Lights Out

The review

Aly is an overworked trauma nurse who unwinds by scrolling through masked, tattooed men online. One tipsy, half-joking message about wanting her fantasy to break in sets everything in motion, and then a man in a ghost mask actually shows up. Lights Out is the masked-man romance BookTok could not stop talking about: a dark romantic comedy where the fantasy comes with a serial-killer plot attached.

Allen's trick is tone. The premise is pure dark romance, but the book is genuinely funny, with Aly's inner voice providing a running commentary on how absurd her life has become. Josh is a morally grey, obsessive hero with a soft center, and the fun is watching him go from intimidating stranger to devoted, slightly unhinged boyfriend.

There is a real thriller running underneath. What starts as a game turns into a dangerous situation, and the stakes escalate into a hunt for a killer with both of them in the crosshairs. The plot is not the main event, but it gives the book momentum and a big climax.

The heat: five peppers. It is very explicit and kink-forward, with masked roleplay, fear play and chase scenes, all framed as fantasies Aly asked for. If the masked-man trend on BookTok is your thing, this is the book at its center.

Know before you start: the publisher points readers to the content warnings at the beginning of the book, and we could not find them published online, so read that page first. It is the first of three interconnected standalones and ends happily. If Haunting Adeline was too dark but the masked-man fantasy appeals, this is the lighter, funnier version.

Read it if you want masked-man spice with jokes. Skip it if fear play or chase scenes are hard limits. It is one of the fastest reads on this list; most readers finish it in a sitting or two, and the funniest lines are worth reading out loud.