What We’re Matching
I’m only recommending books I’m sure of, with the author and year, and nothing here is spoiled.
First, what are we matching? Lights Out is a dark stalker romance with a comic voice. A nurse and a masked man fall for each other in a story that has real danger in it, and it is also constantly laughing at itself. The author’s own note at the front calls it a dark stalker rom-com with heavy themes.
So there are really four things to look for. Consensual danger between the leads. A male lead who watches, plans and obsesses. Humor in the narration. And a heroine who is not a victim, who plays along and often leads.
What Makes Lights Out Different
Before the list, let me say what is unusual here, so you can judge a match for yourself. In Lights Out the heroine knows from early on that something is wrong, and she asks for more anyway. She wants the masked man to break in. She keeps a gun by her bed and uses it. When she wants to unmask him, she runs her own investigation, with a DNA test.
The book also has a lot of ordinary warmth. There is a cat named Fred who screams for bacon. There is a couple who bicker, trade jokes and look after each other after hard shifts. There is a mob family with strong opinions about espresso. So when I say a book is like Lights Out, I mean that it shares at least one of those things, not all of them.
The book was also first posted a chapter at a time on the author’s website, and in the acknowledgments she thanks the readers who followed along and her patrons. That serial feel shows. Each chapter tends to end on a hook, and the alternating voices keep things moving.
Start With the Sequels
The easiest next step is the rest of the series. Lights Out is book one of the Into Darkness trilogy, and the next books are Caught Up, published in two thousand twenty-five, and Game On. As of November twenty twenty-six, publisher pages list all three, and the series is described as complete. They are described as interconnected, so read them in order, though each book follows its own couple. I haven’t read those two, so I can’t tell you how closely they match this one.
The Series Order
Here is the order, as of November twenty twenty-six, according to the publisher’s series page and several book trackers. Book one is Lights Out, two thousand twenty-four. Book two is Caught Up, which was published on June tenth, twenty twenty-five, by Zando’s Slowburn imprint. Book three is Game On. Trackers also list another Navessa Allen title from twenty twenty-six, but it is not part of this series. I could not confirm a release date for Game On, so I’m leaving it out.
Haunting Adeline by H. D. Carlton
Haunting Adeline, from two thousand twenty-one, is the book most people name first. A woman is being followed by a man who leaves her notes and watches her, and the story turns into a dark romance. It’s much heavier than Lights Out. It has no comic voice, it is long, and it carries serious content warnings, including violence and abuse. If you want the stalker half of the book at full intensity, this is it.
There is a sequel, Hunting Adeline, from two thousand twenty-two, and the two together form a duet.
Butcher and Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
Butcher and Blackbird, from two thousand twenty-three, is the closest in tone as I understand it. It’s a romance between two people who both have a taste for killing, and it’s told with black humor and plenty of banter. If what you loved about Lights Out was the jokes about a very bad situation, start here. Expect gore, and expect it to be darker than the cover suggests.
You by Caroline Kepnes
You, from two thousand fourteen, is the classic stalker narrator, and it’s a thriller, not a romance. The story is told from inside the head of a man who decides he’s in love with a woman and follows her. It was made into a Netflix series. If what grabbed you in Lights Out was Josh’s mind, his planning and his rationalizing, You gives you that, and then removes the consent. It is deliberately unsettling, and you aren’t meant to cheer for him.
A Quick Comparison
Let me put these side by side on four things: humor, danger, warmth and whether the stalker is the hero.
On humor, Butcher and Blackbird is closest, then the Into Darkness sequels, and Haunting Adeline and You are the least funny. On danger, Haunting Adeline and You are well above Lights Out. On warmth, the sequels win, because they share the author’s style. And on whether the stalker is the hero, it is yes in Haunting Adeline and in Lights Out, and no in You, where he is the villain of his own story.
That last difference is important. If you read You expecting a romance, you’ll be disappointed, and the book wants you to be.
How to Pick
Here is how I’d choose. If you want the same humor and the same couple energy, read Caught Up next. If you want more menace, Haunting Adeline. If you want more jokes about murder, Butcher and Blackbird. And if you want to look at the stalker from the outside, You.
One More Way to Choose
If you are not sure, ask yourself which part of Lights Out stuck with you. If it was the early chapters, with the video, the mask on the bed and the first messages, then you want a slow, suspenseful start, and Haunting Adeline gives you that. If it was the middle, with the stitches, the cat, the nervous texting and the awkward family dinner, then you want the sequels. And if it was the strange feeling of laughing at something you probably shouldn’t, then Butcher and Blackbird is the one.
Whichever you pick, read the content warnings first. Dark romance is a wide category, and the warnings on these books are real.
A Note on Content
Because these are adult books, I want to be clear about what I mean by dark. Lights Out lists its own warnings at the front: explicit sex, stalking, home invasion, hidden cameras, hacking, violent death, and a few more. If those were fine for you, the books on this list are in the same neighborhood, and some go further. If one of them was a hard line, check each title’s warnings before you buy. I have a full content guide for Lights Out on this site, with chapter numbers, if you want to compare.
What Not to Expect
A few warnings. Almost everything on this list is more graphic than most romances, and some are much darker than Lights Out. They have strong content warnings, so check them. Lights Out ends warmly and with a lot of affection. Several of these do not.
Also, no other book on this list is quite like it, because Lights Out is warmer than most dark romance. If you came for the cat and the jokes, that is rarer than the masks.
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