Member Reviews
Thank you to OrangeSky Audio and Netgalley for the audiobook ARC in exchange for a truthful review!
A bisexual romance that's fun, low-stakes, AND Mara Wilson is reading it?! Hell yes.
Although I do feel like I'm a little old for the intended audience, as the 'I'm trying to figure out what I want from life' coming of age story is quite a bit in my past. But the MC and characters often feel like they're early 20's to me, not 17, so it doesn't often feel like I'm listening to the story of teenage lovers.
The two love interests (Elly and Adam) are very different, as are their worlds of NYC and LA. I certainly prefer one of the storylines over the other, but that's down to my personal love language quirks. Since it IS an audiobook, I had a bit of a hard time catching on to the 'every other chapter is the other POV' once the storyline splits. But, I got there after a few jumps back and forth on the two coasts. Hint - the MC's nicknames are different in the timelines (Tal versus Nat).
It was definitely a fun listen and LGBTQIA+ rep was awesome, but I don't think it's something I would come back to in the future.
When I was a kid I used to read a lot of Encyclopedia Brown books where I was able to interact with the story and guess the Whodunit. I also used to read some books where I got to choose the end. But I was a weird kid because I didn’t ever want to pick. I always just wanted to read both. So imagine my surprise where I found a book that would do just that at my grown age lol
Obviously that was my favorite part of the book. I LOVED the feeling of being in charge of the narrative and I’m sure others will too. And what makes this even better, the timelines are near exact, but you don’t have to read both if you don’t want to. Like you can make the decision at her very first big decision. And then from there you can decide if you want to read the story separate or together. Adler essecntially wrote the same story twice and made them both 5 star reads.
The romances were cuteeeee! And the best part is your ship will sail no matter who you’ve picked. And Adler made sure to make both of them cute. Whether its about the red head or about the brother, I was enthralled in both of them. I loved that she had the cutest story about going all those places and seeinngred head or how she really thought the brother was a dick at sometimes throughout the other time line. It was amazing trying to keep track of the two of them. And the coolest part is, they both are different enough that you won’t get the m confused.
I know I sound like a broken record with all the ways the separate timelines made this book a masterpiece, but it really did make all difference. It was cool to feel like I was in the book and that I controlled it, even though I had the easy part with just deciding if I wanted to use it in one way or the other. This was a fun one and I really hope y’all get your hands on it!
What a delight. This is such a fun, fresh ya romance. It takes a moment to get the flow (admittedly, audio might not be the optimal format) but once I did it was phenomenal.
The narrator is great and the audio is done well.
I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. At first, I didn't entirely understand how the book was playing out, but I eventually caught on and appreciated the kind of alternate "time lines" or possibilities for how the MC's romantic relationships played out. This was a really interesting take on bisexuality! The family relationships were just as intriguing to me as the romantic ones and the MC's being torn between divorced parents living on opposite sides of the country felt authentic.
The format of alternate possibilities made for some unique crossovers of experiences which made listening even more fun as I was able to recall other parts of the book. It reminded me of a musical in that sense, where certain motifs or lyrics pop back up in different contexts.
Overall, this was a fun read that exceeded my expectations going in.
Thanks for the ALC!
Thank you to NetGalley, the author, OrangeSky Audio, Wednesday Books, and TLC Book Tours for the gifted audiobook and book ❤️ #gifted. My review is comprised of my honest thoughts.
Read if you like: LGBTQ representation, Summer reads, Jewish representation
I loved this so much. I actually received the hardcover and the audiobook, so I read them both on and off. Being bisexual this book really spoke to me. I was so excited, and it definitely didn't let me down. It's a must-read queer YA Summer read. It's funny, charming, and I am obsessed. There was Jewish, bisexual, and more representation. I LOVED the alternating chapters. So unique. I highly recommend this!
This was such a clever book!
I loved how the title and the format played on the storyline of a bisexual teen choosing to spend the summer between with one of her parents, each on a different coast, each with a different love interest. I loved how it flipped back and forth - Choose Your Own Adventure slash Sliding Doors -esque.
Such a cute and charming story - full of fun snark and adorable moments that make you get al the warm fuzzies of first loves. I loved the two narratives but I felt like they were a bit abrupt at the end and although there were tiny bits of meshing at the conclusion of each storyline, I felt like something was missing.
Natalya was a great character and I loved how unapologetic she was and proud of being both Jewish and Bisexual. Great narration and pacing on the audiobook - a overall cute read for Pride Month ... or anytime!
I think we all have at least once wondered how different choices we are faced with would pen out, Going Bicoastal explores this in a fun way. Natalya is faced with the choice where to spend her summer: with her father or her mother? in NYC or in LA? Shooting her shot with the girl she’s been crushing on for months or getting to know the boy who’d be her fellow intern?
My main concern with this dual storyline was how the author would wrap it up and I honestly shouldn’t have, Adler wrapped this book up perfectly.
This was a nice coming-of-age story, had great bi rep and I loved Natalya’s way of engaging with her jewish faith. Overall this has something to relate to at every turn: complicated family relationships, figuring out one’s future, falling in love.
What a charming book! I don't read many book descriptions before diving in so I was surprised and delighted by the dual narratives. Our main character Natalya is bi (love the bi rep!) and this summer she has to decide if she's going to live with her dad in NYC and ask out the gorgeous girl at the coffee shop or her mom in LA and the hot new intern at her firm. We get to see both scenarios play out on the page and then, in the end, the reader chooses who she ends up with. Really fun reading experience!
I just didn't get the point of having the two different stories. I didn't feel like it added anything or provided a message from the author, it just felt like the author couldn't decide which one to write so they wrote both.
The writing itself is good and each romance is good but I didn't understand the two different stories.
This book was very fun and took you an adventure. It was a wild format and a very interesting concept. This was so creative and very interesting experience. Overall, this was a fun book and I appreciated the adventure.
Thank you net galley for this Arc.
3.5 stars!
This is the perfect romance novel for a bisexual teen because Natalya gets both the girl and the boy of her dreams in the alternating timelines of this story.
Natalya's mom moved to LA when Natalya was seven and their relationship has been strained for the last few years. It is now the summer before her senior year and Natalya has a choice to make: go to LA for the summer to reconnect with her mom and work as an intern at the marketing firm where her mom works, or stay in NYC with her dad. Both options have their pros and cons and instead of choosing and only having one story, this book tells both timelines in alternating chapters.
Not only does Natalya get to have wonderful romances on each coast, she also forges/maintains great friendships, finds a passion for a potential career path, reconnects with her mother (despite which coast she's on), and learns a lot of important life skills all while living TWO wonderfully fun and adventure-full summers.
I absolutely recommend this book for people who enjoy rom-coms, want a fun summer read, and who want to see a bisexual (and presumably monogamous) protagonist not have to choose between the boy or the girl.
I love the format. Sliding door stories are so fun if done right. This one was very entertaining. Natalya has a big decision to make for the summer should she: stay home in New York City for the summer, or go to LA? If she stays in New York she is in her comfort zone with her dad and friends. If she goes to LA she will stay with her estranged mom and work at her mom's company. The story is told in alternating chapters showing her life in NYC and then in LA. Change is hard and we learn a lot about Natalya's character (and maybe ourselves) through her adventures.
Have you ever read a romance and wondered what would happen if the MC pursued both relationships simultaneously but separately? That’s this book!
I wasn't entirely of this format when I first started reading the book since each chapter alternates between the two possible scenarios that our MC Natalya Fox experiences, but after a few chapters, I was hooked! This book is a choose your own adventure for the bisexual disasters, and I loved every minute of it!
(4.5 / 5.0) Going Bicoastal by Dahlia Adler was such a joy to read – the queer, Jewish, YA sliding doors adventure I didn’t realize I was looking for. In it we meet Natalya, a young woman who just graduated high school and is trying to decide between staying with her mom in Los Angeles or her dad in New York City, for the summer. The book splits into an every-other-chapter style split experience where both play out simultaneously.
In LA she is trying to mend her relationship with her career-driven mother, trying to figure out how she can turn her artistic talent into a career, and starting a relationship with a guy who is interning at the same company as her. In NYC, she is trying to rebuild a relationship with her mom long-distance, working on a career, and starting a relationship with a girl she’s been bumping into all over the city.
Let me start by saying that I adored reading a YA bisexual novel that did not focus on the angst of coming out to parents and friends. I love those books too, they made me feel seen when I desperately needed to, but this book was a fun “what if” for me in so many ways. Getting to see someone live their openly bisexual life in young adulthood with joy and support was wonderful.
There are a few moments in this book where it felt like the pieces all clicked too easily, career-wise. The main character and many of her friends have quite a bit of privilege and wealth, and you have to roll with that only mildly acknowledged throughout.
Overall, this is a fun read, and I loved the approach. The Jewish representation and the bisexual representation were both great to see, and I hope this book reaches many people who need a story of queer support at a young age. The characters felt older than their ages, more like mid-to-late twenties, and didn’t have any angsty friend drama so even if YA isn’t your normal genre this story might work for you.
Thank you to OrangeSky Audio and NetGalley for the complimentary copy of this book – you made my week!
Content warnings: sexual content (mild, mostly off-page), abandonment
i'm not really sure what to say about this book that will be better at describing my thoughts on it than the fact that i put off finishing the audiobook with just two chapters left (and for two full weeks lmao) because i didn't want it to end. it was very enjoyable, and i really liked the two storylines. not a full 5 star from me because i did like one of them much, much more, as i felt it was better executed with the writing.
Dahlia Adler books are always so fun. And Going Bicoastal was no exception. Told in a unique choose-your-own-adventure format, Going Bicoastal is a queer rom-com in which a girl must choose between summer in New York City with her dad (and and the perfect girl) or in Los Angeles with her estranged mom (and a surprising guy). Natalya Fox has twenty-four hours to make a choice that will change her life forever.
Mara Wilson does a beautiful job narrating the audiobook.
Thank you to Wednesday Books and OrangeSky Audio for providing me with a review copy.
This was such a fun listen! Since Natalya can’t decide which parent to spend her summer with - we get to see how each scenario would play out! Dad in New York, and the chance to meet the cute redheaded girl. And working with her Mom in Los Angeles as an intern and finding the guy intern a nice job benefit.
Both storylines are sweet, upbeat, and with some great Jewish representation. The ending is the cherry on top as the chapters guide you to your own adventure-like ending. It’s like two stories in one!
Thank you @tlcdiversity @orangeskyaudio and @missdahlelama for a spot on tour and a gifted audiobook.
Natalya Fox has only 24 hours to decide: spend the summer in New York with her dad and the girl of her dreams, or go to LA with her estranged mom and the guy she never saw coming. She can’t make up her mind, so the stories play out in which she experienced both,
I don’t read a lot of YA, but this was a sweet one that I’m glad I took a chance on! I adored Natalya as a character and how she was discovering so much of herself at her age. Filled with representation for LGBT teens, I can see this being a popular book this summer!!
Thanks to TLC Book Tours, Netgalley, the publisher and author for the ARC! This review will be shared to my Instagram blog (@books_by_the_botfle) shortly! You
This was a really fun novel to read. I really enjoyed the dual timeline aspect and seeing how her summer would unfold depending on which path she chose. I liked that even though she took different paths, some things were just destined to be. My favorite aspect though was the ending, which became a sort of choose-your-own-adventure type ending. The story indicates which chapter you should go to for which character ending you want. I didn't feel a stronger connection to either love interest because I liked them both for different reasons so I read both! There was also a sneaky little easter egg for home field advantage which is also by Dahlia Adler.
audiobook specific: I liked the narrator. She was very relaxing to listen to.
content warning: mentions of past self harm/scars
Going Bicoastal is a fun queer story about a bisexual young adult who is trying to find her way in life, with the pressures of college on the horizon she has some choices to make. One of which happens to lead her to fall in love with the gorgeous Elly, and the other leads her to the handsome “Rosebud” as their friends would call him.
Both lives would leave her with different outcomes, but could she be happy in either one? Or maybe in both?
I loved all of the representations set within the book, we have bi, lesbian, nonbinary, and just so much queerness. This is a must read for you if you connect with any of those identities. Plus, we are getting a lot of knowledge on Jewish upbringing and culture, so if you’re Jewish you might also like that aspect! I was not, but did enjoy learning more about the culture. Overall, this is the perfect summer read and goes so quickly. The writing was easy to digest and the plot keeps you interested the whole way through.
I also really enjoyed the narration of the audiobook, while I had a physical copy too, I found myself mostly reaching for the audio.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my audio arc copy of this book!