Title: Yerba Buena 
Author: Nina Lacour
Genre: Fiction, literary fiction
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: 2022
Format: Hardcover
Length: 290 pages

Read if you like: lesbian fiction, dual POV, stories of grief and healing, atmospheric setting, coming-of-age stories

Rating: 

I’ll admit it: I picked up Yerba Buena because I thought it had a really pretty cover. I’d seen it around on bookstagram here and there, but because it’s pretty far outside of my usual reading preferences, I didn’t pick it up until I found it for $3 at a used book sale. As soon as I posted that I’d brought it home though, I had several people message me to tell me it was an incredible story and a top read of 2022 for them. I immediately moved it up my TBR and I’m so glad that I did.

Yerba Buena was a heart-wrenching story of love, loss, grief, trauma, addiction, and learning to forgive yourself. Rotating between the perspectives of Sara and Emilie, both of whom have had their lives shattered by drugs in very different capacities, the story follows the girls as they sort through the unique traumas of their past and try to come to terms with who they are and who they want to be. 

There was so much emotion through Yerba Buena that I felt like Lacour just kept taking shots at my gut, but I loved every second of it. If you’re looking for a more literary fiction-style novel with interesting and strong FMCs and a slowly unfolding love story then I’d recommend giving this one a go.

The Book Synopsis: Yerba Buena by Nina Lacour

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.

The Review

Phew, what an emotional ride this one was. 

Lacour introduces Sara and Emilie, two girls from extraordinarily different backgrounds and circumstances, through their childhoods. For Sara, it’s quickly apparent that she’s already experienced much trauma for one so young, and already life has forced her to prioritize ensuring her little brother is cared for and seeking love through friendships where she won’t find it at home. Her chosen family is her rock, so when her first love dies tragically and Sara is faced with continuing in her life as things have been, she simply can’t do it. She’s still a child, but she chooses to leave immediately to start a new life in Los Angeles, doing whatever horrible things she must to get there and leave her trauma behind. This moulds her into the strong, self-sustained adult that she becomes, with an unshakeable independence that ensures she’ll never be as desperately stuck as she was again. 

Emilie, on the other hand, has been raised in a relatively conventional family with access to far more privilege than Sara but finds her life similarly shaken when her older sister is absorbed by the throws of addiction. The dynamic of her family is forever changed by her sister’s challenges, and slowly but surely Emilie finds herself taking a backseat to her own life. She has more ability to explore what may ignite her passion than Sara but finds herself no less lost for it. 

What’s satisfying about watching both of these characters grow is the various ways that they come to realize that they can’t find happiness and fulfillment in other people and that it must come from themselves. Initially, they seemed to be on such different trajectories that it was difficult to see how they would intersect, but I think the timing was key for them, and finding each other when they did made it possible for their relationship to slowly bloom.

Lacour has a beautiful writing style, writing with so much detail that in every environment you find yourself in, you can see taste and feel the surroundings she describes. It felt vivid and complex and real and made these stories come to life. I typically can’t stand longer chapters (and these chapters were LONG) but the story was so immersive that I found I only even noticed how lengthy the chapters were around halfway through. It was nice not to be sped through core events and storylines, but instead led through them slowly, savouring the details and emotion and heartbreak that rightfully arose from the events you bore witness to.

I liked the love story, but I loved the way that the women realized their need to get their own shit together first. I very much value the concept of being your own person before you can be someone else’s, and that was beautifully executed in this book.

Yerba Buena was such a wonderful surprise. I loved this book, it broke my heart open and then put it back together again. I’d recommend this one to someone looking for a non-cheesy, literary fiction-style romance because it was perfection.