Author Archives: Nikki

Artist Spotlight: Zach Bryan

Posted in Artist Spotlight, Entertainment, Music by

Spoiler: I love this man.

Considering the rather infrequent updates in this category, I have (wisely) changed the Artist of the Month feature on Widow’s Lure to the more aptly named Artist Spotlight, where I can highlight a certain musical artist or artists at my own pace.

Even though I have since updated previous posts to reflect this change, the first official spotlight will focus on one of the fastest rising stars in country music – and music in general – Zach Bryan.

Hot girls listen to Zach Bryan. (SOURCE: Zach Bryan’s Instagram)


My introduction to Zach Bryan came perhaps towards the middle of his ascent to stardom. Bored of my usual rotation, I went looking for new artists to listen to, and a name that I came across frequently was that of handsome Zach Bryan.

The first song that I streamed of his, coming from his third album American Heartbreak which is Zach’s major label debut album, was Something in the Orange. Perhaps because I’m used to the overproduction of pop songs, I was relatively surprised at the low maintenance of this easy-listening track, and even more surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

Zach sings with pure and raw emotion to the point where you can hear the pain in his voice as he tells his stories through his music, and I think this point cannot be made any clearer than in Something in the Orange. Backed only with a harmonica and an acoustic guitar, Zach really lays himself bare as he tells the heartbreaking story of a love lost and a love that he holds onto with hope.

The simplicity of Zach’s music is also apparent in Heading South, from his second album Elisabeth. Apparently he recorded this song, as well as the entire album, on his laptop in a shed, which attributes to its low maintenance indie feel. Sometimes I can get lost in how an artist sings their lyrics that my empathy ability kicks in and I truly feel something, even if I have no idea what the lyrics are; this is how I felt listening to Heading South.

I think in a genre like country music, its almost expected that male artists have a certain sound – the deep, southern drawl a la Luke Bryan or Chris Stapleton – and while I’m not saying Zach is the complete opposite of this, he has his own unique sound that, coupled with his ability to pour his raw emotion into his music, makes for a very compelling and intriguing artist.

Recommended Tracks
“I Remember Everything” ft. Kacey Musgraves (Zach Bryan)
“Fear and Fridays (Poem)” (Zach Bryan)
“If She Wants a Cowboy” (American Heartbreak)

Not to sound like I’m shitting on an entire genre, but I feel like country is one of the most regulated genres of music there is. I mean, god forbid you support trans rights or something. My own personal views aside, though, what I find so refreshing and endearing about Zach is he seems so unfiltered and like he walks to the beat of his own drum, despite any arguments that country music purists might have.

I mean, his recent collaboration with Sexyy Red really shows this tbh.

Again I say: I love this man. (SOURCE: Zach Bryan’s Instagram)

Anyways, if you haven’t already, I highly suggest you look into Zach Bryan. Come for the handsome face, stay for the music, live for his cheeky approach to life.

– by The Black Widow

Review: Twenty Years Later

Posted in Books, Entertainment by

I’m still riding the high of finishing this novel tbh.

TW: mentions of the 9/11 attacks.

For those of you who definitely didn’t ask, I joined a book club a few months ago and am really enjoying it tbh. Between the four of us, one of us chooses a category or topic, and then we all suggest a book from that category and take a vote on which book to read next.

We’ve read a few books thus far, and the fourth book to be read amongst the club was chosen to be Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea. This book was my suggestion as the topic for this round was ‘Goodreads winners’, and this was voted as one of the top Goodreads thrillers which I guess was lowkey a subtle suggestion to read a genre that I love.

Twenty Years Later covers two different times: 2001 around the time of the 9/11 attacks in the US, and (shock!) twenty years later in 2021. Avery Mason, a TV show host and American celebrity in 2021, is thrown into the investigation of a 20-year-old murder mystery while trying to cover her own dark past. The accused, Victoria Ford, left a voicemail for her sister protesting her innocence in the crime, but the catch is Victoria Ford died as part of the 9/11 attacks.

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First off, I just want to say one word: wow.

I love a standard murder mystery on a good day, but when an excellent murder mystery is interwoven with several other attention-grabbing plots going on, it makes for an outstanding novel. Once you thought you knew where the story was going, it would completely flip and go into a new direction with twists and turns a plenty that keeps you on your toes to the very end.

However, I will say to the contrary of what I just said, that sometimes there was a little too much going on at once to the point where it may have been overwhelming. But I rarely felt overwhelmed while reading this novel, so don’t let that scare you off.

Donlea writes the story in third-person and shifts between the point of views of the characters Avery Mason and Walt Jenkins predominantly, with a few surprises here and there that I will not spoil for you. Even though the perspective shifts between characters, Donlea takes the time to really flesh out his characters so you really understand Avery’s motive, Walt’s view on life, and you really get a good understanding of who they are as people.

Both Avery and Walt were both really likeable as characters, with admirable and endearing qualities but created with a sense of realism that they were human and they weren’t perfect angels. I can’t say much more on that without passing that line of spoiler territory, so I’ll just leave it at this ominously vague point.

Wid-o-meter
Storyline: 9/10
Style of writing: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

I cannot recommend this story enough. It’s a great read if you are an established thriller/mystery reader, and it’s also a great read if you’ve never read a thriller/mystery before in your life.

I would just suggest setting time aside to read this book, because it truly is one of those novels that once you’ve really gotten into it, it’ll be hard to put it down to go to sleep, or eat, or use the bathroom. So be prepared.

– by The Black Widow

Sex Talk: Sexuality vs. Sexual Orientation

Posted in Lifestyle, Sex Talk by

Probably the tamest post you’ll find under Sex Talk.

On Widow’s Lure, we’ve covered the mechanics of a threesome, and random thoughts one might have while doing the horizontal tango.

Today, we’re going to go into something that may seem a bit more political than it does straight nasty. Hmm, maybe less political and more Merriam-Webster actually.

Commonly, when referring to a person and their ability to be attracted to a certain gender or genders, you refer to it as their sexuality. I mean, it makes sense right? Heterosexuality, pansexuality, asexuality, bisexuality… it’s in the name!

However, my understanding of the term sexuality is in one’s ability to be sexual or sexy. For example, a woman’s ability to be sexy by confidently prancing around in a bikini or sharing lingerie photos is her being comfortable in her sexuality.

To me, a person’s ability to be attracted, or not attracted, to a gender or genders is their sexual orientation.

Technically my sexual orientation would be pansexual as I am genuinely attracted to all different kinds of people; however I identify as queer because it’s an all encompassing term and tbh I can’t be bothered getting into the nitty gritty of Kinsey scale and “Okay but you like men more than you do women so can you get into further detail of your pansexuality”.

My sexuality, however, is very provocative and unapologetically feminine. I’m very comfortable in my sexuality and my ability to be sexual, whether it’s the way my hips swing when I walk, or the dramatic way I toss my hair around, or by the tight and skimpy clothing I wear on a night out. I’ve been told I walked out of the womb ready to flirt, and I think that’s just because I find it empowering and quite liberating to be sexy and sexual.

My dear friend Jackie Goldschneider Merriam-Webster defines sexuality as:

the quality or state of being sexual:
a: the condition of having sex
b: sexual activity
c: expression of sexual receptivity or interest especially when excessive

Whereas, sexual orientation is defined by Merriam-Webster as:

a person’s sexual identity or self-identification as bisexual, straight, gay, pansexual, etc. 
the state of being bisexual, straight, gay, pansexual, etc.

So many things encompass one’s sexuality, from how they present themselves and behave when attracting someone, to finding what really pleasures them sexually, to your relationships with other people.

As an Australian, I can kind of see where the confusion has come from. I come from a nation that is infamous for shortening words – you may see me walk into a room, flustered, and utter the phrase “Soz guys, the traff was ridic” – and so I think this is where the confusion really stems from.

In short, I bet someone really saw the term sexual orientation, decided that there are way too many syllables for their own personal liking, and shortened it to ‘sexuality’ because it’s easier to say but also makes sense in the context.

I think healthy and respectful discussions around sexual orientation are great, and I would love for society to get to a place where an individual’s sexual orientation isn’t a problem in any aspect of life. I dream of a time where ‘coming out of the closet’ isn’t a thing anymore; a queer teenaged boy can bring his boyfriend home to meet his parents without any drama or cause of conflict.

But I think because sexuality is often misrepresented as sexual orientation that the true definition of sexuality and discussion around sexuality are lost in translation. In turn, people are made to feel ashamed about their sexuality and their confidence within their own skin, or perhaps don’t know what to do when flirting with someone they’re interested in because they don’t understand the concept of sexuality.

Let’s open up the topic of sexuality to young people so by the time in their lives where they start to discover their identities and become comfortable with who they are, they can find comfort in being who they are and loving their skin.

– by The Black Widow

Review: As Good As Dead

Posted in Books, Entertainment by

The finale to what has been a fantastic series!

RELATED LINKS: Review: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
Review: Good Girl, Bad Blood

If you have followed along with the adventures of Pippa Fitz-Amobi with me, you will know that As Good As Dead is the finale in the series. This poor girl has been through enough, after all, so it’s only fitting that the series ends here.

As Good As Dead picks up where Good Girl, Bad Blood finished. Pippa is left reeling from the dramatic events of the second book, and to make matters worse, someone is leaving anonymous threats to her: “Who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears?” As expected, Pippa’s life is turned upside down, and she has to race against the clock to protect herself.

These book covers are so iconic. Like they have literally all serrrved.

If you haven’t read my reviews for the previous two books, I’ll summarise it in saying that this series is so well written and the plots have been so great; these have truly been some of my favourite bloody books.

Unfortunately, As Good As Dead was very noticeably the worst book of the trio.

To start this review off sweet, Holly Jackson’s writing is still as phenomenal as it’s always been. Every part of the book was very easy to picture in my head due to the words and language that Holly used, and to me it was very easy to follow the narrative in the story.

One thing that I think Holly is really good at is writing well-rounded characters, but not just the main characters; even the supporting characters are well written and easy to imagine. That’s an incredible feat to accomplish in my books.

This is where the tone of the review will change. Without dipping too much into spoiler territory, the plot of this novel was so unbelievable to me, and this really damaged my view of this book.

There’s a twist at around the middle point of the book which I clocked very early on, yet we’re led to believe that Pippa – the very bright, switched on and intelligent murder mystery solver – had no idea about this.

And then the rest of the plot unfolds, and the young girl who seemingly had no idea about the plot twist suddenly becomes a forensic and scheming mastermind. While I’m sure that some of the science behind the rest of the plot is legitimate, I just think how the second half of the book unfolds is extremely unbelievable to the point that I stopped taking the book seriously.

Wid-o-meter
Storyline: 5.5/10
Style of writing: 8/10
Overall: 6.75/10

I have to be honest; I was let down by this book, and that’s mainly because the second half of the plot was just so ridiculous. What I liked about the first two books was, despite the fact that it was a teenage girl investigating a murder and a disappearance, it was written in a way that it was believable. However, the unbelievability of this book really dragged it down tbh.

Despite this, please still pick this one up and read it. You do need to get the ending of Pippa’s story. She didn’t go through all of this for nothing!

– by The Black Widow