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. 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. Anyone who’s ever been haunted by their mistakes, their losses or their regrets will surely feel connected to these women.

At times, Yerba Buena read like a reluctant memoir, at others almost like an exorcism of ghosts of the past that haunted the characters. For me, it turned out to be nothing like I expected and yet held me captive for the entirety of the book. Ultimately, this is quiet but beautiful character-driven fiction that lingers like a perfectly mixed cocktail. observed with a cool, generous eye in spare, quiet prose that expertly illuminates the trauma that Sara and Emilie are both wrestling with, as well as their hope and healing. LaCour’s writing invites a willingness to notice small details and be comfortable in gray areas. While Nina LaCour’s novel is not plot-driven, it has the most momentum when the characters are engaged in their goals or are pursuing their passions Emilie’s move into house-flipping later in the story delivers satisfying results for both character and reader.

Understated and evocative, Yerba Buena takes two fractured people from two fractured families and explores the ways they fit together - and the ways they don’t. Readers will have to be patient: After meeting for the first time, it takes a while before the two women connect again. this is less a romance than a study of complex, modern love.

Yerba buena lacour