Forbidden Feasts: The Official Lights Out Cookbook and Apron Gift Set

There are two kinds of people in this world. There are responsible adults who carefully compare prices, ask themselves whether they really need another cookbook, and make logical, well-thought-out financial decisions. Then there’s me—the woman who stumbled across Forbidden Feasts: The Official Lights Out Cookbook and Apron Gift Set available for preorder, literally squealed, and somehow convinced herself this wasn’t an impulse purchase at all. It was practically self-care.

In my defense, if you’ve read Lights Out, you probably understand why there wasn’t much of an internal debate. I absolutely fell in love with Josh and Aly’s story, Josh had already earned his place as my first Book Boyfriend, and I wasn’t remotely ready to leave their world behind when I reached the last page. So when someone told me I could have an entire cookbook inspired by them—and an apron to go with it—my inner fangirl had essentially clicked Add to Cart before the sensible part of my brain had a chance to file an objection. Did I technically need another cookbook? Absolutely not. But at this point, Josh could probably put his name on a potato peeler, oven mitts, or a set of kitchen tongs and I’d be standing there with my wallet open asking whether they came in matte black.

I expected Forbidden Feasts to be fun. I figured it would feed my Lights Out obsession a little longer and become another treasured addition to my growing bookish hoard. What I wasn’t expecting was to open it and realize just how seriously someone had taken the assignment.

First of all, this book is freaking gorgeous. The photography immediately caught my attention because the entire thing has that same dark, seductive, slightly dangerous atmosphere that fits Lights Out so perfectly. Rich colors, moody lighting, black backgrounds, candles, and dramatic styling had me lingering over pages before I’d even paid much attention to the recipes themselves. This could have very easily been sixty ordinary recipes with vaguely naughty names slapped on them and a recognizable title on the cover, and let’s be honest, plenty of us probably would have bought it anyway. I certainly would have, because apparently Josh’s name alone gives him a direct line to my bank account. But the more I flipped through it, the more obvious it became that they didn’t simply rely on that. There was a surprising amount of thought put into making Forbidden Feasts actually feel like it belongs in Josh and Aly’s world.

Once I finally stopped admiring it like the beautiful bookish trophy that it is and started reading everything, I appreciated it even more. Rather than finding the usual appetizers, sides, entrées, desserts, and drinks separated into their own sections, I realized the five sections actually follow the progression of Josh and Aly’s relationship. We begin with First Temptations, move through Entanglements and Dangerous Mains, and eventually arrive at Forbidden Sweets and Nightcap Rituals. Basically, we’re being seduced by a cookbook while simultaneously retracing the relationship between a masked stalker and the woman who looked at all his red flags and apparently thought they made lovely decorations. Naturally, I approve.

The recipe introductions ended up being some of my favorite things to read because that’s where I really started feeling like I was back with these characters. Some are written directly from Josh or Aly’s perspective, and I found myself stopping to read every one instead of simply flipping ahead to see what the food looked like. Blindfolded Tasting Board plays right into Josh’s fondness for surprises, blindfolds, and being the one in control. Josh’s Homemade Trail Mix took me right back to Aly finding food from the Faceless Man in her car and having to figure out whether her stalker was being thoughtful or trying to poison her. Then I got to Potato Roses for Aly and found Josh’s carbohydrate-based attempt to recover from the slight overreaction otherwise known as sending her an entire flower shop. By the time I reached Josh’s Temptation Pancakes with Berries and Crème Fraîche and was reminded of the completely normal experience of waking up to discover that the masked man who broke into your house left breakfast, I was thoroughly entertained. You know. Romance.

There are even little exchanges between them woven into the recipes. Ravish Me Chicken had me laughing because Josh starts off making a comment about something being hot, spicy, and Italian before Aly takes over and explains why “Marry Me Chicken” really isn’t quite their style. Considering these are two people for whom muddy, sweaty woods make perfectly acceptable romantic scenery, I have to agree. Ravish Me Chicken is much more on brand.

And it isn’t only Josh and Aly getting dragged into the kitchen. Fred, naturally, has Fred’s Stolen Focaccia, because we all know unattended carbohydrates belong to Fred. Moira gets her Irish Coffee, Uncle Nico and his Sicilian roots make their way into the recipes with Uncle Nico’s Pasta with Clam Sauce, and even Wendy and Clarence are remembered with Chana Saag After Dark, tying back to the neighbors who essentially adopted Aly and fed her after those brutal hospital shifts. I loved all those little connections and nods to the other characters who helped make the Into Darkness series so much fun in the first place.

Then I started paying attention to the actual recipe names, and apparently nobody involved in creating this thing had any intention of allowing us to behave like mature adults. There’s Thirst Trap Hot Wings, Meatball Obsession, Shibari Pretzels, Love Your Ass-paragus, Heart Beet Salad, Blood Moon Puttanesca, Perfect Alpha Steak, Lingerie Cookies, Chocolate-Stuffed Strawberries, Candy Pearl Necklace, edible chocolate “latex,” Lights Out Black Velvet Cupcakes, and Josh’s Baklava. And yes, the baklava absolutely acknowledges the balaclava/baklava situation in the book. Apparently, Forbidden Feasts was meant to make sure that none of us could behave maturely while browsing the dessert recipes.

The drinks weren’t any safer. I found Red Flag Sangria, which may be the most appropriate beverage ever created for this particular romance, along with Angry Aly, Martini, Wet? Or Wet and Dirty?, Moira’s Irish Coffee, Sex in the Woods, Throat-Soothing Tea, and After-Hours Golden Milk. Then I reached Banana Smoothie with Optional Banana Peg and pretty much accepted that subtlety had packed its bags and left several pages ago.

The more I flipped through it, though, the more I realized there’s a legitimate cookbook hiding underneath all the dirty jokes. These are recipes I could actually see myself making, and I liked finding cooking tips, substitutions, and variations tucked in along the way. There are plenty of gluten-free options too, along with recipes that can be adapted to be vegan, so they clearly put some thought into making the food work for different people instead of focusing entirely on the novelty of it.

I also kept finding things I genuinely wanted to make. Some are ridiculously simple, like trail mix or a tasting board, while others had me thinking about actual dinners with pasta, chicken, steak, lamb chops, ramen, shakshuka, or lasagna. Then there are all the desserts, coffee drinks, cocktails, and mocktails waiting at the other end. Some recipes made me think date night, others looked like pure comfort food, and a few seemed specifically designed to make dinner guests ask questions I may or may not want to answer. Somewhere along the way, I stopped just laughing at the names and started mentally putting together menus.

The further I got, the more little pieces of Lights Out I started recognizing too. Obviously, there are masks, blindfolds, ropes, blood, kink, and enough wildly inappropriate jokes to make it perfectly clear which fictional world we’re visiting, but I think I enjoyed finding the smaller references even more. Aly’s exhausting hospital shifts, Josh trying to take care of her, the coffee and wine, the snow and cold, their ridiculous banter, Josh’s questionable culinary abilities, Fred’s food crimes, and the Trocci family being the Trocci family all manage to find their way in somehow. Every time I recognized another one, it felt like finding a little inside joke for those of us who already know and love these characters.

That was probably the biggest surprise for me. I bought this expecting a fun Lights Out collectible, but flipping through it felt like getting another little visit with characters I wasn’t ready to leave behind. It reminded me of all the wonderfully unhinged parts of Josh and Aly’s story, but it also brought back the quieter moments between them. Beneath all the darkness and insanity, so much of their relationship was about figuring out what the other person needed and showing up for them in their own admittedly unconventional ways. I wasn’t expecting a cookbook to bring that part of their story back for me, but somehow it did.

Of course, being this gorgeous created an entirely different problem because apparently the prettier something is, the less capable I become of using it like a normal person. Part of me wanted to tuck the entire gift set safely away on my shelf with the rest of my bookish trophies, while the other part wanted the cookbook somewhere I could actually enjoy it. Eventually, the coffee table won. Now I can pick it up and flip through it whenever I want, and it makes one hell of a conversation starter. If someone comes over and immediately recognizes it, I’ve found another person who understands the obsession and we’re probably about to spend the next hour talking about Lights Out. If they don’t recognize it, then I get to explain exactly why they should read the book. Either I find one of my people or I recruit a new one. I consider that a win either way.

At some point while I was flipping through all these recipes, that apron planted an idea in my head that I’m now completely incapable of letting go: I need to host a Lights Out-themed dinner party. I’m thinking Blindfolded Tasting Board or Thirst Trap Hot Wings to start, Ravish Me Chicken for dinner, Lights Out Black Velvet Cupcakes or Josh’s Baklava for dessert, and Red Flag Sangria because there is absolutely no universe in which I host a Lights Out dinner and do not serve something called Red Flag Sangria. Add candles, moody lighting, the cookbook, the apron, and a table full of friends who have read the book, and we have ourselves a perfectly reasonable evening for grown adults. I may even make my hubby wear a mask and pretend he’s Josh while I play Aly for the evening. He put a ring on my finger willingly, so I feel like there were warning signs.

Somewhere between squealing over the preorder, laughing my way through the recipe introductions, and planning an unnecessarily elaborate dinner party that my hubby does not yet realize he has been cast in, Forbidden Feasts became so much more than I hoped it would be. It’s beautiful enough to display, practical enough to actually cook from, and filled with enough little Lights Out references that I had plenty to discover and enjoy while flipping through it.

For me, that makes Forbidden Feasts an easy 5/5 stars. I bought it because I wanted another piece of a fictional world I already loved, but I ended up with something I genuinely enjoyed sitting down with and exploring. It made me laugh, brought back characters and moments I loved, gave me recipes I actually want to try, and somehow convinced me that what my life is missing is a dark-romance-themed dinner party.

Oh, and apparently, for the first time ever, I’m giving a spice rating to a cookbook. Forbidden Feasts gets 1/5 peppers. The food may be innocent, but between the recipe names, innuendos, and Josh being Josh, this cookbook was never getting away with a zero rating.

Now I just have to decide if I want to purchase a second gift set so I can keep one safely tucked away on my trophy shelf. Oh, who am I kidding? I’m pretty sure the opportunity to pretend that I have any restraint flew right out the window several paragraphs ago. We both know I’m buying another one.

–SASSY
Owner • Creator • Queen of the Nookish Chaos
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