Annabel Youens describes herself as someone who "writes for women who are done pretending everything’s fine. Women who’ve ticked the boxes, built the life, held it all together—and now ask questions they can’t ignore anymore." If these sentiments in any way speak to you, then look no further than Thread Traveler, one of my top reads of 2025 so far.

Thread Traveler encapsulates a world of midlife transformation, magical realism, time travel, and personal growth, fused with beer, fungi, and imperfect families. The story follows 47-year-old tech entrepreneur August, who feels her life coming apart around her while on one last desperate family vacation, trying to bring the pieces back together in idyllic England.

While there, one night of letting her hair down changes everything when a curious and desperate August takes a sip of an ancient beer, which transports her to an alternate reality and timeline where the world around her is a forest, mushrooms pulse with power (beautifully reminiscient of the night forest in the first Avatar film), and the community of women connect with the mushrooms through the fungal network in the ground beneath their bare feet.

August is dropped into this incredible, magical world and connects a midwife named Margaret, who leads her to ancient beer brewing, which may be her only way to return to the home she was so desperate to fix, or the only way to establish her place and protect her peace in this new land. But as her journey unfolds, August becomes suspicious that Margaret holds secrets and further questions whether she wants to help with the ancient beer brewing, and if she does continue, what she will want from it in return.

This book is uniquely important in today's politically charged climate, and it will resonate particularly well with women who might feel like they are of two lives, of two worlds - especially those who feel they give constantly to their families while also imagining what they could have been if they'd remained single and/other childfree. This book is full of possibilities and is so beautifully written, it will drop you into this magical, fungal, second-chance world right alongside August, whether you were expecting it to or not.

Reviewed by McKenzie Lynn Tozan for Reedsy Discovery