I first heard about Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke on Threads. Someone was talking about how Anne Hathaway had bought the movie rights and everyone was excited for it to be turned into a movie. The idea of a trad-wife going back in time to live the reality she portrayed online as the ideal was very appealing to me and I immediately bought the book straight from Amazon (linked with this link). You know that feeling when a book pulls at you with an invisible tug and you just know in your heart of hearts that it is meant for you in this moment and may become a favorite? That is how I felt when I was reading about this book on Threads so I did not get it from the library or even begin to look for it in a used book store even though it is a bestseller and was bound to be there at some point. I wanted that fresh off the press I am the first one reading it feel to this read so my copy the book would take on some of my spiritual imprint and eventually it would become like an old friend. Anyone else feel like their copies of books do that?

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The books starts out with Natalie as a young woman and the early strict upbringing that caused her to adopt even more ultraconservative values as she goes off to college, marries a rich but clueless Caleb and has her first child Clem. Caleb and Natalie eventually move to a small farm with the help of Caleb’s father and Natalie starts her YouTube channel and builds her social media empire while birthing several more children. She adopts this all natural living style while homeschooling her children and staying isolated on her farm.

Things start to go awry when Natalie hires a young college student to help her with marketing who questions some of the realness of what Natalie has bene portraying online versus what she sees in person at the farm. One day Natalie wakes up and has time traveled to the harsh reality of an 1800s farm similar to the ideal she had portrayed online for many years. Her children are not her children, her husband is something different and the endless chores wear Natalie down. This causes a mental crisis for Natalie but I will not spoil it for you as to what happens next, just know that it is really good. So good in fact that I am going to have to read the book again since I was so enthralled I read the entire book in a day and I am sure I missed something.

It says a lot that I have not been able to find any major spoilers unmarked on Threads. Everyone seems to be waiting for the collective women of the world to read the book and come to some conclusions about their own lives and roles which is amazing. Ms. Hathaway is set to star and produce the horror film based on this article in Indie Wire. Nevertheless, Yesteryear is one of the best books I have read all year and the ending was not at all what I predicted. If you know, you know but I will not spoil it for those who have not read it yet.

I highly recommend this book to everyone to read and I can’t wait for the movie to come out!

Links:

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Anne Hathaway Producing and Starring in Yesteryear

Reminder: Sea of Charms is coming out at the end of July and we will be doing a book club in September for it on the Cozy Oscoey channel.

Cozy Oscoey YouTube Channel

Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst Preorder

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The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is a book that I picked up kind of on a whim but ended up loving. I honestly don’t remember if it was a book I saw in my Amazon suggestions or if it was one of the books my daughter bought me for Christmas a couple of years ago, but wherever I found it, it definitely called to me in the strongest manner possible. It is a fabulous book that hit all of my cozy fantasy spots while having a great story. I really wish there was a bunch more books about Caz the plant and Kiela the librarian!

This site participates in affiliate links and receives a small fee for affiliate recommendations at no cost to you. As always we only recommend products we have tried ourselves. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

The book starts out with an overthrowing of the throne, a great library on fire and the escape of Kiela the librarian, Caz the talking plant and the crates of valuable books both have stashed away in a boat. Kiela and Caz end up far away on a small island in Kiela’s hometown. They settle into her old rundown house while hiding their top secret and forbidden selection of books. Needless to say, they have to interact with the locals and end up finding out a bunch of things about themselves along the way including the secrets of spellcasting.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I liked it so much that I bought her second book in the series The Enchanted Greenhouse which is about Caz’s creator and preordered her newest book, Sea of Charms, which comes out in July of 2026. The story is very well written and the romance that happens is very sweet with a great backstory. I love all of the fantasy elements to the story and the true conflict of an introvert stuck in a position where they have to rely on others to make it through. The internal struggle to socialize was well felt!

Needless to say I highly recommend this book! I have already started reading The Enchanted Greenhouse and so far it is good as well. I am thinking of doing a book club reading for Sea of Charms when it comes out, maybe for August since it comes out towards the end of July. Let me know what you think about joining!

As always, I encourage readers to find books at libraries and used book shops, but if you need more information on what to find or to snag an early copy of Sea of Charms, below are some links to the books mentioned in this post.

Happy Reading!

This site participates in affiliate links and receives a small fee for affiliate recommendations at no cost to you. As always we only recommend products we have tried ourselves. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Links:

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

The Enchanted Greenhouse

Sea of Charms

The time has come to announce my selection for the 2026 HAED SAL on this blog. Should I have done this last month when I announced it on my first Flosstube at the Cozy Oscoey YouTube channel? Yes, absolutely but December was a whirlwind of sickness, travel and trying to make the holidays magical and at the end of it all I realized I did not post anything to the blog for December so here we go. If you have not watched the video, please do! I love talking about my stitching plans! If you have watched it, this should come as no surprise, but I picked The Sun by Edvard Munch who is the painter who completed the famous “The Scream” painting.

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I picked this one because of a few reasons, the number one being that it really struck me when I first saw it. It is so different and clearly painted by a master painter. I wasn’t sure about how it would translate to stitching at first but ultimately decided that it would be beautiful and fun to work on. The color transitions are amazing and so far I have just worked on a little bit of the top left corner but once I get into the rays of the sun it will be cool to see how they blend. Another factor in my decision was that this was not an AI piece of art although I am pretty disappointed looking at the pattern to see that the artist is not mentioned at all as it should be. This piece may be out of copyright but the original artist should be credited nonetheless.

I am stitching mine 1 x 1 on 25 count easy grid because that is what I used for Innocent Dreams and I liked how quickly it went. This piece though has so far been super challenging for some reason. I really have only stitched some of the grey at the top left and I have frogged it once and just noticed a huge mistake half way through my stitches so I may have to frog the bottom half of my stitching. I am not brave enough to all of one color at a time like a lot of other stitchers in the 2026 HAED SAL group but I am working on all of a color in a larger section to keep things moving along.

So far I am about 150 stitches in and am working on my second color. It just looks like some splotches of grey so far but you can clearly see where the first ray of sun will go. I missed a stitch down in the 4th box from the top on the very left and will have to frog most of what is below it. I am tackling it this week and hope to make some significant progress on this piece in January. I am determined to finish this year! No major life changes are planned and now that I have a solid place to stitch again with good lighting it will be much easier to get through it. On a side note, I also want to finish Innocent Dreams this year so that project is not hanging over my head for years. I know that if I don’t get it done this year it will never get done!

Look for more updates on this piece as well as all of my other WIPs both here and on the Cozy Oscoey YouTube channel this year!

Which piece did you decide on?

Links:

@CozyOscoeyHobbies YouTube Channel

8″ Embroidery Hoop

Flosstube No. 1

Information about The Sun by Edvard Munch painted in 1909

2026 SAL For Heaven and Earth Designs

2025 SAL for Heaven and Earth Designs