🎧
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ 4/5
Okay so.
I went into Lights Out expecting a spicy stalker romance.
I came out having laughed so hard at a cat named Fred that I had to pause the audiobook. Twice.
That's not really what I signed up for.
It's better.
Lights Out by Navessa Allen is a dark, funny, very online romance about a trauma nurse who follows masked men on the internet for fun. Until one of them shows up in her bedroom.
Listen to it if you want dark romance that doesn't take itself too seriously.
Skip it if stalking themes, violence, or high heat content aren't your thing.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Title | Lights Out |
| Author | Navessa Allen |
| Narrators (audiobook) | Elena Wolfe & Jacob Morgan (duet narration) |
| Series | Into Darkness, Book 1 |
| Genre | Dark Romance, Romantic Suspense |
| Subgenre | Stalker Romance, Dark Rom-Com, Contemporary |
| Audiobook length | Approximately 13 hours 36 minutes |
| First published | February 14, 2024 |
| Publisher | Slowburn / Zando Penguin Audio |
Aly Cappellucci is a trauma nurse.
Her actual job is holding other people's worst days together with both hands.
So off the clock, she doesn't want anything complicated. She wants to scroll her phone and thirst over masked men in cosplay videos. That's it. That's the whole hobby.
One of those men is Josh Hammond.
Online creator. Huge following. Never takes the mask off on camera.
And, it turns out, a lot more going on underneath that persona than "guy who makes content."
Aly leaves a comment one night. A little too honest. A little too late.
And instead of getting ignored like every other comment on the internet, she gets a reply.
Yeah. It goes exactly where you think it goes.
Masked man ends up in her apartment because she basically invited him online.
Sounds like it shouldn't work on paper.
It works, because Navessa Allen just leans into how unhinged the whole setup is instead of pretending it's normal.
I'm not going to tell you where the story goes from here.
Half the fun is watching Aly and Josh figure out what they mean to each other once the online version of them isn't enough anymore. Just know there's more under that mask than a thirst-trap persona.
Aly's tired in a way that feels real.
Not "quirky tired." Actually tired, the kind you get from a job like hers.
Following masked men online as a coping mechanism sounds silly written down. On her, it makes sense.
Josh is your classic morally gray love interest. Broody, a little dangerous. But he can also laugh at himself, which keeps him from turning into a brick wall with abs.
There's real softness under the mask too. The book takes its time getting you there.
Honestly though? The banter is the whole show.
It's fast. It's a little unhinged. It never feels like two people trading clever lines at each other for the reader's benefit.
It feels like two people who are into each other and also can't quite believe this is their life now.
And Fred the cat deserves his own paragraph, but I'll keep it short: if you're a cat person, Fred alone might be worth the listen.
Most stalker romances play it dead serious. All tension, no room to breathe.
This one isn't like that.
It's dark, sure. But it's also genuinely funny, and that keeps the whole thing from getting heavy.
A scene can go from tense to hilarious to sincere in a page or two, and somehow it mostly doesn't feel jarring.
The book also grounds Aly's fantasies in her real life. Her job isn't just backstory. It explains why she needs an outlet like this. Gives the romance something to stand on underneath all the spice and chaos.
Where it stumbles a bit, for me anyway, is the back half.
The plot widens out. More stakes, more moving pieces than the setup first promises.
That shift doesn't land quite as smooth as the character work does.
If you're here purely for the slow-burn, internet-to-real-life thing, the last stretch might feel like it's reaching a little.
Quick heads-up, too. This book is genuinely dark underneath the jokes.
Trigger warnings for stalking, past abuse, violence, and explicit content. The publisher flags them at the start for a reason.
This is one of those books where audio actually adds something.
Lights Out is narrated in duet style by Elena Wolfe and Jacob Morgan. Each one voices their own character's chapters.
That setup fits the dual point-of-view structure well. You always know exactly whose head you're in.
The banter especially benefits from being performed out loud.
A lot of the comedy lives in timing. The pause before the punchline. Stuff that can read a little flat on the page but lands hard when you actually hear it.
If you've seen people online saying this book made them laugh out loud in public, the audiobook is probably why.
Pacing-wise, it moves.
Quick chapters. Dialogue-heavy. Easy to fall into on a commute or while doing chores.
Maybe not around other people, though. Given how spicy some of it gets.
Good fit if you like dark romance with a sense of humor about itself.
Good fit if you enjoy slow-burn-then-not-so-slow.
Good fit if you don't mind your love interest showing up somewhere he technically wasn't invited. Well. Kind of invited.
Not the right pick if graphic content or stalking themes are hard limits for you.
Also not it if you like your romance lighter, lower-stakes, start to finish.
Lights Out by Navessa Allen may be available to borrow free on Libby with a public library card, depending on your library's collection. Alternatively, the Start Free Trial Now button on this page can help you get started — check the trial page for current terms and what's included.
I went in for the meme-able premise.
I stayed for the characters, honestly.
Lights Out isn't perfect. The plot asks for more patience in its last stretch than the first three-quarters do.
But Aly and Josh's chemistry, the humor, and a genuinely strong duet narration make this one easy to recommend, as long as you know what you're signing up for.
Seen Lights Out everywhere on BookTok and wondering if the hype holds up on audio?
Mostly, yeah.
It's not the greatest romance ever written. It doesn't need to be.
It just needs to be fun, a little unhinged, and worth your commute.
It is.
Most audiobook platforms give new members a free trial credit, so you can queue this one up and see for yourself whether Aly and Josh's chaos is your kind of chaos. No commitment needed to find out.
