Going Bicoastal

April 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.