Yerba Buena
A Novel
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4.0 • 28 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
FROM BESTSELLING AND PRINTZ-AWARD WINNING AUTHOR NINA LACOUR, PERFECT FOR READERS OF WRITERS AND LOVERS
“A study of complex, modern love…Expertly illuminates the trauma that Sara and Emilie are both wrestling with, as well as their hope and healing…Lingers like a perfectly mixed cocktail.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“A Carol for our times.” —Harper’s Bazaar
Sara Foster runs away from home at sixteen, leaving behind 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, yearning for the beauty and community her Creole grandparents cultivated but unable to commit. On a whim, she takes a job arranging flowers at the glamorous restaurant Yerba Buena.
The morning Emilie and Sara first meet at Yerba Buena, their connection is immediate. But soon 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. Will their love be more powerful than their pasts?
At once exquisite and expansive, astonishing in its humanity and heart, Yerba Buena is a testament to the healing qualities of a shared meal, a perfectly crafted drink, a space we claim for ourselves. Nina LaCour’s adult debut novel is a love story for our time.
"Trailblazing…One of my personal favorite authors." —Casey McQuiston, New York Times bestselling author of One Last Stop
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In LaCour's solid adult debut (after the YA novel Watch Over Me), two Los Angles women navigate the uncertainties of their 20s and their complicated pasts. Sara Foster ran away from home at 16 after her girlfriend died under mysterious circumstances that may have involved Sara's family. Now she's a bartender whose signature cocktails are in high demand at the popular restaurant Yerba Buena. Emilie Dubois, who is part Creole, spent her early life as the "steady daughter" and "good girl," but with a sister in and out of rehab, her parents getting divorced, and her grandmother dying, she begins to search for her authentic self rather than continue passing as white and straight. After Emilie takes a job designing flowers at Yerba Buena, she embarks on an affair with the married owner, Jacob Lowell, while Sara occasionally takes home women from the bar. Though the chemistry is palpable between Emilie and Sara, the story turns out to be less about a love affair than what the women each need for themselves. Sometimes the alternating points of view between Sara and Emilie feel interchangeable, but LaCour writes with beauty and clarity about how a relationship is not a substitute for the characters' mutual need to love themselves. This doesn't break new ground, but it gets the job done.
Customer Reviews
Couldn’t Finish
I found this book on a list of “uplifting” reads. However, this book is not reflective of that with the deep descriptions of rape, drugs and abuse. This book should have come with a trigger warning. I will not be finishing.
Blindsided
I read the preview of this book and it grabbed my attention instantly. But upon purchasing and continuing to read, it went in a direction with Sara’s character that I wasn’t expecting at all and I immediately put it down, as that is not a topic or subject I like reading about in books I want to enjoy. I understand this direction seems correct for the story and character to take, but I happen to disagree and will not be finishing this book.