But the damage both women carry, and the choices they have made, pull them apart again and again. When Sara catches sight of Emilie one morning at Yerba Buena, their connection is immediate. On a whim, she takes a job arranging flowers at the glamorous restaurant Yerba Buena and embarks on an affair with the married owner. 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. 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.Īcross the city, Emilie Dubois is in a holding pattern.

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. This is a love story unlike any you’ve read before. The writing is sharp and the emotional pitch is perfectly calibrated. Sara and Emilie must first learn to forgive themselves for past mistakes before they can move forward in life, individually and together. The book brilliantly portrays how love for oneself must come before true love for another. 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. Emilie takes a job arranging flowers Sara is the new sought-after bartender. By chance, the two converge at Yerba Buena, a hip Los Angeles restaurant. Both women are struggling to find their passion and place in the world. Emilie’s family is also marked by addiction and the resulting dysfunction leaves her without a true sense of self. Sara is raised by a single dad, surrounded by addiction and poverty, and leaves home at 16 after an unspeakable tragedy. We get to know Sara and Emilie individually before we know them as a couple.

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.Īnother thing that makes this story so special is how the two protagonists, Sara Foster and Emilie Dubois, come to life on the page. But Yerba Buena may have cured me of my disdain for love stories. 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.

I admit that I rarely find love stories appealing.

Yerba buena nina