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To be totally honest, sometimes you just need a cheesy romance novel to get you through the day. During my fall break I was able to actually get through reading and books and enjoy them. I think with school stuff going on, it's been so hard to let myself enjoy reading lately, well the last year and a half. But now that school is basically done (I'm just finishing my student teaching), I'm finding myself able to relax and enjoy reading more. I got Kindle Unlimited for free because of Prime Day and decided to tackle some of the things on my to read list that were on there because why not. Force of Gravity was one of them.

This book follows Kaley who falls in love with her math teacher. One thing I liked about this book is that Kaley was 18 the entire time this was happening, I feel weird as a future teacher, reading books with underage students. It just doesn't feel ethical and everything feels all sorts of wrong, but this one I could just let myself sit back and enjoy. One of my favorite things about cheesy romance books is that I can let myself sit back and relax and laugh a little at the cheesyness but it just feels good to read. This was one of those books. It was a perfect palate cleanser of a book that wasn't super serious, but allowed me to dive in and keep turning the pages. It looks like the author has been going through some medical issues, which has delayed the release of the rest of the series, but I find myself actually excited to read more.

This review was originally posted on Rachel's Reading. For hundreds more like this, check it out!

I remember the stand that held these books in my elementary school library so well. I can't remember all of the ones that I read, and honestly only one really has stayed with me so long that I made sure to purchase it. Now that I'm teaching middle school, I wanted to reread them before putting them in my classroom. This book followed Abby whose family lives in Valley Forge throughout the beginnings of the revolutionary war. It also discusses the harsh realities of colonial life such as the harsh winters, child loss, high child mortality rate, and just..the cost of fighting for freedom.

I found this book really interesting, and although it always takes me a little bit to get into the diaries, once I do, they move so quickly and the authors do such a phenomenal job of really creating characters through the diaries. This series is such a wonderful way for kids to learn American History through the eyes of people their own age and understand the good and the bad of our past in our country.

I originally reviewed this on Rachel's Reading. For hundreds more like this, please check it out!

When I was growing up I absolutely loved these Royal Diaries books. Now that I'm getting my own middle school classroom I've been trying to read as many middle grade books as I can get my hands on to decide what I actually want to have in my classroom. This book was still really amazing, and held up over time. We follow Elizabeth I, her mother, Anne Boleyn is dead, but her father is alive and she's no longer exiled from court. The historical fiction is some of my favorite kind, told through diary entries but in a way you still feel like you know the characters and are involved in the story.

I've always loved royalty, and reading historical fiction books like these as a young kid really made me interested in times that weren't just the 1940's (which for some reason was always where I was most fascinated.) I feel like this is a great book for middle grade readers, and truthfully, not very triggering. I liked that at the end of the journal there's always a historical note that tells us about Good Queen Bess's rule of England and how because of her we have the Elizabethan era. I listened to the audio, and it was great as well!

This book was mentioned on Episode 1 of Checking Out. Listen here!