⭐ Lights Out Book Review

📚 Book Details

⋆˙⟡ ⋆˙⟡ ⋆˙⟡ ⋆˙⟡ ⋆˙⟡ ⋆˙⟡ ⋆˙⟡ ⋆˙⟡ ⋆˙⟡⋆˙⟡ ⋆˙⟡ ⋆˙⟡ ⋆˙⟡ ⋆˙⟡ 🎭 🎭 🎭 🎭 ⟡˙⋆ ⟡˙⋆ ⟡˙⋆ ⟡˙⋆ ⟡˙⋆ ⟡˙⋆ ⟡˙⋆ ⟡˙⋆ ⟡˙⋆ ⟡˙⋆ ⟡˙⋆ ⟡˙⋆ ⟡˙⋆⟡˙⋆

📖 Book Synopsis

I want someone with a soul as black as night. Someone who would burn the world down for me and not lose a single minute of sleep over it.

Trauma nurse Aly Cappellucci doesn’t need any more kinks. She likes the one she’s landed on just fine. To her, nothing could top the masked men she follows online. Unless one of those men was shirtless, heavily tattooed, and waiting for her in her bedroom. She dreams about being hunted by one in particular, of him chasing her down and doing deliciously dark things to her willing body. She never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become her new reality.

I want things most people don’t, craving darkness and depravity instead of light and love.

Josh Hammond has spent his life avoiding the limelight, but his online persona is another story. At night, he posts masked thirst traps for his millions of fans to drool over, but one follower has caught his eye: Aly. After reading a comment begging him to break into her house wearing a mask, he decides to take her up on her offer.

Together, Aly and Josh live out their darkest fantasies, unaware that Aly has captured the attention of someone else. Someone with far more sinister intentions than a little light stalking. As Josh turns from predator to protector and the stakes heighten, he must ask himself how far he’s willing to go for the woman he’s obsessed with.

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🧨 Story Summary (Spoiler-Free)

Aly — a trauma nurse burdened by the harsh realities of her job — uses her downtime to escape into dark fantasies. Her obsession? A masked, tattooed man who posts “thirst traps” online: knife in hand, mask on, danger and desire dripping from the screen. One drunken text shatters the boundary between fantasy and reality.

Enter Josh — the mysterious masked man. What begins as a twisted fantasy quickly spirals into something far more real, dangerous, and complicated. As their worlds collide, Aly must decide whether she’s ready for everything that comes with desire, obsession, and the darkness hiding behind the mask.

The story moves fast and unforgivingly — equal parts smoldering desire, tense danger, and emotional depth. Romance? Check. Kink & taboo? Oh yes. High stakes? Absolutely.

♥︎━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⟪ ⚡ ⟫︎━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♥︎

✨ My Review

Overall Thoughts:

Lights Out is an absolute gem that completely blew my mind.
This book is dark, witty, and unapologetically bold—a rare combo that had me hooked from page one and absolutely reeling by the end.

Navessa Allen owns this genre mash-up. She blends tense, twisty suspense with laugh-out-loud humour and deep emotional undertones in a way that feels fresh, daring, and fiercely intelligent.

And let’s talk about that mask kink… 👀
It’s not just a sexy gimmick. It’s cleverly woven into the emotional and psychological core of the story—connected to power, vulnerability, obsession, and safety as much as it is to desire. It ramps up the tension and intimacy while also being, frankly, insanely hot.

A bold narrative choice that completely pays off.

In short: Lights Out dares to be different—and absolutely nails it.
If you like your romance a little chaotic, genuinely funny, morally grey, and dripping with tension, you’re in for a ride.

Characters:

• Aly – exhausted trauma nurse with a dark sense of humour, a very specific kink profile, and a habit of putting everyone else first until someone finally decides she deserves to be protected.
• Josh – viral masked thirst-trap creator; a “golden retriever in a wolf mask” kind of stalker: morally grey, horny, clingy, and deeply protective. He’s unhinged in the exact flavour that makes dark romance readers feral.

Their dynamic is this fun, whiplash-inducing mix of:

• terror-meets-desire
• deeply intimate moments
• absolute gremlin-level banter

Plot & Pacing:

The setup is tight from the start: Aly’s fantasies collide with Josh’s masked persona, then the external danger creeps in and escalates the stakes. Beneath the spice, there’s a proper suspense/thriller backbone—stalking, danger, crime elements, and a bigger Into Darkness world being set up for future books.

It never felt slow—more like a rollercoaster of “oh no” and “oh YES” in alternating waves.

Romance & Spice:

There is a lot of kink here: breath play, knife play, fear play, primal play, mask play and more—handled with clear in-text consent and mutual enthusiasm, but definitely intense.

The spice isn’t just thrown in—it builds character and deepens the emotional connection.
And yes, the mask scenes? Top-tier.

Writing Style:

Allen’s writing is:

• dark but accessible
• hilarious without undercutting the stakes
• cinematic in the suspenseful moments

The humour is exactly my flavour of messed-up: inappropriate jokes in intense moments, snark, and a lot of self-awareness about how wild the whole situation is.

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🎧 Narrators (Audiobook Section)

Narrated by:

• Elena Wolfe
• Jacob Morgan

This duet narration is chef’s kiss.

The MMC narrator totally got the assignment. His delivery gives that “Deadpool but darker, sexier, and somehow even more unhinged” energy—snarky one minute, dangerous the next, then unexpectedly vulnerable.

The FMC narrator nails Aly’s mix of exhaustion, sharp humour, and emotional soft spots. Her comedic timing especially shines, which is crucial in a book that leans so hard into dark humour.

And the duet style? Using the male narrator for all of Josh’s lines and the female narrator for Aly’s is the cherry on top of an already delicious cake. You know from my other reviews that I hate when male narrators do awkward falsetto for women—this avoids that completely and makes the audio feel like a dark, spicy, fully-cast show.

✧˖°✧˖°✧˖°✧˖°✧˖°✧˖°✧˖°✧˖°✧˖°✧˖°✧˖°✧˖°✧˖°✧˖°✧˖°✧˖° 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘬 ★ 𝘮𝘦 °˖✧°˖✧°˖✧°˖✧°˖✧°˖✧°˖✧°˖✧°˖✧°˖✧°˖✧°˖✧°˖✧°˖✧°˖✧°˖

💗 Tropes, Vibes & Favourite Quote

Tropes:

• Masked MMC / viral thirst-trap creator
• Trauma nurse FMC
• “Stalker” but make him cinnamon-roll-obsessed
• Captor / home invasion fantasy (consensual)
• Forced proximity
• Morally grey / morally black MMC
• Predator-to-protector arc
• Dark romance with heavy kink
• Romantic suspense with crime / danger plotlines

Vibes:
Dark 🔥 • Unhinged 😈 • Clever 🧠 • Hilarious 😂 • Obsessive 😵‍💫 • Twisty & tense ⏳• Kink-forward 😏 • Morbidly cozy 🕯️🐈 (hi, Fred)

Favourite Quote:

“I didn’t want him morally grey. I wanted someone with a soul as black as night. Someone who would burn the world down for me and not lose a single minute of sleep over it.”

(Tell me that doesn’t sum up the entire book…and what I want in a man! 🤭)

♡·˚ ♡·˚ ♡·˚ ♡·˚ ♡·˚ ♡·˚ ♡·˚ ♡·˚ ♡·˚ ♡·˚ ♡·˚ ♡·˚ ♡·˚🖤˗ˏˋ 🔥 ˎˊ˗🖤˚·♡ ˚·♡ ˚·♡ ˚·♡ ˚·♡ ˚·♡ ˚·♡ ˚·♡ ˚·♡ ˚·♡ ˚·♡ ˚·♡ ˚·♡

✨Fun Aesthetics

📸 AI Realistic Polaroid:

🎧 Spotify Playlist

📌 Pinterest Board:

⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣ “mine.” ⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣⟢⟣

👍 Would I Recommend It?

If you:

• enjoy dark romance with actual humour,
• love a morally grey, obsessively protective MMC,
• are comfortable with heavy kink and intense content,

then yes, I would absolutely recommend Lights Out.

If you’re very sensitive to darker themes or don’t enjoy fear/knife/breath/primal play, tread carefully and as stated before: definitely read the CW/TW list first. Mental Health comes first 🫶.

⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆💀 lol but make it dark 💀⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

💬 Final Thoughts + Come Chat

Lights Out is one of those books that feels like a fever dream in the best possible way—chaotic, spicy, clever, and somehow still emotional. It gave my brain and my hormones plenty to do, and the audiobook experience took it up another level.

If you’ve read it (or are planning to), come yell with me about:

• Josh in the mask
• your favourite unhinged moment
• whether you also cackled at the humour in between all the darkness

Drop your thoughts, scream with me in the comments, or tell me your fave dark rom-com recs next, because clearly my standards have now been raised 😈📚✨