Saturday 26 September 2015

Deal Breakers - Laura Lee

Oh my goodness I am obsessed with this book, I stayed up until some insanely early morning hour last night reading and then all day today it's all I've been able to think about. Deal Breakers tells the story of Devyn and Riley. Riley instantly spots Devyn at college and knows he wants to get to know her better, sort of love at first sight. He tries to work his charm on her but Devyn is having none of it and firmly insists that they stay friends. During their time together at college they become best friends so much so that Riley is the one that Devyn wants to help her become an adult by taking her virginity. It is that night when everything changes between the pair. Five years on and neither have spoken since that night but now Riley is determined to hunt Devyn down and rectify the mistakes that he made with her.  The only difference is now Devyn has been hiding a secret from Riley and that neither can deny the attraction between them both.

When I read the blurb I knew that it sounded just like the kind of book I'd enjoy reading but didn't anticipate liking it quite as much as I do. I found the entire story from start to finish engaging and if I was to complain about it the only thing I can say is that I wish Deal Breakers could have been longer! The story is told from both Devyn and Riley's points of view giving you the opportunity to experience the story from either side. They both have different reasons for their actions so having two perspectives makes it so engaging, you truly see how deep the feelings are between them for example.

The pacing in this book is superb. It really was effortless to read. You got plenty of details but time consistently moved but not once did you feel like it was too fast. The author's writing style is captivating and she wrote such great lead characters whose story seems realistic.

I honestly loved this book. Although I may have read Deal Breakers in one reading session and so desperately want to read more books about the pair, I can highly recommend that you read it. The story line was wonderful and the characters likeable.  It provides sad moments, moments where you’re angry and real butterflies in your stomach romantic moments. Deal Breakers is a must read in my opinion and I cannot suggest that you buy this book as your next to read enough.

Synopsis -

How were they supposed to know that one night would change everything?

Devyn has life all mapped out. She just needs to accomplish one more thing before graduating college and becoming a full-fledged adult—lose her virginity. And who better to assist her than her best friend, Riley?

Riley is the self-proclaimed king of fling. His college years have been filled with meaningless hookups until the one night that ruined him for all other women. The one night he spends with his best friend, Devyn. Right before he screws it all up.

Balls to the wall, baby!

Now five years later, Riley is determined to atone for his mistakes and prove that he can be the man that Devyn deserves. Little does he know that Devyn’s been keeping a secret from him all these years. A big secret. Now he has to figure out how to win back the only girl he’s ever loved while navigating the pitfalls of her unexpected revelation.

Deal Breakers is filled with lots of laughs, a sexy romance, and an overflowing swear jar. 

Saturday 19 September 2015

Team Niklas - Ally Adams

Team Niklas by Ally Adams, is book number three in The Saints Team book series. However, I didn't actually know it was a series until after I'd finished reading so I read it as a standalone book with no problems at all. Niklas, who is also known as the Kaiser, is The Saints new star player from Germany. It doesn't take him long to catch the attention of the clubs media officer Sasha. From the minute they meet they have an undeniable spark which neither can resist despite Sasha's initial reluctance for a relationship to develop.

Team Nikas is one of those books that you just makes your heart flutter when reading it. From spontaneous date weekends to New York, to taking Sasha to upmarket restaurants, to the steamy nights they spend together - everything about this book is just perfect. Niklas is such a great male lead with his gentlemanly ways and is instantly likeable which only makes the book even easier to read.

My only gripe about Team Niklas is that I found that some of the things in this book were a little too quickly skipped over such as Sasha's relationship status, Niklas' backstory and drama with the press. It has a lot of twists and turns but all of them seem to resolve and perhaps be glossed over a little too quickly for my liking. Despite this, I was really interested in reading about how Niklas and Sasha's relationship blossomed and as it was wrote so wonderfully, this didn't really bother me at all. Sometimes I love just reading about relationships without too much outside story going on and this book is exactly that, it really isn't a bad thing!

I loved the way in which Team Niklas was written so I'm very interested in checking out the other books in this series. The author has a way of making you experience every emotion possible - a sign of a good book in my opinion! I can only imagine that the previous two books in the series are as enjoyable.

Team Niklas is one of those books that just can't help make you cheesily grin to yourself when reading it. I can guarantee when you finish this book you'll want a Niklas in your life! Which is exactly why you need to make Team Niklas the next book you read.

Synopsis -

In his hometown of Berlin, Germany, Niklas Wagner is a super star and when the Saints’ pay the big bucks to sign him up and bring him to Santa Ana, California, Nik takes a shine to his new life. When he meets the Saints’ media officer, Sasha Saxon, sparks fly literally. 

But Sasha is not your average girl—by day she is a journalist who looks after the media for the national champion soccer team and at night she designs for her personal fashion label. She had big dreams and they don’t include a boyfriend. Nik has never had to chase the girls but now he has met his match—Sasha is about to lead him on the biggest chase of his life.

Sunday 13 September 2015

VIP Carnivore Tour - Yorkshire Wildlife Park

If you’ve read my blog before you’ll know that I really enjoy visiting the Yorkshire Wildlife Park. I’ll put the links at the bottom of this post to my other two posts that I’ve done about the park in case you've missed them. Well this week, it was finally time for me to do the VIP tour with focus on carnivores that I’d had booked for a few months now. 
The VIP tour that I did focussed on the parks carnivores which included meerkats, painted hunting dogs, leopards, tigers and of course the parks famous lions. Like with the polar bear experience the day starts before the park opens making the experience feel more special than if it happened during park hours. 
My first stop of the day was to feed the meerkats, an animal which I didn’t associate with being a carnivore. Truthfully the meerkats are an animal that I don’t really look too much as I’m too busy looking at the lions and heading towards the polar bear enclosure. Getting to go into the enclosure and feed them breakfast whilst hearing about each meerkats personality was a surprise but a great addition to the tour.
Next on the tour was a trip to see the lions. The Yorkshire Wildlife Park’s lions were rescued back in 2010 from a zoo in Romania where they were kept in extremely small cages. It was a national campaign to raise money to rescue these lions to bring them over to the wildlife park where they have significantly more space to roam around in now. On my tour I got to get up close and personal and feed two of the lionesses, Julie and Carla. It is very surprising just how big these lions are, yet both were unbelievably gentle taking the food from the tongs. Being able to feed a lion is something I never thought I would be able to do so was the highlight of the tour for me.

Julie waiting for her food!

If you don’t know the Yorkshire Wildlife Park recently saw the birth of three Amur tiger cubs named Harley, Hope and Hector, who are ridiculously adorable. It was such a wonderful experience to get the opportunity to feed Hope and Hector. Unfortunately Harley and mum Tschuna were too full from yesterdays dinner so didn’t come over for our offerings of more food. Like the lions, the tiger cubs were so gentle in taking the food from us. I’d only seen the cubs from afar so it was incredible to have them right at the other side of the fence to me.

Feeding Hope - an Amur Tiger Cub

Personally, I preferred my polar bear experience; however that may be due to the fact that I just really love polar bears. I know for a fact that if you really love the big cats of the park you will absolutely love this experience. Its worth remembering that the animals are not trained so for example, Drake the leopard is extremely shy so he wasn’t having been coaxed over for food one bit so depending on what mood the animals are in you may not get to feed every carnivore in the park but you will get up close to them and get a glimpse at behind the scenes. Personally at £150.00 for two people (including park admission) I think it is worth every penny. It truly was an unforgettable experience. 

Sunday 6 September 2015

The Pigeon Detectives

Although I was late in discovering The Pigeon Detectives music, they are a band that I used to really love. Then for some reason I just didn't realise they were releasing new music and I seemed to just forget about them. When I saw that they were performing in my hometown earlier in the week I couldn't resist getting a ticket to the concert.


When I saw them back in 2008 at Glastonbury Festival, I went on a whim really as I only knew a few songs but the performance completely captured my attention. The lead singer gave the most high energy performance I've ever seen and to be honest I didn't know if I ever did see them perform again if the show would be as good. Truthfully, if anything seeing them doing a headline show was even better.


When the band first came on stage, although the energy was high I didn't know the first couple of songs that they performed. From where I was stood it was painfully clear that a large proportion of the audience were like myself and my have lost track of the bands music over the years. However, the set list was full of fan favourites such as Keep Your Dress On, Take Her Back and This Is An Emergency which quickly got the crowd in high spirits. The hits really got the crowds attention and for the few not so known songs they performed the audience were so hyped up from the hits they started to really enjoy the less popular songs too. The band themselves are the most energetic band that I've ever seen live. The lead singer, Matt, just doesn't keep still. If he's not throwing countless water bottles in the crowd, he's climbing up the stage and if he's not doing that he was walking down the bar into the crowd. It's so clear they love what they do and it really does make the show even more enjoyable.


As the concert was running extremely late they skipped the technicalities of an encore instead telling the crowd to pretend they'd just been off stage instead. The final song of the night was I'm Not Sorry, which is arguably The Pigeon Detectives biggest hit to date, before they left the stage to the loudest cheer.


For the £10 admission price I think it was worth every penny. Maybe I just went originally for nostalgic reasons but its recaptured what I liked about them and I've now downloaded the albums that I didn't own. If you like even just a couple of The Pigeon Detectives songs, I must urge you to go and see them live. What a concert!