Yerba Buena

JENNIFER HARLAN, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"A quiet love story ... It takes a while for the story to gain momentum as Sara and Emilie's lives slowly chug through a collision course toward each other ... Many of the themes...will be familiar to those who have read LaCour's young adult work, although here the details of these stories, particularly Sara's, are more explicit, even bordering at times on gratuitous ... But once the women's paths cross...the story finds its rhythm, unfolding like the slowly blossoming flavors of a well-made drink ... The book is a sensory feast, teeming with vivid detail ... LaCour is always assembling things that are more than the sums of their parts: a well-balanced cocktail; a perfectly spiced gumbo; a family, part biological and part chosen. Disparate elements come together to reveal themselves as a whole, bitter and salty and sweet all at once."