You may have seen Anne Hathaway’s witchy unveil of Caro Claire Burke’s debut book floating around social media last year. Like all trained influencers, she unboxes the novel like it’s already the most sought-after book of 2026, narrating the synopsis while tapping her fingers against the cardboard, pulling out PR merch with sultry grace. The candlelight and warm wood tones of the room she’s kneeled in enhance her sinister vibes, capturing the mood of the novel and foreshadowing what lies in its pages. It is, to put it simply, over the top. Yet it’s difficult to look away from. And it’s this short video that perfectly captures the kind of journey readers can expect to find themselves on from the opening page.
Yesteryear is more than just the title of this book; it’s also the name of the 150-acre ranch situated in the Idaho mountains that Natalie Heller Mills runs alongside her husband and their budding family. At just thirty-two years old, there’s five of them, and a sixth member on the way. Pay no attention to the nannies – of which they have two – or ranch hands out in the fields, or the producer behind the camera of Natalie’s social media account where millions of her followers tune in to gush over her pioneer lifestyle or rage against it. This tradwife brand is all Natalie, a product of her vision, hard work, and unflinching commitment to become the perfect woman. That is, until she wakes up achingly cold and dust-covered in what appears to be the year of 1805. How did she get here? And more importantly, how does she get back?
Natalie is both utterly frustrating and completely enthralling in equal measure. Her situation made all the more gripping by the dual timelines – the not-so-present year of 1805 and the years leading up to that nightmarish morning – barreling towards each other, their collision revealing an ending we didn’t see coming. Yesteryear is intense in every sense of the word. It’s also just good gripping fun, the kind of novel that takes no effort to get lost in. No wonder Anne Hathaway jumped at the opportunity to produce and star in its adaptation.
