September 8, 2026
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Natalie is a social media influencer who promotes living a traditional 19th century farm wife, but actually, she has household help, farm help, and all the modern conveniences. She has five children with a sixth on the way, but doesn't seem to like being a mother all that much. Nor does she care much for her rich lazy husband. All of that changes when she wakes up one morning to find herself transported back to the 19th century.
This had a great premise: Natalie, a social media influencer, obsessively documents her life online as a traditional/pioneer type wife and mother, while actually being a sham. Her 19th century cabinetry hides state-of-the-art appliances and she has hired help out the wazoo. Her husband is a rich boy who is banging one of the show's producers, and all his misdeeds are covered up by his politician father. Then one morning, Natalie wakes up to find herself actually living on the same farmstead but in the reality of the hardships of 19th century farm life.
This was supposed to be darkly humorous but I didn't find it funny. As someone who reads a lot and has studied history, I know the fantasy of living as a tradwife and being off the grid is just that, a fantasy. I suspected the "twist" fairly early on and started skimming at about the 40% mark. I did feel sorry for Natalie - she was the victim of a patriarchal cult in childhood, and then a patriarchal society that she couldn't overcome, and she never found a place where she felt she fit in and finally had a break with reality. The author is yet another podcaster host who has a large online following.
If you want to read a better book about a character who time travels back to 19th century America, try The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser. It's an older title but was reprinted in 2018.
An actual 19th century farmstead
