How we rate, profile, and recommend every book

Every book on Sort By Cravings receives a spice rating from 0 to 5 based on a full read-through by our editorial team. We do not estimate spice from summaries, reviews, or secondhand reports. Someone on the team reads the book cover to cover before a rating is assigned.

Our scale is calibrated against hundreds of reader surveys and BookTok community consensus to ensure consistency across the catalog.

Mood profiling is where subjectivity meets data. Every book is tagged with mood descriptors -- dark, swoony, cozy, devastating, witty, suspenseful -- based on two inputs:

Subjective editorial read: Our team reads the book and tags the dominant emotional experience. How did it feel? What would we tell a friend to expect?

Community data analysis: We cross-reference BookTok reactions, Goodreads shelving patterns, and reader reviews (500+ per title when available) to validate and refine mood tags. If our editorial read says "cozy" but 80% of readers describe it as "emotional," we adjust.

The result is a mood profile that reflects both editorial judgment and real reader consensus. We re-evaluate mood tags when new data emerges -- a book that shifts from "underrated" to "viral" often reveals new mood dimensions as more readers weigh in.

Sort By Cravings is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.com.

When you click a "Buy on Amazon" link on our site, the URL includes our affiliate tag (sortbycraving-20). If you purchase the book (or anything else on Amazon within that session), we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

This affiliate income is what keeps Sort By Cravings free to use. We do not charge readers, run display ads, or gate content behind paywalls.

Affiliate income does not influence our ratings, rankings, or recommendations. This is the line we never cross.

Publishers cannot pay for placement on any page. No book receives a higher spice rating, better mood tags, or a featured slot because of affiliate revenue potential. Our editorial team assigns ratings before any commercial consideration enters the picture.

Books are ranked on our "Books Like" and mood pages based on compatibility scoring -- a formula built on mood match, trope overlap, pacing similarity, and reader satisfaction data. Revenue plays zero role in that formula.

If we ever accept sponsored content in the future, it will be clearly labeled and separated from editorial recommendations. As of this writing, we have never published sponsored content.

Featured books -- the titles that appear at the top of mood pages, "Books Like" pages, and homepage highlights -- are selected based on:

Compatibility score: How closely the book matches the page's mood, trope, or genre criteria. This is calculated algorithmically from our profile data.

Reader satisfaction: Average ratings, review sentiment, and completion rates from community sources.

Editorial judgment: Our team's assessment of quality, originality, and whether the book genuinely delivers on what readers expect from that mood or trope.

Recency bias correction: We actively ensure that older titles are not buried just because they are not trending on BookTok this month. A book that fits a mood perfectly should surface regardless of publication date.

At no point does affiliate revenue potential factor into featuring decisions. We feature the books we believe readers will love -- period.