Category Archives: Entertainment

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

Review: As Good As Dead

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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

Review: Good Girl, Bad Blood

Posted in Books, Entertainment by

This title’s lowkey describing me.

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

Welcome back to another opinionated book review! This time, we are returning back to the world of Pippa Fitz-Amobi, the teenager who managed to solve a murder mystery case by herself and acquit sweet Sal Singh for the murder of Andie Bell, all the while putting herself in danger. 

The sequel to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, this book picks up right where the first book left off. Feeling the weight of Andie Bell’s case, Pippa has decided to give up her murder solving ways to try and live a normal life of a teenager in high school. But when her friend Connor tells her that his brother Jamie is missing, and the police refuse to look into it, Pippa has no choice but to investigate the missing person’s case which will lead her down another dangerous path.

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Holly Jackson is really just an incredible writer and I believe she’s truly found her niche in writing this genre. If you’re a fan of a mystery-thriller, I highly recommend you pick this book up to read (after reading A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder obviously).

I believe I finished this book within a 48 hour period because I struggled to put it down, even at the expense of my sleep. At no point was there ever a lull in the action or suspense, and even when I thought I’d found a point in the book where it was okay to put my bookmark in and go to sleep, something wild happened, so I had no choice but to continue.

Good Girl, Bad Blood goes down a different path to the first book, this time looking into a potential missing person’s case as opposed to a case closed murder mystery; something that I really enjoyed. It keeps it fresh and unpredictable in the best sense, and it doesn’t get to the point like the Death in Paradise TV show where a bunch of murders happen in a small location and you’re questioning the believability of it. 

There are quite a few twists and turns in this book, almost to the point that you forget the initial plot of this book is to find Jamie, and I absolutely loved that about Good Girl, Bad Blood. Once you think you’ve solved the case, the game is changed, and as a reader you’re left wondering where this is going and how it will end.

Once again, I found myself really adoring the character of Pippa, and her relationship with sweet angel Ravi. Her methodical investigative manner was once again highly detailed, but not in a way where it wasn’t believable for a switched-on high schooler to achieve. This made her seem like a real character, which is something a few authors struggle to achieve.

Wid-o-meter
Storyline: 9/10
Style of writing: 8.5/10
Overall: 8.75/10

A very successful sequel to an amazing first novel, Good Girl, Bad Blood is fantastically written with a gripping storyline from start to finish. With very little to fault, I highly recommend you pick this book up for a very enthralling read – again, after finishing A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder of course.

– by The Black Widow