Some stories stay with you.
Even in the dark.
After her mother’s death, Cora returns to the small-town bookshop she once planned to escape from — determined to keep her head down, sell the shop, and leave before the grief swallowing the place can swallow her too.
Then the lights start going out.
Every blackout brings Ellis Hargreaves back through the door.
The town electrician is quiet, broad-shouldered, and entirely too observant for Cora’s liking. He fixes fuse boxes at midnight, brings coffee she never asks for, and looks at her like he can see every exhausted, lonely part she’s trying not to unravel.
And in the dark, it becomes dangerously easy to let him.
But grief has a way of making ghosts out of people, and Cora knows better than to mistake comfort for something lasting — especially with a man who makes staying feel dangerously possible.
Set in a rain-soaked bookshop filled with old stories, soft lamplight, and the kind of silence that says too much, After the Lights Went Out is an emotionally intimate small-town romance about grief, healing, and falling in love when you least know how to survive it.
After the Lights Went Out
by Erika Aylward
Some nights change everything.
When Cora returns to the quiet seaside town she once ran from, she expects grief, dust, and the slow work of sorting through the life her mother left behind.
What she doesn’t expect is the silence.
The bookshop still smells like paper and citrus cleaner. The shelves still lean slightly where her mum insisted they had character. Outside, the sea keeps its steady rhythm against the harbour wall.
But something feels different now.
Then the lights start going out.
Ellis arrives the first night it happens — a calm, steady electrician with tired eyes and a quiet patience that Cora doesn’t quite know what to do with. Fixing faulty wiring should have been simple.
Instead, it becomes something else entirely.
A conversation in the dark.
A cup of tea that lasts too long.
A quiet connection neither of them planned.
Cora has spent years learning how to keep her life carefully contained. Wanting too much has never ended well for her.
And Ellis knows better than most what it feels like when people walk away.
But some stories begin exactly when everything else goes dark.
After the Lights Went Out is an intimate, emotionally rich romance about grief, quiet second chances, and the unexpected ways people find their way back to each other.
Perfect for readers who love:
• Slow-burn romance
• Small-town bookshop settings
• Emotionally tender love stories
• Found-family moments
• Late-night conversations that change everything
Paperback Edition
This edition includes the full novel in a beautiful 6x9 paperback format.
If you’d like a more immersive reading experience, you can also explore the limited After the Lights Went Out Box, which includes a signed copy of the book, tea for your reading night, an exclusive short story set six months after the ending, and other special items inspired by the story.
Sometimes the lights have to go out before you can see what’s been waiting for you all along.
Includes signed book + exclusive short story + reader keepsakes
This isn’t just a book.
It’s an evening.
It’s the kind where the kettle hums softly in the background, rain taps against the window, and you tell yourself just one more chapter — and mean five.
Created especially for readers who love slow-burn tension, quiet longing, and love that unfolds in the dark, this limited pre-order box is designed to feel like stepping into Cora and Ellis’s world.
Inside the box you'll find:
📘 A signed paperback copy of After the Lights Went Out
Personalised, hand-signed, and sent with gratitude.
📖 An exclusive short story — The Evening the Lights Didn’t Flicker
A pre-order only scene you won’t find anywhere else. Soft. Intimate. Just for you.
🔖 A luxury navy bookmark
With the line: “Some things are easier in the dark.”
🕯 An exclusive illustrated postcard
Featuring the line: “He looked at me like I was worth waiting for.”
Perfect to keep. Frame. Or tuck into your favourite book.
🍵 An Earl Grey tea bag in a custom envelope
Your official After the Lights Went Out blend.
📜 The Evening Reading Ritual card
A small reminder to slow down.
Every box is packed slowly and thoughtfully by me — not from a warehouse, but from my desk, with soft music on and a cup of tea nearby.
If you’re the kind of reader who loves:
• quiet intimacy
• late-night conversations
• emotionally layered slow-burn romance
• stories that feel like company
Then this box was made for you.
Let’s turn one lamp on. 🖤
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