Yesteryear

This book is a wild ride in the best sense of the word. Natalie Heller Mills is a tradwife (think of Ballerina Farm, pretty much to a tee), living on an idyllic farmhouse ranch with her handsome cowboy husband. Behind the scenes, there are nannies, producers, and industrial-grade appliances . . . but no one needs to know about that! Natalie has the perfect life. She is, in her words, “perfect at being alive.” But one day, she wakes up, and it is the 1800s. Her home and children feel familiar, but her kitchen is warmed by a fire rather than electricity. Rather than snap pretty photos, she’s expected to lug firewood and do the laundry (without a machine) and make bread from scratch. Is this time-travel? A test from God? Has she been abducted? What happened? We go back and forth between past (and… past?) as we get to know Natalie’s childhood, her time at Harvard, and what made her like this. We meet the Angry Women (privileged coastal elites) who hate her, and we meet her husband Caleb’s politician father. Meanwhile, this is not Natalie’s beautiful life. How will she escape and get back to the world she worked so hard to create? I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I am still thinking about the end. It is a fantastic twist that kept me thinking for weeks. I had a book hangover afterward..