there's more than one way to get to your future

Natalya is faced with a choice during the summer before her senior year of high school. She can stay in New York, where she lives with her dad, and work part-time as his assistant on his new math textbook. Or she can go across the country to live with her mother and be an intern in the marketing firm where she works. Her parents split up years ago, and her mother had moved to California to take a big promotion at work. Nat can see that there are benefits to both, but she can only pick one. Right?

In a Sliding Doors twist, readers get to see what happens with Natalya in both scenarios.

In New York, Nat tries to find another part-time job for the summer, so she can get out of the college library for a while each week and have something to do while her best friend goes to Puerto Rico for a month. She leaves resumes all over town, but can’t get a job. She decides to try to the Edgar Allen Poe coffeeshop, Nevermore, and that’s where she comes face-to-face with the redheaded girl she’s been crushing on for about a year.

Nat calls her The Redhead, and all her friends and even her father know that she’s seen the other woman all over her favorite haunts—bookstores, coffee shops, restaurants. And now, she is standing in front of Nat, asking for her coffee order. Elly, aka The Redhead, leaves her name on Nat’s coffee cup, and Nat finally knows who she’s had a crush on. An impromptu concert that Nat uploads a video of leads Elly to DM her, and they meet up for the rest of the concert and ice cream.

As that meat=up leads to more, with friends meeting and approving, Nat finds herself falling more and more into like with Elly. But she’s also spending some time talking to her mother—something that hadn’t been a priority since she had moved to L.A.—and exploring her art. But things like “College” and her “Future” still loom over her. Will she be able to figure out ow to make all the different areas of her life come together, or will she end the summer just as confused (although considerably more kissed) than she started it?

In another timeline, Natalya heads out to L.A. to spend the summer getting to know her mother. But when Nat goes to work in her internship, she find out that the company had hired another intern for the summer, and they are sharing a desk. Adam, who had started the day before, has taken over the one desk and doesn’t want to share. She tries to shake off her bad day with a friendly barista and her friends, who hook her up wit the location of some delicious food trucks. Nat goes to get herself some tacos, and finds herself face-to-face with other intern Adam.

Over a delicious dinner, she learns a little more about him and why he was such a pain at work. His parents ditched him on his eighteenth birthday, and after couch surfing with some friends for a while, his brother Evan told him to come move in with him. Evan offered Adam a sofa to sleep on and a taco truck to work in, but Adam wants more for himself. He fought to get the internship, so he could move himself towards college and a future where he can feel safe and settled.

At work, Adam is good with the spreadsheets, but he’s not artistic and doesn’t know much about social media. Nat steps in to help him with some of his tasks, offering some alternate design ideas and hashtag tutelage. As Nat comes to understand why Adam is trying so hard with the internship, she forgives him for the nepotism comments and starts to get to know the guy underneath the attitude.

But Nat still has to figure out wat she wants to do with her life. She’s still trying to make sense of her relationship with her mother. And when it turns out that Adam can cook a Shabbat dinner with the best of them, Nat finds herself falling for him. But at the end of the summer, she’s going back to New York, and Adam is planning on staying in California. Is there a future for Nat’s summer romance, or is it going to be over almost as quickly as it started?

Going Bicoastal is a double timeline queer rom com with larger than life characters and sweet romances that happen on both sides of the country. Natalya is a strong bisexual teenager with a lot of art talent, a love of food, and a willingness to see many different perspectives at once. She is a loyal friend, smart, thoughtful, and easy to fall in love with. As she struggles with her relationships with her parents, her dating life (lives?), and her future, it’s easy to get caught up in her adventures and cheer for her as she goes after what she wants.

Author Dahlia Adler brings these two stories to life in Going Bicoastal, and it’s a pretty amazing ride. The story is effervescent and charming, and I just wanted to keep reading to the end. However, I was worried about what the ending would bring. Adler made it difficult for herself, writing two compelling stories in one, and I wasn’t sure how she was going to bring it all back together. I won’t spoil the end, of course, but I will say that I hoped for more. But there is a lot of happiness in the ending, so it may not be perfect, but it’s still a lot of fun.

Egalleys for Going Bicoastal were provided by Wednesday Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.