Super fun! Both stories had so many great YA/romance/character growth. And the ending surprised me and was really neat 😉 iykyk

I had fun reading this! At the beginning of the book, the main character has to decide if she wants to stay in New York for the summer or if she wants to go out to Los Angeles to spend the summer with her mom. The rest of the book is told in chapters that alternate between a reality where she chooses New York and a reality where she chooses LA. It’s a quick read that’s very summery; there’s a lot of food and music! The main character is Jewish and that’s an important part of the story, and she’s also bisexual (in one reality she meets a girl and in one reality she meets a guy).
YA contemporary books are hit or miss for me but this one I really enjoyed!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC! I enjoyed this book greatly. Dahlia Adler is quickly becoming my favorite author; her books are always incredible. I love how much food and art play into the plot; that was so fun!

Also, the Jewish representation was everything I could have hoped for! (although, what else, other than perfection, could I have hoped for from Dahlia!)

“My thumb hovers over Answer Call, and then I make my choice.”

Going Bicoastal stuck out to me the moment I read the synopsis as a story I was super curious to read, and it did not disappoint at all.

Getting to see both timelines play out was really interesting. I wasn’t shocked that Natalya comes to the same conclusion for her future in both, but I enjoyed seeing how that played out. Watching her relationship with her mother change in both timelines was also really important to me.

I was surprised that I was rooting for one love interest over the other, and it wasn’t the one that I started the book thinking would be my favorite. But I’m glad that Natalya gets her happy ending in both timelines. At least, whatever happy ending a 17 year old can get.

I truly believe Natalya speaking about being religious and her bisexuality is a conversation that will stick with me for life. It was such a freeing moment to read her words, and opinions on how the two shouldn’t even clash.

CW/TW: Discussion of scars from past self harm
Rep: Bi MC, questioning female love interest, multiple trans characters, sapphic side characters, Achillean side characters, Jewish side characters

Don't let how long it took me to read this book fool you - I loved this book!

This book will be perfect to read over the summer months, just like Cool for the Summer.

I am ashamed to say that I did not remember who Lara and Jasmine were before reading Adler's review on Goodreads, but I have since searched through my eARC for every mention of them to silently squeal over their growth.
We also get a minor Home Field Advantage reference, and, y'all, I actually screamed.

Okay, so, back to this book and not Adler's other masterpieces.
Both timelines are so intriguing! I loved all of the characters in each one. In the past I've said that Adler's side characters felt one dimensional and unmemorable, and while there are especially a lot to keep track of in this book, each one felt unique and had their own personality!

I loved both love interests. I was stressed while reading, thinking that Natalya would have to break up with one love interest to end up with just one in the end, but I adore how this book handles its whole premise!! And I never got either timeline confused with the other. Each Natalya is distinct, but still the same, if that makes sense. It was so fulfilling to see her growth throughout the summer, on each coast.

I've never read anything quite like this book. It was such a good time, and there's so much queer joy. Read it.

Huge thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for an ARC of this!

Quick Stats
Age Rating: 14+
Over All: 4.5 stars
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 5/5

Special thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.

I absolutely love Dahlia Adler’s writing style and voice, so I was very excited for this one. However, I was also a little nervous. I wasn’t sure how she was going to be able to pull off two distinct and balanced stories in just over 300 pages. But she definitely did!
I was no more invested in one story than the other, and I felt fully connected to both sets of supporting characters, both love interests, both storylines. I really enjoyed seeing the parallel Natalya’s grow as a character.
This book did feel a bit more “slice of life” (or I guess slice of lives?), as opposed to having a string driving plot. This made it a little bit slower in a couple places, but it always picked up again fairly quickly.
I’m not bi or Jewish, but I loved the completely unapologetic rep for both that was in this book. Dahlia Adler’s books always have such amazing discussions on both those topics—and the intersection of them—and Going Bicoastal is no exception.
This may be my favorite of her books that I’ve read. I highly recommend it, and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next

The concept of a sliding doors romance for a bi-sexual jewish girl is executed to perfection by Dahlia Adler. Natalya Fox is given the chance to stay at home in NYC with her math professor dad and her close-nit friends or living with her mother in LA and working as a summer intern at her marketing firm. The chapters alternate and follow her life as if she makes both choices. In LA she meets fellow intern Adam who dreams of going to culinary school. Staying in NYC she finally talks to the red haired girl Elly that she’s been crossing paths with for over a year. Elly wants to be a music journalist and her father is a musician and mom is a famous musical photographer.

There are a lot of extras that the author brings to the storyline. The Jewishness is prominent in both storylines and although Nat isn’t orthodox, I learned subtle differences in observance. The food descriptions for Shabbat are especially mouthwatering and I appreciate the kosher explanations. With Adams interest in cooking food is a large part of the LA story. Music and Nat’s interest in art are prominent in the NYC plot. I confess I didn’t know many of the modern musicians name dropped.

The absent mom is part of the plots. And I honestly I would have given up some of the friend time on either coast to have a few more scenes with mom and daughter reconnecting. My heart wanted them to have a better relationship. Being okay that mom is dating a new guy seems superficial but is a something. My personal preference is for the sapphic storyline. I love that in the last chapter there were a couple of lines tie this book to Adler’s previous novel Home Field Advantage (June 2022) putting them in the same universe.

This is my third novel I’ve read by the author and she is now an automatic read. Her characters are smart, have depth and are memorable. I love that her she understands the emotions and challenges of being a teen. Appropriate for older middle school and up. Thank you Saint Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books for ARC via NetGalley. And I am leaving a voluntary review.

Going Bicoastal was a fun YA read. It was great seeing how both options would play out: if she chooses to stay in New York with her dad, or chooses to go to LA to be with her mom, and the choose the ending of your choice was such a fun way to end the book.

Recommended!

This was cute. The book is well written. I preferred the LA parts over the NYC parts. Not my new favorite or anything but it was cute and fun overall. Also dang that cover is STUNNING. I’ll most likely end up buying a copy just because it’s pretty and I love to collect queer YA books.

Book: Going Bicoastal
Author: Dahlia Adler
Rating: 3 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank the publisher, Wednesday Books, for sending me an ARC. I really wanted to like this one, but I could not get into it. There were elements that I liked. Had those elements been more present in the book, I would have been able to give this a much higher rating.

In this one, we follow Natayla who has to decide what she is going to be doing for the summer. She has two choices that involve putting mom and dad against each and picking only one. She has the chance to go to Los Angeles and be with her mom or stay in New York City with her dad. Both involve amazing chances. The summer plays out in duo timelines, allowing us to see where both choices take her. Both lead to her doing the unexpected and exploring new options.

I am going to be honest. I preferred the LA chapters over the NYC chapters. I felt that the LA chapters were more developed and put together. The character interactions and relationships felt much more developed and natural than the ones in NYC. It felt right and it felt like the author was more comfortable with this point of view.

I did enjoy how the author had so many backgrounds represented. At first, it did bother me because it felt like she was trying to include everyone. However, it did work. The deeper I got into the book, the more I came to realize how much it did work for the story that the author was trying to tell. I enjoyed getting to learn about the different cultures and seeing how they all came together. I also liked how the characters taught one another about their culture. The Jewish dinners were very interesting. I liked how Natayla took the time to explain everything. This will make readers, such as myself, more aware and familiar with what is going on. This is a great teaching and learning tool.

The writing was solid. Again, I felt like the LA chapters were stronger and familiar. It felt like the NYC chapters were forced. They could have been good, but they were just missing something. They needed a little bit more to bring them home. The writing was quick and easy to get into. It gives you that light and good feeling when reading. These are the feelings that I am looking for whenever I read a book like this. I do wish that elements had been a little bit more developed.

Overall, I did enjoy certain things about the book, but I do wish that certain things had been fleshed out a little bit more.

This book comes out on June 13, 2023.

Going Bicostal.
Nat has a choice to make stay in New York with her Dad or go to LA and visit her mom for the summer. What we get is a sliding doors story where we see the two choices played out in parallel.
I think it’s cute easy read. Both stories had little to no conflict. I did both read this story really quickly and found it hard to fully love when I found myself liking one story line better than the other.
Over cute read.

3.5 rounded up.

I do want to thank netgalley and the publisher for the early copy!!

A total delight. I liked the writing, which is not surprising since I'm a fan of this author's other books. The plot was great and the characters stole my heart very quickly. Recommended.

Going Bicoastal was such a fun book! Natalya is a bisexual Jewish teen that must make the decision to either stay with her father in New York or go to California to stay with her mother. The book's chapters alternate between the two decisions, and you get to see how Natalya's summer goes in both New York and California.

I actually really liked the alternating chapters. I found both timelines interesting, but I do admit I liked her going to California best. The ending is chose your own adventure style, where readers can decide which version of the final chapter to read, based on which storyline they liked more.

The book has wonderful representation, and it's very positive. Natalya is Jewish, so aspects of her religion shine through, which I really enjoyed. She is also bisexual, where she dates a girl in the New York storyline, and a boy in the California storyline. And there was no homophobia or biphobia. There are also side characters that span across the LGBTQ+ spectrum.

For those who have read Dahlia Adler's book Home Field Advantage, there is a blink and you miss it nod to the book to watch out for.

Enjoyed reading both paths in this journey. I did feel a stronger connection to one story as I felt that character, and relationship, was described more. The main character was enjoyable to watch through both scenarios.
The food and culture throughout was what kept it fun for me. I looked up a few dishes and would love to try making them.

Ok, I'm going to be honest here, but it probably won't surprise you. I picked up this book based purely on the cover. That and the fact that I've loved the last two books of Dahlia Adler's. SO, I went in blindly with no expectations but to enjoy it.

Going Bicoastal is the story of 17 year old Natalya who has 24 hours to make a huge decision of how she is going to spend her summer between her junior and senior year. She can either stay in NYC with her father who she currently lives with, gets to see her friends that are sticking around and maybe keep running into the red-head girl she has a crush on. OR she can go stay with her mom in LA and intern at her work. It would be a big change and a chance to do something new and to get to know her mom since they rarely see each other or talk to one another. What would be easy and comfortable would be NYC, but she really does need to branch out, right?

I loved the way this story was told. It was almost like a "choose your own adventure book". In some ways, I wish I would have read it that way. All NYC story back to back and then LA, but the way Adler alternated chapters and had Natalya living her NYC life while also living her LA life was perfect! I loved it! I actually had to go back the first time I read when Talya had decided to stay in NYC and then the next chapter has her going to LA. Very clever!

We saw Talya bring her cool, bisexual Jewish girl vibes to both coasts and it worked. 2 love interests that I really enjoyed and friend groups that made it even better. I love the way the Jewish culture along with the LGBTQ community was brought to both 'stories' and how positive it was. Add in the fact that I love music, art as well as food trucks and this was a total winner. It's just a book that makes you feel good. It also made me look forward to summer.

If you've read Dahlia Adler's previous books, you may catch a few surprise guests. But this book totally stands on its own and it was a pleasure to read from beginning to end. I really enjoyed how the relationships developed between Talya and her love interests as well as her friendships and relationships with her parents, especially her mother. This is definitely a book you should put on your TBR if you want something fun and positive and filled with great characters all around. A true joy!

"It feels like the waves continue to move and we just have to move with them and hope that when everything lands, we've still got solid footing."

4 stars

This is such a fun read, featuring a round main character, great representation, and two coasts' worth of possibilities!

Natalya, the m.c., has a big decision to make: stay home in New York with her dad for the summer or visit her mom in L.A. during that time. Fortunately, Adler doesn't make her choose; she gets to do both! Readers follow Natalya on a very fun adventure as in one half of the novel, she visits her mom, makes new friends, sparks a new love interest, and learns about herself. In the other half, she does the same thing but stays home with her dad. Folks wondering if this back and forth gets tedious should be assured that it doesn't. There were absolutely times when I found myself starting to root for one coast over the other (as a lifelong West Coast dweller, I couldn't even stay partial to my home!), but the refreshing part is that the whole narrative is engaging. It's impossible to read this and NOT be attuned to Adler's exceptional organizational and planning techniques. Readers will come away from this one feeling excited about the many possibilities Natalya's present and future hold.

This is an innovative approach to the _Sliding Doors_ motif, but readers will feel right at home in two entirely distinct locations, rooting for Natalya's happiness and success wherever she may land. Also, the representation is an added benefit.

I'll be recommending this one to my students and beyond for all of the aforementioned reasons.

This book was super cute but a little boring. It was a really cool concept though! I just wish the two timelines had merged somehow at the end, instead of it being completely split. Still a good book though.

If you had two choices and had the chance to see how each one would play out, which would you pick? Going Bicoastal was exactly that and I absolutely LOVED it. Tal is truly one of my new favorite YA protagonists. Her energy was amazing and I loved how proud she was to be bisexual and Jewish. In one scenario she stays in NYC and the other she's in LA and I was hooked on both versions of her. I loved her group of friends in each city and how they both brought out new pieces of her personality and interests. The Jewish rep was phenomenal and it warmed my heart to see weekly Shabbat dinners, kosher food, and other Jewish traditions on the page of YA contemporary. I also thought the cast of characters was so diverse and well rounded. There were more Jewish characters and a variety of queer members as well. I thought each relationship was so thought out and well done. Dahlia did the alternating cities plot so nicely and I was invested in both worlds. This was an absolutely fantastic book and it's the perfect read for summer! Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC to read and review.

This was SO much fun! It's like a younger, more modern (and inclusive) version of SLIDING DOORS -- love the alternate timeline thing so much, and seeing it explored in different ways. The main character here was adorable, although I didn't find her as relatable as I'd have liked (I did still like her though)!

Aside from the alluring premise, I found the writing of this book to be quite entertaining & very well written. I highly recommend this book to any readers of YA Romance!