The Book Wench

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 heir to a political dynasty? 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 ruthless 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.

Yesteryear was one of those situations where I went into the book knowing that I was going to hate the main character and yet…I did it anyway. Normally hating the main character is enough to make me DNF a book but I had heard enough good things about the book to “trust the process” with regard to my feelings on the main character. Trusting the process and forging ahead into the book was definitely worth it.

As predicted, the main character was detestable but, before you write the book off, she is supposed to be. Natalie is supposed to be a horrible character that you can’t help but love to hate. There is no antiheroine sentiment here – she is a villain through and through. And, honestly, it worked for the book. As I said before, normally I’ll DNF if I hate the main character enough but, this time, I wanted to spend as much time hating her as I possibly could while also witnessing her get her just desserts. I don’t know what that says about me but take it as you will. (I would like to note here that I do not hate the character because of her religious beliefs but because of how she treated people and how she used those beliefs to hurt others).

Burke did a great job weaving in and out the two timelines, especially for a first time author. Even some authors with multiple publications under their belts have difficulty weaving together a dual-timeline narrative so I have to give major commendations here. She genuinely kept me guessing as to what was going on and how the two timelines would come together story-wise. I had a few inklings on things but was very pleasantly surprised by multiple different details (yes, being vague on purpose – no spoilers here).

I loved how Burke wrote the book itself and how she portrayed the ongoing mental states of Natalie in both timelines. It was fascinating to get to watch her fray at the edges in confusion and dismay (again, I don’t know what that says about me). Furthermore, she did an excellent job really drawing me into the story. I only felt encumbered by aspects/details of the story once and that slowed me down toward the middle. Otherwise, I sped through the scenes, hungry to find out what had happened and what was going on. And the ending, ugh, it was so completely gratifying – at least regarding Natalie (I felt horrible for other characters, especially the ones closest to her).

All in all, Yesteryear was a completely surprising read. I expected to have such a hard time reading it because of the distaste I knew I would have for the FMC and yet it was actually so completely absorbing. I was drawn to the story despite my disdain and I really commend Burke for being able to pull that off.