Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
To millions of followers, Natalie Heller Mills’s life is idyllic. Her Instagram feed shares inspiring, impeccably lit images of Natalie and her cowboy husband on their ranch, Natalie kneading the day’s bread, Natalie with her stair-step, perfectly traditional children. She’s careful that no one sees behind the pioneer façade to what holds it all together: the nannies, the high-end appliances, the old-money inheritance keeping the farm afloat. But one day Natalie wakes up in an altogether different reality, one where the traditions she’s been playacting are frighteningly necessary for daily survival. Has she truly been transported to the 1800’s? Or is something more sinister going on? The more we learn about Natalie – her background, her ambitions, and what she’s willing to sacrifice to stay relevant – the more we wonder what’s real and what’s not. Yesteryear is a whip-smart page-turner that readers will find endlessly compelling and more than a little unnerving.
Reviewed by Mary Kinser, collection development librarian, Whatcom County Library System
(Originally published in Bellingham Alive May 2026 issue.)