California Dreamers

Beach Reading #6

by Mark Abramson

Calfornia Dreamers is the sixth book in Mark Abramson's popular Beach Reading series. All the books feature mystery and romance with a taste of adventure, a touch of magic and lots of San Francisciana. Tim Snow is recruited along with other HIV patients for an experiment with Neutriva, an AIDS drug with the peculiar side effects of enhancing dreams and expanding latent psychic abilities. The team enters a trance-like state ostensibly in order to predict and prevent suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge. But is something sinister going on with these trials? Warnings come from all directions, including from an elderly fortune teller named Malvina who has been plying her trade from a storefront in the Mission District for decades. And who is the mysterious young man who saves the life of Tim's employer? In California Dreamers, the entire cast of characters whom readers have come to adore from the Beach Reading series finds themselves involved with strange and criminal affairs.

Genres: Romance, M M Romance

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Mark Abramson was a bartender and producer of events such as "Pier Pressure" and "Men Behind Bars" before writing the "Beach Reading" series set in San Francisco's Castro District. He is also working on a memoir called "Castro Street Diaries." "

Reviews

[Don Bradshaw]

The characters in these books are like family with each story a reunion. This story leaned heavily on the paranormal and there were many reunions between the living and dead. It was good to see Aunt Ruth happily married to Sam. Hopefully she'll loosen him up. The love between Artie and Arturo is still going strong after at least 35 years. I especially enjoyed the time that Tim got to spend with Lana. Mr. Abramson weaves a little heartwarming magic into each or these Beach Reading books.

[Terry]

Mark Abramson back on form with this book after a blip with Wedding Season. Nice mystery, touch of ghostly goings and just a joy to read.
Five stars

[Jerry L. Wheeler]

The sixth entry in Mark Abramson’s Beach Reading series, which follows the exploits of San Francisco resident Timothy Snow, is appropriately steeped in local color and features the cast so familiar to regular readers of this string of novels. However, California Dreamers adds a somewhat darker hue to the rainbow. The aforementioned Timothy Snow, a longtime San Franciscan, also has some measure of psychic ability. A nefarious shadow organization called The Paulson Group takes advantage of Snow—as well as some other local seers—by channeling their gifts with the help of a new HIV drug called Neutriva. Their ultimate goal is to use this information to predict and prevent suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge. Or is it? Fans of the Beach Reading series will find this a more than worthwhile addition that serves to deepen and darken Timothy Snow as well as continue the storyline they know and love. Full review at https://outinprintblog.wordpress.com/...

[Sarah]

When one of Tim’s HIV drugs heightens his psychic abilities, his abilities are harnessed by a secretive organisation trying to prevent suicides.

Tim has grown up since Beach Reading. In a stable relationship, he is a home owner, a pet owner and has become vaguely domesticated. He still waits tables at Arts, and the restaurant’s crew are on good form. Aunt Ruth is enjoying life as a newlywed and Artie Glamour is putting on monthly Sunday brunch revues.

Tim vs the nefarious Paulson Corporation makes for a solid and rather engaging plot this time around. The more grown up Tim smokes a little less pot, but the psychedelic ramblings of his mind intensify with his psychic powers. At times it is almost impossible for a reader to distinguish between dream, reality, psychic powers and stoner reality. All this makes the story even more surreal than usual. A highlight for me was Tim’s walk through a fetish festival with his dead grandmother.

The most real part of this story is Tim and Nick’s relationship. Domesticity comes easier to Nick than Tim and I enjoyed watching them work out the nuances of a committed relationship. Abramson still refuses to give us detailed sex scenes which is a bit sad, but there is more than a little romance in this installment.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Gavin Stephenson-Jackman]

California Dreamers is a marked departure from the earlier books of this series with its focus on Tim Snow and his psychic abilities.

Tim falls prey to an unscrupulous organization trying to use a group of psychics to locate and predict suicidal attempts. He is told that his contribution will help to stem the suicides, but he is soon wondering if they are having any effect. The drug enhanced sessions are causing him and those around him to see, and be influenced by those who have gone before.

It just goes to prove that although it might seem that life is a series of dots, the reality is that we are all connected, and it's good.

[GothicGuru]

I kept waiting for the book in the series that would let me down...this isn't it.

[Andrea]

My favorite of the series, great story.