Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour

47 reviews

jayisreading's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

I enjoyed LaCour’s YA novel, We Are Okay, when I read it years ago, and I thought she did a wonderful job with her quiet exploration through grief. I haven’t read her other novels since, but when I found out that she was publishing a novel for an adult audience, I admit I was skeptical but interested to see what she would bring to the table.

Yerba Buena ended up being another dive into grief, about two teenage girls (who grow up over time in the book), and a tender queer love that blooms between those two characters. While my memory of We Are Okay is a bit fuzzy, having read it so long ago, I did feel as though I was reading a repackaged and messier version of it. LaCour was ambitious in her attempt to merge two different storylines into one. Unfortunately, I didn’t think she succeeded here, because the two stories were too different (even if the overarching themes were similar). It also didn’t help that the way she had the two characters’ stories merge was through a “love at first sight” moment. I found that with the attempt to have two distinct storylines, LaCour lost sight of fleshing out her characters into something more. I think this book would have been more successful if attention was placed on either Emilie’s or Sara’s storyline (probably the latter’s, if I’m honest), or even having two novellas that connected to each other.

I do want to praise LaCour for her beautiful writing, though, which was apparent even in We Are Okay. Relatedly, I thought her descriptions of Southern California (specifically the Los Angeles area) well-crafted. Despite the grief that exists in this book, you were still able to feel the warmth of the Californian sun.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia

spiides's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

I enjoyed the author’s entry into adult fiction tremendously! Her past writings that shows the young adult’s journeys through pain have always shown maturity, and it was nice to see what Lacour could do once fitting the adult sized shoes on fully. The ups and downs kept me rooting, the mistakes had me reeling, the love had me smiling. 

However, while the duel storytelling together with Lacour’s alluring prose did indeed capture me, they were not strong enough to overshadow the instantaneous love-at-first-sight / lack of connection between our two lovers. Sarah and Emilie’s stories were captivating and harrowing, but never felt quite meshed as one (and at times unfortunately better once separated.) Romance appears to be the main device used to tie our two lovers, but sadly I cannot say it succeeded. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Death of parent

lolajh's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

WOW. What a truly beautiful read. Nina is such a talented writer and I’d love to see more adult fiction like this from her because this was beautiful. The emotional journey of Sara recovering from her trauma and Emilie finding stability and their relationship making the both of them better people was just beautiful. Hard to get through some parts (I feel like the s.a. did not have to be that graphic to get its point across), but a lovely ending that made it all worth it. Loved the characters, loved the story, just a truly lovely book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Grief, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Terminal illness, Addiction, Sexual content, and Drug use

wildhorses's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Child death, and Drug abuse

hi_its_micah's review against another edition

emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Child death

Minor: Abandonment, Outing, and Infidelity

absonfire's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Grief

geekybobbin's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Child death, and Drug abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, and Terminal illness

lovealwaysadi's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug use, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Cursing, Medical content, Murder, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Abandonment

Minor: Toxic relationship and Terminal illness

indydc's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Child death, Drug use, Addiction, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Minor: Cancer

dorakathryn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA SOBBING SOBBING SOBBING SOBBING the first chapter made me sob the last chapter made me sob several in between made me sob they're both so broken but so right

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Death, Abandonment, Addiction, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Drug use, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcoholism