Backstage Passes by Angela Bowie and Patrick Carr

Backstage Passes: Life on the Wild Side with David Bowie by Angela Bowie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 368

Publisher -

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

Angela Bowie has produced this scandalous, sexy, and uncompromising memoir of her turbulent years with David. She recounts how she launched him from cult hero to superstar and managed his career. Angela witnessed and shared it all―the bisexual orgies; David; decline at the hands of satanic cults and cocaine; and the lives and loves of Mick, Elton, Marianne, Iggy, Rod and Lou to name a few.



My Review

I didn't really know much about David Bowie, yeah his songs well some of but that was about it. Didn't know he had been married nor really any of his rise to fame stuff. Angela Bowie I didn't know until she was on celebrity big brother and her famous scene of the David's dead and poor Tiffany. Anyway after that stint I Googled her and saw she has this book, bought it and in true Lainy style it stayed on my tbrm since 2016 til now!

The book centres hugely on her and David's time together, we get a little of Angela before it and some of her antics whilst married but doing her own thing. What a wild time she had, free love indeed. She does name drop some people throughout the book and some very spicy stories of sexual times/partners before during and after (but still married) with David.

She drops the lowdown on what it was like being with him, dealing with his managers, people in his circle, getting to stardom and the before. His and her usage of drugs, both their sexual experiences together and apart, even dropping some names of people we know and again, free love.

She is a very different person from the one we seen on CBB and I don't know how much of what she wrote will be a surprise to folk. She did say there was a lot of people not happy about the book and her interview she gave once the NDA expired, I need to look up a few of the interviews and songs.

It is certainly an interesting read, Hollywood scandal, gossip and an insight into Bowie's creative process and rise to fame and how it affected him as he rose, 4/5. Interesting for sure and who doesn't love a bit of gossip and sneak peek behind the curtain of celebrity life/showbiz.

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The World's Most Evil People by Rodney Castledon

The World's Most Evil People by Rodney Castleden
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - over a month

Pages - 576

Publisher - Futura

Source - its been on the tbrm for years

Blurb from Goodreads

There are some evil people in this world, when you think about the killing, torturing, bombing and maiming and this book covers it all. Vlad the Impaler was a prince known for executing his enemies by impalement. He was a fan of various forms of torture including disembowelling and rectal and facial impalement. Vlad the Impaler tortured thousands while he ate and drank among the corpses. Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator, ordered that millions of peasants were either killed or permitted to starve to death. Stalin brought about the deaths of more than 20 million of his own people while holding the Soviet Union in an iron grip for 29 years.


My Review

This took me a while to get through. There are so many evil people from the past, I knew a few names but loads I didn't. I read a lot of true crime, crime fiction and horror but some of these people in this book are absolutely horrific.

Some of the chapters are really small, like a page and a half. A mix across genders, countries and timelines. People in power, ordinary everyday people who do some utterly horrific things, brutal killings, some of the most depraved things I have ever read. This is why I took so long to get through it, I had to put it down a few times and read stuff in between.

I never normally pick up on an authors feelings about people but when I got to the Krays story I could tell the author really didn't like them. I have read and seen a few Kray stories and never caught anyone's strong dislike. Like notable on theirs but not some of the other horrific mass killers, deviants in this book so that was interesting especially when I never notice stuff like that. It certainly opens your eyes to how many truly evil people have passed through this world and left a dark mark on it, 3/5.

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Blood Communion by Anne Rice

Blood Communion by Anne Rice
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 288

Publisher -

Source - Gift from a friend

Blurb from Goodreads

The Vampire Chronicles continue with a riveting, rich saga--part adventure, part fairy-tale--of Prince Lestat and the story of the Blood Communion as he tells the tale of his coming to rule the vampire world and the eternal struggle to find belonging, a place in the universe for the undead, and how, against his will, he must battle the menacing, seemingly unstoppable force determined to thwart his vision and destroy the entire vampire netherworld.

In this spellbinding novel, Lestat, rebel outlaw, addresses the tribe of vampires, directly, intimately, passionately, and tells the riveting story of the formation of the Blood Communion and how he became Prince of the vampire world, the true ruler of this vast force, and how his vision for all the Children of the Universe to thrive as one, came to be.
The tale spills from Lestat's heart, as he speaks first of his new existence as reigning monarch--and then of his fierce battle of wits and words with the mysterious Rhoshamandes, proud Child of the Millennia, reviled outcast for his senseless slaughter of the legendary ancient vampire Maharet, who brought forth the Great Family of the undead; Rhoshamandes, a force who refuses to live in harmony at the Court of Prince Lestat and threatens all that Lestat has dreamt of.
As the tale unfolds, Lestat takes us from the towers and battlements of his ancestral castle in the snow-covered mountains of France to the verdant wilds of lush Louisiana with its lingering fragrances of magnolias and night jasmine; from the far reaches of the Pacific's untouched islands to the 18th-century city of St. Petersburg and the court of the Empress Catherine . . .




My Review


This is the last book in the vampire series, I think had I not left as long gaps between reading them maybe this one would have been a bit different? Lestat has changed over the years, like actually evolved and if you aren't familiar with his humungous back story you really need to go back and read them.

There are many mythical beings in this one and a lot of animosity, a war threatening due to issues and grudges that happened previously. Lestat has to face ad adversary that threatens all he holds dear and everything they have set up.

Death, murder, threats of violence, vampires obviously, the clones from the previous books, the close circle of those around Lestat and what they have built. I just wanted and expected more I guess, it isn't a bad book at all but going on things that have happened in the previous books I just expected so much more, 3/5 for me.

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November Competition

Happy November you guuuuuuuuuuuys.

This month I am just going to be doing a giveaway for x1 £10 Amazon voucher (Luna NOT included, she is just the model), as this comes directly from Amazon it is UK only.

To enter use Gleam as shown below, all winning entries are checked so please only choose entries you have completed. Good luck xxx

November comp x1 £10 Amazon Voucher

Saving 6 by Chloe Walsh

Saving 6 by Chloe Walsh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 496

Publisher - Piatkus

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

He's a boy made of fire, and he's about to meet his match. The second son in a broken marriage, Joey Lynch has spent a lifetime picking up the pieces of an unraveling family. When his older brother skips town, twelve-year-old Joey finds himself thrown into the role of protector to his mother and younger siblings, plagued by self-loathing and furious with the world. Soon, he finds himself teetering precariously close to a life of addiction that threatens to swallow him whole. The only light in his dark seas is Aoife. His boss's firecracker daughter. His classmate. And soon, something far more complicated. Aoife Molloy has always moved forward, not backward. Bubbly, strong, and self-assured, she's never feared being led astray, even by her own heart. That is, until her first day of secondary school, when she collides with a hotheaded boy who sparks a burning curiosity inside of her that only grows stronger by the day. But their friendship is tangled and complex, full of unwinding secrets and feelings simmering beneath the surface. Aoife wants to let Joey in. Joey desperately fights to keep Aoife out. But even if it takes years, what's between them is bound to combust. And their hearts will never be the same.



My Review

So you could read this as book one instead of book three because this is Joey's story and it goes back to before and during the time of Binding 13 and Keeping 13. I loved Joey in those books and this one gives us more insight into everything Joey went through, not just the some/passing we do in the previous books.

I absolutely feel for Joey, his mother ugh, I really didn't like her in the previous books but the way she treats Joey in this. I get it she is in a horrible cycle and he looks like the man she seems drawn to and forgives everything but Joey is her literal saviour and she still treats him like that. He has so little self worth and self value because of how they (his mum and dad) treat him, it is heartbreaking.

The romance part, it doesn't have quite the same punch as Little Shannon and Johnny probably because he was the saviour, powerful one with everything. Joey is flawed, trying to save everyone and battling with self loathing, violence at home, addiction and then him and his bestie Aoife who becomes his other half. It doesn't happen easily or quickly, he didn't want to even be friends and whilst they continue to draw towards each other they have their own "romantic interests". Joey doesn't commit but is a stud and all the girls want him. Aoife has a long time boyfriend, Paul, the guy is a walking red flag, he comes from money and is popular he is also a total douche! I hated how long she kept him around though, that ground my gears I have to admit. Without going into spoilers as we don't do them but the parts that was giving Bella/Edward, if you know you know, ahhhhh!

I have the next book in the series to read and hopefully not be too long before we get to it, 4/5 from us this time.

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