Three Books I'm Reading Now, 4/27/26 Edition

The Books I'm Reading Now

This week I'm reading a book in which a modern-day, luxury tradwife influencer wakes up in the gritty, unforgiving 1800s, Caro Claire Burke's Yesteryear; I'm listening to Mai Nguyen's darkly funny and moving book about deep grief and finding a way forward, Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead; and I'm listening to Ilona Andrews's novel about a superfan who wakes up in the world of her favorite fantasy series--danger, wonder, and all, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me.

What are you reading, bookworms?

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01 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Caro Claire Burke's debut novel features main protagonist Natalie, a fundamentalist Christian who subscribes to male-dominated power structures. She marries the son of a powerful senator, and she delves so far into perfection in homemaking and parenting, she becomes a "tradwife" influencer with 8 million followers.

Then one day, Natalie wakes up panicked, without her perfectly showcased, support-staff-driven, manicured and merchandised modern farmhouse. She is living in the actual 1800s, in a homestead version of her life without electricity, indoor plumbing, or running water.

Yesteryear is satirical, darkly funny, and has me completely hooked so far.

I received a prepublication version of this title courtesy of Knopf and NetGalley.

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02 Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead by Mai Nguyen

Cleo and her best friend since childhood, Paloma, live down the street from each other and are ecstatic to be pregnant with their first children at the same time, and they give birth on the same day.

But Paloma and her husband happily bring their new son home, whlie Cleo and Ethan find themselves in a nightmare of grief: their daughter Daisy dies at the hospital soon after birth. Cleo and Ethan's world is turned upside down.

Nguyen plunges the reader into Cleo's grief, her sometimes socially unacceptable methods of getting through each day, and, much to her husband and family's horror, her departure from actuarial work to employment at the funeral home where Daisy's service was held.

Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead is turning out to be darkly funny, moving, honest, messy, and lovely.

I received a prepublication audiobook edition of Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead courtesy of Simon & Schuster Audio and Libro.fm.

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03 This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me (Maggie the Undying #1) by Ilona Andrews

Maggie has long leaned on rereading her favorite fantasy series for comfort and security. She eagerly awaits the final book in the series, and she feels like she knows the characters and world of Kair Toren.

So when she wakes up naked and cold in a filthy gutter, with events unfolding around her as they do in the first book of the series, Maggie doesn't know how or why she's there, but she's certain she's living within her beloved story.

Maggie must figure out how to survive long enough to figure out what's going on. She can lean on her knowledge of the behind-the-scenes forces at play in the kingdom, of figures' secrets and motivations, and of what is to come--as long as she doesn't make herself a target and doesn't change significant events by interfering. But she realizes that if she dies, she quickly comes back to life. And she doesn't seem to be very good at staying out of trouble.

This is fascinating, fun, elaborately plotted, and irresistible so far.

I'm listening to This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me as an audiobook.

“Ilona Andrews” is the pseudonym for a husband and wife writing team, Gordon and Ilona. They have also co-authored the Kate Daniels, Edge, and Hidden Legacy series, as well as the Innkeeper Chronicles.