Review: This Time Round by Ray Quinn

Title: This Time Round
Author: Ray Quinn
Publisher: Percy Publishing
Publication Date: 4th March 2015
Pages: 188
Source: Library
Rating: 5/5
Purchase: Amazon

They say it's all about timing. We,, the time has come for me to stand back and take a look at my life so far - where I've been, what I've achieved, and where I want to go in the future.

I've been blessed with a full and coloruful career so far, covering TV, theatre, dancing, singing and skating. Now 26, I intend to focus on my greatest passion - music. If I've learned anything so far, it's that life doesn't wait for anyone; you have to take control of your own destiny.

This is the story of how I grew up in Liverpool, with my acting and dancing days, and how I coped with the overwhelming demands of the X Factor and Dancing on Ice. Much of that story was ignored by the media: a lot that people don't know.

'This Time Round' is something of a cautionary tale. Maybe reading about my own highs and lows will enlighten some of you who want to become part of the entertainment industry - all those who dare to dream.

Review: Me Me Me by Charlotte Crosby

Title: Me Me Me
Author: Charlotte Crosby
Publisher: Headline
Publication Date: 16th July 2015
Pages: 304
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 5/5
Purchase: Amazon

Charlotte Crosby has been one of the UK's best-loved TV stars since she burst onto the celeb scene in 2011 with Geordie Shore. Laugh-out-loud hilarious, genuine, and a proper Geordie, Charlotte's popularity has even seen her crowned winner of 2013's Celebrity Big Brother.

With her trademark humour and warmth, in ME ME ME Charlotte takes us on a very unique journey through her eventful teenage years (where literally nothing is off limits!), her attempts at holding down jobs (and booze), the life-changing experience of Geordie Shore, the truth about Gaz and his parsnip, and her inspiring weight-loss triumph. Full of drawings, doodles, and Charlotte's personal photos, this will be unlike any other celebrity autobiography on the market. Extremely personal, insanely honest and pant-wettingly funny.

Review: Valleywood by Lateysha Grace

Title: Valleywood
Author: Lateysha Grace
Publisher: John Blake
Publication Date: 12th March 2015
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9781784182694
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

Since exploding on to our screens as part of the MTV show The Valleys, diva Lateysha Grace has caused quite a stir with her kick-offs, cat-fights and confident Beyonce-like behaviour.

But before all the glamour, Lateysha had a bleak childhood; born into a single parent family where her mother Debbie struggled to make ends meet, plunging the family into the depths of abject poverty. All Lateysha craved was a normal family life and when her mum met a new man, she was happy to finally have a father figure. Her dream soon turned into her worst nightmare though when her new dad became addicted to heroin - the man she thought was her knight in shining armour had turned out to be the 'devil incarnate'. Lateysha could do nothing but watch as he physically abused her, her mother and her siblings.

Lateysha's story is shocking, upsetting and often heart-breaking and she holds no bars when it comes to speaking about her turbulent childhood, wild behaviour and emotional despair. The devastating effects of her traumatic youth came to the surface when, as a teenager, Lateysha attempted to take her own life twice and found solace in drugs, alcohol and casual sex as a way of dealing with her problems. Even her time on The Valleys almost never happened after Lateysha was charged with assault on a girl in a local nightclub. Eventually, the Welsh beauty was found not guilty, but this drama just added to the long list of harrowing events in her young life.

With deep valleys of heartache and peaks of joy, Lateysha's bonk-busting autobiography will have you scrambling to turn the page.

Review: Inside Alcatraz: My Time on the Rock by Jim Quillen

Title: Inside Alcatraz: My Time on the Rock
Author: Jim Quillen
Publisher: Century
Publication Date: 15th January 2015
Pages: 384
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 5/5
Purchase: Amazon

It was 1942, and twenty-two-year-old Jim Quillen was on the run from San Quentin prison, where he'd been serving eighteen months for armed robbery. He thought he'd made a lucky escape - until he was caught and sentenced to forty-five years in the federal prison system, including ten years at the infamous Alcatraz.

Inside Alcatraz tells the story of the brutality and extreme regimentation that were a part of the daily life for the inmates of the island prison. They nicknamed it 'Hellcatraz', and Jim was about to find out why. He lived though it all, from solitary confinement and cramped, lonely cells to meeting Bob 'the Birdman' Stroud, and surviving the forty-six-hour bloody riot known as the Battle of Alcatraz.

In this moving memoir, Jim reflects on the ten hard years he spent on the island. He tells us of the hardships he suffered and the friendships he made on his long journey from desperation to redemption. 

Review: The Final Minute by Simon Kernick

Title: The Final Minute
Author: Simon Kernick
Publisher: Century
Publication Date: 15th January 2015
Pages: 400
Source: NetGalley Review Copy
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

Featuring Simon Kernick's maverick detective, TINA BOYD, this is the gripping new race-against-time thriller by the best-selling author of Relentless, The Last 10 Seconds and Stay Alive.

‘It’s night, and I’m in a strange house.

The lights are on, and and I’m standing outside a half-open door.

Feeling a terrible sense of forboding, I walk slowly inside.

And then I see her.

A woman lying sprawled across a huge double bed.

She’s dead. There’s blood everywhere.

And the most terrifying thing of all is that I think her killer might be me …’

A traumatic car-crash. A man with no memory, haunted by nightmares.

When the past comes calling in the most terrifying way imaginable, Matt Barron is forced to turn to the one person who can help, Ex Met cop, turned private detective, Tina Boyd.

Soon they are both on the run...

Review: Getting Over the X - Steve Brookstein (4.5/5)

It was the stuff dreams were made of. It became the ultimate nightmare. Being the first winner of the X Factor in 2004, Steve Brookstein should have had it all. Instead, he tells a story of a man sold down the river by his own record label as they championed the runner-up, G4, and forced him into an album of cover songs.

This is the story of what really happened, from vicious personal attacks by Sharon Osborne and Louis Walsh to threats from Max Clifford about going public. A decade on, and Max Clifford is inside and severely discredited. So is Andy Coulson, an editor who ran many of the untrue stories about Steve. He has been dubbed a pub singer, a fake, a flop and bitter as the narrative that begun on the show became adopted by journalists who thought he was fair game, frequently reviewing gigs that they hadn't been to or inventing quotes he hadn't said, and always regulated by a toothless Press Complaints Commission.

Ten years on, Steve is now able to lift the lid on the show itself and analyse for the first time exactly what Max Clifford said when he rang to say, 'Talk to the press and we'll bury you.'

Hall of Fame Review: My Side of Life by Shane Filan (5/5)

As a lead singer of Westlife, one of the most successful pop acts of all time, Shane Filan was on top of the world. Together with the band, he achieved an incredible 14 No.1 singles (a record beaten only by the Beatles) sold 44 million records and was adored by fans the world over.

Everything he touched turned to gold, or so it seemed. Like many others, he had piled his fortunes into the Irish property boom and when the bubble burst, Shane struggled with mounting debt. Just ten days after Westlife’s final farewell concert, in front of a sold-out crowd of 80,000 fans, Shane was declared bankrupt with debts of £18 million – losing everything.

But this wasn’t the end for Shane Filan – a devoted singer and family man, Shane circled back to his roots and a year later he launched his solo career. 

In My Side of Life Shane shares his story for the first time – his early years growing up as part of a large Irish family in Co. Sligo, the phenomenal success of Westlife and the ups and downs of their time together, the breakup of the band, his financial devastation, and finally going it alone as a solo artist.

This is Shane’s side of the story.

Review: Our Life on Ice by Torvill and Dean (5/5)

When Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean collapsed to the ice at the climax of their routine to Bolero in the 1984 Winter Olympics, the judges could find no fault, awarding them 12 maximum scores of 6.0, while 24 million viewers watching at home in Britain simply looked on in amazement. Suddenly, we were all experts in figure skating, and we wanted to know more about the couple at the heart of it all.

Despite intense interest in them, Torvill & Dean kept their lives private, with many still wondering if the pair were really a couple. They turned professional and would eventually spend eight years working on ITV's Dancing on Ice, but still much of their story remained unknown.

Now, in Our Life on Ice, Torvill & Dean finally open up about the challenges they have faced and the pressures of life in the public eye: Jayne speaks candidly about her struggle with husband Phil to start a family, while Chris reveals the heartache in his family story. And of course, there is the skating, and the stories about what inspired their famous routines, and what the pair hope to achieve in the future as the approach their fortieth anniversary working together. It is the book their millions of fans have been waiting to read.

Review: Our Zoo by June Mottershead (4/5)

A wonderfully nostalgic memoir detailing the fascinating lives of the working class family behind the phenomenally successful Chester Zoo.

When George Mottershead moved to the village of Upton-by-Chester in 1930 to realise his dream of opening a zoo without bars, his four-year-old daughter June had no idea how extraordinary her life would become. Soon her best friend was a chimpanzee called Mary, lion cubs and parrots were vying for her attention in the kitchen, and finding a bear tucked up in bed was no more unusual than talking to a tapir about granny's lemon curd. Pelican, penguin or polar bear - for June, they were simply family.

The early years were not without their obstacles for the Mottersheads. They were shunned by the local community, bankruptcy threatened and then World War Two began. Nightly bombing raids turned the dream into a nightmare and finding food for the animals became a constant challenge. Yet George's resilience, resourcefulness and tenacity eventually paid off. Now over 80 years since June first set foot in the echoing house, Chester Zoo has achieved worldwide renown.

Here, in her enthralling memoir, June Mottershead chronicles the heartbreak, the humour, the trials and triumphs, above all the characters, both human and animal, who shaped her childhood.

Hall of Fame Review: Not Quite A Geordie by Holly Hagan (5/5)

Busty babe Holly Hagan has had viewers of Geordie Shore glued to their screens ever since her arrival in the first series. Fed up with her dead end job at a call center, and with dreams of being a star one day, Holly applied for a new reality TV show. She couldn’t know it was to catapult her into fame and make her one of the most recognizable faces on British TV.

Fame and fortune, though, came at a price—the road from the call center to the celebrity circuit has been far from smooth. For the first time, Holly is lifting the lid on the perks and perils she’s faced ever since her topless hot tub antics shocked the nation. Holly owes her success to a very simple change of look, which involved both a new bottle of red hair dye and a newfound confidence. Ever since then, audiences have been in stitches as they watch Holly (and her flame-red hair) flirt her way around Newcastle’s famed "Diamond Strip," and places further afield, such as Magaluf, Cancun, and Australia.

In this action-packed, revealing, funny, and sometimes heartbreaking memoir, Holly recounts her life in and out of the limelight with brutal honesty—from her childhood days when she was badly bullied, her shocking take on sex and dating, her liaison with bad-boy musician Frankie Cocozza, and what really goes on behind-the-scenes on the UK’s biggest reality TV show. Filled with genuinely touching stories and inside accounts of what they don’t show you on TV, Holly has laid herself bare, first physically and now emotionally. If you think you know all there is to know about Holly from Geordie Shore, think again.

Review: Stalked by Alison Hewitt (4/5)

A young woman's harrowing account of being stalked by the man she once loved

Alison Hewitt was in the midst of training to be a family doctor when she met Al Amin Dhalla through an exclusive dating agency. He was a seemingly respectable businessman from Canada, so attentive and caring it was easy to ignore the warning signs - until he started, step by step, to take over her life.

Six months after they first met Al Amin's web of lies started to unravel and Alison became aware that he had a sinister dark side. When she tried to end the relationship, the unthinkable happened and she found herself the victim of an escalating campaign of terror. Even when Al Amin was found with knives and guns, the police had no powers to detain him. Nobody could have imagined the events that were to follow, as Alison was left fearing for her life. It would take all her strength to survive.

Brave and gripping, Stalked tells of one young woman's fight against the man who terrorized her, and her determination to defeat the fear and live a normal life.

Review: Gaz (and My Parsnip) by Gary Beadle (5/5)

In 2011, loveable ladies magnet Gary Beadle was jobless and down to his last £20 when he was randomly asked to be in a reality TV show called Geordie Shore. He'd never heard of its American predecessor, Jersey Shore, but with his only prospects being his next dole cheque - and swayed by the offer of free booze - he signed himself up for the challenge. He could never have anticipated the insane new life he was about to lead.

 

From a shy youngster at school, who was the captain of his football team, Gary also never expected the effect he would have on the British public - especially its women. After leaving school at 16, Gary fell into a variety of jobs, even having a brief spell in the Royal Marines. Unfortunately, nothing stuck and, by the time he reached 22, he hadn't a clue what to do next - until the night he was asked to join the cast of MTV's Geordie Shore.

 

Now, for the first time, Gary reveals what growing up in his native Newcastle was like, explains his winning luck with the ladies, and offers up his much sought after tips on how to bag a bird on a night out: something he's proved he's pretty much an expert at. From job-hunting to making public appearances in front of thousands of screaming girls, Gary is secretly amazed by the change in his fortunes. He may be known for his crazy, fun-loving nature, but there's much more to Gary than girls, booze and nights out. And it's all packed into this - his autobiography.

 

I'm sure there's only a few people in the UK unaware of Geordie Shore and those that are aware of it probably have an opinion on it. Personally I love the show and the people on it. I recently read Vicky's autobiography and that was a complete eye opener. After reading Gaz's I can only say the same, what he has achieved from just appearing on a TV show drinking and having sex is incredible. A clothing range, a shop, owns a Ferrari, a nightclub in Zante, fitness products, the list goes on and this is all from appearing on Geordie Shore. Crazy. 

I loved reading about Gaz growing up, especially when he was in school. He was a right little tearaway but at the same time still got the results. His teenage years were certainly eventful with the possibility of playing for Newcastle to joining the Marines his life could have went in so many different directions but it seems fate was only going to lead him to one point... That is of course Geordie Shore and it was interesting to read about how the show came about and what went on after having read Vicky's book from someone else that had went through it too. I can definitely relate to Gaz in not knowing what to do with my life or where it's going to go but unfortunately I don't think there's a producer waiting in the wings to come and change my life... 

There is some behind the scenes gossip and some secrets revealed but nothing too shocking, it's essentially just the seasons recapped from Gaz's POV which plenty of details about his conquests throughout. He also speaks with honesty about Charlotte and how much he cares about her but anyone watching the show knows he never promised anything yet always comes out looking the bad guy. He does after all play a character or a 'role' as each of the housemates do but underneath it all is a decent lad who has been brought up well but is living a life most of us can only dream about.

I thought the target audience for this book would be girls but the book contains at the end of each chapter Parsnip Pointers which gives lads tips on everything from pulling a girl on holiday to achieving the holy grail: a threesome. Gaz has literally given out all his best tips but to be honest I think girls love him too much to take any offence whilst reading it, they do throw themselves at him after all... For that reason the book does appeal to both males and females. Ultimately it was a very enjoyable read and a good way for Gaz to get his side of the story across as and at the end of the day he gets the last laugh over the haters as he's loaded and only seems to get more successful as the seasons go on.