LOVE ME STALK ME
Author: Laura Bishop
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: December 2, 2025
For fans of Lights Out and You comes a dark rom-com debut about a woman who confides her fantasies to an AI boyfriend app—unaware she’s really talking to her hot, tattooed coworker who hacked her phone.
When overworked department store manager Izzy Russo downloads an AI boyfriend app to fill the emotional void left by her inattentive real one, she thinks she’s just venting to a harmless chatbot named “Caleb.” In reality, she’s been pouring her deepest, dirtiest fantasies into the ears of Callahan Knight—her store’s brooding new head of security.
Because Cal? He’s been listening. The moment he saw Izzy, he knew she was his. Did he hack her phone? Absolutely. But who could blame him? A woman like Izzy deserves to be cherished by someone who truly knows her worth—and he’ll do anything to be that man.
So when Izzy finally sees her boyfriend for who he really is, and the danger she’s unknowingly been caught up in, Cal is ready to protect her, no matter the cost. Even if it means revealing the truth.
She might not have meant to build the perfect man. But he’s here now. And he’s never letting her go.
Goddamn, pretty girl, you look like something I should get on my knees and pray for.”
You know what I hate? When book blurbs create unrealistic expectations by drawing comparison to cult favorite books in the blurbs. Lights Out and You was a leap and a bound from what my experience with this book was, and I really wish I went in without those expectations. Would I have rated it higher? No. But I would have been less disappointed. Because man oh man, did I want to love this one. And I was really looking forward to a stalker, dark romcom. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it to be dark, stalkery, or a romcom. Le sigh.
Now as much as I loved Callahan and his big wide shoulders, full of possession and fierce protectiveness, he just wasn’t enough. Though he did carry the book on his broad shoulders and ultimately the character that had me curious enough to finish. Unfortunately for Cal, I absolutely HATED Izzy. I mean, I legit loathed her and her doormat ways. The way that she let her douchebag of a boyfriend of three freaking years absolutely annihilate her self esteem and self worth drove me batshit. And I get it, I really do. Heck, I was her once, back in my early twenties. But that doesn’t mean I want to read about it for almost 70% of the book. Because that’s how long it takes for her to finally kick him to the curb. And even when he does the unspeakable in reaction to the breakup, she still tries to shoulder some of the blame. It was rage inducing to read about. I could handle it for 30, maybe even 40%. But over half of the book? It felt like her victimhood became her entire personality and there was nothing else to her. She felt entirely one dimensional. I couldn’t connect with her for the life of me, so in turn, she began to drive me nuts, the more I read.
The stalking itself wasn’t even stalking. More like invasion of privacy at best. Cal is the head of security who gets hired for the high end retail store Izzy manages. After seeing her the night before, our man is immediate obsessed and as such, hacks her phone. Obviously. And when he overhears Izzy’s best friend convince her to download an AI boyfriend to make up for the bare minimum that her boyfriend cannot manage, he decides to hack that to and pretend to be the AI boyfriend.
I kept reading, hoping for the chapter where I can finally connect with Izzy and the romance, but sadly it just never came. The story and the development barely grazed the surface, and so the characters felt one dimensional, Izzy a lot more so. Callahan had some depth to him that I wish we got to see more of, but sadly, he got overshadowed by Izzy’s constant meh-ness. And yes, I’m making that a word. The romance didn’t sizzle. The chemistry was there and so was the potential. But it just never happened. And when we got Izzy’s drunk sexing with her AI boyfriend AKA Cal, I was cringing more than I was sweating.
Sadly, this just didn’t work for me on any front. I wanted to love it because I LOVED Lights Out, and any story in that vein is an instant attention grabber. But this was not even close to what I expected. And even when I got past that, the story just felt too meh to truly enjoy it beyond Cal’s awesomeness. Sadly, even his sexy self couldn’t save this book.
But hey, as always, don’t just take my word for it. Read it and judge for yourself. You just may love it.
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