Reading With Tyler

Name: Yesteryear
Series: Stand Alone
Author: Caro Claire Burke
Publisher: Knopf
Format: Hardback & Audiobook
Genres: Adult, Literary Fiction, Contemporary
Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ (I suppose… more in the review)

Rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Review:

Yesteryear popped up on my instagram with the announcement that Anne Hathaway had secured movie rights to this debut novel about an influencer ‘Trad Wife’ who wakes up in the 1800’s and actually finds out what it is like to be a ‘Trad Wide’. I was immediately hooked and on board with this and soon enough I started seeing it popping up everywhere with raving reviews. Small caveat, is that I am not really a literary fiction reader but the time travel premise had me on board. I am not a fan of the UK cover so I sought out the US cover (much to Kayleigh’s horror haha) so I could read it too. The bubble burst quickly soon after I finally bit the bullet and purchased the book from the US (typical!). And when it arrived I was seeing more negative reviews for this book I had been so excited for…

I tried, as always, not to let those negative reviews stop me from picking it up and enjoying it. And with Yesteryear being chosen as a book club read for June, I continued with my plan to hop on a bandwagon and picked it up! I listened to Yesteryear for the most part, until I got impatient at the weekend and decided to finish it out immersive and then finally just by reading it solo because I didn’t want to put it down – but reading in bed late at night does not lend itself well to an audiobook.

But doesn’t that say a lot already? I didn’t want to put this down. Whenever I had to, I found myself thinking about Natalie and Caleb and their children and all I wanted to do was pick it back up. This was a really addictive and entertaining read, just with really dislikable characters and themes and dicussions throughout… but as mentioned, the premise is that Natalie is on social media showing her millions of followers her traditional life – with all the modern aspects and help hidden from view of course. And I loved the differences between what Natalie was showing vs what she was actually living and having to deal with, between Doug, her family and her own issues, it wasn’t a dull moment with this character.

But she was highly unlikable, I had moments where I felt sorry for her, but that was as good as my feelings towards her got. There were other feelings I had, mostly sadness, but they were aimed at other characters. Natalie at least is, I think (hope) at least, supposed to be unlikeable. It’s an interesting look at family social media accounts, and the concept of what you see on screen, what they choose to show you, isn’t always the truth. There was also the inclusion of the ‘Good Christian Woman’ discussion and the ‘True American Family’ ideology… I can’t speak for either of those disucssions as I am neither a Christian nor an American, but I can say that they made me very uncomfortable at times.

Then we have the Natalie that wakes up in the 1800’s surrounded by a family who looks kind of like her family but can’t possibly be her family bcause she’s in the 1800’s! This was when I started to feel sorry for her, and a lot did happen to her that did have me momentarily forgetting how awful she is. And she immediately thinks she’s been kidnapped… Which initially felt a bit silly a thought but then again who would wake up in the 1800’s and believe they’re in the 1800’s? But as you keep reading and more about her modern life and dilemma’s are revealed, it’s suddenly really easy to see why she thinks that is what happened…

The spice rating I gave Yesteryear is Open Door and that’s because there are a number of open door scenes of sex or acts in this story, but they’re no means the spice that you’d be expecting to see if this was a contemporary romance or a romantasy. So whilst it does require the Open Door spice rating, just be aware that these are not all good scenes. Definitely check the triggers at the start of the book.

Aside from being really uncomfortable at some of the scenes and topics within the pages, the ending was a bit confused for me. That isn’t to say it wasn’t signposted or anything! Caro actually did a really good job at having clues throughout the story as to what was happening, I think the fantasy reader in me was kind of ignoring those really clear clues in favour of a different outcome. However, my want for a different ending doesn’t take away from the fact that the ending does actually really work for this story. There were just some parts of it that didn’t make a lot of sense based on what we were being told about Natalie’s modern life. It’s hard to discuss this without spoilers, so I will leave it there as I really don’t want to spoil the ending for you.

So my TLDR for this review, because I feel like I rambled is, this was a highly addictive entertaining read that made me uncomfortable. The 3.5 rating feels so fair given that I was feeling 4 stars throughout the majority of the book – the ending lost a little bit of that rating for me. But I do think it was worth the read and I am very much looking forward to reading through the book club chats about this!

“Want to blow through five million dollars so quickly it makes your head spin? Buy a fucking farm.”