This fabulous story is based on a real family! Amy Mason Doan has set The California Dreams in the 80s, where all of us Northerners are still buying PacSun and hoping for a summer at the boardwalk :)

In Dreamers, we meet the Merrick family of five, living out of a van as they travel from site to site along California's coast. The parents lead the family with almost cult-like authority, insisting on strict rules such as never talking to strangers and always staying within the family unit. They keep their children isolated from the outside world, emphasizing self-reliance and loyalty above all else. They surf, barter, and scrape out a living, thriving in their own unique way. The Merricks are self-sufficient, a tightly-knit team, with the children homeschooled in what their parents deem essential to living a full life.

Years later, the story shifts focus to the Merrick daughter, who is drawn back into the family fold after the death of the beloved patriarch, Cap. The journey is more complicated than just grief; she struggles with whether she should finally reveal the secret behind her departure.

As reporters sniff around for the untold story of the unconventional Merrick family, the siblings find themselves gathering on a wild, deserted island The island becomes both a setting for closure and a confrontation with the secrets that shaped their lives. Dreamers captures the essence of the California coast in the 80s, blending nostalgia with the complex bonds of family. #harlequintrade #thecaliforniadreamers #amymasondoan

Look at that cover! It was hard not to want to read this novel. I enjoyed the family complexities explored in The California Dreamers. Doan crafted interesting characters and the pacing fit well for the story. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

4.5 stars This was such a beautiful and touching novel. I loved learning about the Merrick’s way of life. The descriptions of the island were breathtaking. And the sibling bonds were so beautiful. There was just something special about this story.

The biggest complaint I have is that I wish it were longer and expanded on the family’s life after Ro left, and extended some after they left the island. I didn’t want the story to end.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, Graydon House for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review which is not affiliated with any brand.

The Merrick siblings live a life traveling with their parents in a small camper up and down the California coast, surfing, not going to school, surviving without money and more.

A photograph is taken, showing the family in an idyllic setting goes what we would now call viral. The photograph puts them at risk of being "found," which could jeopardize their freedom.

The only sister is now 32, and she left her family long before. She now has twin sons, and she lives a life away from the ocean, when one of her brothers shows up, asking her to return to celebrate the life of their father.

Surprisingly, as they try to rebuild their bond, they learn their father also invited a journalist to their reunion. They learn truths, how sometimes each child lives a different story, and was their childhood worth it?
I felt the author wrote in such a lyrical way that I really felt I was traveling up and down the coast with the family.
It's sure not a lifestyle I would've chosen, but this book was so intriguing.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

The California Dreamers checked all of the boxes for me! I binged this novel over a long weekend. I simply could not put it down. Mason Doan did such a beautiful job writing these characters. What a wonderful story of a family in the most unique of circumstances! The ode to California beach and surf culture in the 70's/80's was very well done. Highly recommend!

I simply loved this book.
The author is a favorite from "THE SUMMER LIST" and "LADY SUNSHINE" so I was grateful to get an early read of her newest. "THE CALIFORNIA DREAMERS" is something I haven't been able to find in a book in a long while, although I am a constant reader. It's a unique and warm story about a most unusual family, split between the past and the present, 1980s and early 00s.

In the past, Ronan and her brothers live with their hippie surfer parents in a converted food van they fondly call "The Gull", rambling along the west coast beaches of the country and surfing, swimming, and surviving through the father's ingenuity and odd jobs. Ronan is content with their ideal life until she comes of age and begins asking questions about why they live this way and whether or not she has a say in their many rules about staying separate from "citizens" or outsiders.

But it is all written very subtly and without making the parents into bad creatures.

In the present, their beloved father has died and the rest of the family gathers on one of the Channel Islands in California to pay respects to him and toss his ashes in the Pacific Ocean. Secrets come out, mysteries are revealed, old tensions are revived, and a mysterious stranger arrives to find the truth behind the iconic picture, "The California Dreamers," taken without the family's permission decades earlier. and now a favorite on souvenirs and a coming museum exhibition.
I can't say much more without ruining the book. Read it and enjoy a masterfully written story. I highly recommend it.

This book whisked me back in time and that’s just what I needed right now. I’ve never known a family like the Merricks in the story, but they felt intensely real to the point where I resented having to do anything but read about them. That’s the best kind of escapism.
Ronan is a likable and totally unforgettable heroine as she seeks answers and struggles with her loving frustrations over life in the van, nicknamed the Gull because it flies all over the West Coast, from beach to beach
It’s such an endearing, well drawnstory and I truly loved how it all came together on the island with siblings, parents, and outsiders yearning for each other in different ways. I’ll be recommending this one everywhere and was sweetly surprised by my emotions at the end (no spoilers).
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley: all opinions are my own.

I devoured this book in two days. What a beautiful story from beginning to end. The characters felt so real that I cared for each of them deeply almost from the beginning and I had to know what happened after Ronan left the van and her family.
If you’re looking for a book that will tug at your heart, make you feel jubilant at the end, and imprint itself on you forever, this is the one. I absolutely loved it and was very sad to reach the last page.