Book Review: Lights Out by Navessa Allen

This one is for the dark romance lovers and, I don't just mean a few red flags. I mean the mask wearing, knife wielding, chased through the forest kind of dark. So if that isn't your thing, please feel free to read a different review. However, if it is, come join me on this wild, sinful ride.

Minor Spoilers Ahead

Josh Hammond and Aly Cappelucci are two deeply troubled people who end up coming together to play out their dark sexual fantasies, whilst navigating their own hectic, stressful lives. It's the kind of premise you would expect from a fan fiction on Archive Of Our Own or Wattpad, and though that idea might make you roll your eyes, trust me on this one, it works.

“I saved my favourites for the ghost-like masks, though. The shirtless ones had me drooling. Add in a knife and some fake blood, and that was an instant follow.”

Aly is our main female lead. She is a strong, fierce woman who works as a trauma nurse in a pretty dangerous part of town. She's overworked, underpaid and wholly responsible for everything in her life. Her daily ritual revolves around her harrowing job and the masked men she follows on a phone app, using their videos for her pleasure in her very infrequent free time, curating an almost stalker-ish type admiration for one persona in particular.

It's established pretty quickly that not only does Aly have a mask fetish, but a resounding desire to experience the darker side of pleasure in more than a few aspects. Due to her overwhelming life and past guilt, she desperately yearns to give up control, to have someone else take the lead and make her forget about the world around her, if only for a little while. Since she sees the darker side of the world on a daily basis, she had grown numb to it and now, her fleeting one nights stands and vanilla life are boring and tiresome. She needs much, much more to feel fulfilled. Alive.

I really enjoyed Aly's character. She makes for a brilliant lead. She was believable, down to earth, easy to sympathise with and unapologetic in her stance towards life. I quickly understood why Aly desires what she does and, found myself just going along with the choices she makes, instead of stopping frequently to question them. Though she does lean a little to much into the 'TikTok badass' persona at times, it's riveting to watch her story play out.

“Maybe it was time to accept the fact that I wasn’t normal, and I never would be. I wanted things most people didn’t, craved darkness and depravity, instead of light and love.”

Then we have Josh Hammond, our main male lead. He is a introverted hacker, who films 'thirst traps' to millions of viewers wearing a horror-themed mask, covered in fake blood and wielding a knife. He doesn't venture out much, due to his father being a well known criminal and so, he lives in constant fear of being recognised – he is a spitting image of his father - and questioning if he will eventually become the man he detests. Yet, even though he wishes to be nothing like his Father, he can't help the burning desires he has. The wish to control, to punish, to experience fear that melts into lust under his watch. He understands that it's not normal, he knows he's probably in deep, but he still hopes to find someone he can play out his fantasies with, even if he has to force their meeting a little.

Josh is a fantastically written character and his rather bleak backstory separates him from the typical males we see in these kind of stories. It's not that he veers to far from the usual suspect list of tropes: Tall, muscular, ridiculously handsome and covered in tattoo's but his looks don't make up who he is. His tragic past, tortured upbringing, the skewed way in which he sees the world and himself are far more of a focal point, making him more than just a one dimensional man for us to fawn over. Despite his red flags, by which he has a few, such as stalking, hacking private information, possessiveness, a tendency towards knife play and enjoying fear, he's also deeply caring, compassionate, understanding and considerate of Aly's needs. He is a whole package, a twisted package, but one nevertheless.

“I didn’t want him morally gray. 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.”

Aly and Josh's romance has an interesting start. After a series of fortunate events, Josh breaks into Aly's house, filming one of his videos in her bedroom to see if she really does want what she claims online. Though she freaks out at first – rightly so – those desires she was been keeping secret stop her from calling the Police, and instead seeing where this road takes her. It's from there their relationship begins to grow. It's rocky, wild and sinful, but oh boy is it fun. Aly and Josh are magnets drawn together by odd circumstances and sexual intentions. Their dynamic is playful and funny, whilst their love making is hot and heavy. I just couldn't help but keep reading, dragged into their world, laughing along with them, blushing at their interactions, giggling when things got heated. I admit you need to suspend some common sense that often doesn't apply in books of this genre to truly get into it, but when you do, their romance is a spicy joy to read.

“I’d never felt more feral in my life, like I could fight every man who looked at her, put a fucking collar on her neck and lead her around on a leash just to prove that she belonged to me.”

Speaking of the spice, you might want to open the window and find yourself a comfortable position because my, does Navessa Allen go all in. These scenes are explicit, detailed, riveting, and if your personal preferences align even a little with this couples, you will feel a tingle. There are actually fewer explicit scenes in this book then I had expected, but each one was superb. I'd give this a solid four out of five chillies on the spice meter.

“You’re beautiful when you’re scared.”

When it comes to the plot, Lights Out goes between the POV's of both characters per chapter, so you get too experience their very different sides of life. Though the focus is primarily on them, Aly's job, and Josh's nature and mentality play prominent roles in the story. This isn't just smut with some plot, it's plot with some heavy hitting smut.

The side characters are few and they remain background characters, giving us a glimpse of Josh and Aly's life outside of their own thoughts and feelings. They don't feel meaningless, but they also didn't intrude to much on the story. Just over half way through, you are introduced to a part of Aly's family, who happen to be in the Mob. It makes for an entertaining dynamic to see a proud trauma nurse who spends her days attempting to save lives, interact with people who takes lives without much thought.

So, is there drama? Absolutely. Is it rife with tension? Definitely. Do things take a turn and you wonder if they are going to get out of it safe and sound? Without a doubt. Yet it all blends together really well. Reading this is akin to sitting in the passenger seat of a Lamborghini and daringly deciding to take your seat belt off, when the driver hits the motorway and floors the gas, tossing away safety for a dangerous thrill. It's what Aly and Josh want to feel, and soon you will want to experience it too.

“Will you marry me so I can spend the rest of my life chasing you?”

All that being said, this story isn't without it's flaws. There are quite a few instances of repetition, some moments where both parties felt a little out of character and, some of the drama delved a little too deep into the realm of fan fiction. Even so, I found it incredibly enjoyable and the rest of it more then made up for any nagging hang ups I had.

Overall, this is one of the best books I've read this year and, would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a story in the dark romance genre.

My overall rating: 5/5

Thank you for reading!