After The Lights Went Out by Erika Aylward

After returning to her late mother’s struggling bookshop, Cora expects grief, silence, and loneliness — not Ellis Hargreaves, the quiet electrician repairing the failing lights above the shop. As power cuts pull them together night after night, their connection deepens into something intimate, tender, and impossible to ignore.

Themes & Tropes

• Small-town romance

• Grief & healing

• Slow burn

• Bookshop setting

• Emotionally intimate open-door romance

• Quiet emotional tension