Natalie Heller Mills is a famous ‘trad wife’ and Instagram influencer who lives on Yesteryear Ranch with her husband Caleb and their children. She promotes a seemingly perfect, agrarian, pre-modern lifestyle, traditional gender roles and Christian teachings online. She and Caleb homeschool their five children: Clementine (12), Stetson (9), Samuel (8), Jessa (3) and Junebug (toddler).
Natalie went to Harvard where she met Caleb, and she drops out after her second year because she wants to raise a family with him. Caleb can’t find a job and Natalie comes up with the plan to buy a ranch in Idaho with her father-in-law’s help. They employ several farm hands (because Caleb knows nothing about farming), two nannies (Nanny Louise and Reena) and a social media advisor, Shannon.
When Natalie is pregnant with their sixth child when she learns her husband Caleb is having an affair with Shannon. Natalie sees red and assaults her, and when Shannon goes public with the assault, Natalie loses public credibility and her following. Doug, Caleb’s politician father, helps mitigate the public story.
After the incident, Natalie wakes up in 1855, in a house similar to Yesteryear ranch without any modern-day appliances. On top of that, she doesn’t recognise the children in this timeline. The eldest is called Mary, then there’s Maeve and the two boys Abel and Noah. Her foot is seriously injured because she tried to escape and she got caught in a snare trap. She initially thinks this may be some kind of prank,but as months pass she realises that this is her life now and decides that this is a test sent by God. When Maeve falls ill, Natalie grabs the opportunity to escape under the guise of getting medication for the patient. Natalie makes it home where she finds an adult Clementine who has come to collect her siblings, leaving Natalie and Caleb alone on the ranch. Natalie now realises she’s not in the past but she’s in the future, and she’s in her 50s.
The book then jumps 5 years in the future when Natalie is serving a sentence in prison for child neglect. She finally agreed to an interview with her former college roommate Reena, who is now a journalist. They discuss her life on Yesteryear Ranch and Natalie has the chance to read the first chapter of her daughter’s memoir, dedicated to her mother.
This was an excellent read. I bought the hardcover edition by accident – I thought I was purchasing the Kindle edition, and also purchased the audiobook (on a daily deal).
Read for the ShelfReflection Reading Challenge 2026
Prompt 2: A book with a character who has a pet that’s not a cat or dog
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
