Member Reviews
I absolutely loved this book! GOING BICOASTAL follows Natalya Fox, who has only 24 hours to make the biggest decision of her life. Should she stay home in NYC for the summer with her dad or spend it in L.A. with her mom? Natalya can't choose, so readers don't have to either! We see both paths unfold in alternating timelines—one including the pretty redheaded girl she's been crushing on forever, and the other including the cute intern guy she never expected to fall for. In both timelines, Natalya falls in love, grows closer to friends and family both old and new, and takes steps to figure out her future.
I really enjoyed how this book is essentially two rom-coms in one, and both love stories were so well-done! I loved both Elly and Adam, and seeing Natalya's relationships develop with each of them. The Jewish rep in this story was amazing and heartwarming—I loved reading about all of the delicious Shabbat dinners and just Natalya's connection to her Judaism overall. The side characters are also great, from Natalya's parents to her friends living in each city. I would highly recommend GOING BICOASTAL and can't wait to read more of Dahlia Adler's books! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for the ARC.
At this point I'm reading everything Dahlia writes! You read the premise, you know what this book's about, you know you want to read it. Simply put, Going Bicoastal is the bisexual dilemma summarized. Aside from the alluring premise, I also found the writing of this book to be quite entertaining and the story is well paced. I highly recommend this to any readers of YA romance!
I think it’s my fave read of 2023! I loved every second of this and I didn’t know the author but now if she has more books I plan on reading them .
I find the characters to be very likable and I loved them
You read the premise, you know what this book's about, you know you want to read it. Simply put, Going Bicoastal is the bisexual dilemma summarized. Aside from the alluring premise, I also found the writing of this book to be quite entertaining and the story is well paced. I highly recommend this to any readers of YA romance!
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!
**Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for the e-arc!!**
Going Bicoastal follows Natalya Fox, who has 24 hours to make a life-changing decision: stay in New York for the summer with her father and finally (hopefully) talk to the Redhead that she's been running into around the city, or spend it in Los Angeles with her practically estranged mom and take a chance on mending their relationship. It's an impossible choice, and both lead to opportunities Natalya never expected, so why choose? Going Bicoastal plays out both storylines in alternating timelines and gives Natalya the best two summers she could have asked for.
I absolutely freaking loved this!!! I don't think I've ever read a book where the character had to make a choice and the author simply went to "No💖" and wrote out both storylines. This worked so much better than I honestly expected it would; going back and forth wasn't confusing at all and both storylines had such wonderful characters that I genuinely enjoyed every single chapter. The two relationships were adorable and I loved how present Natalya's bisexuality was in both stories (gentle reminder that bi people are still bi regardless of who they are dating!). Also loved the cameos of Lara and Jasmine from Cool for the Summer!
This was just a lovely, fluffy, adorable, and surprisingly a little emotional, story that showed regardless of the choice Natalya made, she had a great summer either way because she showed up for herself and for the people around her. She put herself out there and allowed herself to grow - in a new environment and in a familiar environment. I loved that we were able to see her completely leave her comfort zone and stretch her legs in LA, while also seeing that you don't necessarily have to leave home to create the life you want for yourself. Both storylines were equally wonderful in their own right and I'm so glad Dahlia wrote the story this way. 10/10 would recommend!!
Sliding door & queer & coast to coast & YA & divorced parents & Jewish traditions & food & music
Natalya has a choice of where to spend the summer - in NYC with her Dad, a math professor OR in LA with her Mom, a marketing exec.
It took me a minute to catch onto the simultaneous timelines but once I caught on, I loved it!
NYC Tally is obsessed with The Redhead, a girl she keeps seeing around the neighborhood. She helps her Dad with research for his new math textbook, steps in as a summer camp counselor and baby sitter. She consults on a graphic design her Mom sends. But she needs a steady job, and goes to her favorite cafe where she runs into The Redhead again…
LA Tally is mostly alone, but meets a barista while fetching coffee on the first day of her internship. The other intern, Adam, is cute yet annoying and closed off…or is there more to the story?
When there are two possibilities, which path will you take? When one girl’s choice in where she goes in the summer (either NYC or LA) it will also determine who she will fall in love with: the cute intern guy in LA or the pretty goth girl in NYX. In this story you get to read both possibilities! Natalya Fox has 24 hours to decide where she will be staying for the summer: either in NYX with her dad and with the girl she’s been crushing on or to go to LA with her estranged mom and falling for the cute intern guy. The story takes place between two alternating timelines, and you get to see Natalya fall for her perspective love interest in said location as well a how she works on her relationship with said parent that she stays with. this is definitely a queer Sliding Doors and its so interesting that you get to read both possible futures and you essentially get two love stories in one! Both the love interests were cute and I had a fun time reading this!
*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*
this was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023 i was so happy when i got approved for the arc and it surely did not disappoint! i ended up loving the idea of the dual timeline where both the situations she had to choose from, end up happening :) especially as a bisexual myself, it was nice to see natalya have a romance with more than one gender, as well as seeing how both cities played out! i mean, who REALLY expected a bisexual to choose huh?? ahahaha i definitely found myself loving one couple more than the other but it allowed for me to speed through the book because i kept wanting to get through the chapter with the other couple so i could get back to my favs hehehe this book also had lots of diversity/representation which was really nice to read about! i loved that natalya was also a reader like myself, and that elly was a huge music fan, once again like myself! i loved the kind of found family-ness of adam, his brother and all the food truck friends who have dinner parties all the time! i wish i had something like they did! ALSO THE WAY MY DRAW *DROPPED* WHEN I READ THE AUTHORS NOTE AND SAW ELLY WAS INSPIRED BY ELLIE FROM DEGRASSI! BECAUSE IN THE BEGINNING OF THE BOOK I LITERALLY WAS LIKE “wow a redhead named elly who is also a bit punk/goth??? did you mean: ellie nash??” I HAD NO IDEA SHE WOULD ACTUALLY BE BASED OFF HER???? dahlia adler is now for sure a must read author in my books!
It's the summer before senior year, and Natalya has a decision to make: stay in New York with her father throughout the break, or fly out to LA to reconnect with her mother? Follow up on a longstanding crush on a mysterious redhead, or hurdle toward the unknown?
Natalya has to choose—but the reader doesn't.
I would have read this for the cover alone (I'm shallow like that), or the "Sliding Doors" scenario (weirdly, this is one of my pet tropes), but also, while I haven't made it through Adler's entire backlist (either because I'm lazy or because my TBR list just never ends as it is), I've loved every one of her books that I've read. (Observant readers will find calls back to previous books, too.) In this case, I'm here for the non-issue bisexuality, Natalya's ability to be both low-key awkward and willing to put herself out there, and the way there are some similarities in the ways things pan out...but also some key differences. Also, it's really nice to see a Jewish main character who...I'm not sure how to say this. She adheres to something of a middle ground of Judaism: keeps kosher, but not to the extent that every kitchen has to be kashered; chooses to make Shabbat dinners a priority; has ties within both her Jewish and non-Jewish communities. I note this because I've read a few books where the main character is Hasidic or similar and keeps to very strict religious laws, not always by choice, and plenty of books where the main character is culturally Jewish (had a bat or bar mitzvah, eats Chinese food on Christmas, the end), but very few where Judaism is an active but relatively casual part of the character's life. It's nice to see.
Now, back to things working out differently in each storyline: I *love* this aspect. I've read too many books where the "different paths" scenario still comes back to "but she ends up with the same guy at the end because it's Meant to Be!!!" and it always drives me up the wall and around the corner. I keep reading books with this trope precisely because I want something more along the lines of "Going Bicoastal"—where the character is fundamentally the same person regardless of where things go, but where her choices genuinely take her down different paths and with different people. (If anything, I wanted a tiny bit more difference from Natalya's post-summer choices, but you know...quibbles are my character flaw.) I won't spoil the details of Natalya's summer romance(s), but I think...I think she'll be just fine. And now I'm off to figure out how to make the weirdest thing I learned about in the book, which is a limonana—which somehow, despite the name, does not have banana in it.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a free review copy through NetGalley.
I really enjoyed this book! The alternate timeline was so fun and unique, I've never read a book like this before. Dahlia Adler writes both queer and Jewish representation so well, it makes my heart happy.
Thank you so much, Dahlia Alder, Wednesday Books, ST. Martin's Press, & NetGalley for sending me an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review! 💖💜💙
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This book is set in two timelines! Natalya, a Jewish bisexual 17-year-old, must choose where to spend her summer. Stay in New York with her dad and friends? Or spend the summer with her distant mom in Los Angles? These two stories are told simultaneously and switch about every other chapter. At first, I was a bit confused and was like ‘Hey didn’t you just choose to stay in NY? Why are you getting on a plane?’. But I figured it out very soon 😅 (it probably helps to read the synopsis of the book, Marybeth!) It was pretty easy to go back and forth between the two as the settings and characters are very different. This being said I did confuse a few of the background characters as there are just so many in both NY and LA, but I don't think it mattered that much. Natalya ends up dating her crush, a girl named Elly, who she previously referred to as the Redhead while in NY. And she interns with a boy named Adam who she ends up dating while in LA. I loved both relationships and honestly can't decide which I love more! It is so interesting to see how different her summers and futures are just based on this one choice made at the beginning of summer! I also really enjoyed how there wasn't too much conflict in this book and was just an easy summer read! I really wish it was summer! Both stories have a happy ending and I just loved it! Another fun thing to mention is that all the chapters have titles! I really enjoy chapter titles! ☺️
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I also really love how I learned a lot about different Jewish cultures, especially Shabbat dinners. As mentioned in the book, there aren’t a lot of Jewish people in North Carolina (where I live), so it was really awesome that I got to learn about it!
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Also, I caught a Home Field Advantage reference at the end of the book, even though I haven’t read it yet 😭. (I hope to read it soon!)
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☀️ Going Bicoastal, by Dahlia Alder comes out on June 13th! It's the perfect summer read!
I LOVED this one so much. I wasn’t sure what to expect with the concept of two timelines from the same characters like alternate universes, but let me tell you, I felt like it was made for me. I want all of the books with multiple possibilities!!! And the bi rep, the Jewish rep!! Ugh it was just so lovely and there was even a fun little hint at our faves from home field advantage if you read and loved that one and some other characters of dahlia’s from previous books. Definitely get this one asap
Thank you NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and Dahlia Adler for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! This is a fun and unique YA book that shows two different ways our main character, Natalya’s, summer could go.
I’ve never read a book that does this, but this book splits up every other chapter into a different story. At the beginning of the book, Natalya is asked whether she wants to stay with her dad in NYC or her mom in Los Angeles for the summer. From there, it shows what would happen with both choices, and you can see how she grows and prospers no matter where she is.
I loved this premise and it was a super fun reading experience. I will say, I thought that the LA chapters were more exciting, but that makes sense because she’s in a new place. I enjoyed both love interests and how it showed her complication relationship with her parents, religion, and location.
Overall, this is a strong YA book and I recommend it!
Going Bicoastal is fun and unique romcom full of heart and laughs. Natalya has to choose which parent she wants to spend her summer with. Does she stay in NYC with her dad? Or does she go to LA with her mother she hardly talks too? She can't choose both but the readers get to experience what would happen if she chooses both. Going Bicoastal is told from dual timelines where she lives out her summers in NYC and LA. I really enjoyed this dual timeline story. It was fun to read about how different Natalya's summers would be in each city.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
4.5 stars rounded up.
This was such a fun YA read! In a "sliding doors" format, each chapter alternates to play out what happens based on the two choices Natalya has for spending her summer before senior year. Choice 1 is to stay with her dad in NYC and hopefully get to know the mystery girl she's been crushing on for a year. Choice 2 is to visit her estranged mother in LA and do an internship where she'll work with a guy who could make her summer very interesting.
The author did an incredible job bringing each chapter and scenario to life; I was surprised by how invested I was in each storyline! I was especially impressed by how easy it was to alternate timelines without getting confused or spending a few pages trying to adjust to the change in scenery and characters. The character development was great and I really enjoyed getting to know all of them.
As we explore both options for Natalya, she discovers how to move past childhood divorce trauma, how to mend the relationship with her estranged mother, be more adventurous and figure out how to use her talents and passions to create a post high school future. Watching her growth and seeing how each scenario influences her life was especially entertaining and thought provoking.
Great LGBTQIA+ POV, body positive, sex positive (but not steamy-just some suggestive parts, but I would say ages 13+ is fine)
TW: divorce, slight mention of cutting/self harm
I loved this book! So much fun going back and forth between the two stories and I loved all the characters. This is a great queer rom com.
Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. This was such a cute and fun read told on two coasts with two potential options and outcomes. It’s a queer (Jew Female Main Character) summer rom-com set in California and New York. Ignore the fact that you get told the same chapter twice. It becomes important later in the story. I had a preference as each tale was told and progressed. Her choice with her mom in California and Adam was inevitably lesser for me then her time in New York with her dad and Elly (aka “The Redhead”). Both her love interests are interesting, but I preferred Elly to Adam (and I’m a bisexual woman in a heteronormative relationship). Adam was a jerk to her at first, but as she learned about him, he grew on her. Elly and Nat’s relationship was the shy meet cute kind of relationship. I’m usually a huge fan of relationships like Adam and Nat’s, but hugely adored Elly SO much that it was unbeatable in my eyes. Highly recommend
so cutee, i like both stories but i’m team adam! it's interesting to get to see both timelines played out
I loved this book! Adler did such a great job of capturing the essence of each cities and their cultures. I was never confused or bored with the switches and I loved the way that each aspect of Tal's sexuality was explored. This was such a great read that I enjoyed every minute of.
Another fun romcom from Dahlia Adler! This book was exactly what I hoped--swoony and light, with the perfect balance of the main character trying to find a plan for the future. It was like two romcoms rolled into one! I highly recommend it for anyone looking to curl up with a romance!