Everything you need to know about Romance IO

One of my favorite reading tools that I’ve discovered in recent years is Romance IO.

If you don’t like jumping into a new book without knowing the spiciness level (i.e. how much sexual content there is in a book), Romance IO is for you!

The best part? It’s free!

All you have to do is open Romance IO on your phone or computer, plug in the name of the book you’re looking for, and it will give you a spice level between 1 and 5.

Here’s what the spice level breakdown is (which Romance IO has listed as flames)

1 Flame: Glimpses and kisses. Meaningful looks and maybe a kiss, but no sex on and off the page.

2 Flames: In camera At least one intimate scene occurs, but without the reader’s presence.

3 flames: Open door At least one intimate scene with the reader present, euphemistic language for the act and body parts

4 Flames: Explicit open door At least two intimate scenes, explicit language with a variety of sexual acts

5 Flames: Explicit and abundant Several explicit scenes, a variety of adventurous acts, sprinkled throughout the book

Here’s what it looks like on the Romance IO site (and you can click the question mark after the flame clue if you need a reminder what the scale looks like!).

Another thing I like about the flame scale on Romance IO is that on the scale you can click to see more books at that flame level, so if you’re only comfortable with 1 book of flame rating, you can easily find more (and the same for any other flame rating).

Of course, it’s not a perfect system – not every book is included on Romance IO (although I was pleasantly surprised by how robust the site is!) and they don’t take language into account, which is an important factor for some readers.

But Romance IO is definitely a great place to quickly check a book’s spiciness level when you’re browsing the library, bookstore, or online or are ready to open a new book but don’t want to be blindsided by 150 pages of steamy content!

Have you used Romance IO? I would love to know what you think!

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