Pinterest tracking pixel
If you are having difficulty navigating this website please contact us at member.services@bookofthemonth.com or 1-877-236-8540.
Oops! The page didn’t load right. Please refresh and try again.
Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour
Literary fiction

Yerba Buena

Early Release
This is an early release that's only available to our members—the rest of the world has to wait to read it.

by Nina LaCour

Quick take

Brimming with warmth and humanity, this is a tale of two perfectly imperfect women yearning for something to call home.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_Romance

    Romance

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_SlowRead

    Slow build

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_LGBTQ

    LGBTQ+ themes

  • Illustrated icon, Icon_Sad

    Sad

Why I love it

Tara Conklin
Author, The Last Romantics

I admit that I rarely find love stories appealing. I know, I know—I’m in the minority here, but I always end up annoyed by one of the primary characters or eye-rolling at the romantic parts. But Yerba Buena may have cured me of my disdain for love stories. Nina LaCour tells a story that is altogether different from the love stories I’ve read before: this one is gritty, nuanced, heartbreaking, and achingly real.

Another thing that makes this story so special is how the two protagonists, Sara Foster and Emilie Dubois, come to life on the page. We get to know Sara and Emilie individually before we know them as a couple. Sara is raised by a single dad, surrounded by addiction and poverty, and leaves home at 16 after an unspeakable tragedy. Emilie’s family is also marked by addiction and the resulting dysfunction leaves her without a true sense of self. Both women are struggling to find their passion and place in the world. By chance, the two converge at Yerba Buena, a hip Los Angeles restaurant. Emilie takes a job arranging flowers; Sara is the new sought-after bartender. They are immediately drawn to each other and yet, in a way that felt heartbreaking and true, circle around their relationship before being ready to partner.

The book brilliantly portrays how love for oneself must come before true love for another. Sara and Emilie must first learn to forgive themselves for past mistakes before they can move forward in life, individually and together. The writing is sharp and the emotional pitch is perfectly calibrated. This is a love story unlike any you’ve read before.

Read less

Synopsis

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, pull 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.

Read less

Preview

Get an early look from the first pages of Yerba Buena.

Read a sample →

Member thoughts

All (6524)
All (6524)
Love (3204)
Like (2810)
Dislike (510)
6616 ratings
  • 48% Love
  • 42% Like
  • 8% Dislike
    Literary fiction
    • Transcendent Kingdom
    • Dominicana
    • What's Mine and Yours
    • Vladimir
    • Infinite Country
    • The Prophets
    • Normal People
    • True Biz
    • The Verifiers
    • Betty
    • Salvage the Bones
    • Ask Again, Yes
    • Black Buck
    • The History of Love
    • The Remains of the Day
    • The Secret History
    • The Kite Runner
    • Memorial
    • The Gifted School
    • The Death of Vivek Oji
    • Leave the World Behind
    • The Knockout Queen
    • Yerba Buena
    • Free Food for Millionaires
    • A Burning
    • Writers & Lovers
    • The Mothers
    • The Water Dancer
    • Sing, Unburied, Sing
    • Small Country
    • The Sympathizer
    • Fleishman Is in Trouble
    • Lot
    • An American Marriage
    • The Animators
    • The Leavers
    • Swing Time
    • The Mars Room
    • Exit West
    • The Windfall
    • White Fur
    • Chemistry
    • Woman No. 17
    • The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
    • Eat Only When You're Hungry
    • Rainbirds
    • Unsheltered
    • A Ladder to the Sky
    • Golden Child
    • Lost and Wanted
    • The Goldfinch
    • Little Women
    • The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P
    • & Sons
    • The Association of Small Bombs
    • Lolly Willowes
    • All Grown Up
    • Marlena
    • The Light Pirate
    • Signal Fires
    • Someday, Maybe
    • The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
    • Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
    • Woman of Light
    • Mercury Pictures Presents
    • Marrying the Ketchups