An entertaining and quick read, the plot character development stretched a little thin at points - I didn't find the naivete of the protaganist quiet believable for the time period. However, a nice distraction on a cold winters day!

A great story about the life of Sherri Taylor who becomes a bunny in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The glamour and glitz of "bunny life" is exposed for what it really is- which is largely nothing good. Her life spirals out of control for a number of years, until an unexpected pregnancy forces her to get it back on track. The ending holds a surprise that you don't see coming.

Shoulder Season poses the age old question, "what am I going to do with my life?" Most of us don't answer, "I am going to be a Playboy Bunny" but that is exactly what small town Midwestern gal Sherri Taylor has decided. Having cared for her ailing mother for years, after her death Sherri decides to interview to be a Bunny at the Playboy Resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Over the course of the year the once naïve and sheltered Sherri is introduced to a life of sex, drugs, rock & roll, and oh yeah...personal responsibility and accountability.

I really enjoyed about 2/3s of this book. I thought Sherri's time working as a Bunny was absolutely entertaining! Getting an inside look at not just the perks of being part of the Playboy empire, but what exactly being a Bunny entails was fascinating. Everything from the interview process, the training, to the weekly weigh ins, and strict rules these women had to follow, was something I had never read about before. Kudos to author Christina Clancy for doing her research. Clancy is an excellent writer. The book flowed and was structured very well. It was a quick but engaging read, that kept me turning each page needing to know what was going to happen next.

But, I will be honest in saying that there were a few things about this book that I didn't particularly enjoy.

Spoilers ahead (don't say I didn't warn ya!)

The majority of this book took place in 1981, but the way it was written I actually thought for the longest time it took place in the 1940s. I didn't think the author did a good job of using the atmosphere and environment of the 80s. I mean even the character names (Sherri, Gwen, Val, Tina, Danny, Arthur, Jerry) felt like they were straight out of the 1940s.

I also wasn't a fan of how the character of Gwen, the only African American Bunny at the resort, was handled. She seems to be a part of the main group of Bunnies that Sherri trains with, but throughout the book she is all but forgotten except for two scenes in which she speaks her mind about the discrimination and microaggressions she is experiencing at the resort and in the local towns. In both instances Sherri just apologizes to Gwen and the whole issue is abruptly dropped. It truly felt like her character's sole purpose was to bring up these racial issues, but they were so briefly talked about that it makes me wonder why even include them if you weren't going to explore them?

Lastly, I felt like Arthur's death was extremely rushed. Throughout the book Sherri talks about how Arthur was the love of her life, and how their relationship shaped her life as a whole. Yet his death happens so quickly and in such little detail. Sherri hightails it out of there and then Boom! narratively we are in California in a different phase of her life. Because it was so abrupt, I just didn't believe that Sherri would harbor that much guilt for 40 years and that it would've impacted her in the ways that were described in the chapters following it.

With all of that said, Shoulder Season is an entertaining, page turner of a book. Even with a few things that bumped me here and there, I would still recommend this book to fellow readers looking for an engaging read. Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for giving me an advanced copy!

Wow! Shoulder Season was quite the read! The author's research and attention to detail came through on every page & I couldn't put it down. I absolutely love stories about little known bits of relatively recent history with protagonists I both cheer for and cry over- and this novel definitely not disappoint!! I cannot wait to read more from Christina Clancy!!

I adored this book. I liked the characters, the story. All of it. I enjoyed seeing how each character had their own sort of development but also how they didn't at all. How when they were in the year 2019, they still had all these characteristics that they had back when they were young in their twenties at the Playboy House. It was sad but also very moving. When Sherri learned the truth about Arthur all those years later, at first I was shocked but then I realized, like Sherri, that thats just how life really is.

Shoulder Season is a bittersweet coming of age centering around Sherri, a small town Wisconsin girl who, burdened with awkwardness and the untimely death of her parents, gets lured into the glamorous life of a Playboy Bunny at the nearby Lake Geneva resort. Sherri all too easily gets swept up in the partying atmosphere and the sense of “family” that her fellow Bunnies provide. She abandons her values, neglects her friendships, and shuns the small town life she so desperately wants to escape.

However, a tragedy occurs and the shame and guilt define Sherri’s life until she decides to finally face it as an older adult.

Sherri’s journey was interesting, but in order to make it truly compelling, I’d love to see more growth and like-ability in her as an individual. Her immaturity and lack of empathy at times distract from the narrative as does her narcissistic tendencies.

Clancy does deliver an interesting twist and I did stay involved in the novel. I would have liked however to see more character development in Sherri in order to make it more memorable.

What a fantastic new read from auto-buy author, Christina Clancy!

After The Second Home, which I loved for it's Cape Cod setting I wasn't quite sure what to expect with a story centered around a Playboy Bunny! This book is a true reflection of youth, risk-taking, insecurities, immaturity and self-worth. What a great opportunity to read this coming of age story of Sherri and her best friend, Roberta. Oh the lives young women can live .. and often how that is wasted on the youth! The books was smart, funny, introspective, charming and captured the resourcefulness and perseverance of these characters.

Sherri is 18 and directionless after losing both of her parents. She's never felt pretty or popular, but on a whim, accompanies her friend Roberta for an interview at a Playboy Resort in Lake Geneva, WI. Sherri gets hired and the seemingly more self-assured Roberta does not. All of a sudden, a whole new world opens up for Sherri and she gains confidence, but she's still a very naive girl who makes a lot of mistakes when it comes to men.

I had not known much about the Playboy Bunny culture before reading this book, how strict the rules were for the girls and how the Bunny Mother tried to protect them.

I could relate to Sherri in some ways because I was hired into a profession that is often considered glamorous and I'd always thought of myself as kind of nerdy. My job gave me a lot of confidence, independence and worldliness, but like Sherri, I was kind of naive about men.

I also liked that this book was set in the 80's which is when I graduated from high school and college and that there were a lot of references to what was popular then.

In the end, the story was a little bit sad with a twist I didn't see coming, but overall, this novel kept my attention and I enjoyed the writing style.

Sherri, a recently orphaned 18 year old takes a job at the nearby Playboy resort as a bunny. Previously very naive, she is exposed to a whole new world where many people (especially men) take advantage of her. Eventually, the trauma of it all leads her down a path of drugs & alcohol. Sherri experiences a great deal more loss as a result of her time as a Bunny before she eventually leaves her job behind and is able start over.

The premise of this book fascinated me. I am familiar with the Lake Geneva area and never knew there was a Playboy Resort in the area, so immediately I wanted to read this.

This book is a coming of age story about Sherri Taylor from the the small town of East Troy, Wisconsin during 1981. Sherri is 19 years old and is recently orphaned. Feeling lost and directionless, she accompanies her childhood friend Roberta to a job interview to become a Playboy Bunny at the nearby Playboy Resort in Lake Geneva. Sherri ends up getting the job (not Roberta) and immerses herself in the lifestyle - working, living, and partying at the resort.

Throughout the book, Sherri grows from a naive and kind young woman to a world-weary drug addicted woman struggling to cope with the losses she's experienced in her life to a mature woman in her 60s managing an art museum in Palm Springs. She experiences sex and relationships while feeling empowered in her Playboy Bunny position and forms bonds with her co-workers that last her lifetime.

"Shoulder Seasons" definitely kept my rapt attention, and I wanted to read it. I stayed up late reading it several nights.

However, I did not like Sherri AT ALL. I found her to be an extreme narcissist. The author in one paragraph would describe her to be a kind, Midwestern, naive young lady, but the next paragraph found her rude and manipulative. When a horrible event happens to Sherri later in the novel while she was working, it seems odd that she would be so naive when just previously she had been manipulating a sexual partner. Sherri was not a well tuned character, and I cared very little for her.

What kept me going was to learn out how Sherri became a successful art museum curator in present day from her experiences in the 1980s, and the "reason" was a cop out and barely discussed.

The ending felt rushed and was not fulfilling.

Overall, I had hoped for a more literary read, but found this to be an enjoyable beach read. I definitely enjoyed reading it, but was not as blown away by it as I had hoped to be.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC for an honest review.

I enjoyed and was drawn to the subject of this book. It was so interesting to learn about playboy bunnies and that lifestyle in the 1980’s. I had some trouble with the characters, especially the main character. I found her hard to connect to and pretty unlikable.

Sherri Tayor has a boring life in a boring town. She wants so much more than what East Troy can provide.

She’s a good girl. Plays organ at the church. Doesn’t get in trouble. Stayed home to care for her ailing mother who dies, leaving Sherri to question what exactly she does want and how to get it.

When her best friend asks her to come along for a bunny audition at the Lake Geneva Playboy Family Lodge she does so reluctantly and lies her way into a job. Being a bunny isn’t fun and games. It’s brutal and a grind. The weigh-ins, the barb-wired fences keeping them in or men out. There are so many rules it’s hard to keep up. Pills keep her awake and keep her weight down but all the partying and sleeping around just depress her more. After a single tragic accident, she is ready to get out of town.

California is nothing like East Troy and Sherri loves it. She gets a break working in an art gallery and is soon rich and powerful on her own. But what did it cost her?

The Playboy Club is not the main portion of the book. It’s more about a naive young lady who learns the hard way that people lie. People use you. And maybe, just maybe, home looks a little different now.

I did not care for this character at all. That does not affect the book as a whole, however. A powerful look at the decisions we make in our youth can have long-reaching consequences.

NetGalley/ July 6th, 2021 by St. Martin’s Press

Shoulder Season tells the recollections of Sherri, who was a Bunny at the Wisconsin Playboy resort in the 1970s/1980s. The timeline wasn’t too clear. The story moves fairly slowly, and reads like a memoir instead of a fiction novel. It’s fine, I suppose but the writing didn’t grab my attention until the ending, where Sherri returns to her hometown after nearly 40 years away. I loved how the author described the new perspective that we have on our roots as we age and appreciate different things.

A novel about the 1980’s world of Playboy bunnies. I was hoping for a more Gloria Steinem version. Instead, we have a protagonist who is young and makes poor decisions. Not a deal breaker on its own, but I found her unlikeable and I bailed on this one.

Take your preconceived notions of what it was like to be a Playboy Bunny and toss them, no, heave them at full force into the abyss. Shoulder Season is a decades-long walk in towering stiletto heels along winding country roads of Wisconsin's lakes and into the desert of Palm Springs. Sherri Taylor's mother has just passed away, just a few years after her father had passed, leaving her alone before she's even become an adult. Barely twenty years old, she's on her own, naive, and desperate for life to begin. A friend drags her along to an interview at Wisconsin's Playboy Club, labeled a "family resort", and she's hired. Caught up in the whirlwind of freedom, Sherri lacks direction and loses herself in the nonstop party making choices that push her further from her small town midwestern roots. Not ready for the party to end, Sherri crashes into an unimaginable disaster, and, finding she can't cope, she flees to California. Finally ready to get her act together, Sherri knows she'll never be able to let go of the past. But the past isn't always how we remember - and every person has their own version to add to the picture of what once was. Forced to return to Wisconsin after 40 years away, Sherri learns seasons change, people move on, and our memories may not be the most accurate review of the past.
An excellent choice for book clubs - should be on everyone's summer 2021 reading list.

Shoulder Season is a real coming of age book set in one of the most unexpected places. When Sherri gets hired at 18 as a playboy bunny at a nearby resort, her life changes. She starts to become someone she doesn't know or like and needs to learn to find out who she will become. Shoulder season was an interesting read with insight into the world of Hugh Hefner and the bunnies that ran the resorts in the 1980's, admittedly an interesting time in American history.

Christina Clancy’s ‘Shoulder Season’ is, at its core, a search for home. It’s nostalgic, poignant, and hopeful in its scope, and takes the reader on a journey that is both familiar and foreign.

When 19-year-old Sherri Taylor tags along to an audition to be a bunny at one of Playboy’s resorts, the last thing she expects is for her hiring to change the trajectory of her life. Steeped in wistfulness and youthful naiveté, Sherri’s coming-of-age story is equal parts heartbreaking and uplifting as she discovers who she really is underneath the bunny ears.

Set mostly in the past, ‘Shoulder Season’ is a delightful immersion in the early 1980s, into a past that feels more distant than it actually is. Sherri is a compelling protagonist, and you’ll cringe at her frailties while also crying with her as she experiences loss and despair. The plot deftly begins in the present and then spends the majority of the novel exploring the past, and then returns to the present in the perfect coda.

This novel wasn’t what I expected, and it wasn’t until the final few paragraphs that I felt the circuitous completeness and sense of peace that I was longing for. Clancy’s deft storytelling skills makes this a novel not to be missed.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What a freaking page turner. Book had me guessing from page to page and I never wanted to put it down. Literally did not see the end coming. At all. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Sherri Taylor is 19 years old and looking for more in life after caring for her sick mother who recently passed away. Almost as a fluke she interviews to be a Playboy bunny at the local resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. For the first time she is living on her own and experiencing a lot of firsts with relationships, drinking and drugs. A lot of opportunities are there for the taking and she's enjoying every minute of it! When an event happens at the end of the summer season it will haunt her for YEARS thinking that it was all her fault. Sherri moves to California and starts a whole new life. When she is called home years later she really comes to see how a small town and old friendships can mean more than you can ever know! Highly recommend this book!

Shoulder Season tells the story of Bunny Sherri, an unlikely addition to the Playboy resort in Wisconsin. As the reader gets to know Sherri, we quickly become invested in her life. Through ups and downs and some tragedies, the author manages an entertaining and well written novel.