Lucy Score’s Things We Hide from the Light (2023), a romance novel set in the fictional northern Virginia town of Knockemout, is the second in an anthology series that begins with Things We Never Got Over (2022). Things We Hide from the Light focuses on Nash Morgan, the town’s police chief, who struggles to recover emotionally and psychologically from the near-fatal shooting recounted in the series’ first book. Only when Nash falls for Lina, an insurance investigator with a specialty in recovering stolen property who is sent to Knockemout in connection with the car theft ring that nearly got him killed, does Nash begin to recover. Lina, in turn, feels the same urgent pull toward Nash, but such attractions are a risk she has always avoided.

The novel chronicles the interplay of these two wounded people, who seem obviously wrong for each other at first, as they move from their incendiary passion to the healing power of love and trust. Given Score’s international fan base and her presence on social media, Things We Hide from the Light immediately topped both The New York Times and Amazon best-seller lists. Although the novel follows several traditional romance novel tropes, with its emphasis on mismatched lovers uniting, Things We Hide from the Light also transcends genre conventions to explore The Impact of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, how Opposites Attract, Fathers and Sons, and The Power of Community. This study guide uses the 2023 Bloom Books paperback edition.

Content Warning: This guide quotes the book’s use of profanity and summarizes explicit sexual content.

Plot Summary

It has been months since Nash Morgan, Police Chief of Knockemout, Virginia, was shot attempting to break up a stolen car ring run by Duncan Hugo, the son of an underworld kingpin in nearby Washington. Even now, FBI special agents shadow Nash to protect him against a possible reprisal by the crime family. Nash has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and cannot recall the shooting. Despite counseling and anxiety medication, Nash feels isolated and paranoid, and is prone to anxiety attacks.

Angelina Solavita, an insurance investigator known for tracking down stolen property, moves into the apartment next door to Nash. She is the ex-lover of Nash’s older brother, Knox. Wrestling with her own kind of PTSD (she nearly died from a heart defect when she was 15), Lina hesitates to share with Nash that she is in town to recover a vintage Porsche stolen by the same crime ring responsible for his shooting. Although they are immediately attracted to each other, Lina sees the “hunky” Nash more as a fling given her nomadic lifestyle. Meanwhile, Nash, who has trauma because of the shooting, yearns for the stability of a relationship.

At work, Nash deals with Officer Tate Dilton, a rookie cop who has earned a string of harassment complaints. The department is in legal trouble after Dilton pulled over a Black couple driving a luxury car on the false suspicion (prompted by racial profiling) that the car must be stolen. The couple is now contemplating suing the department. Nash puts Dilton on paid leave.

Lina gathers evidence about the missing Porsche. As she digs, she begins to suspect the thug who shot Nash may be part of the same crime organization that stole the sports car. As Nash’s and Lina’s investigations progress, the two act on their attraction. They share a passionate kiss, flirt, and, when Nash experiences a panic attack, they spend a chaste night together. Gradually, they open up to each other about their near-death experiences and their feelings of vulnerability. Lina tells Nash why she is in Knockemout. When the two finally have sex, it is life-altering in its intimacy and its intensity. Lina takes a reluctant Nash skydiving, and as the two fall to earth harnessed to each other, they both feel the profound pull of love.

When a drunken Tate Dilton and his beer buddies harass Lina and her friends during a town Halloween party, Nash intervenes alongside his brother and several friends. A fight breaks out. The following morning, Nash relieves Tate of his duties.

Using a network of friends, Lina and Nash coordinate their efforts to identify who shot Nash. Solving that mystery will lead them to Duncan Hugo and the stolen Porsche. On a hunch from Waylay, Nash’s 12-year-old niece who was abducted by the car thieves the night Nash was shot, Lina turns her attention to identifying a shadowy man who has been watching her. Waylay recalls that on the night of Nash’s shooting, one of the thugs ate wrapped candy; Lina notices that the man she keeps seeing purchases bags of the same candy at a convenience store.

Nash’s network of friends digging into the Hugo criminal organization learns that Duncan wants to cooperate with federal agents in return for eliminating his own father so that he can take over the family operation. Duncan has never left Knockemout, which means that Nash’s shooting was a botched effort by an unnamed underling, but the question of who and where Duncan is hiding furthers the mystery.

One day, after rushing to the scene of nasty car accident, Nash encounters his estranged father, who is recovering from misusing alcohol after Nash’s mother died. Nash feels overwhelmed, helpless, and unable to protect anybody. Without telling her the reason, Nash breaks it off with Lina.

One day, two thugs—one of them the candy man—snatch Lina and drive her to a barn at an abandoned horse farm outside of Knockemout. Lina is stunned to be met by Tate Dilton, who turns out to be one of Duncan Hugo’s henchmen.

Duncan himself appears. Ever resourceful, Lina slips her restraints and surprises Duncan and Tate as they play a video game. She snatches the console, eludes them both, and hides in one of the stalls in the barn. On a hunch, she uses the console’s IP signal to contact Waylay, who in turn contacts Nash. Within minutes, Nash and his friends swarm the farm. Nash suddenly remembers that it was Tate Dilton who shot him that night. In a tense showdown, Tate pulls his gun, and then Nash shoots him dead. Duncan Hugo is apprehended. Lina and Nash fall into each other’s arms.

Days later, at his brother’s wedding, Nash and Lina commit to each other. Nash gives Lina an engagement ring, and the two talk happily about the future they will have together. Five years later, Lina and Nash, now married, await the birth of twins.