I received an ARC of Yerba Buena from Flatiron Books in exchange for an honest review.

I was very much looking forward to Nina LaCour’s adult debut after being enraptured by the lyrical prose and melancholy tone of We Are Okay—I wasn’t sure if that mood was specific to that book, or if it was just LaCour’s style. It’s the latter! Yerba Beuna maintains everything I loved about the writing in We Are Okay...unfortunately, almost nothing else here works, and in this case, the writing style actively undermines rather than reinforces the characters and story.

Yerba Buena follows two characters: Sara, who runs away from home with a boy named Grant after the death of her girlfriend, and Emilie, who has no distinguishing characteristics that I can recall. They circle like stars in orbit around one another until inevitably colliding. Sara’s story, although it has a more immediate hook, is much more difficult to connect with—the things she does and the things that happen to her, while not necessarily unrealistic, escalate and accelerate to the point where they become absurd. Rather than slowly turning up the heat, LaCour merely drops the frog into boiling water, leaving the reader without any time to become invested.

Emilie’s story, while more digestible than Sara’s, still left me cold and distant. Everyone she interacts with struck me as far too cavalier about situations and relationships which should elicit strong emotional reactions. I think this is intentional, meant to reflect Emilie’s detached internal state, but intentionality does not necessarily make something good. It makes her story hard to follow and hard to care about, and the dreamy prose only exacerbates this problem, to the point where the eventual Sara/Emilie relationship feels perfunctory rather than fulfilling.

What makes all this is so odd is that I know LaCour can wield distance and dreaminess to great effect; these same qualities were exactly what made We Are Okay so good. Why does it play out differently here? What ineffable variable changed? I don’t know. There is one haunting image from the beginning of Yerba Beuna which will be seared into my brain for a long while—that of Sara’s girlfriend being dredged from the river, water pouring from her body. But the rest of this book was like a slippery eel I was unable to get a grip on, a nebulous and half-remembered thing that couldn’t command my attention.

Yerba Buena
By: Nina LaCour

Quote: “My favorite thing about my home is sharing it with the people I love.”

Thank You NetGalley and Flat Iron Books for the e-arc. Yerba Buena follows two women whose paths keep crossing. It’s coming of age and star-crossed lovers vibe. I cared so much for both of the characters. The book switch between two POV: Emilie’s and Sara’s and get to know them between their teens and twenties. Both comes from a difficult homes and they wanted a fresh start but their past keep getting in the middle of their story. The author really focuses heavily on descriptions of settings and locations. Even though this is a good thing sometimes got me distracted in the descriptions and not the plot.

This book made me reflect in how come you could meet the perfect partner and still not be the perfect timing. Both characters were deeply in love, had the greatest chemistry and their timing was never “the perfect time”. Life kept getting on the way and sometimes that’s just it.

I really Loved the book and like I said I felt deeply for both of the characters. <3

Something about this I couldn’t fall in love with. As interesting as the title, cover, and premise are, the writing itself didn’t wow me. More often than not, I was confused about the settings, characters, and overall plot.

I had to DNF once reading it became work. Perhaps I’ll try again one day, and it’ll be everything I want and need, but for now, nope!

Absolutely beautiful 5 ⭐️ read

Where to even begin? This book follows two woman as they navigate and grow through their lives—then they find one another.

Sara has a terribly sad beginning, wish there was more of Grant from the first part of the book! . Loved her journey and story of success becoming a sought after bartender. Family dynamics were so chaotic and messy and was beautifully written and real.

Emilie’s sister dynamics were great, relationship with Jacob was interesting, messiness of doing odd jobs and finding your way in your twenties (floral arrangements, caretaker, house flipping).

As always, Nina’s prose and descriptions were strong and gorgeous —highlighted many large passages of writing. I enjoyed how this love story was raw and real. They aren’t perfect characters and neither is their relationship. This story is not for everyone, people will probably say it’s boring since it’s mainly just following them through life. But I absolutely adored these characters and I hope the two stay together and create such a happy life after all they have even through❤️

Thank you NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC! It was such a wonderful read by Nina once again! Can’t wait to see what she does next in Adult Fiction!

Lovely book, a much more full-bodied story than the summary gives it credit for. Heartfelt and authentic with well-rounded characters. Terrific detail within the characters’ professions. I’ll be reading more from Nina.

This was different than what I expected initially, but I'm so glad I read it. I have not read Nina LaCour's other books (I know that they are YA or mostly YA) but I'm glad I got to try this one as an introduction to her work. I will probably go back to some of her earlier work. This was heavier than I expected, but I still loved the depth of the story and the way we got to learn about the characters.

This book was amazing. I coudn't put it down. It was magical. Higly recommended! The characters, the plots, the writting: wonderful and perfect.

Such an awesome book. I have read some of Nina LacCour's YA books before and they always make me come away thinking. The emotions that the author can convey within a book is amazing. I absolutely loved that she took the characters on this journey from their teenage years into early aduthood. I wish that more authors would explore this age range because it is a very unrepresented portion in books. All around 5 stars.

Oof. This book hurt. Nina always tells important stories, and I absolutely loved her first foray into adult fiction.

i ADORED this book - instant 5 stars. gorgeous prose, heartbreaking human story, and sapphic as hell. i'm reading this for my sapphic book club @sapphlit and i cannot wait to chat about it with everyone.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
emotional • family trauma • becoming

Another hauntingly beautiful text from LaCour. The multiple perspectives, descriptive imagery, and character development leads for a slow burn read.

You will find yourself lost in the setting, feeling the anger and heartache at times, but I am certain all readers will be satisfied with the resolution.

Having recently finished “Yerba Buena” by Nina LaCour, I am happy to have had the chance for the preview; thank you NetGalley and Flat Iron Books!

Yerba Buena follows two women who are on a path to each other and this emotional story is everything that happens to them before and during this journey. The timeline often jumped from here to there and there to here, with a mystery to resolve, and heart-aches to reveal. With Yerba Buena in each of their separate worlds, it all tied up nicely in the end, with a garden full of this healing herb growing as new love for both Sara and Emilie became a possibility.

Wow. What a beautiful, intense, emotional, and deep story about family, friends, love, life, and everything in between. Sara and Emilie's lives are told separately and together. Very different but so similar. They both are searching for meaning and more than what their families and hometowns could give them. Turns out that they are an integral part of each other's journeys.

This is my first read by Nina LaCour, so I was not sure what to expect. This is a story of two damaged lives finding each other in a plant shop. It has a lot of triggers: sex, drugs, abuse, and young death. The first couple of chapters were great paced, but as I kept reading I found myself not carrying about the story because the character's were not that interesting and it was a little hard to follow the changes of POV. I would say that this would be great for someone that loves detail on everything.

Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books.

This book is bound to be a summer favorite. Love, loss, regret, and inner truths are all featured in this piece that feels like a coming of age story. I loved it!

This one was much heavier than I anticipated and while I should have been prepared for that after reading We Are Okay by LaCour, I wasn't. It's well written and weaves together the lives of Sarah and Emily in a really poetic way. At times it felt a little unbalanced but I ended up enjoying how she brought things full circle. Overall, it was sad and beautiful but did not quite grip me the way I was hoping it would

TW: Sexual, drug, alcohol abuse & death of a teenager.

Sarah and Emilie didn’t grow up together. But they both share a past that haunts them. Sarah lost her best friend, her girlfriend. Emile is is struggling to find a career for herself. They meet at Yerba Buena through the magic of herbs and plants. Told in alternating POVs and with flashes of the past, we follow along ethic journey to forgiveness.

The pacing starting out so good and gut wrenching. It was hard. Some very difficult things happened and I was so enthralled. Somewhere along the half way mark I began to struggle. I had a hard time connecting with the characters or wanting to know their story. A very beautiful book buy ultimately something was lacking.

Thank you to Netgalley and Flatiron Books for a copy of this eARC

The novel itself....it is equal parts heartbreaking and soul feeding - and damn near perfect. I was drawn to the various calls to Yerba Buena as a plant and metaphor and how it affected all the characters. The romance feels so satisfying and honest while showing how two people can deal with trauma and still make things work. The characters felt fully realized and I could read their stories forever. What a stunning adult debut from Nina LaCour!

At its core, 𝐘𝐄𝐑𝐁𝐀 𝐁𝐔𝐄𝐍𝐀 by Nina LaCour is a love story featuring two women, each lost in her own way, slowly finding their way toward each other, but it's also so much more. These are women who on the surface have little in common. Sara has had a hard life, a life of loss and disappointment, but she’s driven. By sheer will, she’s going to build a life for herself. Emilie grew up in a strong, loving family, but she’s somehow lost, still working on her degree after 5 majors and 7 years as an undergrad. She’s trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up. So far, it may sound like sort of a fluff book, but it’s definitely so much more. Both women have darkness in their lives and much to overcome.⁣
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This book marks Nina LaCour’s adult debut, and I could feel a little bit of the YA world she comes from in this story, but I think that’s what makes 𝘠𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘢 𝘉𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘢 a perfect summer read. It should be in everyone’s beach bag! With good storylines, likable characters, a bit of mystery, and a little romance, what more can you want? On top of that, if you decide to go the audiobook route (as I did), it’s narrated by Julia Whelan! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25⁣
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Thanks to @macmillan.audio an ALC, and to @flatiron_books for the #gifted ARC of #YerbaBuena.

This BOOK!! I loved this book so much it might be one of the best ones I've read this year. I've always been a huge fan of Nina LaCour and I was so honored to get an ARC of her debut adult novel, Yerba Buena. This story is told from dual perspectives of the lives of the two main characters throughout their teens and twenties and how their lives intersect. I loved experiencing life through the perspectives of both characters, LaCour writes so well that I feel truly understood in both characters. Her prose is fantastic, but the book is also exciting and kept my attention. I didn't want to put it down. If you love contemporary fiction with a sapphic romance thrown in and some beautiful writing and storytelling, this book is for you. Thank you to Netgalley and Flatiron books for the ARC!