When a Villain Calls: A Dark MM Stalker Romance

by T.J. Sky, Timothy Janovsky

The phone rings. I know it’s him. Out there in the dark. Watching me. I should be scared, but something else stirs instead…

DAX SHARP tries to walk the straight and narrow after doing time. He wants to be honest and settle down, but when his warehouse job lays him off and replaces him with a robot, he has no choice but to revive his inner villain and enact one final heist for his survival. His target? The CEO’s remote vacation compound in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He plans for every possible situation, except one…

REED THOMPSON can’t believe his luck when he finally scores a high-paying, weeklong house-sitting gig. He needs a win after losing his mom and being ghosted by a man he really liked. But when he starts receiving menacing (if somewhat titillating) calls from an unknown number, he discovers he's being watched, and the watcher wants in.

Will Dax hurt the hot house boy to walk away rich? Does Reed have the strength to survive at the hands
of the sexy intruder in the ski mask?

Maybe this dangerous game of cat-and-mouse can end with two satisfied winners instead of just one…

When a Villain Calls is book one in TJ Sky's Lights Off series, which is a horror-tinged dark romance with Lights Out and Willing Prey vibes with an MM twist. Perfect for fans of Leigh Rivers and Rina Kent. This romp in the dark features age gap, rope play, grumpy/sunshine, role play, and much more.

Genres: M M Romance, Dark Romance, Romance, Dark, LGBT, Spicy, Contemporary

270 pages, Paperback

Published October 12, 2025

Reviews

[reverie · Rating 2 out of 5]

arguably one of the worst books i've read this year.

some criminal offences i'd highlighted:

● His pheromones are stronger than any hit of poppers I’ve ever taken. Any drug, period.
● He digs around in my trench, exploring until he finds my prostate. I whimper like a wounded wolf from the decadent pleasure he supplies me
● My hole dilates and welcomes a third finger inside. He fucks me with them.
● My pelvis becomes an active volcano.
● My tonsils are punching bags for his enlarged tip.
● I know it’s going to rub Reed’s P-spot in all the spectacular ways not even my fingers can(p-spot? hate that)


other offenses:

● the "real" villain being an unbearably, cartoonishly evil guy that might as well have looked the reader dead in the eye and said "hi, i'm jeff bezos"
● taking a moment to establish that fictional jeff bezos has an arch nemesis named, and i am not kidding, "elton mills" who is described as an "insecure man who dukes it out on social media, throwing barbs as if the internet were the colosseum and his conquests were gladiatorial."
● proposing with a cock ring
● seriously, it was their fourth time ever physically being around each other and he proposed with a cock ring


idk man idk i spent half this book grimacing and half of it rolling my eyes. i thought about pointing out some of the dialogue as a crime but too much of it was just so fucking bad that i got overwhelmed and stopped sorting through that shit. read it if you want. i should have stopped 30% in but i started spite reading because i'm an idiot. may this kind of literature never find me again 💕

[Ben Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

woah I loved this. Insanely hot!

Dax has just been laid off when his job was replaced by a robot. Fed up with being taken advantage of, he targets the CEO's new vacation compound. He expects the place to be empty, not to find a house boy all alone.

Reed is house sitting for an ultra-wealthy man's secluded newly built mansion. It's a perfect gig; he just didn't account for the sexy masked home invader.

When a Villain Calls had me from the start. It's the opening scene from Scream 1 but make it a gay dark romance mixed with an eat the rich revenge plan.

I'll be picking up Slasher Fiction: A Dark MM Horror Romance as soon as it releases!

[♡ sorcerer supreme ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those stories that I wish has at least 400 pages. I want more! Not as dark as I hoped but still a really fun and solid read. Been reading mm romance since 2020 and shockingly this is my second time reading about a romanticized home invasion?! I need more of this.

[Yarik · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.5)

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 - Timothy going dark romance route was not in my bingo cards. This was a solid first entry to a new series from Timothy Janovsky (aka TJ Sky). The story was really fun and the tropes were impeccable! The chemistry and smut was off the charts.

[:3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

HELLOOOO??? THIS STORY WAS SO HOOOT. I picked it from a tiktok recommendation and read it in two days. I was soo hooked. Not only did I enjoy finding a story with this level of kink, which is so hard to find written well, but also how DETAILED the senes were!! Will be rereading and picking up more of this authors work.<3

[Sarah King · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who is not a huge fan of thrillers or even dark romance, I had a nice time! Through it all I found myself rooting for the two main characters! I wanted them to work through their mess and they did! I feel I would read more thrillers if I knew who the bad guy was early on and had a general feeling that everything would turn out alright. 😂

A great foray into darkness for Timothy Janovsky, I can’t wait to read the next one!

[Makepeace · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, no spoilers.

I gotta say, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Loved the set up, loved the two main MMCs. The “it’s coming from inside the house” moment. The plot twist. The heist. It was great. Happy for the ending and the ring 😜

[Ariel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I lost interest somewhere around chapter 5 and the sex/kinks weren't enough for me to pretend that I gave a damn about the characters.

Kinks were delicious though. 😈

[Tara Gillin · Rating 4 out of 5]

that was fun🔥🔥🔥

[369Pages · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️
This book was not fully what I was expecting, but was still interesting in its own right.
The prologue starts off super strong, with someone calling Reed from within the mansion he’s house-sitting, and threatening him (sexily)! From there, you’re taken back in time to understand Reed as a guy finishing up college and looking to learn more about his mysterious family past. He hooks up with an older dom called ‘Hank’, and can’t get him out of his mind. Hank (actually, his name ks Dax) is an ex-con with issues of his own. The story follows how these two end up in the strangest of situations, and how that situation turns k*nky.

You’re going to get:
-lots of kink (superhero role play, humiliation, lots of props..including weapons, dubcon, etc. )
-a very fun “the call is coming from inside the house” moment
-hidden identities
-suspense

I had mixed feelings about this book, and I do think a lot of it comes from personal taste, so I do understand why some people are raving about this.

The great part—the home invasion, masked criminal part. That was suspenseful, intense, and thrilling! I honestly kind of wish this was just a novella that focused on this part of Dax and Reed’s interaction, as it was by far the strongest part of the book for me. Otherwise, the rest of the book kind of felt like patched together k*nky scenes and a silly B plot about an evil billionaire.

Though the characters say “I love you”s, it honestly just feels like they like each other a lot because they fulfill each others’ sexual fantasies for each other, and not because they actually understand or deeply care for each other as people. This part felt forced to me, which is again why I felt this could have been such a fantastic novella of just certain parts of the story were explored.

Overall, still an enjoyable book. If you’re into k*nky MM romance with dark undertones, this one is great. An awesome suspenseful read during spooky season, for sure!

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

it started off really strong for me in the first half of the book, but then it just kind of went downhill from there and got a little repetitive. the spicy scenes were really good and I loved the ending. plus, this cover is super cute.

[L.A. Dupier · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars! 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 this is so incredibly fun and creepy. It’s the perfect read for those nights when it gets dark all too early. Sit down with this and avoid your windows. Until you very much don’t want to avoid your windows 😜. I never thought I would find a book this kinky that is at the same time this nerdy and it’s absolutely perfect because of that. Dax has that whole broody angst daddy thing going on and Reed throws it right back to him with some epic “I’m not afraid of YOU” moments in which…yeah he was very much afraid…but in a spicy way. I was biting my nails and then giggling with my heels clicking together within pages of one another. I cannot wait to read what’s next from TJ Sky and if the cover of the next book is any indication…this series is going to keep making me swoon over stuff I really shouldn’t be swooning about (hello ropes, knives, and…wait spandex superhero costumes? Yeah…buckle up).

[tysephine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes, I like a dark romance, but I rarely love bdsm stories. I find that a lot of the time, the focus is on the sex scenes themselves and don't spend time building up trust between the characters. This story kind if falls in that category. They go from having sex like 3 times to being in love. They've spent a grand total of what? Maybe 4-5 hours together? It takes me out of the story.

[Victoria Garrett · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not enjoy my life while reading this

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big fan of this author's work under Timothy Janovsky and I possibly loved When a Villain Calls the most. It is his spiciest yet and while, yes, a dark romance, I would also call this a THRILLER! I read in a weekend because I had to know what happened. Really looking forward to more from this series and work from the TJ Sky name.

[Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be my favorite book from this author. The writing and pacing were great. The plot moved perfectly and kept me guessing more than a typical m/m book. Also, a lot of books that include BDSM themes ring false to me, and I think that the author did a really good job of rendering this aspect much more realistically than is common in this genre. I can't wait to read more books from the TJ Sky part of the Janovsky universe.

[୨୧ Chanel ୨୧ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone on tiktok said this was like the intro to the original scream movie but make it a mmromance and you know what, yeah actually yeah. They got me with that one analogy and they were right lmao. It was a good time.

[Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decided to do a little something different for me. Hope you enjoy this little walk on the dark side.

[A ! · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

It was okay

[He11zbelles · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75⭐️ Ended up being more cute than dark imo but it was a good plot.

[Liza · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was surprisingly boring. I expected more.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this!

[x · Rating 1 out of 5]

one star for the cover

[Daje1968 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t remember why I chose this book, it was likely a rec from the mm romance books subreddit. But it was turning out to be pretty formal BDSM which is not my jam, so I dipped out early.

[Natalie]

This was like some dark bdsm like murder-stalker-Im gonna legit strangle you kink that I did not know I was getting into

[Andrea Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. Somehow it was sweet, spicy, tense, and funny. Definitely read the trigger warnings because this one is definitely dark and kinky.

[Meliss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as spicy as I thought it might be, but still a good time.

[HL Boulton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was only a short read. I had finished it in a few hours, but i really enjoyed it.
a fun dom/sub daddy kink with a superhero role play.
Some dark themes that some might find uncomfortable.

[Justin Fraxi]

I usually don't like dark romance, but come on... this dude writes the most wholesome, Hallmark Movie ass romantic novels you can imagine. I have to see what this is about.