Fiction

Audiobook: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

August 16, 2026

Synopsis:

My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the Republican equivalent of a Kennedy? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it.

Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a brutal reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.

Review:

This one got so much hype that I’m glad I finally got around to it. The premise sounded interesting and, while it’s not my usual type of book, I was intrigued. Call it peer pressure, but I had to know what all the fuss was about. After listening to it on audio, I fully understand why it became such a topic of discussion.

Natalie markets her life as that of a trad wife, a lifestyle that has recently become very popular online. While it’s not my cup of tea, it is clearly marketable, and she is doing everything she can to stay relevant. The beginning of the book gives us a glimpse into her life, showing how organised it is while slowly pulling back the curtain. Early on, everything comes across as easy, relatable, and nearly perfect. But little by little, it becomes clear that there is a lot more going on. When she wakes up one day in the past, or at least what we are led to believe is the past, she is suddenly confronted with her fake life becoming a reality. And I had no idea what the heck was going on. 🙂

Natalie is a character who comes across as incredibly unlikeable. She sees herself as better than others and is quick to judge those around her. Portraying her this way was done very well, and when her carefully curated bubble of a perfect life suddenly bursts, I didn’t feel sorry for her. She is established as the villain of the story very early on.

The story is split into three parts. We get to know her in her current life, then follow the period when everything suddenly takes a turn, and finally see what comes after. Along the way, we also get background information through glimpses of her past and learn how she ended up where we first meet her.
Did it add depth to her character? Absolutely. Every time I started to feel just a little sorry for her, she would do something that made me dislike her again. It felt like a constant one step forward, two steps back situation.

The fact that it took quite a while before I finally learned what had happened made the journey even more enjoyable. There were some elements of the story that I personally didn’t connect with, but they didn’t take away from the lasting impression this book will leave on me. It felt different, and I appreciate it for that.

🌙 Recension: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
📚 Genre: Fiction
📅 Release Date: April 7, 2026
📖 Publisher: Fourth Estate
👤 Narrator: Rebecca Lowman
📗 available in various formats
📱 Read as: Audiobook
💸 Bought
🗣️ Language: English
📆 Pages / Listening Length: 13h 47min
⭐️ 4/5