Yerba Buena follows two women over the course of their childhood to their late twenties. Sara Foster runs away from home at sixteen to leave the losses behind her that have shattered her ability to trust and be intimate with others. Years later, she is a sought-after bartender in Los Angeles, as much renowned for her concoctions as the air of mystery surrounding her and her past. Across the city, Emily Dubois is struggling to get started with her future. In her seventh year and fifth major as an undergraduate, she years for beauty and community her Creole grandparents cultivated but can’t find it in herself to commit—to anything or anyone. Impulsively, she decides to take on a job arranging flowers for the glamorous restaurant Yerba Buena—where Sara works. When the two women catch sight of each other, their connection is immediate. But the baggage both women carry is heavy and the universe has a way of cutting them off right when they’re about to connect time and again. When Sara’s old life comes calling just when Emilie and her have found their way to each other, it’s up to them to figure out whether their love is enough to leave their pasts in the dust.
Yerba Buena isn’t easily categorised. For me, it turned out to be nothing like I expected and yet held me captive for the entirety of the book. At times, Yerba Buena read like a reluctant memoir, at others almost like an exorcism of ghosts of the past that haunted the characters.
In this slice of life narrative, we follow two women who ostensibly have nothing in common and yet somehow fit together perfectly. LaCour takes her time to establish both Sara and Emilie as flawed, relatable and lovable characters that you immediately begin to root for. Both Emilie and Sara have got their own struggles but their connection with each other is palpable from their very first chance encounter. Yet they both are faced time and again with the question whether love—real, unconditional love—is enough to make them leave their ghosts in the past. Anyone who’s ever been haunted by their mistakes, their losses or their regrets will surely feel connected to these women.
Ultimately, what drew me to this book was that, as much as it seems to be about star-crossed lovers, it really focused more on trauma and grief. There is an intimacy to how LaCour depicts what happens to Sara and Emilie —and much of this story is what happens to the characters until they finally realise their own agency and try to get out of the harmful and toxic situations they keep finding themselves in. It felt affirming to read about two women who also can’t help but fall into these traps that we’ve all encountered in life and struggle with finding their way out—there are no perfect characters here, everyone is flawed, moral compasses are askew and it just perfectly worked paired with LaCour’s storytelling. Both Sara and Emilie go through different journeys and emotional reprieves are few and fleeting. Though you kind of guess that they’ll cross paths again, you’re always left wondering what else the universe has got in store for them, which compelled me to keep reading. Weaving their tales together toward the end of the book almost felt cathartic.
What I really enjoyed about Yerba Buena was how it showed you how transient everything in life is only to follow it up with something that left a permanent impression you can’t really put into words. LaCour brings this ineffable feeling to every topic discussed in the story—from the depiction of grief to child neglect to missing loved ones and the deep abyss of depression. Yet the story also delivers moments of happiness, of inner strength, of taking yourself out of a harmful situation and, most of all, persevering when life tries to get you down again and again. It’s a masterfully crafted story that at times flows and ebbs like the sea—meaning that sometimes the pacing felt like a Monday that never ends and at others raced the clock when you’re late for an appointment you already don’t feel like going to. It’s a story that essentially shows that no matter how hard or messy life gets, you can always get up one more time. Its heavy themes are explored in excruciating detail but if you’re up for it, I’m sure you’ll fall in love with this heartbreaking yet rewarding story.
A true slice of life narrative, Nina La Cour’s adult debut Yerba Buena is a story of love and loss, family and friendship, of two women finding their way in the world—and each other. At times brutally honest and at others comforting and intimate, this story is perfect for anyone who has ever been kicked down by life only to get up again.
Yerba Buena is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of May 31st 2022.
Will you be picking up Yerba Buena? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
The debut adult novel by the bestselling and award-winning YA author Nina LaCour, following two women on a star-crossed journey toward each other
When Sara Foster runs away from home at sixteen, she leaves behind not only the losses that have shattered her world but the girl she once was, capable of trust and intimacy. Years later, in Los Angeles, she is a sought-after bartender, renowned as much for her brilliant cocktails as for the mystery that clings to her. Across the city, Emilie Dubois is in a holding pattern. In her seventh year and fifth major as an undergraduate, she yearns for the beauty and community her Creole grandparents cultivated but is unable to commit. On a whim, she takes a job arranging flowers at the glamorous restaurant Yerba Buena and embarks on an affair with the married owner.
When Sara catches sight of Emilie one morning at Yerba Buena, their connection is immediate. But the damage both women carry, and the choices they have made, pulls them apart again and again. When Sara’s old life catches up to her, upending everything she thought she wanted just as Emilie has finally gained her own sense of purpose, they must decide if their love is more powerful than their pasts.
At once exquisite and expansive, astonishing in its humanity and heart, Yerba Buena is a love story for our time and a propulsive journey through the lives of two women finding their way in the world.
