I’ve never seen the movie Sliding Doors, but I’m always so intrigued by stories that show how one decision could end up affecting or changing someone’s whole life. When I read the synopsis for Going Bicoastal, I knew a story like this would be safe in Dahlia Adler’s hands—her stories are always well-told with strong representation and adorable YA romances.

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.

I can’t break this book up like I usually do because I don’t really have much (or anything!) that I didn’t like about it. The Sliding Doors format could have been super cheesy, but it really worked here, and I loved that there was a choose-your-own-adventure-type ending that meant that Natalya really did have an alternate future, depending on which decision she made. I enjoyed both love stories—though I was drawn more to her LA life—and I was surprised that it was actually her relationship with a guy that was the more chaste of the two storylines.

I wish I could be brought back into this world—maybe another book could be about the taco truck? Because I loved the whole chosen-family dynamic there.

I highly recommend Going Bicoastal!

4.5 STARS

“Can you imagine if Tal had gone to LA? You gys would probably be bumpin into each other tomorrow at Sephora or at Tally’s third time seeing Good Behavior and going your separate ways again.” —Dahlia Adler, Going Bicoastal

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books for the advanced copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.