Category Archives: Entertainment

The Housewives of Sydney: Ranked

Posted in Entertainment, TV by

Finally, we’re coming home!

Welcome to another edition of Real Housewives ranked, and I’m so excited to be writing about my first city outside of the Bravo universe, especially because it’s in my own city – Sydney!

Just a few queens hanging out. And Caroline.



Full transparency: I watched this out of chronological order. I saw the hype about RHOS coming back with season two after a six year hiatus. One specific housewife cast in season two was also a major reason why I decided to tune in, but more on that later. I watched season two, then season one, then the most recent season three.

With a small list of castmates comes a small ranking, so without further interruption, let’s rank the iconic ladies of Sydney!

13. Athena X Levendi
Just like the very first episode of RHOS suggests, Athena X is Jatz crackers! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a housewife like Athena X, and unfortunately I do not mean that as a compliment. She was capable of going from 0 to 100 in a matter of seconds, and she would go from attacking someone and belittling them for no reason, to then crying for forgiveness, just to rinse and repeat. Also the owner of the most exhausting reunion performance ever. Ugh.

12. Caroline Gaultier
I quite liked Caroline in season two, as I thought she was stylish, had a certain sass about her, and was fairly entertaining to watch. And then her abysmal performance in season Three shot her to the (almost) bottom of this list. She spent the entire season playing professional victim, shirking accountability, and just being a general piss irritating housewife.

11. Nicole O’Neil
I quite like that Nicole is possibly the preppiest housewife in any city, because we all know Housewives was intended to be lifestyle porn. Watching her navigate conflict calmly “like a lady” and then watching her blow up at Athena X was a very interesting contrast. But her performance in season two and three is mostly forgettable, and her refusing to participate drags her down.

10. Krissy Marsh
So I actually quite like Krissy, which goes to show you how good this cast is if she’s at 10. I think she’s quite funny, has great confessional energy, and her ability to navigate conflict but also get up from a table and walk off is quite fun to watch. There’s just something about her that’s quite pretentious? I don’t know. I still like her though.

9. Matty Samaei
We all know I love a peacemaker housewife that can also get into it and defend themselves when they need to, and Matty was one of the housewives who played this role in season one. I would’ve liked to learn more about her family and her career, but seeing her interactions with the group was entertaining. And her storm off in the finale was iconic.

8. Victoria Montano
Victoria is probably one of the most stunning housewives in any city, and I love that she has a flare for short skirts because so do I. She exudes wealth which is what a housewife should do, but there is an obvious air of elitism about her that’s probably a little too real. Her role in season three as Martine’s mouthpiece does keep her from going any higher in this list, unfortunately.

7. Martine Chippendale
Martine is an interesting case for me. First of all, she’s absolutely beautiful. Secondly, I find her feud with sunlight to be hilarious TV, and her ordering her husband to carry her parasol while she swung a golf club was great. Thirdly, I appreciate that she can speak her mind, especially as the newbie in season three. What keeps her from going higher in this list is I feel like the other housewives had to walk on eggshells around her after her blow up, which isn’t a nice feeling for anyone tbh.

6. Kate Adams
From episode one of season two, I could tell that Kate would be a great housewife. Calling out past drama that had nothing to do with her in a group setting was straight out of the housewives playbook, and then she continued the next two seasons constantly speaking her mind, standing up to someone if she felt slighted, and also going to the gutter for ammunition. Textbook housewife IMHO.

5. Victoria Rees
Victoria was really that bitch in season one, and the very first episode showed that. Her throwing Athena’s cape into the harbour may have been a tad overproduced, but lord did it set the tone for the most chaotic season of Housewives ever. She had a very interesting personal story of finding her family, and her season long feud with Athena is one for the history books tbh.

4. Sally Obermeder
With the two peacemakers from season one gone, it was Sally’s turn to step up, and she fit this role well. She was mainly a fence sitter in season two, being an ally to everyone on the cast. Season three was lowkey a fantastic performance from Sally, as she started the season off trying to bring everyone together, but then would get into it with Victoria on different occasions where she won each time. Plus, you can just tell she’s a wonderful human. We love that.

3. Melissa Tkautz
Of the two aforementioned peacemakers in season one, Melissa was my favourite. A stunning housewife and pop icon from the 90s, Melissa was mainly an ear to anyone who needed one, but when her own friend Athena turned on her for literally no reason, Melissa did not back down and defended herself against that haunted woman. I would love to see a Melissa return in the future tbh.

2. Lisa Oldfield
Lisa is absolutely a one of a kind. With the sharpest tongue on any Real Housewife ever, Lisa could cut you down so quickly you wouldn’t even realise she did it, and she truly had the best confessionals of any Housewife in any city. Probably the owner of the best one liners from any Housewife, Lisa was equal parts vile, entertaining, and quality TV. I hope she did get to thank that morbidly obese guy on a kayak towing a giant inflatable swan for saving her life. 

1. Terry Biviano
When I mention there was one name who made me want to watch RHOS, I’m talking about Terry Biviano. If you’re an NRL fan, you know who she is. If you’re an Aussie reality TV fan, you know who she is. If you love a good pair of shoes, you know who she is. I have never picked someone as being the perfect Real Housewife as I did for Terry. Not scared of conflict, arguments, or stirring up petty drama and shutting it down with class, Terry is absolutely a top tier Real Houswife, and a lot of women could learn a thing or two from her on how to navigate conflict on reality TV.

I do have concerns that season four may not be coming any time soon. Season three was announced pretty much as soon as season two had ended, so the fact that we haven’t heard anything frightens me, because this entire cast is reality TV gold, and this show is only really just getting started. As long as Terry comes back, obviously.

Because honestly, Sydney is probably one of my favourite cities of Housewives ever – and that’s saying a lot!

Also I just want to include this photo here for no reason at all.



– by The Black Widow

Review: Wrong Place Wrong Time

Posted in Books, Entertainment by

Another book review? No way!

I want to preface this review by saying the blurb of this book sold me immediately, and I showed my friend – who had no prior interest to thriller/mystery types of novels – said blurb and she was like “Wow! That’s a good blurb! Now I want to read it!” And then I ended up buying the book after declaring that I ‘wasn’t going to buy anything; I just wanted to browse’.

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister tells the story of Jen Brotherhood, a loving wife to Kelly and mother of Todd, who one days looks out her window and witnesses her sweet and innocent son murder a complete stranger on their street. After going through the terror of accompanying their son to the police station, Jen wakes up and finds that it now the day before the murder. With her new passive time-travelling ability, Jen decides to find out the reason why her seemingly innocuous son could take someone’s life like that.

I hope I did that iconic blurb justice.

9781405949842

This book was very well written with a gripping and refreshing storyline, and I managed to finish this book within 48 hours of buying it. I really struggled to put it down because the story was so gripping, and the twists and turns in the narrative were so intriguing that it didn’t bother me that I was going to be up until 2am reading it.

And then, the most unsatisfying ending happened.

I won’t get into too much detail as to why I found it so unsatisfying; whether it was a good ending or a bad ending because every reader is different. But from such a huge build up with an interesting time travelling storyline just to finish the way it did, it left me with a rather bitter taste in my mouth. The ending felt a little rushed, to the point where I felt like Gillian was rushing to tie up the narrative with a little bow.

For what it’s worth, the storyline was impeccable for the first 95% of the book. Gillian writes with easy to understand language that also makes it very easy to imagine in your head as you experience the narrative being laid out for you.

I wouldn’t say that the characters are really well fleshed out to the point of being complex and layered, but a few of the main characters are written with enough depth that the more you learn about them, the more you realise you were wrong about them when you initially judged them, and that was something I quite enjoyed about this book.

Wid-o-meter
Storyline: 6.5/10
Style of writing: 8/10
Overall: 7.25/10

Again, if you’re a fan of the thriller mystery vibe (especially with a time travelling aspect) then I would recommend you pick this one up and read it. Just don’t have high hopes for the ending.

Oh well. It is what it is.

– by The Black Widow

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.

91pSsrkCrOL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_

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