Coronet nets LaCour's 'beautiful and heartbreaking' adult debut

Coronet has signed Yerba Buena, the debut adult novel from the Printz award-winning YA writer Nina LaCour.

Melissa Cox, editorial director for the imprint, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Hannah Whitaker at The Rights People. The book, out in February 2022, is to be published simultaneously in the US by Flatiron Books. 

The synopsis explains: “When Sara Foster runs away from home at 16, she leaves behind 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, yearning for the beauty and community her Creole grandparents cultivated, but unable to commit. On a whim, she takes a job arranging flowers at the glamorous restaurant Yerba Buena. The morning Emilie and Sara first meet at Yerba Buena, their connection is immediate. But the damage both women carry, and the choices they have made, pulls them apart again and again.”

Cox said: “I am a huge fan of Nina’s writing, so when I heard she had written a novel for adults with an intriguing title, I had to know more. Yerba Buena is as heady as its name: at once beautiful and heartbreaking, with themes of love, family, self-discovery and self-acceptance. It’s fragrant and evocative and I cannot wait to share it with readers.”

LaCour commented: “I am thrilled to be making my UK adult debut with Hodder and grateful to share my novel about the complicated but very real love between two women, and the challenges they each face on their journeys to finding their truest selves. I hope British readers will find connection and intrigue in the novel.”