Skip to main content
FaeShelf

A Court of Thorns and Roses Spice Level and Content Notes

By Sarah J. Maas. Last checked .

Spice level

3/5

Open door

“characters kiss, undress, touch each other, and have intercourse and oral sex. Orgasms are described.”

Source: Common Sense Media, checked Oct 12, 2026. We place that description on the FaeShelf 0 to 5 spice scale.

Book facts

Author
Sarah J. Maas
Series
Book 1 of A Court of Thorns and Roses
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing
First published
May 5, 2015 (Goodreads)
US edition on sale
Jun 2, 2020, Bloomsbury paperback, ISBN 9781635575569 (publisher)
Pages
448, Paperback, ISBN 9781635575569 (publisher)
Age rating
16+ (Common Sense Media)
Goodreads
4.14 from 4.63M ratings on Goodreads as of Oct 12, 2026

On screen: A Court of Thorns and Roses TV series at Hulu (20th Television). Status: cancelled, reported Feb 14, 2025. Adaptation status and sources

Content notes

  • Violence: Stabbing, beating and torture, described in detail. Common Sense Media rates Violence & Scariness “a lot”. “Characters are stabbed, beaten, and tortured, with description of bones breaking, flesh and ligaments torn” (Common Sense Media)

A book missing from this list is not guaranteed to be free of that content.

Tropes and creatures

Only tags the publisher’s own description names, with its wording.

  • Fae“one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world” (source)
  • Captor and captive“Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast” (source)

Read it or skip it

Read it if

  • You want an open door romance with one or more explicit scenes (3/5 per Common Sense Media).
  • You want fae and captor and captive, as the publisher's description puts it.
  • You want to start a series: this is book 1 of A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Skip it if

  • You want romance without explicit sex (3/5 per Common Sense Media).
  • You want to avoid violence on the page (listed by Common Sense Media, which rates Violence & Scariness: "a lot").

A Court of Thorns and Roses FAQ

Is A Court of Thorns and Roses spicy?

It is 3/5 (open door) on the FaeShelf 0 to 5 scale, based on Common Sense Media: "characters kiss, undress, touch each other, and have intercourse and oral sex. Orgasms are described."

Is A Court of Thorns and Roses YA or adult?

Common Sense Media rates it 16+ (checked Oct 12, 2026).

Is A Court of Thorns and Roses part of a series?

Yes. It is book 1 of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. The next book is A Court of Mist and Fury.

When did A Court of Thorns and Roses come out?

Goodreads lists it as first published May 5, 2015. Bloomsbury Publishing lists this edition on sale Jun 2, 2020: Bloomsbury paperback, ISBN 9781635575569.

What content notes does A Court of Thorns and Roses have?

Common Sense Media lists stabbing, beating and torture, described in detail (Violence & Scariness: "a lot"). A book missing a note is not guaranteed to be free of that content.

Same series: A Court of Thorns and Roses

In our guides

How we checked this

This page draws on 3 source pages, each linked next to the fact it supports, last checked on Oct 12, 2026. Spice comes only from a named review or the author’s or publisher’s own content notes, quoted as published and placed on our 0 to 5 scale; reader shelves and fan sites are not used. Ratings change daily, so the Goodreads figure is a dated snapshot. Read more about our sources, or browse all books.