I heard a fun fact the other day that really caught my attention: July 2011 is considered to be a “money bags” month based on Chinese Feng Shui because July has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays.

For many of us, that means we will get paid THREE times this month! According to a few articles I read, a month like this only occurs once every 800 years!

Fourth of July Fireworks!

Don’t get too excited…Snopes.com debunked that myth. They always have to ruin they fun, don’t they? Money bags months really occur every five to six years, but I won’t let that stop me from getting pumped about July. Some pretty amazing things have already happening for me.

Like being the featured blog Parajunkee’s Follow Friday past this past week, celebrating my hub’s birthday in a few weeks, and seeing the hilarious comedian Jim Gaffigan at the end of the month!


Plus- some amazing books have already been released this month and more are coming very soon! Check out the books I think are the “moniest bags” of them all (click on the book titles to add them on Goodreads):

1. Everblue by Brenda Pandos

Release Date: July 31

Description: “Best friends share everything with each other. Or do they? Seventeen-year-old Ashlyn Frances Lanski is tired of her boring, single life. Spending time with her best friend Tatiana, dreaming about kissing Tatiana’s twin brother Fin, and swimming competitively are her only sanctuary. The girls plan to leave their drab lakeside town far behind for college. But when Tatchi fails to return home after a family emergency, and no one knows where the family has gone, Ash chooses to do something drastic to find them.

Ashlyn is about to discover what she’d thought to be true her whole life, wasn’t, and the truth, too fantastical to imagine. Secrets lurk beneath the deep blue waters of Lake Tahoe, secrets that will change Ashlyn’s life forever.”


2. Withering Tights by Louise Rennison (Side Note: If you haven’t read anything by this author, you MUST correct this immediately. She is one of the most hilarious writers of. all. time.)

Release Date: July 8

Description: “Hilarious new series from Queen of Teen, laugh your tights off at the (VERY) amateur dramatic antics of Talullah and her bonkers mates. Boys, snogging and bad acting guaranteed!

Picture the scene: Dother Hall performing arts college somewhere Up North, surrounded by rolling dales, bearded cheesemaking villagers (male and female) and wildlife of the squirrely-type. On the whole, it’s not quite the showbiz experience Tallulah was expecting but once her mates turn up and they start their ‘FAME! I’m gonna liiiiive foreeeeeever, I’m gonna fill my tiiiiights’ summer course things are bound to perk up. Especially when the boys arrive. (When DO the boys arrive?) Six weeks of parent-free freedom. BOY freedom. Freedom of expression…cos it’s the THEATRE dahling, theatre!!”

3. The Willow by Stacey Kennedy

Release Date: July 2

Description: “In Carson City, Nevada a tragic car accident has claimed the lives of Nexi Jones’ adoptive parents. Now, without them, her reason to live has vanished and she is determined to end her pain.

The problem with that, it’s not heaven she wakes up to, it’s the Otherworld. Nexi must reconcile the truth about her past, and her heritage as part guardian/part witch, while she begins to train to join the Council’s guard. But it’s not the combat training that has her worried, its attempting to keep her cool around the luscious guardian, Kyden that’s her biggest concern.

Before long, Nexi’s skills are put to the test as she begins to fight against the supernatural who have taken a human life. But nothing can prepare her for the journey ahead. Soon, she will find herself lost in a mystery and fighting to keep all she’s gained, as Lazarus, a vampire, threatens to take it all away.”


4. Winter’s Shadow by M.J. Hearle

Release Date: June 1 (Ok, ok, I know this came out in June, but I didn’t realize that until after I had already gotten really excited about it! You can keep a secret, right?)

Description: “Blake Duchamp…

He’s all that Winter Adams can think of. Ever since their fateful meeting at Pilgrim’s Lament. Ever since he looked at her with those emerald eyes. Ever since he saved her life.

But Blake isn’t all that he seems. There is a strangeness about him, something dark and otherworldly. Something dangerous. In his attic is a secret he would kill to defend, but Winter seems to have a special ability to make him forget his duty. And he is her only protection against the gathering darkness.

The only problem is, to protect Winter, Blake must risk exposing her to an even greater danger. Himself.”


5. Anathema by K.A. Tucker

Release Date: July 15

Description: “Evangeline has spent her teenage years in obscurity. Her foster parents have the emotional aptitude of robots and her classmates barely acknowledge her existence. About to turn eighteen and feeling like a social pariah, she is desperate to connect with someone. Anyone.

When Evangeline meets Sofie after literally stumbling upon her cafe, she believes she’s found that connection. Willing to do anything to keep it, she accepts a job as Sofie’s assistant and drops everything to fly to Manhattan, where she is thrust into a luxurious world of Prada, diamonds, and limitless cash.

With such generosity and kindness, it’s easy for Evangeline to dismiss certain oddities . . . like Sofie’s erratic and sometimes violent behavior, and the monstrous guard dogs. She’s even willing to dismiss her vivid dreams of mob-style murders, beautiful homeless people living in caves, and white-eyed demons that haunt her each night as figments of her imagination especially when one of those figments is the gorgeous Caden. When she wakes up with bite marks on her neck, the fairy tale quickly turns into a nightmare. She slowly unravels the mystery surrounding Sofie and friends, and the reality of the bites and the dreams.