Why star ratings aren't enough
Ask a romance or fantasy reader why they loved a book and you'll rarely hear "four stars." You'll hear "enemies to lovers, slow burn, found family, and the spice was just right." Those are the things that decide what you pick up next, and most trackers have nowhere to put them:
- Stars flatten everything. A cozy four-star and a dark, steamy four-star are not the same recommendation to your future self.
- Spice is personal. "Too much" and "not enough" depend on the reader and the mood. A community average doesn't know which reader you are tonight.
- Tropes are how you search your own shelf. "Give me a grumpy-sunshine book I already own" is a filter, not a memory test.
- Custom shelves get messy fast. Making a shelf per trope works until you have forty of them and every book is on six.
What to track (a simple system)
- Tropes as tags. Short, reusable labels: enemies to lovers, second chance, found family, morally grey. Reuse the same wording every time so filters work.
- One heat level per book. A small fixed scale beats a 1–10 number you'll apply differently every month.
- Mood and pace. How it felt (cozy, dark, emotional) and how it moved (slow, steady, fast). These answer "what am I in the mood for?"
- Tag at the finish. Do it when you close the book, while it's fresh. Tagging fifty books from memory a month later doesn't happen.
How Leafed handles tropes and heat
Leafed stores tropes, heat level, moods and pacing on the book itself, so they follow the book across every shelf and device.
- Trope tags. Type any trope on the book's page. As you type, Leafed suggests tropes you've already used, so "Slow burn" and "slow burn" stay one tag.
- Five heat levels. Clean (no on-page romance), Sweet (kisses only), Warm (some heat, fades to black), Steamy (open-door scenes), and Explicit (frequent, graphic).
- Moods and pace. Relaxing, Thought-Provoking, Thrilling, Emotional, Funny, Dark, Inspiring, Cozy and Guilty pleasure, plus Slow, Steady or Fast pacing.
- Tag when you finish. The finish celebration asks for mood, pacing and heat in the same moment, and you can skip it.
- Filter your shelves. Filter any shelf or your whole library by trope and heat level. Pick two tropes and you get books with both. Use Surprise me on Want to Read with a trope filter on to get a random pick that fits.
- Bulk tag. Select several books and tag them in one go, which helps after an import.
- See your taste. Insights shows your Top Tropes and your Heat mix for the year, once at least three books are tagged.
Coming from StoryGraph? The StoryGraph import maps your Tags column to Leafed tropes (up to 25 per book) and your moods and pace to Leafed's moods and pacing. See Leafed vs StoryGraph for the full picture.
How the options compare
| Option | Tropes | Spice / heat | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leafed | Your own trope tags with suggestions, filters, bulk tagging, Top Tropes in Insights | Five-step heat level you set, with filters and a Heat breakdown | Readers who want their own taste on record, privately |
| StoryGraph | Moods, pace and tags; check its current features for trope filtering | Community content warnings rather than a spice scale, as far as we can tell | Readers who like community data and mood-based recommendations |
| Community romance sites (e.g. Romance.io) | Crowd-sourced tags | Crowd-sourced steam ratings | Checking a book before you read it |
| Custom shelves anywhere | One shelf per trope | One shelf per level | A few tropes; gets messy as the list grows |
Where Leafed wins (and loses)
Wins: your tags are yours, set by you and kept private by default, with no account required. Tropes and heat are real filters, not just labels, and they work together with moods, pace and shelves. Insights turns them into a picture of your taste. They also leave with you: the Leafed CSV export keeps them, and the Goodreads-format export adds them as extra shelves (including a heat- shelf for the heat level). It's all part of the free app.
Loses: Leafed has no community spice ratings or crowd-sourced trope lists. It won't tell you how steamy a book is before you've read it unless you've tagged it. There's no content-warnings field, and the StoryGraph import leaves Content Warnings in its "not imported" report rather than guessing. Tropes and heat are app features for now; the web library at leafed.app doesn't show them yet. If you choose books by what thousands of other readers said, a community site will serve you better before you buy. Leafed is where you keep what you thought after.
Get started in 15 minutes
- Pick your ten most-used tropes and write them down the way you'll always spell them.
- Tag the books you finished this year first, since those feed Insights.
- Use bulk tag for series and obvious groups, then tag the rest as you finish them.
- Next time you can't decide what to read, filter Want to Read by a trope and tap Surprise me.
Related reading
- How to organize a TBR / Want to Read list
- Leafed vs StoryGraph
- How to track ARCs and review copies
- How to track your reading stats
FAQ
What does spice level mean in books?
Spice level is shorthand for how much on-page sexual content a book has, from none at all to frequent and graphic. Readers track it to find books that match what they're in the mood for.
How do I track tropes in my books?
Use short trope tags you reuse every time, such as enemies to lovers or found family, and add them when you finish a book. In Leafed, tropes are tags on the book with suggestions from your own library, and every shelf can filter by them.
What heat levels does Leafed use?
Five: Clean (no on-page romance), Sweet (kisses only), Warm (some heat, fades to black), Steamy (open-door scenes) and Explicit (frequent, graphic). You set the level yourself.
Can I import my StoryGraph tags into Leafed?
Yes. The StoryGraph import maps the Tags column to Leafed tropes, up to 25 per book, and maps moods and pace too. Content warnings aren't imported.
Does Leafed show community spice ratings?
No. Tropes and heat in Leafed are your own tags, kept private by default. For crowd-sourced steam ratings before you read, a community site is the better tool.