Going Bicoastal

by Dahlia Adler

Overview

A SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARD MEDALIST

"This is what it looks like when a brilliant high concept is executed to perfection. It’s got all the Dahlia Adler trademarks—romance, wry humor, specificity, and genuine emotional depth." - Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Kate in Waiting and Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

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).

In Dahlia Adler’s Going Bicoastal, there’s more than one path to happily ever after.

Natalya Fox has twenty-four hours to make the biggest choice of her life: stay home in NYC for the summer with her dad (and finally screw up the courage to talk to the girl she's been crushing on), or spend it with her basically estranged mom in LA (knowing this is the best chance she has to fix their relationship, if she even wants to.) (Does she want to?)

How's a girl supposed to choose?

She can't, and so both summers play out in alternating timelines - one in which Natalya explores the city, tries to repair things with her mom, works on figuring out her future, and goes for the girl she's always wanted. And one in which Natalya explores the city, tries to repair things with her mom, works on figuring out her future, and goes for the guy she never saw coming.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250871640
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/13/2023
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

DAHLIA ADLER is an editor by day, a freelance writer by night, and an author and anthologist at every spare moment in between. She's the founder of LGBTQReads; her novels include the Kids' Indie Next picks Cool for the Summer, Home Field Advantage, and Going Bicoastal, a Sydney Taylor Honor book; and she is the editor of the anthologies His Hideous Heart, That Way Madness Lies, At Midnight, and, with Jennifer Iacopelli, Out of Our League. Dahlia lives in New York with her family and a wall of overflowing bookcases.

Editorial Reviews

04/17/2023

White, Jewish 17-year-old Natalya Fox must make what she feels is an impossible decision in this summery, Sliding Doors–inspired rom-com about risk-taking and second chances. Nat’s relationship with her mother has been strained for three years, ever since her mom moved from New York to California to pursue a life-changing career opportunity. But when her mom offers Nat a summer internship, she’s torn between going to L.A. to patch up their relationship and staying with her dad in N.Y.C., where she’s been attempting to drum up the courage to make a move on the cute redheaded girl she keeps seeing around the Upper West Side. Adler (Home Field Advantage) forgoes forcing Nat to make a choice by structuring the book across two simultaneously occurring timelines. Instead, alternating chapters chronicle Nat’s life in L.A., where she and her fellow intern—a frustratingly charming boy—bicker constantly, and in New York, where she learns that the redhead is cooler than Nat imagined. Though the dual story lines occasionally rehash the same material, leading to few surprises, Adler’s enticing prose teems with a vibrancy born of intimately realized bicoastal settings and titillating romantic possibility. Ages 13–up. Agent: Patricia Nelson, Marsal Lyon Literary. (June)

Publishers Weekly

07/01/2023

Gr 10 Up—Rising high school senior and proud bisexual Natalya Fox gets to choose between two options for the summer: staying with her math professor dad on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where she's always lived, or going to Los Angeles to live with her semi-estranged high-powered businesswoman mom and intern at her PR firm. After a couple of chapters, the narrative diverges into two parallel arcs: one in which Natalya stays in New York but vows to push herself out of her comfort zone, and the other in which she spends the summer in LA. Her NYC time line sees her finally connect with the crush she keeps running into, a redheaded young woman named Elly. Natalya is whisked into her edgy punk rock world and a quick friends-to-lovers journey unfolds. In LA, she has a brief enemies-to-lovers journey with the other intern she shares a desk with, a somewhat curmudgeonly young man named Adam who moonlights at his brother's taco truck. In each path, she finds ways to connect with her mom and also discovers a possible career. Judaism is at the center of the narrative, with weekly Shabbat dinners and Jewish comfort food playing a central role in Natalya's life. The book ends with a choose-your-own-adventure style, offering a conclusion with Elly or with Adam based on reader preference. While the parallel time lines are innovative, they are also a bit dizzying, and the many characters can be hard to track. VERDICT The inventive narrative devices are not entirely successful, but a fun and affirming story of a bisexual Jewish teen embraced and celebrated for both identities by her family and peers make this book a necessary purchase.—Mallory Weber

School Library Journal

2023-03-14
Natalya Fox is ready for change but afraid of making the wrong decision; luckily she doesn’t have to choose in this parallel-timelines rom-com à la Sliding Doors.

Seventeen-year-old Natalya Fox has been given the choice of spending the summer at home with her father in New York City or moving in with her mother in Los Angeles. Manhattan is the safer option and would keep Natalya in her all-too-familiar comfort zone, but it does come with the possibility of romance with the girl Natalya has been crushing on for ages, known to her only as the Redhead due to Natalya’s inability to introduce herself. Los Angeles offers an internship and a chance to reconnect with her mother, and the other new intern, a boy her mom describes as cute, could be an unexpected perk. So Natalya makes her choice—and then she makes her other choice. Split between two parallel timelines, the novel shows readers Natalya falling in love, exploring her post-graduation plans, and finding new ways of connecting with her parents in both cities. Each of the timelines is exciting and heartwarming, although the Los Angeles love interest reads as more complex than the one back East, and the New York storyline lacks significant conflict, giving the West Coast one more depth overall. Bisexual Natalya is Jewish, and subjects such as keeping kosher, being queer and Jewish, and observing Shabbat are thoughtfully woven in.

A sweet and joyful romance times two. (Romance. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Going Bicoastal:

A July/August 2023 Kids Indie Next Pick!

A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year!

A Sydney Taylor Book Award Silver Medalist!

A Rainbow Book List Pick!

A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Pick!

"Adler manages to make a tricky, high-concept premise look easy, grounding the stories in character and culture." - Booklist (starred review)

"A sweet and joyful romance times two." - Kirkus

"A fun and affirming story of a bisexual Jewish teen embraced and celebrated for both identities by her family and peers make this book a necessary purchase." - School Library Journal

"Adler’s enticing prose teems with a vibrancy born of intimately realized bicoastal settings and titillating romantic possibility." - Publishers Weekly

"Dahlia Adler is a name you need to know in queer YA...[Going Bicoastal] just as good as the stunning cover would suggest! This is the most bisexually structured book I've ever read." - Book Riot, "Our Queerest Shelves"

"This is [Dahlia Adler's] best book so far and one of my favorite books of the year." - Paste Magazine

"This is what it looks like when a brilliant high concept (bisexual Sliding Doors) is executed to perfection. It’s got all the Dahlia Adler trademarks―romance, wry humor, specificity, and genuine emotional depth." - Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Kate in Waiting and Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

Praise for Home Field Advantage:

"Adler’s magnificent new romance is a glorious touchdown of a book." - Buzzfeed

"This YA contemporary romance has not only a sweet sapphic love story but juicy narratives about football and cheerleading." - Autostraddle

"Bubbly cheerleader Amber McCloud falls for star quarterback Jaclyn “Jack” Walsh in Adler’s winning queer take on the classic meet-cute." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A swoonworthy romance about breaking the glass ceiling and being true to yourself, Adler’s Home Field Advantage is a fun, queer twist on the quarterback/cheerleader trope that will suck you in from the very first page." - The Nerd Daily

“A combination of sizzling chemistry and heartfelt vulnerability makes the star-crossed romance between Amber and Jack irresistible. Home Field Advantage insists that women belong on the field—as cheerleaders whose athleticism should receive the recognition it deserves and as players granted the same opportunities as their male peers. Teen readers will applaud Amber and Jack's fight to be their authentic selves.” - Shelf Awareness

"A bubbly LGBTQ romance that puts a fresh new twist on the age-old relationship trope of the high school football quarterback and the team cheer captain." - Paste Magazine

Praise for Cool for the Summer:

"Witty, wise, and disarmingly tender. I am hopelessly devoted to this summer dream of a book." - Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Kate in Waiting and Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

"[S]trung through with humor, warmth, and sensuality, this romance will speak to any reader who has ever struggled to know their own heart." - Booklist (starred review)

"Un-bi-lievably good." - Buzzfeed

"Dahlia Adler’s latest has me longing for the summer. This story of a bi girl discovering who she is and who holds her heart sounds like the perfect summer 2021 read." - Bookish

"There are so many more reasons to pick up this YA romance... Cool for the Summer is the perfect addition to your LGBTQ+ YA reading list." - Shondaland

"This book is a gamechanger for queer Jewish teens." - Alma

"A delightful, lighthearted romantic comedy." - The Seattle Times

"With its summery vibes and rollercoaster of queer confusion, Cool for the Summer is the sexy, sweet and steamy beach read of the year!" - The Nerd Daily

From the Publisher

Narrator Mara Wilson is Jewish, bisexual, and bicoastal--just like the main character in this YA rom-com, Natalya Fox. Natalya must decide between a summer with her mom in Los Angeles, interning alongside a cute boy, or staying in New York with her dad and finally talking to the redheaded girl she's been crushing on. What if she does both? Chapters shift between these alternating choices to see how her summer would turn out in each scenario. Even though Wilson solidifies the characters' voices in the first chapter, the large cast and continual shifts in setting can still be disorienting for the listener. Nonetheless, Wilson matches the energy of a teen and maneuvers smoothly through the many Yiddish words and foods from various cultures. S.S. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

July 2023 - AudioFile

Narrator Mara Wilson is Jewish, bisexual, and bicoastal--just like the main character in this YA rom-com, Natalya Fox. Natalya must decide between a summer with her mom in Los Angeles, interning alongside a cute boy, or staying in New York with her dad and finally talking to the redheaded girl she's been crushing on. What if she does both? Chapters shift between these alternating choices to see how her summer would turn out in each scenario. Even though Wilson solidifies the characters' voices in the first chapter, the large cast and continual shifts in setting can still be disorienting for the listener. Nonetheless, Wilson matches the energy of a teen and maneuvers smoothly through the many Yiddish words and foods from various cultures. S.S. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

AudioFile - JULY 2023