Caught UP
Navessa Allen
Into Darkness #2
Into Darkness : You can’t see red flags in the dark
Cover and Synopsis
Caught Up Cover & Blurb
“I wanted this woman, and I was a man who always got what he wanted.”
Nico “Junior” Trocci knows Lauren Marchetti is off limits. She is sweetness and laughter, whereas Junior exists in a world of violence and depravity. Men like him don’t get to have women like her. It’s why he pushed her away back in high school and kept his distance ever since.
But when Junior looks Lauren up online, he discovers the shy, bookish girl he remembers is gone. In her place is a strikingly beautiful woman whose social media is filled with scantily clad pictures of herself and a connection to a nearby play club. Junior’s innocent curiosity quickly turns into a dark obsession. Watching Lauren from a distance isn’t enough; he needs to make her his.
“He’s ruthless; a walking red flag. Good thing red is my favorite color.”
Lauren is intrigued by the mystery man who keeps showing up at her club, who tempts her white-hot desires. But as their flirty online messages stir up a deeper form of connection, Lauren worries she’s developing real feelings for this brooding stranger. As their combined desire ratchets up to a breaking point, who will seduce who?
Book Information
Caught Up
Published June 2025 by Quercus.
Audiobook narrated by Teddy Hamilton, Kasi Hollowell and Jason June.
Genre : Dark Romance
Pages : 352 pages, Paperback
Caught UP Trigger Warnings
Cam & Sex Work. Mafia & Organized Crime. Blackmail & Coercion. Religion, Blood, Violence, Brief Gore, and Graphic sex including multi-partner. Breath, Primal and Fear play. Voyeurism and Exhibitionism. Bondage and light BDSM. Stalking. Child Abuse and remembered Domestic Abuse. Remembered bullying. Slut-shaming. Alcohol, Gambling and Smoking. Mention of Serial Killers and their crimes. Off-page, alluded to cannibalism.
Caught Up is a dark, stalker romcom with heavy themes.
Caught Up Tropes
Masked Stalker
Second Chance
Mafia & Sex Work
Interconnected Standalone
Review
Caught Up by Navessa Allen
Get On Your Knees & Prey
One goddamn look, and I’d spent all of Mass trying not to squirm in my seat like a… well, like a jezebel in a church.
Buckle Up Bookworms and step Into Darkness.
Caught Up by Navessa Allen is one of my most anticipated reads of the year. I had read Lights Out back in December-and, I cannot stress this enough, loved it. I had listened to the audiobook and it was fantastic. So of course as soon as I woke up on release day I started Caught Up. I legit finished it before my boyfriend got home from work. Color him surprised.
Spoilers Sweetie : Jump down to my Final Thoughts to avoid them.
- Happy birthday Junior.
- Ohh Aly’s cousin. I forgot.
- Not the favorite whip.
- On the ceiling!
- Dirty boy. In church!
- Kelly’s a bitch.
- Nico definitely framed the bitch.
- Ngl I just realized sub was subscriber not submissive.
- Yea he did. Knew it.
- Only for you, Lo.
- A White Knight kink.
- A cannibal sub. Imagine. I’m dying.
- Creating a memory.
- Jesus Junior.
- Oh, you’re going to let her. Junior unlocking kinks left right and center.
- Welcome to the voyeur room.
- The confessional booth.
- Nonna!
- Porno Joe. I like that Josh and Junior are friends.
- Does Junior not know about Josh’s extracurricular online activities?
- She attacked me for real.
- Josh is just as hilarious as ever.
- This is going to be one tense dinner.
- Zap.
- Knot practicing.
- That’s my girl.
- Of course the safe word is taser.
- Josh and the fucking cats kills me.
Caught Up by Navessa Allen Review
Minor Spoilers
Navessa Allen knocked it out of the park, again. Caught Up, the second instalment in the Into Darkness series, was just as well written and hilarious as Lights Out. However, the overall tone of Caught Up is slightly more grounded and serious than Lights Out.
Threads from Lights Out
Caught Up centres around Nico “Junior” Trocci, cousin of Aly-star and FMC of Lights Out. There are a handful of appearances by Aly and Josh throughout Caught Up and it was absolutely delightful to catch up with them and their fur babies. Scattered throughout Caught Up are also crumbs for what will be the third book in Allen’s Into Darkness series. Already I can’t wait for the next family dinner.
I hadn’t seen Nico “Junior” Trocci in ten years, yet all it had taken was one shared glance across the aisle to set my blood on fire.
Nico and Lauren have shitty fathers. As young kids they had a short fling and all was well for our young lovers. It would not last though. Passages of Lauren’s diary are released to the public. Fear not, Lauren’s bully got hers. Here’s looking at you Nico. Neither father was happy when they found out, threatening Nico within an inch of his life to end things. Nico spends the next decade obsessing. Lauren spends it suffering.
“Please let me touch you, Lo,” he said, fingers sliding back down my waist. “Please let me touch you. I promise I’ll make you feel good.”
We love a man who begs.
One of the more interesting aspects of Caught Up was Nico’s inexperience when it came to the world of sex and the kinks within it. Lauren however, is well versed. As an adult, Lauren became a cam girl and sex work advocate. She grows up to embrace her sexuality. While Nico was forced to repress his. It was nice to see a powerful, seductive, and confidently sexual woman. It was nice to see an inexperienced man find his pleasures in the comfort and safety of the woman he loves.
I personally didn’t find Caught Up to be as sex-fueled as Lights Out. That being said, the sex scenes in Caught Up were just different. In fact, Josh and Aly are quite vanilla compared to Nico and Lauren. When Allen lists exhibitionism and voyeurism in the trigger warnings, she wasn’t joking around. Although the sex scenes weren’t as depraved as Lights Out-ahem, hello knife, they were delicious.
I do wish there had been more Mafia vibes in Caught Up. Mostly, I just wanted more from Nico. When you strip away the sex, we are left with a bit of a lop sided story in favour of Lauren. Nico’s whole deal is trying to escape his father and the hold he has over him. Due to the quick pace of Caught Up, we end up in a tell not show situation. Most of his chapters involve Lauren, while her chapters still involve her friends, and life outside of Nico.
The Into Darkness series is what it is.
Personally, I find the series to be on the lighter side. Even when the comedy is stripped away, I find it to be light and fluffy. I didn’t actually find anything dark about it. Sometimes, I feel like the word dark to describe romance is just another way to politely shame. Caught Up had the potential to be darker, if there had been more mafia and stalker vibes. As it is however, Lights Out is definitely the darker of the series.
“Do you like how wet I got for you?” she asked.
“Yes,” I ground out. “But I want you wetter.”
Quotes
Caught UP Quotes
Those fucking green eyes of his stared straight into my horny little soul.
…an obvious sex demon come to claim my horny soul.
“Only for you, Lo.”
Literally everything is a kink if you think about it long enough.
Until now, I’d mostly made her frown or moan, and I decided that needed to change. The moaning, we could keep that, but the frowning had to go.
My pussy screamed at the authority in his tone.
Spice
Caught UP Spicy Chapters
3, 9, 10, 11, 15, 18, 19, 22, 26, 31 & 34
Leave a Reply