Calling All Dark Romance Lovers!
Alright my fellow spicy book dragons, do you love morally gray men, masked thirst traps, a little light stalking, giant heavily tattooed nerds, dark humor, and an absolutely ridiculous amount of spice? You have come to the right place. Lights Out is the first book in Navessa Allen's Into Darkness series, and this is easily one of my favorite books.
I've legitimately lost count of how many times I've listened to it. Yes. Lost count. Not only is the story epically entertaining, but the audiobook features some of my favorite narrators and makes an already hilarious book even better.
I also think this is a great book for someone wanting to dip their toes into dark romance. There are absolutely dark themes, stalking, morally questionable behavior, and plenty of kink, but the book never feels relentlessly heavy.
Navessa Allen balances the darkness with so much humor that you'll go from thinking, "This man is completely unhinged," to laughing your ass off within a few pages. So buckle up, my fellow spicy book dragons. Let's find out if we're brave enough to ride the handle. And remember:
ο»Ώο»Ώο»Ώο»Ώ"No safe words!"
Meet Aly and Josh
Aly Cappellucci: An overworked trauma nurse who doesn't exactly dream about love, light, flowers, and Prince Charming. Give this woman darkness and depravity instead. Aly is strong-willed, sarcastic, witty, snarky, and equipped with a wonderfully dark sense of humor. She works out, takes self-defense classes, takes absolutely no shit, and comes home to the true man of the house, her cat Fred.
She also has a little obsession. Masked men. More specifically, one anonymous MaskTok creator whose videos have inspired more than a few of her fantasies.
Josh Hammond: A reclusive computer programmer, hacker extraordinaire, nerd, sarcastic smartass, and walking advertisement for questionable decision-making. He's ridiculously tall, muscular, heavily tattooed, and has some serious boundary issues. He also happens to run the anonymous MaskTok account Aly is obsessed with.
Josh has a traumatic childhood that still impacts him as an adult, but underneath all the morally gray behavior is a surprisingly sweet man. A sweet man who enjoys a little light stalking. Nobody's perfect.
One Drunken Text Changes Everything
The chaos begins after Aly finishes another ridiculously long hospital shift. A few glasses of wine later, she sends a message to Tyler, an old casual hookup, asking whether he'd be willing to wear a mask for her. There's just one little problem. Aly hasn't spoken to Tyler in months.
There's another slightly bigger problem. Tyler is now in a relationship. And then there's the biggest problem of all. Tyler shows the message to his friend Josh. Josh immediately recognizes the MaskTok account Aly sent him.
Because it's his. Now Josh is curious. How deep does Aly's masked-man obsession actually go? He decides to find out.
And that, my fellow spicy book dragons, is where the insanity begins.
Fantasy, Meet Reality
Josh discovers some of Aly's comments on his account and decides he might be interested in making a few of those fantasies come true. His methods are... Questionable.
Very questionable. But Aly isn't exactly reacting the way he expects. Before long, the two are locked into a bizarre game involving messages, taunting, hidden cameras, masks, and increasingly ridiculous banter. And I freaking loved it.
This is where Lights Out separates itself from a lot of darker romances for me.
Aly isn't simply along for the ride. She gives Josh's crazy right back to him. Sometimes she might even out-crazy him.
Watching these two realize they may have finally found someone whose particular brand of weird matches their own is ridiculously entertaining.
The Humor Is Top Tier
I cannot talk about Lights Out without talking about the humor. The inner monologues alone are worth reading this book for. Josh can be doing something that should probably have you questioning every decision that led you to this book, and then his internal dialogue will have you laughing so hard you forget what you were concerned about. Aly is just as bad.
There is a scene where she doesn't want Josh to leave and her brain essentially goes:
"But I don't want to go to bed, I wanna stay up and get railed!!"
Girl. Priorities.
Then you have lines like:
βAll this time, you've been trying to reassure me that Iβm safe with you. But did you ever stop to consider whether or not youβre safe with me?β
or
"Praise kink unlocked." and βNope I wasn't gonna make it, I was gonna blow like a 2 pump chumpβ
The constant teasing. The absolutely ridiculous conversations. And one of my personal favorites, the tracker incident.
Aly vs. Josh: Let the Games Begin
At some point, Aly decides she's going to beat Josh at his own game. She slips a tracking device into his bag. Except Josh sees her do it. Instead of simply removing it like a normal person, because Josh has never made a normal decision in his life, he decides to have some fun. Aly watches the tracker as he drives around.
And Josh uses his route to spell:
LOL.
Then he tosses the tracker and takes off. I would be furious. Aly is furious. Unfortunately for Josh, he isn't the only technologically creative lunatic in this relationship.
Aly walks right up to his camera and informs him that she's done playing nice. She knows who he is. She has hair from his sweatshirt. She kept his bloody bandages. And she's getting a DNA test.
Then she gives the camera a little wink and a:
"Later, Boo!"
And disconnects it. Game. Set. Match.
Josh Is Surprisingly Sweet
For all the stalking, hacking, masks, and morally questionable behavior, Josh is actually ridiculously sweet with Aly. One of my favorite things about their relationship is watching those two sides of his personality exist simultaneously. This man will invade someone's privacy without blinking and then worry about Aly getting home safely after a brutal hospital shift.
He brings her snacks. He gives her things to protect herself. He shovels the snow from her driveway and walkway. He tries to make her breakfast. Keyword: Tries. Cooking is definitely not among Josh's many talents.
It's those little moments that make their relationship work for me.
Their attraction is obviously intense, and the spice is SPICY, but there is genuine affection underneath all of their craziness.
And Then There's Fred
We need to discuss the actual star of this book. Fred. Aly's cat has more personality than some human characters I've read about. And somehow this ridiculous relationship eventually leads to him receiving the glorious full name:
Sir Fredrick Cappellucci Hammond, First of His Name.
As he deserves.
There's even a moment when Josh is trying to have some alone time with Aly and Fred comes strolling in to investigate.
Josh's response?
"No Fred, mommy and daddy need to have some alone time right now."
The Spice Is Spicing
Alright my fellow spicy book dragons. You were warned. This book is HOT.π₯
Aly has spent plenty of time fantasizing about masked men, being chased, giving up control, and exploring the darker side of her desires. Josh is more than happy to oblige. And Dom Josh?
Dom Josh can get it.
There are scenes in this book permanently burned into my brain.
But what I like is that the sexual relationship actually fits Aly and Josh as characters. Their dynamic is built around pushing each other's buttons, testing boundaries, playing games, and discovering just how compatible their particular flavors of crazy really are.
Aly isn't some innocent character being dragged into Josh's darkness. She looks at the darkness and basically says:
Is that all you've got?
Which makes their entire dynamic even more entertaining.
Wait... This Was Supposed to Be About Stalking
Eventually, the book takes a sharp turn. And if you're sitting there thinking:
Hasn't this book already gone off the rails?
No. Apparently those were the normal rails. Because someone makes the extremely unfortunate decision to threaten Aly. Which would already be a bad idea. Except Aly happens to have a giant, tattooed, possessive hacker with questionable morals hanging around her house.
Oops.
Suddenly Aly and Josh have a much bigger problem than masks, hidden cameras, and kinky fantasies. There's a break-in. A little "One Punch Man" action. A plan that goes very wrong. And then... Well. They need help.
Enter Uncle Nico
When your evening goes spectacularly wrong, who do you call? Apparently Aly's mobster uncle. As one does.
This section of the book is where Lights Out somehow gets crazier while becoming even funnier.
Uncle Nico is understandably less than thrilled with the lovely "gift" Aly and Josh bring him, and suddenly everyone is scrambling to deal with a situation that keeps getting increasingly complicated.
There are more twists. Family drama. Close calls. Some very questionable problem-solving. And someone gets called Porno Joe.
Because of course they do. At this point, I stopped trying to predict where the book was going and just enjoyed the ride.
More Than a Dark Romance
Underneath all the chaos, Lights Out actually has quite a bit of heart. We slowly learn more about Josh's childhood and why he became the reclusive, boundary-challenged person he is. Those moments add a completely different dimension to his character.
He isn't just "the hot masked stalker." There's trauma underneath the jokes, tattoos, hacking, and ridiculous inner monologues.
Aly also gets to see those vulnerable parts of him, and watching their relationship shift from mutual obsession and fantasy fulfillment into something genuinely loving is one of the reasons I can reread this book so many times.
They are completely ridiculous. But they're ridiculous together.
The Audiobook
If you're an audiobook lover, I absolutely recommend listening to Lights Out. The narration is one of the reasons I've returned to this book so many times.
The humor already works incredibly well on the page, but hearing those inner monologues, arguments, ridiculous conversations, and spicy moments performed takes everything to another level.
This is one of those books where the audio experience made me love an already fantastic story even more.
The Verdict
Highly Recommended For: Dark romance readers, masked-man lovers, morally gray MMC fans, tattoo lovers, stalker-romance readers, spice lovers, primal-play fans, touch-her-and-die lovers, dark-humor fans, and anyone who likes their fictional men nerdy, possessive, slightly unhinged, and absolutely obsessed with their woman.
Lights Out is one of my favorite books for a reason. It's dark without feeling overwhelmingly heavy, unbelievably spicy, genuinely romantic, and absolutely freaking hilarious.
Josh and Aly are perfect for each other because neither one is the sane person in the relationship. Josh thinks he's found a woman he can stalk and torment. Aly basically responds:
Challenge accepted.
Their banter had me laughing constantly, their chemistry is explosive, and underneath all their kinky games and morally questionable behavior is a relationship that becomes surprisingly sweet.
Add Fred, Josh's absolutely unhinged inner monologue, Aly's dark humor, an increasingly insane plot, and an audiobook I could apparently listen to until the end of time, and you have a book that I will happily return to again and again.
The only downside? Eventually it ends. Thankfully, Lights Out is only the beginning of the Into Darkness series, and after finishing this one I was more than ready to jump into Caught Up.
Happy reading, and remember my fellow spicy book dragons, before starting a book please check the tropes, and always check for trigger warnings. Nobody likes an unfinished book because the tropes aren't your cup of tea or to have a bad experience reading due to the trigger warnings.
