The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Score, Lucy. Things We Hide From the Light. Bloom Books, 2023. Kindle Edition.

Things We Hide From the Light is a romance novel written by Lucy Score. It is the second book in her series based around the people of the town of Knockemout. This is a tough town, and most of the people are rough around the edges. The novel is set in the present day, and while the first book in the series centers around Knox Morgan and Naomi Witt, this second book centers around Nash Morgan and Lina Solavita. It is told from the first-person perspectives of both protagonists, Nash and Lina as they work out what they mean to each other and attempt to work together to get vengeance for Nash’s shooting.

As the novel opens, Nash is struggling after being shot because he keeps having panic attacks. Meanwhile Lina, an outsider, is in town. She came to Knockemout for work and to visit her old friend, Knox. She is there to track down stolen property, but none of the other characters know, at the beginning of the novel, that this is why she is there. All she tells them is that she works in insurance. While Nash is conventional and wants a family and security, Lina hates being tied down. She wants freedom and adventure, but she is beginning to question whether she wants to continue this lifestyle.

One day Lina sees Nash as he is having a panic attack. She is familiar with these attacks. She had a structural heart defect and spent much time as a teenager in hospitals. In these hospitals, she started having panic attacks. She also learned to dislike unnecessary touch in these hospitals because she felt little control over what was happening to her body. To this day, she does not like being tied down because her parents were so controlling of her and still are in an effort to keep her safe and healthy. Lina helps Nash, and he asks her to spend the night because he feels safer when she is near him. Despite never sharing a bed with anyone, she agrees to. This is out of her comfort zone because she does not like touch, vulnerability, or emotional intimacy.

The two slowly get closer even though this makes Lina a bit uncomfortable. Nash feels like he needs Lina to stay calm. She has helped him start to feel again. Prior to her arrival in his life, he felt numb and depressed. Nash hates being lied to, and when he learns that Lina is in town to recover property that may be related to his shooting, he takes this as a betrayal and gets angry with her and pushes her away. The two spend time at odds with each other. Eventually, however, they reconcile. When Nash gets spooked about needing Lina too much, she remains strong and refuses to walk away from him. The importance of sticking with people who are struggling is something she learned as she examined the friends who let her push them away after her health scares. Nash and Lina again reconcile.

Nash and his friends devise a plan to root out the man who tried to kill Nash. On the night before Knox and Naomi’s wedding, Lina is kidnapped in a plot to get to Nash. She is a strong and capable woman and is able to hold off her attackers until Nash, Knox, and Nolan arrive on the scene to provide backup. Together the four are able to overcome their attackers as all of the villains are either killed or arrested. Knox and Naomi get married, and eventually Lina and Nash get married. By the end of the Bonus Epilogue, Lina and Nash have twin babies.