Author Archives: Nikki

Review: A Beautiful Wedding

Posted in Books, Entertainment by

Here’s a little short story to lead into this book review.

I hate reading books on my iPhone or any other electronic device. I was fine growing up reading books with the tangible book in my hand and I will always be fine with the real deal, so when I found out that Jamie McGuire had released a Beautiful Disaster series novella, I was chomping at the bits to get it. With my luck, however, I could not find the paperback version, so I resorted to buying the book on my iPhone. I finished the book after several tears shed… nekk minnit, I see the paperback version everywhere. That’s just my luck.

RELATED LINKS:
Solstice Satisfaction reviews Beautiful Disaster
Solstice Satisfaction reviews Walking Disaster

Enough about me, onwards to SS in Review! Travis Maddox and Abby Abernathy/Maddox are back! Jamie McGuire must’ve heard me whining for more TrAbby interaction, so A Beautiful Wedding was released!

NOTE: If you haven’t read Beautiful Disaster and/or Walking Disaster yet, there will be some spoilers in here. I totally suggest you read these before continuing, also because they’re phenom.

 

I'm so glad I bought this copy after I finished the digital version... not.

I’m so glad I bought this copy after I finished the digital version… not.

In case Walking Disaster didn’t fill in all the gaps for you in Travis and Abby’s love story, A Beautiful Wedding will fill in the rest. Why did Abby and Travis run off and get married in the first place? How was the wedding? Who was there to witness the two lovebirds get married? Well, all your questions will be answered in this novella that fills in the gaps of Travis and Abby’s wedding day (and night) in a way only Jamie McGuire can describe. A Beautiful Wedding details the events of the infamous Maddox wedding, the “second wedding” and their respective bachelor/bachelorette parties, and all the fun stuff in between.

The first thing I’m going to say is this… I still feel as if Travis and Abby’s story isn’t complete yet. I mean, without trying to spoil too much, Abby’s true motivation for wanting to marry Travis still hasn’t been revealed to the tattooed hunk and if I were him, I’d be royally pissed if I found out. That one fact alone just makes me feel as if there is still more to the story that needs to be told. If Travis ever finds out, how will he react? What will that mean for Pidge and Maddox? I’m sure they’d still be as rocksolid as ever, however.

Travis and Abby’s relationship is magical. I feel as if I’m a part of it; I felt it when I read Beautiful Disaster, I felt as I read Walking Disaster, and all those months later, I felt it with this novella. Jamie McGuire has done superb work with the Beautiful Disaster series in capturing the true love between these two damaged young adults. I was dying to get some more Travis and Abby and I’m glad I found it with this one. A Beautiful Wedding‘s purpose was to fill in gaps that readers were wondering… there was no real other point to this book, so it serves its purpose well.

Solst-o-meter
Storyline: 7/10
Style of writing: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10

A Beautiful Wedding was short and sweet and, as stated before, served its purpose well. I’m just sad that I felt all those feelings reading it just to have it cut off at the best part! HOW CUTE IS AMERICA’S DAD. That’s all for now, but Jamie McGuire, if you’re reading this… feel free to release another in this series. I’m not finished with Travis and Abby yet.

– by The Black Widow

What’s Up With The Reffing?

Posted in Sports by

My love of the game is strained right now.

It’s no secret that NRL is my game. I love it, live it, breathe it, need it, etc. Corey Parker is my player. The Brisbane Broncos are my team. The Queensland Maroons are my team. The New Zealand Kiwis are my team (even though I find it rather difficult to cheer against Parker).

That's my team. (SOURCE: Brisbane Broncos)

That’s my team. (SOURCE: Brisbane Broncos)

 

So it must be a big deal if I’m getting ticked off with the quality of league that’s been produced recently. The players have been great and the action has been get-off-your-arse intense. So what’s been ruining the game this year? The refereeing. The officiating of the game has created a sour atmosphere in NRL all season and it doesn’t look like it’s getting better after watching some of the rep games this week.

Whenever rep footy is on, I’m always excited to see what’s going on. The action is always hard-hitting and the intensity of the game is at a high – not to mention the changing dynamic of players swapping teammates for rep teams is always an exciting thing to watch. As if it’s following a 2014 conduct, however, the refereeing of these games have been… adequate, to say the least.

Throughout the year, controversies including the Alex McKinnon tackle where officiating from not only the referees but the higher powers themselves wrecked the love of the game, to the Dragons-Storm controversy that does not need any more explaining. Let’s not forget the shocker at the end of last year that cost the North Queensland Cowboys finals footy.

If I may put my two cents into, here are some things that the referees need to improve on if the game is meant to return to its elite state:

Video refereeing, a luxury to be used only when needed
Is it me or do the referees go up to the video refs for, like, no reason? I’ve seen way too many tries scored that are as clear as day successful, yet the referee must’ve sneezed or something because he feels it necessary to go up to the video referee. I’m sorry but if I was one of these video referees who has to go through the trouble of looking through a blatantly obvious try or no try, I’d be pissed off. Almost as pissed off as the fans in the stands and at home who have to endure it.

Rules are there to be enforced
If it was illegal to wear green shoes on a Wednesday, and everyone knew it was illegal to wear green shoes on a Wednesday, why would you therefore allow someone to wear green shoes on a Wednesday when you’re in a position of power? The other day, I noticed a team captain (won’t mention names) swear at a referee in the heat of a debate. Back in the day, that would’ve been like ten in the bin straight away. This team captain got away with it and the game continued like normal. Two words: Umm. What.

The grass is green, you should be able to see that
This has nothing to do with grass, but I feel as if the referees vision are just as bad as the put-on-lack-of-vision of the referees in WWE. I don’t know what an easy solution for this problem is other than to increase your peripheral vision or something. Seriously, refs, something has got to be done about this. Calls like the North Queensland 2013 tragedy should never, ever, ever happen again.

Please, NRL, you are arguably the most loved game in sports in all of Australia. Please don’t ruin that because the officiating is as shotty as a bazooka.

NRL referees. I have four words.

Should’ve Gone to Specsavers.

– by The Black Widow

Easily Influenced But Not Easily Persuaded

Posted in Opinion by

I’m sure this title is going to confuse most.

Remember back in the day when all of the 90s kids were in their teens and all the fads came along (if you need a reminder of these fads, allow me to redirect you to this). The people that know me the best know that I am particularly unfazed by anything that becomes “cool” in popular culture. When guys grew their fringes out and bought womens skinny jeans from Supre, I had a fro and wore pink t-shirts. When people decided to “drop it” to dubstep music, I took my clothes off to country.

In summary, I have never really been phased by phases.

In saying that, I am putty in certain people’s hands; by certain people, I mean admired celebrities. People think I have adapted my own sense of style and sass but what it really comes down to is how my highly-adored celebrities dressed and behaved. One of my most trademark things to wear is fur, most notably, fluffy leg warmers that you’d usually see at a rave. It wasn’t as if one day I woke up and decided it’d be cool to look like a walking polar bear. Instead, this trend that has turned my wardrobe into a PETA enthusiasts nightmare if the fur was real, was inspired by a seven minute wrestling match at Survivor Series 2005 between Trish Stratus and Melina, the latter of which came out looking fierce and foxy in white fluffy leg warmers.

After seeing this, as if you wouldn't want to wear white fluffy leg warmers.

After seeing this, as if you wouldn’t want to wear white fluffy leg warmers. (SOURCE: WWE.com)

One time late last year I thought it’d be a jolly idea to dye my hair red, as in bright OMG MY EYES red. Everybody knows that someone with my skin complexion has a 2% chance of pulling off bright red hair. Why did I chance such a daring move then? Because Eva Marie has red hair, of course. If that woman jumped off a cliff wearing a burlap sack, I would join her and ask if she wanted a glass of water at the same time. One lovely hair dyeing session later with my fabulous hairdresser friend Kallie, and my hair was officially bright red. Some people liked it, some didn’t, and I was on the fence about it. But it didn’t matter, because I was one step closer to Eva Marie.

#allredeverything (SOURCE: Eva Marie Instagram)

#allredeverything (SOURCE: Eva Marie Instagram)

Let’s not even talk about my fascination with split-leg jeans or hot pants matched with Chuck Taylors and ripped punky shirts, because AJ Lee is clearly my inspiration for that.

I imagine I wouldn't look this skinny if I wore this outfit. (SOURCE: WWE.com)

I imagine I wouldn’t look this skinny if I wore this outfit. (SOURCE: WWE.com)

I think this paints one clear picture about the type of person I am – I secretly want to be a WWE Diva. While I am very happy and content with being a man, I wouldn’t say no to being AJ Lee for a day. Oh, and if you’re a fabulous celebrity that specialises in wrestling, country music, Doctor Who or pole dancing, I am pretty much yours.

– by The Black Widow

You Know What Sh!ts Me?: Facebook Laundromats

Posted in Opinion, What Sh!ts Me by

You know what really shits me?

Today’s topic: Facebook laundromats… in other words, people who constantly put their dirty laundry on Facebook.

When Facebook politely asks you in that little clever box at the top of your newsfeed “What’s on your mind?”, they don’t really want to know what’s on your mind. It is not an invitation to delve deep into your inner psyche and let it all out for the whole world and their pets to find out.

No one cares about your dirty laundry. Not this chick. She's reading a book. (SOURCE: Gideon's Flickr photostream)

No one cares about your dirty laundry. Not this chick. She’s reading a book. (SOURCE: Gideon’s Flickr photostream)

Some people have trouble differentiating between what is appropriate to post on Facebook and what isn’t appropriate… and uploading a status talking about how your boyfriend left you and you wish nothing but death upon him is actually very inappropriate. But who cares? Whatever works, right?

WRONG.

What you are doing is creating unnecessary drama by putting your personal problems out there for everyone to see. What you are doing is giving people more ammunition to use against you in case the opportunity ever arise. What you are doing is making a complete fool of yourself by turning to social media for sympathy when your best friend is just a simple phone call away.

My philosophy on this is simple: if you are my friend, I care about you. If you have a problem, I will do my best to help you with your problem. If you post this problem on Facebook and expect sympathy from me, stop wasting your time because zero fucks are given about your issue when you’re waving it around on social media.

You know the saying (however it goes)… “people don’t care about your problems, they just want to know what’s going on.” It applies to this very case. What you may think is a very cryptic status could very well paint a larger picture than you intended. “Feels alone :(” could easily translate into “My girlfriend won’t spend time with me because I’m an arsehole and now I regret it.” Your attempt at being incognito failed. Maybe you would have been better off not saying anything at all, huh?

What shits me even more is when these people who air their dirty laundry for the world to see are confused as to why people think it’s okay to involve themselves into their drama. I don’t know, whose fault is it – the idiot who made it publicly viewable for everyone to see and therefore have an opinion on, or Barney the dinosaurs? Definitely not Barney. If you don’t want people to involve themselves in your personal drama, DON’T INVOLVE THEM BY PUTTING IT ON SOCIAL MEDIA. It’s really quite simple, actually.

If you have problems like I’m sure everyone does, seek out help personally. Even if we live in the digital age, driving to your mate’s place or calling your mum late at night to help you has not gone out of fashion. In fact, I’m sue you could resolve a problem easier that way than asking however many Facebook friends you have for advice because they won’t care… they’ll just want to know what’s going on.

So, everyone on Facebook, I have five words for you that should have a long-lasting effect on you: think about what you post.

– by The Black Widow