Another Dahlia Adler hit! I love her portrayal and representation of young bisexuals that helps to counteract harmful stereotypes from a young age! Jam packed with humour, romance and real-life scenarios, I recommend this book to any and all queer youth!

Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing me with an arc.

Dnf 5% in.

I wanted to enjoy this one but I couldn't get into it. I requested and got it when I was reading a lot more YA but didn't get to it at that time. Now I have given it a few tries but couldn't get into it if you like YA you may like this but it wasn't for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book is about Natalya after choosing between staying with her mom and dad for the summer. This book is an alternating timelines where in one timeline, she is staying with her mom, and working at an internship and having to prove herself within the company her mom works at, and in the second she is staying with her dad, working and going for the girl she's been pining. In both timelines, she is trying to repair her relationship with her mom.

I really liked this book. The author really made both alternating timelines believable and made me root for both Natalyas and both her journeys to finding both versions of herself. Seeing her relationship with her mom really grow and develop and seeing Natalya's feelings towards her mother change from a somewhat more rocky relationship with the main character's feelings towards her mother feeling betrayed and angry with her mother, to more of a resolution of why their relationship was the way that it was and letting go of some of the negative feelings towards her mom.

I also really liked the romances between the two love interests. The author really built the relationships off of getting to know the other person.

I love all of Dahlia's books. I loved the characters and the threads of both timelines in this one and how she explores both options in. intricate detail, leaving the reader to want both just as she does. The timelines never got confusing as they were so well done. I loved the food, the back and forth, the relationships of each side, and the inevitable ending.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and the author for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Read if you like:
💕 Contemporary Romance
🏳️‍🌈 Bi rep
✡️ Jewish rep
🧑 Young Adult

1️⃣ POV
📍 New York and LA

Natalya has to choose where to spend the summer. She can stay at home in New York with her dad, best friend, and “the redhead”, a girl she has a huge crush on but doesn’t know. Her other option is to spend the summer in LA with her essentially estranged mom and an internship at her marketing firm. Instead of choosing, both summers play out in alternating timelines.

This was a fun YA romance full of music in New York and food in LA. Unlike with a lot of dual timeline stories, I liked both timelines equally, but it was because I was more interested in the love interest than Natalya. I didn’t dislike her, I just had a hard time connecting with her. I really liked seeing her relationship with her mom start to heal, especially when they used a book club for communication. The two storylines added to the fun of this summer YA romance.

Dahlia Adler is one of my go-to LGBT+ YA authors. She delivers stories that are fun and romantic, with important representation. Going Bicoastal's premise is simple enough, a Sliding Doors situation for a bisexual teen who can spend her summer in LA or New York City. The reader gets two sweet romances for the price of one, and neither feel underdeveloped which is a pitfall of stories like this. Its genuinely refreshing to see a bisexual girl experience two healthy and sweet romances, with supportive friends and family. Also, I found the main character's struggle to figure out her future and college major to be relatable. I think this a fun, lighthearted books that teen readers will connect with, and it has important bi rep. There's no biphobia subplot, and our main character is very sure of who she is. This is the positive story telling queer youth needs now and I'm happy to add this to my list of Dahlia Adler recs.

*Disclaimer I have received a free copy of this book and it will not affect my thoughts or feelings towards it.*

This book is the best vibes in the best ways! It has all the summer feels while also having to amazing romances that both have their strong points. One worry I had while reading this was the Adler was not going to be able to manage the two different what if's scenarios fairly as in the past most authors tend to favor one version of the plot but instead I was happily suprised with the same amount of attention and love given to both of the what if scenarios. One aspect that I did enjoy was no matter how her life changed in these different what if scenarios her end was similar in both them showing how either choice was the right one for her regardless of what she might have thought. I also loved that as the reader we got to choose the ending we desired which was a fun little twist at the very end. Overall highly recommend if you are in need of the summer vibes or just want a cute queer romance novel .

It's such a cute story with a very much-needed rep.

What I Loved

Characers

Nat is such a fun character. I love her passion for art, and how she taught the kids at the camp. I also loved her passion for books. The supporting characters and love interests in this book are great, and I enjoyed both perspectives.

Writing

This was my second reread of this book, and I love how easy the writing style of this book is. The chapter titles are fun, and give you a glimpse as to what will happen in that chapter. Each chapter had a purpose, and I loved spending time in NYC and LA through the writing.

Romance

I did prefer one love interest over the other, but I still enjoyed both love interests in this book. They both had a great chemistry with Nat, and they both had a reason to be in a relationship with Nat. Elly was artys, and brought out Nat's creative side. Adam was sweet, and brought out Nat's softer side.

Plot

Romance plays a big part of this plot, but I also love the moments of friendship and family bonding throughout this book.

Dahlia never misses and she does what she does best because bisexual charter always eat and this wants the exception

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC.
I apologize for how long it took me to get to this story. It was super cute and fun. Adam was okay, Elly was way better. Natalya was adorable as a FMC. The sliding doors take was cool.

I have often used this book for reader's advisory and pride displays since its publication. Going Bicoastal is a well-written and excellent story for any teens looking for a bisexual, interesting protagonist. I loved the alternate timelines plotline, providing two stories in one, with two unique locations and love interests. It provided for a unique, new take on character development.

Going into this book, I honestly had no idea whether it’d be my thing or not. The premise was fascinating to me, but Adler’s books have been either a big miss or a big hit for me, and I couldn’t tell where this one would fall. I was also worried that having two timelines playing out at the same time would lead to two shallowly fleshed out stories running side by side.

In the end, this book was fun though, and I had fun! It won’t be the most memorable book ever, but it was great for what it was and what I wanted it for, and I enjoyed the time I spent with it.

I was also pleasantly surprised by how well the two sides melded together. I definitely had moments where I was more intrigued in one side than the other, but both sides had their strong parts. I also really enjoyed how the same issues were tackled differently in each side, but in a way that really paralleled each other. Sometimes these style stories try too hard to make each side too unique, that it doesn’t feel like it’s the same character living these two lives anymore. In Going Bicoastal, it did really feel like the same character would make these choices on both sides. Even so, there was enough difference in how she grew as a person that really showed the impact of the differing series of events, and it was really fun to see how different each Natalya was by the end. I also enjoyed both of the romances, and was surprised I didn’t really end up preferring either too much.

Overall, this was a fun and pleasant read, and I believe it’s a perfect audiobook to pick up when you just want a short, entertaining read!

I was excited for this book, however it got rather repetitive especially in the beginning and wasn’t keeping my attention as well as I hoped it would. I would still try a different book by this author but this one just wasn’t for me.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me at about 25%. I did not realize the format would be exploring 2 alternate timelines. instead of a singular timeline where the person travels between 2 places. Additionally, I found the MC extremely unlikable and entitled. This book just didn't work for me.

A queer YA romance novel? Yes. One that represents bisexuality, rotating between romantic partners chapter by chapter? Heck yes.

Going Bicostal by Dahlia Adler is a great novel about bisexuality and how your life may differ depending on which options you take in life, especially between southern California and the Carolinas.

This sliding door romance was so much fun for a trope that I usually hate! Seriously, I had never been able to get through a sliding door romance before—I have always had to DNF partway through because I hate one of the plotlines.

Here, though, the two plotlines are each unique and so well done! In one, our protagonist goes to intern with her mother in LA for the summer and falls for a boy who's a fellow intern, while in the other she stays with her father in New York and ends up getting together a girl in her neighborhood who she's had a crush on for ages. The parallels between the two timelines are done quite skillfully; it was so interesting to see how different events and decisions occurred between the two.

Both of the romances feel a little truncated because of the book being split between two timelines (giving each pairing half the page time they would have in a usual YA romance), but they're still quite cute—I just wish I could have seen more of them! The sliding door format also meant there were SO many side characters to keep track of, since there was a full cast in each timeline, and it was a lot to keep track of sometimes.

Going Bicoastal is still a super fun summer read and I recommend it, especially to anybody looking for a book with good, casual bi rep. 4 stars.

As a bisexual young adult that did not come out until the very last week of high school to her family, this book is SO important. I know that some reviews might say this read too young, but then they are not realizing the impact this could have on young readers who need something like this in their life.

Dahlia Adler is a joy to read. Her books are delicious and wonderful. This was a fun romp that any YA reader will love.

I will give my full review of Going Bicoastal once a solution has been found for the St. martin's Press Boycott.

I first encountered Dahlia Adler as the editor of anthologies riffing on classic works, which I loved. I also knew her from her work on LGBTQ Reads and other community and bookish work. So I was excited to get this opportunity to read one of her books. We’re close-ish in age, so her humor and writing really work for me, and perfectly capture the queer conundrums of my generation (and others, I’m sure). This one was just super cute and cozy. I still haven’t read Cool for the Summer or Home Advantage, but I’m pretty sure there’s an easter egg/cameo from characters in those books, which I always love. Sliding Doors but make it bisexual teens. For fans of Sophie Gonzales.