July First Reads Novels & Stories

The first entry is dated the Fourth of July. “God, I can’t believe this,” Genevieve whispers, gripping the edge of the counter. I clear my throat and read the handwritten words aloud. *“‘The whole reason I came to the club today, my first time in several years, was that I thought you might be at the Fourth of July festivities,’”* I read, adjusting to Julian's precise script. *“‘I’d been thinking about you since that day in May—’”*

Julian ------ She gave him the manuscript on a Sunday morning. All of it. Three hundred and twenty-one pages, printed, stacked on the kitchen counter with a single sticky note on top that read: *One week. No edits. Just read.* He read it in four days. Not because he rushed. Because he couldn't stop. He read it the way she had told him to — as a reader, not a participant. He tried. The first fifty pages he succeeded, losing himself in her account of the trials the way a reader would, following the thread of a story whose outcome he didn't know.

"What’s yours? What do you even own, Cliff? You’ve never had anything. Go back and be happy with whatever you have now before you lose it all because of your stupidity." July squinted at Cliff and slowly spoke with a dangerous tone: "You better not let me catch your tail." With that, July grabbed Alice’s hand and left, ignoring Cliff’s furious stare. Cliff despised July and hated how everything she said made him so angry, but they were all truths that he could never accept...

And Nina didn't know why her chest was throbbing so violently, she also lost her attention to what she was reading and remembered her last conversation with Argus. But she also immediately erased the suspicion that started building her system and she would still trust Argus no matter what. Soleil's eyes dropped to the book on her lap, and her eyebrows met. "The Moon Goddess and the wolf." Soleil reads the title of the book she is reading. "I didn't know you were fond of that kind of genre, miss Nina." "And guess what, Soleil. The name of the characters here is also familiar. Did you know that the name of the guy here is Hawthorne?"

Elijah, at only seven, ran close behind her, his small legs moving as fast as they could. Father embraced Adam first, his eldest son, with a firm hug before sweeping Mother and Bella into his arms, showering them with kisses. He clasped Elijah close and then turned to me, his eyes briefly meeting mine. There was joy in his gaze-or perhaps relief-but there was something else too: a shadow, a sadness that lingered even as he smiled.

July was so moved by the first impression of meeting with Alastor that it feels magical to remember it now. “Cursing? Why are you angry? Wasn't that your first meeting?" Kate was really curious what made July so angry to the point of cursing people at the first meeting.vThen how can their relationship turn into romance. Shouldn't it really be a meeting with a bad impression that is more appropriate to be an enemy. “That... Of course I was angry because he did something wrong to me." July deliberately got rid of all the important details in her story. What, why, how, all of July answered with vague explanations.

I squint my eyes, trying to get a better view of the clip. “Really? That’s all you can say…” Alexia scolds. “First, could you get your phone off my face” I sounded a little too rude, and that wasn’t like me. Alexia didn’t look too happy about the way I replied to her, because the nasty frown on her face said it all. Then we heard murmuring from the herd of junior years that surrounded us, I wasn’t really interested in what they were saying, so I didn’t border listening, but I think Alexia and Lisa heard them because they look like growling lionesses.