# Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

### Six of Crows

**Leigh Bardugo** · Six of Crows, book 1 of 2 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/six-of-crows](https://houseofareader.com/books/six-of-crows)

Six criminals attempt an impossible prison break for an impossible fee. A heist novel with six perspectives, four romances handled almost entirely through restraint, and the best-constructed plot on this list.

- Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. No explicit content at all. One of the romances turns on a character who cannot bear to be touched, and the book respects that completely.
- Romance prominence: 3/5
- Plot: 5/5
- Worldbuilding: 5/5
- Darkness: 4/5
- Writing craft: 5/5
- Burn: slow
- Tropes: found-family, slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers, touch-starved, he-falls-first
- Creatures: humans
- Setting: Ketterdam, a mercantile city built on vice
- POV: third person, dual
- Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger
- Audience: ya
- Content warnings: violence, child trafficking, addiction, torture
- Best for: Readers who want found family and yearning with no spice whatsoever.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28

## Sources

- https://openlibrary.org/search?q=Six+of+Crows+Leigh+Bardugo

## What to read next

- [The Cruel Prince](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-cruel-prince) by Holly Black — spice 1/5. ACOTAR readers who want the fae court politics without the explicit content.
- [The Wicked King](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-wicked-king) by Holly Black — spice 1/5. Readers who want scheming and yearning rather than spice.
- [Ninth House](https://houseofareader.com/books/ninth-house) by Leigh Bardugo — spice 2/5. Readers who want dark academia where the darkness is the point, not the aesthetic.
- [The Priory of the Orange Tree](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-priory-of-the-orange-tree) by Samantha Shannon — spice 2/5. Fourth Wing readers who want dragons with far more worldbuilding and far less spice.

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Ratings are editorial judgements applied against a published scale at
https://houseofareader.com/lessons/spice, not aggregated reader scores. Editorial policy:
https://houseofareader.com/lessons/how-we-choose. No affiliate links, no sponsored placements.