"Yesteryear" by Caro Claire Burke

I finally picked up "Yesteryear" by Caro Claire Burke, one of this year's "buzz" books, after hearing a lot about it on. I've always liked time travel novels, and this promised to be one  -- or, at least, to contain a time travel element as part of the storyline.  

Natalie Heller Mills is a "tradwife," raising five homeschooled children (and pregnant with #6) in a rustic home (which is nevertheless equipped with all the modern conveniences) on a ranch known as "Yesteryear" in rural southern Idaho. She's married to Caleb, the rather hapless youngest son of a powerful U.S. senator who has presidential ambitions. 

She's also a highly successful social media influencer, who employs a producer as well as two nannies/teachers for her children, so that she can focus on being in front of the camera. She's clearly modelled on Hannah Neeleman of Ballerina Farm and other social media tradwife influencers,  with echoes of Tara Westover's "Educated" (setting in the mountains of rural southern Idaho, Ivy League scholarship, fundamentalist religious upbringing, etc. -- although in Natalie's case, the denomination is unspecified).  

On the surface, Natalie's life seems idyllic. But it quickly becomes evident that she's seething with rage and insecurity, as she tells us (in a first-person narrative) about her life, her family, and how she got to this level of fame and fortune.    

Then one morning, Natalie wakes up and abruptly finds herself somehow transported back to the year 1855 (!) -- actually living the traditional back-to-the-land life she's represented.  The story pivots back and forth between the story of Natalie's marriage to Caleb and how she became an "influencer," and the bewildering world she now finds herself in, with a husband she calls "Old Caleb" and four children, who are familiar in some ways and not at all in others. 

It didn't take me long to realize I disliked Natalie -- a lot. She didn't improve much over the course of the book -- although I felt a certain amount of sympathy at her bewildered and terrified reaction to waking up in 1855. I'm not sure any of us would have reacted any differently! (Still, there was a bit of schadenfreude, watching her having to practice/live what she preached...!). 

But an unlikeable heroine is not necessarily a deal-breaker for me in a book. It was an interesting premise, if not always smoothly executed, and it sure kept me turning the pages. I'd heard there was a twist ending, and a little about what it involved. But even so... let's just say I did not expect what ultimately unfolded!

ALI/CNBC note:  Obviously, this is NOT an entirely "safe" read for us, given the subject matter...!  Notably, there's a home birth described near the end of the book that I found difficult to read. 

4 stars.  

This was Book #23 read to date in 2026 (and Book #5 finished in August), bringing me to 57% of  my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind pace to meet my goal.  :(  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books."