern Brunch Daddy is. But they are sweet and caring. They're polite to like servers, they're polite to people, a bit gentlemanly, but kind of grumpy, also. Like they'll be nice. So that's their like public outer appearance, is that they're like maybe a little grumpy, but they're super nice to everybody. But then in their private moments, they're more passionate, they're more dominant, maybe sexually they're more dominant, more intense, they're very self-disciplined, maybe a little disciplining in a consensual way in the bedroom. But they'll also order you brunch and take you to brunch because they care about you and they're doting. So it's kind of like this mix between an alpha hole and a cinnamon roll. And it is so wonderful. And some examples that are often found is like The Love Hypothesis by Ellie Hazlewood or Managed by Kristen Callahan. I've seen that one mentioned a lot. And I haven't read that one. I read the first one in that series by Kristen Callahan. But those are just some examples of the Stern Brunch Daddy, kind of that disciplined but doting partner that we really do love when it comes to romance. All right, I know this is a lot. This might feel like a lot. You're like, oh my goodness, there's so much to this. It is a learning curve. I've been in the book space for the last six years, and half the time I'm like, oh, there's a new acronym. What does it mean? Then I have to kind of understand does this acronym even apply to the books I read? And how can I use this in a way that is still ethical? Because, like reversing those common tropes and using the word reverse age gap or reverse grumpy sunshine or reverse harem, that's not necessarily the best way to approach it. So I always like to take a step back before I start using these. Please, please, please take a step back. If these aren't terms that you want to use, that is okay. Totally fine. Find a way that is still able to communicate these things and getting your point across if you're someone who is using these. Now, I am doing a 2026 reading challenge that is based off of tropes and this season and season four, we are going to be doing more deep dives into tropes, and I'm so, so, so excited about it. So I wanted to quickly run through the diverse trope challenge for 2026 and each of the months. I do want to note that I classify the word diverse as diverse in ethnicity and sexuality specifically. I did have someone ask me about adding disabilities into this marginalization and the diverse aspect. First, this is my challenge, and I kind of do what works best for me. And if you want to come along with me, you definitely can. If not, that's okay too. Second, my goal as a person of color who is Afro-Latina, who is also bisexual, who is also uh has disabilities, who also has chronic pain and is in a fat body. I am someone who understands that there are multifacetedness to marginalizations. And I understand that in the romance space, my mission is to amplify BIPOC voices. It was a fight just to add LGBTQIA plus last year to this challenge. I really feel strongly that a lot of people read disabled voices and read disabled authors and amplify dice disabled authors or body diverse authors or even LGBTQIA plus authors, especially with the rise of the kind of sweep of heated rivalry. BIPOC authors tend to get side-eyed. They tend to be only for the people who are of that ethnicity. And that's why I created the challenge the way I did, was because I personally was reading a lot of quote-unquote marginalized voices, but was not reading BIPOC voices. And I wanted to change that for myself. So I incorporated this challenge this way. And I also wanted to make sure that I'm also reading LGBTQIA plus authors, not just the ones that are stories written by people who aren't telling you what their sexuality is, but people who have said, I am queer, I am BIPOC, etc. So for this challenge, I will not be adding in those additional marginalizations of size diversity or disabled diversity. There are other people who are doing absolutely incredible challenges, and I'm going to make sure that I link it in the show notes. But I highly recommend checking out the Diverse Reading Challenge hosted by Bookasaurus Bex, Bookasaurus B-E-X. And they have a ton of marginalizations. They are categorizing them by bodies, mind, lives, places, identities, styles, cross, and rex. So I definitely recommend just checking that out. And I know Allie's shelf, and I'll tag Allie as well, who was on the podcast in season two, talking specifically about queer fantasy books, that she has tons of recommendations for each of these levels that Bookasaurus Bex is doing. So if you are someone who's like, look, Alicia, I love that you're doing that for BIPOC and LGBTQIA. I want to have more diversity. Please feel free to go check out the other challenges. There are plenty of them. Highly recommend going and checking them out. There is enough space for all of us here. So that is what I'm going to be doing, but I wanted to at least go through the tropes that we're going to be covering. And you just have to choose a book within that trope by a BIPOC or LGBTQIA plus author. So January is going to be fake dating. February is siblings best friend. March is workplace. April is opposites attract. May is secret identity. June is only one bed. July is vacation fling. Honestly, one of my favorites. And August is rivals to lovers. So that one goes a little deeper than just enemies to lovers. They are maybe corporate rivals or sports rivals or college rivals for whatever they're maybe trying to accomplish. But those are rivals to lovers. Retellings is going to be September. October is one night to more. So maybe a one-night stand or a weekend one night stand, you know what I'm saying? Tomorrow. November is pining. That could be one person pining, two people pining, three people who, however many people there are in this relationship, all of them are pining, but one or more people pining. And then December is going to be pick your own. You get to choose what trope you want to do. And then I've got some recommendations there as well. And we will go ahead and make sure that we have the link for that post in the show notes. But I know this was a little longer than my other solo episodes. We're going to be seeing some more solo episodes from me in season three. I'm going to be doing kind of like a dive deep into the tropes and so much more. So love that. And then if you have any recommendations for solo episodes or conversations that you want me to have, please send me a DM on Instagram at WeReadSmut, or you can send me an email at We Really ReadSmut at gmail.com. All right. I hope that you are as excited about this season as I am and that you enjoy it as much as I'm sure I will. I'm so excited. We are going to have so much fun. All right, until next time, happy reading.