Blog Tour with Guest Post and Giveaway: BEFORE HE WAS GONE by BECKY WICKS

Title: Before He Was Gone

Author: Becky Wicks
Series: Starstruck #2
Publication date: Summer 2014

Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Romance

BLURB
Sometimes, you have to get lost to find yourself…

When her rock star boyfriend breaks things off out of the blue, Alyssa applies to hit reality TV show Deserted and to her shock she gets through. Abandoned on a remote island with a bunch of strangers and none of the luxuries she’s become accustomed to, it’s not long before an undeniable attraction to the mysterious Joshua starts complicating things even further.

Joshua’s different to everyone she’s ever known – a traveller, a man with no plan, a world away from the celebrity life she’s left behind. As a series of challenges test their wits and weaknesses, things start heating up in paradise, but in a game designed to break people down, it soon becomes clear that Joshua is hiding a painful secret – one he won’t risk anyone finding out.

Struggling to know where she belongs, Alyssa will have to choose – a life she once loved that wants her back, or a brand new reality that heartbreakingly may just have its limits.

˃˃˃ “Becky does it again, delivering a searingly hot, emotionally intense and brilliantly written book. I loved it.” – Sarah Alderson (author of Hunting Lila, Fated, The Sound)

***Warning: this book contains graphic language, sex, and mature situations. Not intended for young adult readers.***

Purchase: Amazon

Before He Was Famous (Starstruck #) Purchase: Amazon 

My Review (Book #1) 

Top 5 most influential books in my life by Becky Wicks

Wow, there are so many books and every single one has affected me by the end somehow, because if it didn’t, I wouldn’t finish it. But if I have to choose just five that have really changed me, hmmm. Here goes:

On The Road – Jack Kerouac

This is the one book that I found I’d always wind up discussing with other travellers while I was literally on the road myself, travel writing. I love how Kerouac’s thoughts and expressions in this novel are still fresh for a lot of people today – the fact that we’re all becoming tired of pandering to what society wants from us, when secretly we all want something much more. We want to get out and explore; we want to live outside of the box. His erratic way of writing hits a nerve and makes me feel things others can’t somehow.

The Witches – Roald Dahl

I used to read a lot of Roald Dahl when I was a kid - I also used to be able to reel of all of his Revolting Rhymes without even looking at the books! But this one sticks in my head because I was petrified of being turned into a mouse. It literally gave me nightmares! I love Dahl’s warped imagination, the way he painted all his characters as real, emotional beings with flaws and powers and dark sides and let us explore them with our own imaginations. I learned a lot from that. I love how his work appeals to the kid inside of all of us, even as adults.

Little Bee – Chris Cleave

I remember someone left this in a hostel and I opened it up one morning over breakfast and by diner time I was just coming to the end, still sitting in the same chair. I was travelling at the time, but I felt like I travelled more with Little Bee on her journey that day than I had in ages! I loved every word of this book and the contrast between the worlds she knows is both hilarious and horrifying. I rarely get so into a book that I literally can’t move till I’ve finished it, but this one still sticks with me.

The Secret – Rhonda Byrne

This book claims to be life-transforming for all who experience it and to be honest I was skeptical, which is why I had to read it. I’m so glad I did! I was living in Dubai at the time, going through a break up and feeling all kinds of crap, but this book seriously helped me turn things around. It helped me look at things in a positive way, in order to attract more positivity into my life. I still apply these thoughts and actions today and let me tell you, it works!

Romeo and Juliet – Shakespeare

This became one of my favorite books while I was studying English back in school and I guess the reason it changed my life was because through acting out the scenes in class with my friends, it made me realize the absolute beauty of the English language. We all kind of bonded over studying that book somehow, and in writing my essays about it I also came to appreciate and respect their emotional, doomed love story. Before that, it had all been happy endings. Shakespeare made us feel love through pain, which is reality at the end of the day.

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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.

Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads