Five Spines And A Heat Meter
Here is the plan. You want the Acotar reading order, and you want to know how spicy each book gets before you open it. So this video does both. The order is publication order, and the little novella counts as book number four. This video has no spoilers.
One honest limit first. I have read Thorns and Roses, Mist and Fury and Silver Flames, every chapter, and I counted the words myself. Wings and Ruin and the novella are not in my library, so for those two I give you the title, the year and nothing more. Every heat level and age number is only my opinion.
The Publication Order
Here is the whole list, all by Sarah J. Maas. Book one, A Court of Thorns and Roses, from twenty fifteen. Book two, A Court of Mist and Fury, from twenty sixteen. Book three, A Court of Wings and Ruin, from twenty seventeen.
Then the novella, A Court of Frost and Starlight, from twenty eighteen. And book five, A Court of Silver Flames, from twenty twenty one. As of October twenty twenty six, that is five stories on the shelf, and outside listings put the novella in twenty eighteen.
The Novella Slot
Now the question in my search notes. Where does the novella go? Right after book three, before Silver Flames. Outside listings call it a new novella set a few months after book three.
My pick, and it is only my opinion, is to read it in that slot. It is short, and it keeps the order clean. But I did not read it, and it is short, so I cannot tell you from the page what it changes. I will not pretend otherwise.
Can You Skip Around
People ask me three things. Can you start at book two? In my opinion, no. Mist and Fury is told by the same narrator and picks up straight from book one, so it works as a continuation, not a fresh start.
Can you skip the novella? I would not guess what you lose. Can you jump to Silver Flames for the new couple? That one is told about different people, but it is book five of a connected story, so I would read the earlier books first.
What Each Book Adds
Here is what I can say about the books I read. Thorns and Roses is the starter. It is told in first person by Feyre, a hunter who is pulled into the faerie lands. It runs forty six chapters, about one hundred twenty nine thousand words by my count.
Mist and Fury is bigger. Same narrator, three parts called the House of Beasts, the House of Wind and the House of Mist, sixty nine chapters, about one hundred eighty four thousand words. It widens the world a lot.
Silver Flames changes the voice. It is told in third person, and it follows Nesta and Cassian. It has a prologue, eighty chapters, four parts, and about two hundred nine thousand words.
How I Counted
Now the spice part. I read every chapter of the three books and noted sex, strong language and violence as I went, then counted the f word by search. The chapter numbers I give are the ones printed in my ebook edition.
I use three words. Explicit means sex described on the page. Heated means kissing and touching that stops short. Fade means the scene closes the door. Then I give a heat bar from one to five flames, and that bar is my opinion draft, not a rating board.
Book One Heat
Thorns and Roses is the mildest of my three. It has one explicit scene, chapter twenty seven, and it is short. Chapter forty six is heated and then fades out. Chapters twenty one and forty two are heated too, and chapter forty two also has a forced kiss. The festival night in chapter twenty has a threatened assault by three faeries, which is stopped.
On language, I found no f word at all. I found the s word nine times. The darker content is violence: a wolf kill in chapter one, a creature fight in fifteen, and from thirty four to forty five beatings, torture and deaths on the page. My heat bar is two flames out of five.
Book Two Heat
Mist and Fury is hotter, and more of it. Chapters two, forty eight and fifty five are explicit, and fifty five is the most explicit of the three. Chapter forty two is a heated scene played in public at the Night Court. Chapters ten and eleven mention nights together briefly. In chapter twenty one, a memory shows a woman making an advance that is refused.
Then the language climbs. I counted twelve forms of the f word across eleven chapters. The book also stays inside trauma for long stretches, with panic and nightmares, and in chapter fifty four a character describes years of forced sexual servitude, in words, not on the page. My heat bar is four flames out of five.
The Books I Did Not Read
Wings and Ruin and the novella get no heat bar from me. I did not read them, and a guess from reviews would be invented. If you need a number for them, use a source that has actually read both books.
So on my chart those two slots show a question mark. Book two is the middle of my scale. Book five is the top of it.
Book Five Heat
Silver Flames is the most explicit book of the three,. By my count, ten chapters have sex or a sexual climax described on the page: fifteen, nineteen, twenty two, twenty six, thirty seven, forty one, forty four, fifty one, fifty six and fifty eight. Fifteen is solo, and forty four and fifty six are recollections. Sixteen, twenty three, fifty nine and sixty one are shorter.
I counted one hundred twenty seven forms of the f word. Chapters fourteen, thirty seven and sixty eight mention rape, and in sixty eight a character says it happened to her. Nesta also drinks heavily at the start. My heat bar is five flames out of five.
Where The Heat Falls
Here is a number you can use. Where in each book does the heat arrive? In Thorns and Roses, the one explicit scene lands in chapter twenty seven of forty six, about three fifths of the way in.
In Mist and Fury, you meet an explicit scene in chapter two, almost at once. Then comes a long gap until chapter forty eight, about seventy percent in, and chapter fifty five at about eighty percent. In Silver Flames, the first on page scene is a solo moment in chapter fifteen, and scenes with a partner start at nineteen and twenty two.
The Language Count
Heat is only half of a content guide, so here is the language. I counted forms of the f word in the text of each book. Book one has none. Book two has twelve, in eleven different chapters. Book five has one hundred twenty seven, so it is the one to check.
In book one, I found the s word nine times, the word bastard ten times, and a slur for a woman fourteen times, more than half of them in the Under the Mountain chapters.
The Whole Chart
Let me put the three side by side. Thorns and Roses: two flames, one explicit chapter, no f words. Mist and Fury: four flames, three explicit chapters, twelve f words. Silver Flames: five flames, ten chapters with sex on the page, one hundred twenty seven f words.
Wings and Ruin and the novella: a question mark each. The flames are my opinion. The chapter and word counts are facts from the ebooks I read, so you can check every one.
A Note On Violence
Violence rises with the series too. Book one has its beatings, torture and killings late, in the chapters I named. Book two adds war: mass killing in the city, fights with many deaths, and long captivity and torture. Book five has a long fight run near the end, a childbirth emergency, and a moment where a character is forced to turn a knife on himself.
For the sensitive topics, I only report what I saw on the page. Book one has a threatened assault that is stopped. Book five has the rape mentions I listed, creature attacks with forced kisses and grabbing, heavy drinking, and a stretch of hopeless, suicidal feeling in chapters forty seven to forty nine. If a topic is a hard line for you, check a spoiler free content note before the chapter.
Age Ratings
A novel has no board label, so age is opinion. Still, here is one fact. The copyright pages of books one and two list Bloomsbury Children’s Books as the first United States publisher. Book five lists Bloomsbury Publishing, first in Great Britain in twenty twenty one.
My draft ages. Book one, sixteen and up, for the violence and one scene. Book two, eighteen. Book five, eighteen. Parents, a quick check helps: the f word count is nothing in book one, twelve in book two, and one hundred twenty seven in book five.
My Reading Plan
So here is my plan, in order. Read book one. If it was only fine for you, try book two before you decide, because that is where the series changes. Then book three, then the novella, then Silver Flames.
If heat is your hard line, stop after book one and know that book two goes further. If language is your line, book five is the one to check. And if you love it, the order is easy. Publication order, novella included, no skipping.
Your Turn
Which book are you on right now, and where did you stop? Tell me in the comments, and tell me whether the heat bar matched your own. And if you have read Wings and Ruin or the novella, tell me what I should know, because I only have the titles.
If this chart helped, subscribe and tap like, and the full guide with every chapter number is on the book explained site. My reviews of books two and five are linked below.
