[Blog Tour] Review + Giveaway: The Day of the Wave by Becky Wicks

Book Description:

Kindle Edition
Published May 1st 2015 by Becky Wicks (first published April 27th 2015)

Isla and Ben were just sixteen when the Boxing Day tsunami tore through their beach resort in Thailand. Just days after forming a life-changing bond, both were missing and presumed dead. Unbeknown to each other and haunted by one of the biggest natural disasters in world history, Isla and Ben are living very different lives, until over a decade later when a chance encounter throws them back together.

Based on real life events, The Day of the Wave is a story of healing, learning to let go, and figuring out when to hold on with everything you have left.

Amazon | Goodreads

Reviewer's Copy: e-ARC

Source: Becky Wicks and Xpresso Book Tours (Thank you!)

My Thoughts:

Becky Wicks never fails to impress me. She has been inspiring me one novel after another. Although The Day of the Wave was related to the 2004 Tsunami Disaster, I was determined to read it. I usually avoid reading sad contemporary stories that have something to do with life-threatening diseases and disasters. This would be my first.

The Day of the Wave was set in various places: London, Bangkok, Phuket, and Bali. As usual, Becky skillfully drew the landscape for you, took a piece of the sun and the moon, put it in the pages, added her atmospheric writing, that I just felt like I traveled to four different parts of the world. Reading a Becky Wicks novel is always like going on a vacation, I got to experience and taste the culture and the atmosphere of her locales. The Day of the Wave was also fragmented into different parts by Isla's moving from one place to another: Part one would be her pre-Ben life in London, which dragging, rigid and clogged with grey spots as she lived with Colin, her boyfriend; Part Two would be set in Bangkok, while Isla was slowly dipping her foot into Thai culture; Part Three would be the emotionally chaotic transit from Bangkok to Phuket and the stay in Phuket itself. Isla and Ben were dancing around one another, both emotionally-strained, both yearning for one another but unable to pass through the barriers separating them; Part Four was set in Bali, which is something that you should find out for yourself.

Isla was a beautiful and complicated girl. The tsunami left her miserable, without parents and without a home. She was not the carefree 16-year-old girl that left UK anymore. She was continuously hurting. To make matters worse, she found out that her boyfriend for four years cheated on her with her ex-flatmate. Heartbroken and carrying the burden of her past, she went to Bangkok on an assignment. Time seemed to stop when Ben found her there, the same boy that she thought she had lost in the tsunami.

Ben carried on picking up the pieces that the tsunami left behind. He had built a shell around him, only really connecting to people who suffered because of the tsunami. But he wasn't entirely whole anymore, there was a gaping hole inside him and he didn't know how to fill it. He kept on moving on to different places, forming friendships but not really committing to anyone. Things were about to change when he found Bizzy in Bangkok, the girl he thought he lost forever.

Ben and Isla were meant for each other, they just didn't know it yet. It was exciting and frustrating to see them play this tug-of-war game. They were dancing around one another, getting close enough to touch, to make all what-ifs a reality, but there was a barrier separating them. I really enjoyed reading about these two, and seeing how their relationship, both in the past and in the present, developed. The flashbacks in between the present narration also enabled me as a reader to understand the characters better. Their loss, pain, guilt, hopelessness and destruction were laid out on the pages. Knowing their vulnerability and seeing their weaknesses diminish day by day gave me a sense of weightlessness. Becky really knew how to reach the readers through her words.

The Day of the Wave was a storm of emotions, issues, lost love, second chances and forgiveness and acceptance. The Day of the Wave was incredibly atmospheric, able to transport the reader to foreign places, romantic, with just the right amount of emotional and sexual tension, and unforgettable. It wasn't the easiest story to read, but it was definitely one of the most meaningful and enjoyable stories of all. I highly recommend this novel to contemporary romance readers, older young adult and new adult readers, readers who like/want to travel.

Rating:

5 Cupids: = Eternal book love. 

I will never, ever, ever forget this book. I highly recommend this!

About the Author:

Becky Wicks lives in Bali and scribbles books, and she’s mostly powered by coffee. Her first book in the Starstruck Series, Before He Was Famous recently reached #1 in Amazon’s Coming of Age and New Adult & College categories, and her three travel books, published by HarperCollins are online to make feet nice and itchy. Mostly though, she loves to write love stories. She blogs most days at beckywicks.com and always welcomes distractions on Twitter @bex_wicks. Especially if you have photos of cats.

Follow Becky: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads


Giveaway:

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