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.

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.