Absolutely gorgeous!!!!!

Thank you soooooo much netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advanced review copy if this book💗
"I voluntarily read and reviewed the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Reading Going Bicoastal was surreal. Not surreal because it was so outrageous that I was surprised by it — no. What was surreal about this book was that it was so ordinary. It felt like a book I've always had. And in many ways, maybe that's because it's always been there, I've always known this story, I've just never read it written out on a page before.

That's because this story is mine.

Natalya has to make the decision of spending her summer before senior year with her dad at home, or her mom across the country. So should she take that risk of spending time with a mom she barely knows, taking an internship and stepping into a world full of unknowns? Or should she stay in New York, take risks in new ways, try new things and maybe-possibly-somehow-perhaps ask out that cute redhead she's been crushing on for months?

But the real question is: why not read about both?

Natalya is a bisexual Jewish teen, a true child of divorce. She has her close group of friends, she tries her best to have a Shabbat dinner every Friday night, she loves her dad and is slightly estranged from her mom. None of these elements by themselves scream my name. (Besides her mother, whose name I literally share.) But when you put them together, they create an experience that forms the foundations of me.

This review is hard for me to write because I'm struggling to pinpoint what exactly made this book outstanding. I don't have a single negative thing to say about this book. Both storylines were equally engaging and perfectly matched, the dialogue felt right, Natalya's thoughts were authentic, the romances (yes, both of them!) were fantastic and so full of chemistry (and horniness) that it made me laugh and feel warm inside. I loved watching as pieces of dialogue broke through both sides and certain actions and decisions were mutually (but separately) made.

So what made it stand out? Why does it matter? Maybe it's because deep down I know that this book means the world in the most miniscule ways. It won't matter as much to any singular person who does not identify with every single one of Natalya's identities. So as backward as it seems, there's something to that — not meaning as much to other people — that makes it feel more like my story.

This isn't a coming out story or even completely a coming of age. It's not chock-full of angst or ingenious thoughts that have Never Been Done Before. It's a romance, it's a story, and it's one that feels one decision away from being mine.

Going Bicoastal takes that moment where you wonder "what if..." and shows you exactly how you'll end up where you need to be. Not because you made the 'right' decision, but because the journey you're about to take makes any other decision incomprehensible. This book told me that I'll end up where I need to be, whether I fly across the coast or not. Whether I take that chance that's urging me on right in front or find a new leap forward, in a different direction.

Content Warnings: self-harm (past), divorce (past), parental abandonment, mentions of homophobic rhetoric

A super fun summer YA read. I like the weaving together of the two alternate storylines - the parts where conversations with friends or parents repeated in the different cities. A neat way to explore a character and her choices.

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

• sweet summer-y YA romance
• Sliding Doors vibes
• representation 👏

Fun settings, swoonworthy romances, choose-your-own ending... this was a fun contemporary YA rom-com!

🗣️ Thank you to @netgalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for the opportunity to read and review this book via gifted eARC! All opinions are honest and my own.

Dahlia Adler is fast becoming one of the best authors in queer contemporary YA fiction. Going Bicoastal is unlike any book I’ve ever read. Firstly, it’s written in alternating timelines, one where the main character decides to stay in New York, and the other where she goes to LA. In both of these timelines, she has a love interest: New York is a red headed punk girl, and LA is a guy who loves to cook. Then at the end, you get to choose your ending to see who she ends up with! it reminded me of those choose your own adventure books I used to read in elementary school, and I loved it. It had the potential to get confusing, but Adler handled it perfectly. I found myself rooting for both couples, and honestly, I couldn't choose which I liked more.
Another aspect I loved about this book is the Jewish representation! Natalya takes great pride in being Jewish, and I loved how both love interests were so respectful. I also learned a lot about what foods are kosher! (spoilers: have a snack on hand while reading because this book will make you hungry, the amount of food descriptions will have you drooling.)
Overall this was such a fun and adorable book, perfect for summer time! 4/5 stars

I thought this book brought things that I hadn’t seen before. I think that the dual timeline and the way it’s done is pretty unique.

This is a great queer romance for your summer reading. It’s refreshing to see a contemporary queer romance where the MC is already out so there’s no angst concerning what to do.

Please be careful if you read because there is a TW for past self harm scars.

Dahlia Adler is one of my favorite YA writers and Going Bicoastal didn't disappoint. This fun premise involves two timelines - one in which Natalya decides to spend the summer before her senior year in LA with her mom and the other where she chooses to remain in NYC with her dad. In LA, she meets cute fellow intern Adam, while in NYC she finally gets to know The Redhead, a girl she's been crushing on. It may sound gimmicky but it totally works and I loved seeing how Natalya's summer played out in each scenario. Props to Adler for a satisfying ending (I was worried things wouldn't wrap up well) and the excellent Jewish rep!

Thanks to Wednesday books for the copy to review.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of Going Bicoastal. I will definitely include this in our young adult collections list at my library.

Going Bicoastal had very well developed characters, believable romances, and great Jewish representation. The author seamlessly weaved together the two different stories.

At first, I was entirely confused. The setting started off with Natalya Fox, a Jewish teen, living in NYC with her father. She mentions a redhead crush but we haven’t been introduced to her yet. Then she decides to move to LA for the Summer with her mom and she interns at her mom’s company. In the following chapter, she is back in NYC, we finally meet the Redhead, she is considering a summer job in NYC… so I was thinking…what happened, did we go back in time? Turns out this is a “sliding doors” book, where the character can have the best of both worlds. This is actually really really cool since the main character is bisexual. I so wish I had read this book in my teenage years. It would have been so affirming and it truly is perfect for a young adult. After i got used to alternating realities, I warmed up to each story. I later realized “Nat” is the nickname for the LA timeline and “Tal” is for NYC.

*Chef’s kiss* for the romance and queer friendships. Very cute and sweet! I wish this had been my teenage experience. It is so fucking adorable how Natalya’s love interest Ely calls her “Foxy.”

The descriptions of food was quite excellent. I loved the mouth-watering gourmet depictions of dishes ranging from Shabbat dinners to Senegalese stew and the cuisine from Bros Over Tacos, a food truck run by Nat’s other love interest Adam. However, the romance and food wasn’t enough to keep me interested in the plot. This needed drama and conflict to make the story more enticing. It would’ve been absolutely outstanding if the main character had a true dilemma or something to work through.

Despite all that, I have to give this 4* for originality. It felt affirming to read this book as I’ve never read anything like it. I learned a lot about Jewish culture and food. I hope other bisexual teens will find this book :)

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

𝘼 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙡𝙞𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘿𝙤𝙤𝙧𝙨 𝙔𝘼 𝙧𝙤𝙢-𝙘𝙤𝙢 𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙖 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝙉𝙔𝘾 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙙𝙖𝙙 (𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 𝙨𝙝𝙚'𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙) 𝙤𝙧 𝙇𝘼 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙤𝙢 (𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙪𝙮 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙖𝙬 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜).

This was my first 𝘚𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘋𝘰𝘰𝘳𝘴 book, I didn’t read beforehand that it was one of those scenarios. Otherwise, I may not have picked it up. While I understand the point of it - the reader chooses the ending they want OR gets both endings, they choose - but I just struggled so much with the way the story was structured.

I’m not someone who dislikes the love triangle trope, it just has to be done right. In this one, it’s done a bit differently, which I did not mind. On one side, we have a summer in NYC and on the other, we have a summer in LA. Not only is it because of Natalya’s love interest, but also because of family.

This was definitely one of those lighthearted reads - perfect for the summer. I also loved both cities and the descriptions of both, especially the beach and food trucks in LA. While I do think both timelines were sweet, I didn’t really resonate with the story as much as I wanted to.

Overall, this was a fun queer YA romcom with a Sliding Doors concept. While I didn't personally enjoy that aspect, I can definitely see the intended audience for this book.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the review copy in exchange for my honest review!

•𝗧𝗪/𝗖𝗪: Cursing, Sexual Content, Abandonment, and Alcohol

This book was super cute! I actually liked that it was a dual timeline, choose your own adventure kind of story that had two happy endings. It was unlike any kind of book I'm used to, and while I was going in expecting like a love triangle, it wasn't that at all!

The perfect YA summer romcom! 🫶🏻🩷☀️

What I loved:
-bisexual Jewish main character 🏳️‍🌈
-choose your own adventure / two different stories in one!!!
-loved the relationships between Natalya and her Mom and Dad explored in both time lines
-two timelines=two love stories to choose from! I loved both love interests but Adam had my heart seriously! I loved their dinner scenes and him making a huge effort to understand her Jewish culture and her bisexual identity.
-loved the found family found on both sides of the coasts—so special!

Super fun, easy 5 stars!!! Can’t wait to read more by the author—always has such fresh YA books.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC 💜

I got the ARC when it was available as Read Now on NetGalley but because I'm a mood reader, ended up listening to this on audio and really enjoyed it. This is a refreshing take of Sliding Doors (one of my favourite movies) featuring 17yo Natalia who has to decide whether to stay in NYC with her math professor father for the summer, or fly to LA to get to know her marketing executive mother who she's only been in contact with virtually for the last few years.
I loved how in both timelines, Nat/Tally gets to know her mother better despite their unintended estrangement through their mother/daughter book club and that her mother helps her figure out how to channel her artistic talent into a possible career in graphic design. I also loved how in both timelines, she figures out how to navigate introducing her Jewish faith and traditions to Adam and Ellie: Nat in LA ends up falling for her fellow intern/sort of nemesis Adam - he is secretly an aspiring chef who cooks Shabatt dinner for her and her mom, while Tally in NYC finally meets Ellie, the redhead she's crushed on for the last year and invites her to the Shabatt dinner she learned to cook from her Orthodox Jewish friend and across the hall neighbour Adira.
This got me thinking about Jewish rep in books - like other marginalized/minority identities that we know in real life exist and interact in large metropolitan cities like NYC and LA, we don't often see practicing Jews on the page. Nat's internal monologue reflects this when she considers whether or not to mention her dietary restrictions at her first dinner party with her new LA crew of friends. One of the reasons her parents got divorced was because her mother was moving "further and further into strictly cultural Judaism, whereas" her father "had some things that still felt really important to him - eating Shabbat dinner together, going to services on the High Holidays, having a Seder for Passover, and, keeping some semblance of kosher." Anyway, I don't really have a point to raising this, except that it's really just another data point for now which may lead to some kind of cohesive thought down the line. I just really appreciated seeing Jewish rep on the page and learning about the traditions and practice along with Adam and Ellie.

I love Dahlia Adler's LGBTQ+ YA novels and Going Bicoastal is a wonderful addition to this group. I had such a fun time reading it. I found myself smiling, laughing, and even getting teary-eyed.

There are so many things I really loved about this novel. Dahlia takes a different approach and makes it surreal this time around. We see two different situations for one character, like in Sliding Doors. However, both choices are ideal for Natalya and it's hard to decide which one I like best for her. There's very little drama compared to her previous novels. The most dramatic it gets is when a character has to make a difficult choice and it has an impact on their relationship with Natalya. I still enjoyed how light and upbeat it was. The descriptions also made it easy to visualize everything that was happening. I liked the armchair adventure aspect too.

I loved:
* That there was a character named Melissa.
* That there was a cameo from one of her previous novels. (And characters from another previous novel were mentioned in passing.)
* She gave Degrassi a shout-out in the acknowledgements. Anyone who knows me knows why I love that.
* Shabbat and keeping Kosher are mentioned/featured a lot in the novel. I also love that people respected Natalya's level of Kashrut.
* That I found myself rooting for Natalya the whole time, especially when she was trying to figure out what she wanted for her future.

My only concern was some timing inconsistencies. There was a glaring one later in the story that really should have been caught before going to publication. I'd be glad to help with that for future novels. ;) Obviously, this didn't take away from my overall enjoyment.

There is some mature content, but I don't feel like she goes overboard with it. Like she stops before it gets too steamy. I am fine with the other Dahlia Adler fan in my house reading this novel, but I wanted to put that out there.

I just really enjoyed this novel and I already am waiting for Dahlia to write another one! Her narrative is wonderful and her characters are so down to earth and relatable!

I LOVED THIS. It took me a second to figure out what was going on, but I LOVED it. You saw both possibilities play out and then the fun bit at the end! Ahhhh! And she has some of my FAVORITE cultural references in here. Oh, man. Another 10/10 for Adler.

Genre: Queer YA Romance
TW: Please Check
Spice: Closed Door
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️[3/5]
Review written by: M
*Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing an ARC audiobook in exchange for an honest review*
 
Plot:
Natalia has 24 hours to decide if she will be spending the summer with her father in NY, where she lives, or in LA with her estranged mother and attempt to fix their relationship. Both LA & NY play out in alternating timelines. In one storyline she stays in NY with her father and finally has the courage to talk to the girl she has been crushing on for what feels like forever, and in the second storyline she going to LA, attempt to fix the relationship with her mom, and falls for the guy she never saw coming.
 
Thoughts:
This book was cute, and quirky in its own way. I did enjoy the concept of it, but unfortunately it fell a bit flat for me. As an audiobook the parallel storylines were a bit hard to keep up with at times without seeing the words printed in front of me. At times it was hard to figure out whether the MC was in LA or NY. I assume that it may have been a format issue rather than a storyline issue.
 
The descriptions of Jewish traditions throughout the book were beautiful. I did not know much about Jewish traditions, and I felt this book gave me an insight to them I would have otherwise not had. It was truly enriching.
 
The reason I gave this book a 3-star rating was because it lacked depth for me. The book itself is not long, and with the MC’s time being split between two locations and two relationships, I felt that it didn’t give itself the chance to truly dive into and develop those relationships. By the time the book ended I enjoyed it, but I did not feel drawn to root for either relationship. Also, because of the two different lives the MC was living there were so many side characters that at times it felt too much to keep up with. The side characters were also not quite delved into and just kind of placed there. I would have much gathered one romance story of either NY or LA but fully giving the space for the MC’s and the side characters to grow and form a connection between character and reader.

Ever since I read "Cool for the Summer", Dalila Adler has been an auto request/buy for me. Her three dimensional characters are her strong suit and "Going Bi-coastal" was no exception. Natayla is a very relatable main character. With only 24 hours to make up her mind, she has to decide on either spending her summer in LA with her mom or staying in New York with her dad. Both options play out in two different stories. While I enjoyed Natalya's summer story in LA, New York was just a home run for me. Such a fun summer read and definitely worth reading.

*I received an arc from Netgalley, my opinions are my own.*

This was an absolute delight to read! It was fun. It was light! It had a really fabulous writing style! We follow Natalya and her summer of choices! Does she stay where it's safe in New York? Or venture out into LA? It was really unique to watch both story lines play out! I really loved how certain details remained the same in both stories but were just written differently! And I am happy to say that there is a happy ending! I was slightly worried that one would be the dark ending, but no there was happiness!

This was a fun read!

I love (love!) a bisexual romance where it isn't about the character figuring out they're bi! Natalya knows who she is, and we got to see that that doesn't change whether she's dating a girl or a guy. That meant a lot to me. Both settings were a lot of fun, and it was interesting to see what things were different between the two stories and what stayed the same.

Because there are two stories happening concurrently, I wound up reading it pretty slowly, as the momentum kept being interrupted by switching from between LA Natalya and NYC Natalya. I don't think that's a bad thing, but it wasn't a "can't put it down" kind of read for me.