Customer Reviews
Enjoyable - By: Dot, 25 Nov 2008 
I enjoyed this book but I agree with some people that there could have been far more substance to it. As Girls Aloud have said though there is alot that had to be left out due to their younger fans. It is an enjoyable read though & it is interesting to see that we think of them as being very manufactured yet this book describes how they were pretty much left to find their own way without much help & guidance.
boooooring! - By: paulo damosto, 23 Nov 2008 
This book was never going to be a propper autobiography as even sarah harding has admited they couldnt put any risky stuffin here because it's aimed mainly at kids, so its basically like girls alouds music it looks ok on the outside but if you dig any deeper theres not much there.
be fair there are five of the girls & this book is 256 pages long while their sworn enemy & more successful singer charlotte church's book is 368 pages long & packed with funny stories with nothing held back.
girls aloud seem to think theyre the best girlband ever but they need to realise they've sold like 4,000,000 albums what about the spice gorls, all saints or the sugababes?
i'd rather read a book by any of them as i think it would be way more interesting then this "book".
poor book by a poor band - By: T. Carr, 06 Nov 2008 These girls seem to think they are bigger than All Saints, Spice Girls & Destiny's Chil when infact they aren't as big as many of them. Girls Aloud have no success outside the UK. But I'll admit, some of their songs from their Tangled Up era was rather mature sounding & catchy & I did take a liking to it. So it really made feel like a huge hypocrite. I've become a lot more open minded with Music.
I go by this saying:-
"If you hear something you like, don't analyse it. Just dance to it"
Girls Aloud aren't really anything to be taken seriously. They are just very, incredibly lucky, guilty pleasures.
Worth the buy - By: Rave Mover, 22 Oct 2008 
This book is worth the buy & is brilliant for any girls aloud fans. It gives the inside to all memebers of the band & each girls views on different topics. Go & buy it.
A wonderful book from five wonderful girls - By: L. Green, 06 Oct 2008 Barcode: 9780593061220
Girls Aloud are really quite beyond anything else. As a band, over the past six years they have caused a nation to fallin love with them, to cherish them & their inspired pop songs. They are impossibly beautiful, role models to countless young people, media darlings that have the tabloids & celeb mags hanging on their every move, they are fantastic singers who have treated us to some of the best pop songs of the 21st century, but most of all - they are Girls Aloud, & that is why we love them.
And now,in the book that all us fans have been waiting ages for, Cheryl, Nadine, Nicola, Sarah & Kimberley invite us to sit back & listen to just what it's like to be Girls Aloud. For those who have seen the Girls' brilliant DVD's Off The Record, Style & TV series Passions you will already have a taste of what to expect here. One thing I have always admired the Girls greatly for is their straight talking attitude, they have this down-to-earth charm & feistiness to them that truly sets them apart. And it is this that we see herein Dreams That Glitter.
The book takes a roughly chronological approach & starts off with the Girls' lives leading up to the band's beginnings on Popstars - The Rivals. The viewpoint alternates between each of the Girls, each offering their individual outlooks & own experiences at each stage of their career. It is fascinating to see them looking back now, with hindsight, on many of the things that must have just swept them upin a hurricanein the beginning. There are also individual sections scattered throughout with Q&A's for each of the Girls & such like.
In essence, this isn't so much an autobiography, but a series of insightful anecdotes, told by the Girls as they might tell a friend over an evening meal. In the past six years the Girls have been through a lot & this book shows very much how they have become very different, yet fundamentally still the same, from the people they set out as. They have learnt lessonsin life, & as they started out so young, these lessons were all the more powerful, & it is heart-warming to see them working through these various aspects of their lives, whether they be for good or for bad. As the Girls repeatedly say, they wouldn't change any of it for the world - what will be will be & all that.
They are very humble about their success too, Cherylin particular being very embarrassed by the stratospheric levels of fame & public awareness surrounding her now. There is an extremely touching paragraphin the book's introduction where the Girls say:
"We've been on the most amazing journey together & achieved so much more than we ever dreamed possible. We still have moments when we can't quite believe just how far we've come, that this extraordinary life really is ours. We'd love our story to inspire you to have faithin your dreams, whatever they might be, & to go for them, no matter what."
And you can't get a much more positive message than that. But it's true. Through these last six years, as the Girls themselves have grown up & matured, their fans have done so with them, it's a mutual experience, & I like to think that we all go through the same & that some of what'sin this book will inspire people as from reading it, I think they say some truly insightful things about fame, the world around them, & lifein general.
Girls Aloud have one of the most devoted fanbases around - they have after all helped the Girls to achieve that wonderful chart record of 18 consecutive top ten singles - & it is to these fans that this book is dedicated. Looking at the Girls today, we see a band that has serious publications like the Guardian writing six page articles about them, a band that NME applaud & give rave reviews to their albums.
In terms of the book itself, there are loads of lovely picturesin there of the Girls looking glam & having fun (plus one fascinating pic of the elusive Brian Higgins & Mirana Cooper - two of the masterminds making up the Girls' songwriters/producers Xenomania). The book itself is gorgeous too, very high quality with glossy, colourful pages & actual glitter on the cover.
I think it was around the time of Call The Shots that Girls Aloud finally transcended from being just a `great pop group' to something quite special indeed, something almost heroic, something almost magical. I've heard them described as `national treasures', the `saviours of pop' & thus this book makes a fitting tribute to a year which has really shown us the very essence of what Girls Aloud mean. Really, this book is for the fans, although I'm sure more casual readers will find plenty to enjoy here too - well worth reading.
