Are Sarah MacLean Books Spicy? Honestly Rated
Short answer: yes, and proudly so. MacLean has spent years arguing — in essays as well as novels — that desire belongs at the centre of the romance genre, and her books practise what she preaches. Here's exactly how hot they run, series by series.
The ruler: romance readers rate heat in chilli peppers — one is closed-door, three is on-page but woven into the love story, five is frequent and very explicit. Sarah MacLean sits at a four: firmly open-door, frank about what's happening, and completely unembarrassed about it.
What MacLean's heat actually looks like
The word readers reach for is confident. Her love scenes are frequent and direct — no fade-to-black, no coy euphemism marathon — and they tend to arrive earlier in the book than the genre average, because desire is usually part of the conflict rather than the reward at the end of it. Her heroines want things and say so; her heroes are gambling-hell owners, smugglers, and fallen aristocrats who have nothing left to be respectable about. The heat is matched by high-drama plotting — revenge schemes, secret identities, scandal weaponised.
The nuance: her catalogue has warmed over time. The early Love by Numbers books (starting with Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake) read closer to a warm three. Rules of Scoundrels, set around a gaming hell, steps up to a full four, and the Bareknuckle Bastards trilogy is her darkest, hottest tier. Hell's Belles keeps that later-era heat with a more playful tone.
How does she compare to Bridgerton?
A clear step up in both frequency and frankness. Quinn writes warmth as payoff; MacLean writes desire as engine. If you loved Bridgerton's tension but wished the books matched the show's boldest episodes, MacLean is one of the two names you'll be handed (the other is Lisa Kleypas — MacLean is the sharper, angrier sister of the two).
Her steamiest books, rated
Ratings are out of five chillies, based on how readers most commonly place them.
The Bareknuckle Bastards
Wicked and the Wallflower opens the trilogy: Covent Garden crime lords, a decades-old revenge plot, and MacLean's darkest, most intense heat. If you want her at maximum temperature, start here.
Rules of Scoundrels
Four ruined aristocrats running London's most exclusive gaming hell. A Rogue by Any Other Name and the identity-flipping Nine Rules-adjacent twists made this her breakout — confident open-door heat inside proper melodrama.
Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake
Her debut era: a spinster with a scandalous to-do list and the rake she recruits to help. Warmer three than four — the perfect on-ramp if you're coming straight from Julia Quinn.
Scandal, scoundrels, and a four-chilli burn — ten books, $9.99
The Margot St. James collection runs on the same fuel MacLean readers love: steamy three-to-four-chilli Regency built on blackmail bargains, forced proximity, and morally-grey heroes — with full emotional arcs and earned happily-ever-afters. Ten full-length novels, one instant download.
$79.90 $9.99 for all 10
400,000+ words • EPUB & PDF • DRM-free
If you want more heat than MacLean
Past a four you're into five-chilli territory — frequent, very explicit, often the point of the book. Sierra Simone is the classic historical-adjacent name at that tier. Our spicy Regency roundup covers the rest of the top shelf.
If you want less heat than MacLean
Julia Quinn gives you the banter at a gentler three; Tessa Dare splits the difference with playful open-door warmth; Mary Balogh goes quieter and more tender still. For fully closed-door Regency, it's Georgette Heyer. The whole ladder is mapped in our spice levels guide.
Frequently asked questions
Are Sarah MacLean books spicy?
Yes — a confident four on the five-chilli scale. Open-door, frequent, and frank, with heroines who own their desire and heroes with nothing left to lose.
Which Sarah MacLean series is the steamiest?
The Bareknuckle Bastards trilogy is her hottest and darkest, with Hell's Belles close behind. Her early Love by Numbers books run gentler, closer to a warm three.
Are Sarah MacLean books spicier than Bridgerton?
Yes — more frequent and franker than Julia Quinn's three-chilli warmth. MacLean is a standard recommendation for readers who wanted Bridgerton hotter.