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Caro Claire Burke, author of Yesteryear

Natalie Heller Mills 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 heir to a political dynasty? What Natalie’s eight million followers don’t know won’t hurt them. But then one morning, Natalie wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. 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. Has she become the unwitting star of a ruthless reality show? Could it really be time travel? 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.

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Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

April 2026

We have been hearing a lot of buzz about YESTERYEAR by Caro Claire Burke, and I see why. I loved it from page one.

Let me start my thoughts about this book by saying that I am amused by online influencers who create content for Instagram (and TikTok, though I am not on there), hawking how they cook, bake, decorate, make cocktails, clean, fold, and whatever else comes into their imaginations. As a child, I remember pretending I had a cooking show as I made mix cakes, but we never filmed this and it was not shared. Now, it seems like there are tens of millions of content makers, and I am sure there is a kid out there with a cooking video series.

On top of that, there are people who make fun of Instagrammers, and they have their own followings. There are times when I feel like life online is some parallel universe, but then I see it’s very real. Almost too real.

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