What We Do in the Light by Stylo Fantôme

Just one month ago, Valentine O'Dell got her heart ripped out – yet another problem to add to her rapidly growing list. Between fighting to bring her sick grandmother home, searching for a new apartment after being evicted, and trying to figure out how exactly she's going to pay for everything, she doesn't have time to cry over a broken heart.

Then Ari Sharapov walks back in and tries to solve everything.

Ari may have gained a little more control in his life, but there's still one area he doesn't have a grip on – Valentine refuses to believe anything he says. Gone is the girl who wanted someone to take care of her, and in her place is a woman who's willing to take everything he has to offer, but without giving anything of herself in return. He's used to fighting battles in a courtroom, but convincing her of his feelings will be his biggest struggle yet.

Maybe it's time for this relationship to be brought to light.

Book 2
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~  Also Available with KindleUnlimited  ~

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Erica – ☆☆☆☆
What We Do in the Light is the second installment in Day to Night. I believe it's the final installment, but don't quote me on that. Can it be read independently from What We Do in the Night? No, absolutely not. It's a continuation, and I strongly recommend reading in order.

What We Do in the Night ended with a massive cliffhanger, with Saint Valentine overhearing Ari speaking to his father, calling Val a very unsavory word, which she deep-down saw herself to be.

What We Do in the Light is basically Val getting in her own way on every page, struggling with her inner demons, not accepting that things aren't as they may seem.

Ari is on a redemption quest, trying to convince Val actions speak louder than words. For such a strong character, he was pretty much entering perfect person territory, which highlighted how off Val was behaving.

I recommend reading the novel in one-sitting, from the first page until the last. The novel is a quick read, but I suggest reading it all at once so you don't look too deeply beneath the surface.

Entertained in the extreme, why didn't I hand out a 5-Star rating?

This was a novel about the heroine getting in her own way. Non-freaking-stop. There are plot-driven storylines, action-driven storylines, and character-building storylines. The entire plot was basically waiting for Val to give in and do what she ultimately wanted, so there wasn't much conflict or plot in that regard, which I'm fine with and was thoroughly entertained.

The first portion of the story, I understood Val's actions/reactions/emotions, felt it very human and couldn't stop tapping the pages. But by the halfway point, it felt as if the book had already met its conclusion, so I knew something angsty would happen that would be frustrating, because it had to be a full-length novel. But it wasn't angsty or frustrating – it just left me feeling like, why waste pages on it?

In fact, while I know people do the most irrational things – I know these people in my everyday life – I don't believe Val even knew why she did what she did, because I don't believe the author could truly explain it – there needed to be some conflict, but it needed to make sense. It was a situation where "this is exactly why everyone on the planet uses women as the brunt of jokes and refuses to respect them" type of emotionally driven, hormonal response that quite literally comes out of nowhere and make people not like women.

Between the villainess of the tale and Val, women weren't represented well. The ex-girlfriend was a ridiculous parody of character, which took away from the emotions of the novel. We could have a debate, but I bet it would be difficult to find a reader that would believe the ex would behave as she did toward Ari. (The bullying of Val, yes. The crazy pants stuff with Ari, NFW.) I could ignore the ex's criminal behavior, because every novel needs a weirdo, if it hadn't been for Val having a personality lobotomy, where her traits shifted at last minute.

Since this isn't a paranormal novel (listen up, every woman who expects people to read your mind – use your words, ladies!), no one should have to be a mind-reader because Val is an insecure wreck who plays games with someone's head who showed her nonstop how he felt about her, when words can be lies. That is where the novel didn't work for me. Someone who was raised as Val was, someone who was taking care of her grandmother and doing whatever she could to survive, she wouldn't be so flighty and irrational with that idiocy, just to add a few more pages to the novel.

What resonated with me the deepest was Gam-Gam, written beautifully and accurately. Most would say they've gone through similar experiences, so they get choked up by reading. But what was on the pages (aside from the legal matter) was exactly what impacted my family only a few months ago. I had a difficult time reading those portions, able to empathize, unable to keep the sobs at bay.

Highly recommended to fans of Stylo Fantôme and returning readers. I'm a big fan of the author, having read the majority of all of her work, but I still struggle with how women are represented – how all the sudden they act out of character or end up being slap-happy hormonal crazies that civilized society would eat up and spit out for being insufferable.

Ladies, stop the mind-reading BS. Here's a piece of advice from my dad. If you hit someone, expect to be hit back. You're not exempt just because you're a woman. Here's my advice: don't hit people – you're not a toddler.

Aside from the few pages of "WTH, where did this come from?" I enjoyed Val's character, found her to be mature and logical and compassionate, with just the right amount of insecurities to resonate with readers, while having us root for her because of her backstory. It was the strong sense of survivor instinct that kept the martyred victim mentality from being too much to read.


Shannan – ☆☆☆☆
What We Do in the Light is the follow up to What We Do in the Night. You should read book one before jumping into this one.

What We Do in the Light jumps right in where book one left off on a huge cliffhanger. Valentine overheard a conversation between Ari and his dad. Things were said that Val was never supposed to hear, thus ending the relationship between them.

Ari basically spends this entire novel groveling to get Val back. There was a huge push-pull between the two. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the book and the characters, but I did give a few eye rolls when Ari was bending over backwards for Val's attention. Gam-Gam’s storyline did bring tears to my eyes.

In my opinion, the first installment was better but the second installment did tie-up the storyline and answer any questions book one left me with.


Shelby – ☆☆☆☆
3.5 Stars

If you know me, you know I'm an avid Stylo Fantôme fan! She is my #1 MUST READ author, I don't need to read the blurb, if she publishes it then I'm all over it.

What We Do in the Night absolutely blew me away. I loved Val, I really liked Ari, and I needed to see their story end happily. The cliffhanger ending left me wanting so much for this couple. Not to fear though, What We Do in the Light will cover everything... or so I thought. (Let me mention that these books NEED to be read in order.)

I don't want to ruin this for anyone, but I have to say that Val felt totally different in book two. She just wasn't the same self-assured, sassy, dual-personality woman we met in the first book. I know that circumstances changed, I know she has a lot going on, but it was a drastic personality transplant from the character I totally fell for. On one hand, she's the backbone of her family, but in the next she's a pouty toddler.

If anything, Ari became my favorite character in this story. He stepped up, he righted his wrongs, and totally worked for his redemption. He's not a perfect person, he has his own issues, but he is quite persistent (must by the lawyer in him).

Beyond my criticism above, I was able to fall into this story quite easily once I acknowledged the Val differences. The chemistry was still there, if not a little dimmed, but just simmering below the surface. I was hoping for a little more from the villain angle, this seemed to be swept away too swiftly.

Club Cache didn't disappoint, and I want everyone in this club to get their own story: Del, Serge, Charice, and Angel. I hope to see the club again, if not in its own series!

Also Available in the Day to Night Duet

Book 1
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
~  Also Available with KindleUnlimited  ~

For reviews & more info, check out our stop on the What We Do in the Night Release Blitz.

Crazy woman from a remote location in Alaska (where the need for a creative mind is a necessity!), I have been writing since... forever? Yeah, that sounds about right. I have been told that I remind people of Lucille Ball – I also see shades of Jennifer Saunders, and Denis Leary. So basically, I laugh a lot, I'm clumsy a lot, and I say the F-word A LOT.

I like dogs more than I like most people, and I don't trust anyone who doesn't drink. No, I do not live in an igloo, and no, the sun does not set for six months out of the year, there's your Alaska lesson for the day. I have mermaid hair – both a curse and a blessing – and most of the time I talk so fast, even I can't understand me.

Yeah. I think that about sums me up.

Connect with Stylo

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ARC Provided by

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of What We Do in the Light (Day to Night #2) by Stylo Fantôme to read and review.

What We Do in the Night by Stylo Fantôme Release Blitz

Just five months ago, Valentine O'Dell started working at a very special kind of club - one where you can dance the night away, or live out your greatest fantasy. She's learned to lose herself to her nights, forgetting all her day time woes as she charms every man she meets. It's easy enough to do when she doesn't let her feelings get involved.

Then Ari Sharapov walked in and changed everything.

Working for his father's law firm has left Ari with very little control over his life, so when he meets Valentine for the first time, he sees a girl who is desperate for someone to take care of her. To take over her. So what he can't get for himself in the day time, he'll simply take for himself at night. But when power struggles lead to real feelings, who's actually controlling whom?

Some relationships are better left in the dark.

Book 1
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
~  Also Available with KindleUnlimited  ~

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Erica – ☆☆☆☆☆
Spoiler-Free review.

Do you ever want something, only to discover you didn't want it after all? That was me with the last release by Stylo Fantôme. I was chomping at the bit for mature characters, only to discover I missed those train wreck females Fantôme is famous for writing.

Valentine – yes, just like the holiday – is the perfect mix of maturity and train wreck. She's suffering across the board, but still manages to put one foot in front of the other, hoping one day that journey will go into happily ever after territory after all her hard work.

With a sister that ate her entire inheritance from their parents who passed, Valentine finds herself working many jobs, trying to pay for her stroke/dementia-addled grandmother, willing to do anything to survive. Not only is she going to college, to ensure she has a future after she loses her grandmother, has a roommate to take off some of the burden, hired a nurse to visit, and is working several jobs, none of it is paying enough to keep her head above water.

There's a fine line we all have to cross when it comes to self-preservation and survival. We scoff, not believing we can cross it, but when the time comes, the decision has already been made.

Valentine is a fighter and a survivor. She makes train wreck decisions, but she's mature enough to compartmentalize why she had to in the first place. Working at an exclusive club hidden in a residential home, Valentine is an escort, tour guide, and fluffer, never crossing that last line into selling herself.

Valentine managed to resonate deeply with me, where I struggled to keep a dry-eye during scenes shared with her grandmother. I've been there, that mountain-sized chasm where being a granddaughter ends and a caregiver begins, as that is the end of any real relationship they can possibly maintain.

Then comes Ari. As I said, this will be a spoiler-free review. Ari would bring the spoilers. He's a grown man acting like a little boy, who depends too much on Daddy. He's forceful and authoritative with Valentine, yet he folds under pressure for those in his everyday life. Ari brings the drama and the emotional gut-punches. As much as I struggled to like him, I couldn't. He was weak, far too old to not have had his balls drop yet. Just because I understood didn't mean I had to like him.

There was a love-hate vibe between Valentine and Ari, because they didn't want to want each other. Tension-filled interactions, sparks of true connection, and intoxicating between-the-sheets action.

I couldn't stop tapping the pages, page after page, I had to know what happened next. Taken on an addictive journey, while craving the destination, but having no idea where anyone would end up.

But then I got to the last page, and I actually laughed in shock. I wasn't sure if I should applaud Fantôme for frustrating me, or be proud of her for leaving me hanging (such an Ari thing to do).

Never before have I added a GIF to a review, finding those with more than one or two flashing to be beyond distracting, hiding any real meaning behind attention-grabbing nothingness. As I promised, this would be a spoiler-free review, so I'll let my very first GIF, probably my only ever, explain how this book left me feeling...

Shelby – ☆☆☆☆☆
HAWT DAYUM!
That's all I have to say about this book.
The characters are FIRE. The chemistry between Ari and Val is explosive. The scenery is exciting and intriguing. Did I mention the sexy scenes are out of this world HOT?!?

I would totally leave my review at that, but I feel like you probably want some more insight into this story.

Valentine is a chameleon. She is the studious student during the day, and a doting caretaker in the evenings. But the nights... at night she becomes a different person entirely. She's confident, sexy, sassy, she knows her job and is very good at it. I absolutely LOVE Val. (I love all of Stylo's female characters, but Val has taken the top spot for me.) She isn't afraid of work; she knows what she needs to do and just does it. There isn't any back and forth, wishy-washy decision making here. Valentine charges forth and attacks everything head on. You can't help but love her.

Then Ari changes everything. Ari is the rich kid, son of a well-known lawyer, he's poised to fill his father’s shoes in the law firm. Apparently rich families like to map out their children's lives, including their marital partners. Ari is egotistical, a self-assured alpha, a control freak. When Ari decides he needs a break from familial pressure and finds someone HE'S decided he needs to have, well, our story begins.

I wouldn't change anything about this story. The characters are fantastic, and they are perfect for one another. The situation is totally believable, the scenery (the club!) is unbelievably cool, the everything – just everything came together to make an exciting story that I could not put down. I was sad when the book ended, but will keep it together until book two is released.


Shannan – ☆☆☆☆☆
This book... it's so hot. I couldn't put it down. I loved this book and it left me with one hell of a hangover, but it was so worth it!

This book is all consuming. It was erotic, sexy, intense, and so passionate.

CACHE is the invite-only sex club that changes daily, bringing all your fantasies to life. Valentine is living a double life. A student doing whatever she can to care for her grandmother during the day and a sexy dancer getting paid for her time at night. Ari is a strait-laced lawyer by day doing whatever his father requests. After one visit to CACHE, he can't get Val out of his head. He needs a no-strings, willing woman to let him be himself and Val provides that. Until what happens at night collides with the daylight.

“The sun is rising – things that happen during the night need to stay in the night.” “...but all the best new beginnings came out of destruction.”

I couldn't get enough of this relationship. It was all consuming. I can't wait for the conclusion of their story but September is so far away!!


Mary Jo – ☆☆☆
The storyline is great, it empowers women in a way that few books do. With that said, it didn't strike a chord with me.

The character of Valentine O'Dell is a feisty one. She's overcome a lot in her short life and keeps making choices that benefit her – until she meets Ari.

Ari can be a prick of the highest order. Money can buy him all things and the one thing he wants is a non-relationship relationship. He thinks he finds the perfect woman in Val. All sex and no substance.

Until he gets to know her. Then a few careless words and he throws it all away.

I will read book two because I want to know how Ari atones for his sins, but this isn't going to be a re-read for me.

Crazy woman from a remote location in Alaska (where the need for a creative mind is a necessity!), I have been writing since... forever? Yeah, that sounds about right. I have been told that I remind people of Lucille Ball – I also see shades of Jennifer Saunders, and Denis Leary. So basically, I laugh a lot, I'm clumsy a lot, and I say the F-word A LOT.

I like dogs more than I like most people, and I don't trust anyone who doesn't drink. No, I do not live in an igloo, and no, the sun does not set for six months out of the year, there's your Alaska lesson for the day. I have mermaid hair – both a curse and a blessing – and most of the time I talk so fast, even I can't understand me.

Yeah. I think that about sums me up.

Connect with Stylo

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Instagram  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads

Hosted by

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of What We Do in the Night (Day to Night #1) by Stylo Fantôme to read and review for this tour.