Semi-Charmed Summer 2015 Book Challenge!

With school out for the summer, I’ve decided to try to get back on my reading game!

I am joining in on the Semi Charmed Book Challenge!!

Rules:

General Rules:

• The challenge will run from May 1st, 2015 to August 31st, 2015.  No books that are started before 12AM on May 1st or after finished August 31st will be counted.
• Each book must be at least 200 pages long.  Audiobooks and large print books are fine, as long as the regular print version meets the page requirement.
• A book can only be used for one category, and each category can only be completed once.  If you want to switch a category for a book later on, that is fine, just make sure to account for it in your points.
• Rereads can be used for a maximum of 3 books in the challenge.  This rule is meant to encourage you to try new books while still allowing you to revisit books from your childhood or young adulthood that you might get more out of now.  Please reread the entire book within the time frame of the challenge in order to count it; no simply finishing old books or partial rereads.
• The highest possible total for the challenge is 200 points, and the first five people to finish the challenge will be invited to contribute a category for the next challenge.

Challenge Categories:

• 5 points: Freebie! Read any book that fits the general rules.
• 10 points: Read a book you have never heard of before. (Just go to a shelf and pick a book based on the cover, the title, whatever you want!)
• 10 points: Read a book that has been on your TBR list for at least two years. (If you've had a Goodreads account for 2+ years, this will be easy to figure out. If you don’t, do your best to pick a book you’re pretty sure you’ve been wanting to read for years.)
• 10 points: Read a book that won a Goodreads "Best Book" Award in 2014.
• 15 points: Read a book by an author who is completely new to you.
• 15 points: Read a book by an author you have read before. (No re-reads for this one.)
• 15 points: Read a book with "light" or "dark" in the title. (Or "lightness" or "darkness.")
• 20 points: Read a book with the name of a city, state or country in the title.
• 20 points: Read a book with an animal on the cover.
• 25 points: Read a book that is part of a series with at least four books.
• 25 points: Read a book that is longer than 500 pages long. — Submitted by winter finisher Kristen from See You in a Porridge.
• 30 points: Read a book with an alliterative title. (All words in the title must begin with the same letter; no exceptions for articles or prepositions. Examples: Gone Girl or Nicholas Nickleby. Yes, this is tough, which is why it's worth the most points!)

What I Plan on Reading:

• Freebie:
• A book I've never heard of before:  To be Decided.
• A book that's been on my TBR list for 2 years: Frostbite By Richelle Mead
• A book that won a "Best Book" Award:  City Of Heavenly Fire By Cassandra Claire
• A book by an Author that is completely new to me: Greta and the Goblin King by Chloe Jacobs
• A book by an author I have read before: to be decided
• A book with "light" or "dark" in the title: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer
• A book with the name of a city, state, or country in the title:
• A book with an animal on the cover: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
• A book that is part of a series with at least four books:  Dearest by Alethea Kontis
• A book that is longer than 500 pages: to be decided
• A book with an alliterative title: Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cru

My Hair Care Routine (As Of Right Now)

I have a lot of hair:

#Instawave curls day 1 from @kissproducts by #brandbacker what do you think?

A photo posted by Jacquie G (@jacquie364) on Nov 16, 2014 at 10:13am PST

I mean a LOT of hair!!

A photo posted by Jacquie G (@jacquie364) on Oct 30, 2014 at 9:29pm PDT

Plus I color treat it, and bleach the ends:

#brandbacker @kissproducts day 2 with my #Instawave hair curler. Looking forward to an event next weekend to curl my hair

A photo posted by Jacquie G (@jacquie364) on Nov 16, 2014 at 10:12am PST

So because of the face I have a lot of hair, and it is long, and it is my FAVORITE feature, I try to take good care of my hair.
This is my current Hair Care Routine:
First Off I KNOW some people are going to be all EWWW about this, but I only wash my hair (with shampoo) every 3 or 4 days. Yes I shower daily, but my hair only gets washed every 3 or 4 days. In between washes, at night, I use dry shampoo, I will spray the dry shampoo all over my roots and massage it in and then sleep with my hair in a bun (I ALWAYS do this) on top of my head, so when I wake up there is no white residue. The 2 dry shampoos I am loving right now are
Fekkai Hair Refresher


and the Herbal Essence's Naked Dry Shampoo

Both have REALLY Nice scents and work well too keep my hair from being greasy
When I do Shampoo I use The Neutrogena TGell (or the Walgreen's Brand)
This is a dandruff shampoo and works REALLY well as a deep cleansing shampoo as well.
Because I use such a harsh shampoo when I wash my hair I follow it up with a deep mask, I have been LOVING InstaNatural’s Argan Oil Mask, They sent me a free tub of it to review and it makes my hair so soft and shiny that I’ve already ordered another tub!

This one is a white mask and it smells amazing, citrusy and woodsy and just yummy! Plus it makes my hair so soft!!

After the shower I towel dry my hair and I HAVE to blow dry it, I honestly can’t take wet hair, and air drying my hair will literally take at least a day.
but before I blow dry I put in (in this order) Moroccan Oil, Style Extender, Soy Leave In Conditioner, and Heat Protectant.
Then I dry my hair and style!

That’s all of my routine, except one thing, after 3 or 4 days the night before I will coat my hair in the Insta Natural Argan Oil, or Coconut oil and then in the morning shampoo it out!

What is your hair routine?

*This is a Sponsored post on behalf of Brandbacker, and Insta Natural, but all opinions are my own and not influenced in anyway*

Angel Reads Dream A Little Dream By Kerstin Gier

Hey guys!! I know it has been forever but this semester really kicked my booty!  Plus we have new managers and owners at my job and they are seriously killing me with back to back shifts!

BUT

Today I want to tell you about a book I picked up, I honestly don’t remember preordering this one from Amazon but it showed up in my mailbox and apparently I did in fact order and pay for it, lol.

I am glad I did, I cannot wait for the rest of the books in the series to come out!

Yes, this book is by the same person who wrote the Sapphire Blue series I ADORE! In fact if we have done a book swap together I probably sent you a copy of the series because it is a FAVORITE of mine!

So how does this story compare? So far it is really good, the first thing I want to say is there is NO LOVE TRIANGLE!!! I am so happy about that, I really don’t get the need for YA books to have a complicated love triangle because well it just doesn’t seem real to me.

This book is a cross between a murder mystery, a paranormal romance and ya fiction. GoodReads says:

Mysterious doors with lizard-head knobs. Talking stone statues. A crazy girl with a hatchet. Yep, Liv’s dreams have been pretty weird lately. Especially this one where she’s in a graveyard at night, watching four boys perform dark magic rituals.

The really weird thing is that Liv recognizes the boys in her dream. They’re classmates from her new school in London, the school where’s she’s starting over because her mom has moved them to a new country (again). But they seem to know things about her in real life that they couldn't possibly know, which is mystifying. Then again, Liv could never resist a good mystery. . . .

And that is just the start! I didn’t see the villain (?) of this story coming at all! I was in complete shock at well how evil the villain was, like seriously!

I loved Liv; she was an investigator, (there is a joke in the story about her younger sister being a mystery novel freak,) and Liv keeps mentioning how would Sherlock handle things. She has a very distinct voice, she is science and logic, (VERY rare in YA) she joins the boys in their rituals, but mainly to help them, not because she actually believes in the demon, and help them she does.

The other characters really build the story for me, they sell it. the only one that gets on my nerves is the mother… I mean okay she’s supposed to be flaky, but you have 2 young daughters, are you really going to send your 16 year old girl to a senior party where you know there will be drugs and alcohol with the words you tell her being basically lighten up, live a little and party?

I would give this book a 5 out of 5 and cannot wait for the next book in the series!

 

Have you read Dream a Little Dream yet? Did you enjoy it? Does it seem like a book you would read?