April's Devours
The book and podcast I was obsessed with in April.
April went by in a blur, I couldn’t tell you much of what happened. But what I do remember are the book and the podcast I was obsessed with - you know, when you can’t stop thinking about them obsessed?
Starting with the book…
I heard about Yesteryear by Coco Claire Burke late last year when April 2026 seemed like forever away. It immediately went to the top of my TBR list while I counted down the days until it was released.
The premise of the book (without any spoilers) is that the main character, Natalie, is a tradwife influencer in modern day with over 2million followers on Instagram who she shares her ‘perfect’ traditional life with. She lives on a farm in Idaho with her husband and their 5 children (with one on the way) who all feature in her online content. But then one day she wakes up in the 1850s, she’s living in the same farm as she does in modern day, but it’s obviously lost all its mod cons - no electricity, outside toilet, no car or internet. So she is left trying to figure out where she actually is, how she got there and how she can escape.
It’s one of those books that is an easy read while also being packed with storyline. While some bits can be repetitive, it feels necessary to fully understand Natalie and her character. She’s not a very likeable character in many ways, but you sometimes do feel sorry for her too.
I loved this, it definitely lived up to my expectations. I read a few reviews afterwards which had very different views to me, and I can see where they are coming from. It’s probably going to be a book that’s a bit like Marmite - you’ll either love it or hate it.
One of the reasons I loved it was that it felt like nothing I’d read before. I get so bored with books that become predictable. This was definitely not one of those. I couldn’t see where it was going or how the author was going to explain the protagonist travelling to the 1850s.
I know a book has stuck with me and it’s worthy of a 5 star review when I get excited explaining it to other people - this was one of those and I’m desperate for others to read it so I can talk to them about it!
Onto the podcast I couldn’t stop thinking about in April… Matt and Mollie’s Novel Idea
A friend recommended this to me. I don’t think I would have heard about it otherwise as I haven’t even seen anything about it since. So thank you goes out to Beth for this one.
Matt and Mollie are best friends and present a show on Radio 1 together. The concept of the podcast is that they will write a book together, each writing separate chapters. So, for example, Matt wrote chapter 1, Mollie wrote chapter 2 and on it goes.
They then bring their chapter back to the podcast where Steffan Powell narrates it - and they will talk it through too. It’s way funnier than you would expect. I have been howling with laughter in the car listening to it and it cheered me up no end.
Matt and Mollie both have different writing styles and ideas of what the priority of the novel should be. Matt wanting a more action based plot while Mollie preferring romance. It’s one of those where you can’t explain where the humour comes from as it’s not with jokes necessarily but the mocking of each other, themselves and the storyline. And even though they mock the plot, I’ve been finding myself looking forward to a Tuesday when the next episode is out so I can find out what happens. At least I have one friend who’s listening to this so I have someone to talk to about it. Would definitely recommend if you like Matt and Mollie and their humour - it’s a very British banter type humour.
Has anyone out there also read Yesteryear yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts on it - it’s hard to discuss too much about it here without giving the twist away. And have you listened to Matt and Mollie’s Novel Idea? Such a great concept for a podcast.