ChelsReads: The Cousins O'Dwyer Series by Nora Roberts

As mentioned in my November Favorites post, I recently started (and devoured) the Cousins O'Dwyer series by Nora Roberts over my Thanksgiving holiday and couldn't put the books down even after I came back home. These were my first Nora Roberts books, at least that I've read. As I mentioned in my favorites post, there was a Lifetime Movie Series based on her books running around the time I graduated in 2009. As a girl with her own (very) Irish roots, I have a tendency to gravitate toward anything based in the "mother land" but even more so because of the magical component of this series. When I read the description of the first book on Amazon, I immediately clicked the Buy button, but sort of forgot about it until headed down to Fort Bragg.

The series opens in the 13th century with a powerful witch, Sorcha, and her three children: Brannaugh (Bran-ugh), Eamon (Ay-mon), and Teagan. Threatened by a dark sorcerer named Cabhan (Ca-van), who covets not only her great power but her incredible beauty, Sorcha must stop him to keep him away from her children. To keep them safe, Sorcha sends them to live with her cousins, The O'Dwyers, hidden from Cabhan. 

In preparing for what she knows will be her final showdown, she gives her power to her children, creating within them the power of "The Three." While each of them is magically powerful on their own, they are nigh unstoppable when working together. When he comes for her, Sorcha attempts to destroy him, using the last bit of power that she has to poison him but for some unforeseeable reason, he isn't completely destroyed. With her last breath, she curses Cabhan, and all that come from him, to be ended by her bloodline, whether her children or another Three thousands of years later. 

Flash forward to spring of 2013 and the first book of the series, Dark Witch, when petite, blonde Iona Shehan moves from America to Ireland in hopes of finding her destiny and her roots with her cousins, Branna and Connor O'Dwyer. I won't lie to you, the first chapter or so of the book based in Iona's perception are a little hard to get through. I'm not sure if it's because she's so scattered, having been uprooted from her previous life, or if I wasn't used to Roberts' writing style yet, but I wasn't too sure about the book at the beginning. However, once it progressed, I was all in and definitely couldn't put it down. 

Without giving too much away, because I really can't recommend the read more, and want you to find out for yourselves. The current "Three", Iona and her cousins are, as the generations that have come before them, charged with destroying Cabhan once and for all and the three books detail their exploits in trying to do so after Iona makes her way to Ireland and completes the circle. Along the way, because they're Nora Roberts books, everyone falls in love in one way or another and there's a great sense of family, both blood-related and chosen, interwoven throughout the series which I greatly enjoyed. 

If I'm completely honest with you, the second book, Shadow Spell, was my favorite (which is weird for me in trilogies because the second book is almost always filler-y fluff) because I found that I related so much more to Connor O'Dwyer than I did to either one of the women (Roberts centered each of the books around one of the three cousins and how they felt about the whole deal as the drama unfolded). Connor just has such an easy way about him; he's quick and funny and cares about everyone close to him. While I really enjoyed the first book (or I wouldn't have downloaded the entire series before I even left Fort Bragg), it was definitely the second book that made me fall in love with the cousins and the series as a whole. 

While I read the books on my Kindle (they retail on Amazon for $2.50/book in the Kindle format), you can find these books all over and I wholeheartedly recommend reading them if magic is up your alley. 

Cheers! 

Stay tuned for a recipe from the books over on Eat.Drink.Adventure later this week!

True Life: I Suck at Blogmas

Well guys, here we are day 5 and I've already missed two posts. It's completely unintentional. I just have been really busy at work/after work and haven't had time to sit down, brainstorm post ideas and then actually take the time to write/photograph for them. So...I'm calling off Blogmas. Not completely, but I am going to hold back on posting until k have something relevant to post, rather than rando spewing words at you every day. Deal?

Blogmas, Day Three: Winter Skincare

So much for Blogmas, Day Two, guys! I'm so sorry. Yesterday was just such a crazy day for me. I was planning to actually write the post about what I did yesterday....only to not take a single picture of the entire day....so I'm sorry I missed it, BUT I won't do it again, I promise :). Without further ado or apology, here is Blogmas, Day Three, in which I talk about Winter skin care. 

I don't know about y'all, but I get some really dry skin when the cold weather hits and it isn't that it feels dry, it's dry dry. 

My skin will be going along, minding its own business and the second the temperature drops below 70, FLAKES! My lips peel, I get dry skin at the corners of my mouth that cracks (thanks for that one, Accutane), the skin on my hands gets ashy and I'm a WHITE girl already. And let me just say this: I'm in Northern California. By no means am I in extreme weather conditions, at all. The cold weather comes, my skin freaks out and as a result, I have to switch out some products to help out. 

I still use all of my regular Lush products. Those aren't going anywhere, anytime soon. My Coal Face soap is a godsend for my face and the Grease Lightning spot treatment is as well. I'm also still using my Mario Badescu Facial Spray with Aloe, Herb and Rosewater as a toner. It's the only thing I've found that my skin actually likes so I'm sticking with it. 

In winter skincare, with cold air and dry skin, you need to make sure you're exfoliating. Luckily, I bought a Clarisonic a few years ago and I use that two or three times a week to help deep clean my skin, exfoliate a bit, and get rid of the dead skin that tends to accumulate. I only really use my Clarisonic when I wash my hair (which is like 2-3 times a week) because 1. I don't want to over exfoliate my skin and 2. it makes it a special treat when I use my Clarisonic and my Burt's Bees Soap Bark and Chamomile Deep Cleansing Cream. 

After cleaning my face, deep clean or otherwise, I need to moisturize. That's a big duh, but in winter, I have to switch my moisturizer from my typical Trader Joe's SPF 15 face lotion to a thicker, more emollient cream like Alba Botanica's Even Better Night Cream for night and Alba Botanica's Good & Healthy Oil-Free Radiance Cream during the day. 

As a rule, I do use a lot of more natural products on my skin. That's mostly because I find that my skin tends to respond better the more natural the products that I'm using on it are. 

Last, but not least, I just discovered Bath and Body Works' My Favorite Night Balm (which I use during the day too) for my lips. I have perpetually dry lips and while I had been using the Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask for a long time, the Night Balm is actually significantly cheaper and I've noticed better results using it than I ever did with my lip mask. 

So there you have it. Nothing too crazy, but definitely some added steps to combat the extra flakiness and dryness of winter skin.

See you guys tomorrow! Cheers!

Blogmas, Day One: November Favorites

On the first day of Blogmas...just kidding! For those of you who don't watch YouTube, Vlogmas is something that YouTube gurus started a few years back, vlogging every day from December 1st through the 25th. It is most definitely one of my favorite parts of the holiday season because you get to see how everyone prepares to celebrate Christmas and generally gets me pretty pumped for the season as a whole.

Today, for my very first post of the month and of Blogmas, we're talking November Favorites. If I'm honest with you...and I always am, I really didn't discover a whole lot of new things this month. November was kind of just a flyover month for me this year. I barely wore makeup, stuck to my winter standby clothing choices and generally kind of mucked through the month at work. But for the very few things that did become favorites this month, I thought that I would put together a little blog post and share them with you. This is going to be super quick, I promise.

Makeup

Sigma Beauty Finishing Touch Eyeliner. I saw this on one of MakeupbyTiffanyD's favorites videos early in the fall and was instantly intrigued by the slightly pink tight line pencil so, naturally, I HAD to order it. 

I'm sure for most makeup mavens (and by that I mean any woman in the world who spends more than 5 minutes of slap-dash on her face), this is a last step in a full on smoky eye look to brighten up the lower lash line and balance out the darkness of the upper eyelids. I, on the other hand, laziest of makeup wearers prefers to use this as a tool to make me look more awake all the time. 

It's pretty rare that I wear makeup to shipment shifts at work because, really, who needs a full face on at 7 am when I won't be seeing customers, but when I do, this is a must-have to make me look like I'm actually alert. You just pop a little bit on your waterline and bam! Instant eye brightening and fake awakeness. 

Sigma F35 Contour Brush. Another YouTube discovery, MeghanRosette talked about this in her November favorites...last year. Initially I thought, contour schmontour. However, in my lazy ass makeup routine, taking the time to contour my cheeks a littl but does actually make a huge difference in my face. I'm still looking for my ace contour product, but thus far, this little brush couldn't make the whole thing more easy if it tried. 

Food

Just as a heads up, all of my food favorites were discovered at the very end of November and they come from Trader Joe's because Trader Joe's, and not Whole Foods, is the mothership.

Trader Joe's Candy Cane Green Tea. This is seriously the best tea ever. First of all, it has a narwhal on the packaging ("Bye Buddy, hope you find your daaaad.") and a really cute little Santa polar bear which is undeniably cute. But most importantly, it is SOOOOOOOOO good! It's minty without being too minty because it's balanced out with vanilla and some other delicious holiday flavors (at least according to the packaging. I really just taste the peppermint and vanilla). I will literally drink at least 3 cups of this each day and have since I got it.

 

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Minty Mallows. This was a horrible mistake. Horrible, horrible, horrible. My mom and I picked these up for snacks on our Thanksgiving trip out to the North Coast and I am obsessed with them. I love dark chocolate as a rule and for whatever reason lately, I've been really liking marshmallows even though I never have previously. So when I saw the box sitting on the shelf, I ran for it and threw it in the cart. Now I'm thinking I'm going to have to be making a trip to Trader Joe's just to stock up on these. 

Random Favorites

Starbucks Travel Mug. This is part of the Starbucks Holiday collection and when I saw it on the website, I had to have it. I love the metallic flecks all over. They kind of remind me of mermaid scales. I mean, it's a travel mug. There's not much to say. It keeps my drink warm and holds my Trader Joe's tea when I have my second cup of the day. 

The Cousins O'Dwyer Series. When I was graduating from high school in 2009, Lifetime did a set of movies based on Nora Roberts books and I loved them. A few months ago I got a hankering to watch one of them and, after needed to download the second and third books as well, which I did, in the parking lot of the Fort Bragg Starbucks yesterday morning. According to my Kindle Fire, I have 50 minutes left in the second book and will be starting the third one this evening. 

Other than making me feel like its about time I got into a relationship, the book series has been such a great escape and a really good read. I honestly wish there were more books. But for right now, I think I'll content myself by discovering what happens at the end of the second book and start the third. 

doing so decided to look her up on Amazon where I found a series about Irish cousins with a bit of magick going on. Needless to say, as an Irish girl and a big fan of all things magical, I bought it. Aaaaaaaand then forgot all about it until I charged up my Kindle to take with me to Thanksgiving and saw it in my carousel. Soooo I started the first one...and devoured it. Which meant that I

Anyway, guys, that's Blogmas, Day One done. Told you I had very few favorites for last month and I wasn't lying. 

Cheers, and see you tomorrow!