My 22nd read of the year was Caught Up by Navessa Allen, the second book in the Into Darkness series, I.E, the infamous Lights Out book that did the rounds on booktok.
Although I’ll try my best to keep things vague, you know that these are spicy books, so potential NSFW content below.
I will also do my best to avoid spoilers for book 1.
A vague summary
Junior is ready to be done with the life of darkness he’s been living as a cleanup guy in the mob. When the father of his high school sweetheart is suddenly out of the picture, he can finally get back in touch with her. She’s part of his exit plan, something he could never have while living this life, but with her father gone, there’s just his controlling mobster father to deal with.
Lauren is a proud spicy content creator and advocate for sex worker’s rights. She has a one strike rule for every guy in her life, whether he’s a subscriber or a real-life partner, and Junior is the reason it exists. Yet, when he strolls up to her one day after years of silence – in a church of all places – all her reasons go flying out the window. She got out of the old neighborhood, built a community around her and online that helps her make a living doing something she genuinely enjoys, and provides a safe space to explore her kinkier interests. Lauren isn’t prepared to let Junior reel her back into that life, little does she know that he’s sees a life with her as a ticket out.
As Junior works hard to earn her forgiveness, he’s also working behind the scenes to get out of his father’s control and when he discovers the play club Lauren is invested in is having financial difficulties, he finally sees a path forward.
Can Lauren forgive him for what he did as teenagers? Can she trust him to respect her work? Also, why does he know so much about her life in the time they’ve spent apart… and could she be on-board with some light stalking and a little danger…?
My review
I definitely enjoyed book 1 more, but I think that’s just because Josh’s goofiness really made that book ten times as fun. In this book it’s Lauren who gives you a lot of the funny moments though, which I appreciated because Junior was a little one dimensional ‘dark and broody’ for a bit there but he does level out.
I feel that this book is just a spicy but potentially a little more palatable to someone who are new to dark romance than Lights Out is. We see a different kind of kink world playing out in this book, that’s still ‘danger centric’ but not quite ‘using a knife handle is certain areas’ dangerous. I do think that what makes these books stand-out over other dark romances though is that this once again isn’t abuse or rape dressed up in a romance trench coat. The fmc is enthusiastically consenting throughout and any moments when she genuinely is setting a boundary, it is respected.
All in all, it was a good read, the writing style is the kind that flows really well and makes it very read-able. I will keep reading for sure and I’m curious to see what the TV series based on book 1 will be like, because it’s largely what’s going on in Josh’s inner monologue that helps you see he’s not a total psycho.
Antonia Bernardin 