I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters were engaging, the setting intriguing and the nostalgia of this time in life when you’re ready to explore adulthood but still young and naive made for such a fun read. Definitely relatable even for those of us who didn’t quite make it to the mansion! I enjoyed the author’s last book, but this one blew me away. One of my favorite reads of the year so far!

I really enjoyed this book.

Set during the 1980's, a Wisconsinite wants to be a Playboy Bunny. She doesn't want to do it alone so she talks her friend into auditioning with her. Roberta doesn't make it but Sherry does. This tells the story of Sherry being a bunny and Roberta resenting her through it all.

Fast paced and captivating depiction of one girls loss of her family while gaining another.

Very well researched and expert story telling by the author! You want adventure?? You want scandal?? You've got it!!

I will be grabbing the other books by this author now as well as recommending to all friends and family.

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book!

This is a great story about a young girl, Sherri, and how she lived and learned throughout her life. Her past shaped her into the woman she is today. The story starts in Sherri’s present life and then takes us back to the 80’s and Sherri’s early adulthood choices. This book kept me captivated and entertained. This is a great summer read.

This was a very interesting book. I really enjoyed the beginning where Sherri is becoming her own person as a Playboy Bunny albeit not in a positive or constructive way. Then when tragedy strikes and she leaves her home for California and has a particularly wasted year the writing begins to get vague and less descriptive. Then I feel like a whole section of the book is missing because we jump back to Sherri being almost 60, a successful businesswoman and a mother of a grown daughter. I would have liked to have more about those 30+ years. Thanks to #netgalley and the publisher for #shoulderseason to read and review.

<b>The Short of It:</b>

The Playboy empire makes for an interesting story, no matter how you feel about the empire itself.

<b>The Rest of It:</b>

I never knew that Lake Geneva, Wisconsin was home to a Playboy resort. It seems like a very odd location but I looked it up and it was a very popular resort and attracted girls from all walks of life. In this story, Sherri is a small-town girl who spends most of her time playing the organ for her church. She’s a very pretty girl though and when her friend Roberta invites her to interview for a position as a Playboy bunny, she thinks the whole thing is a bit ridiculous. Her? A Bunny? But the Bunny mother sees something in her and offers her a job.

At first, Sherri is completely overwhelmed. Getting to live on the property with all these glamourous, beautiful women makes her feel like an outcast even though many continue to tell her that she has that sweet, pretty quality that the Playboy organization loves. But what she didn’t realize was just how much work was involved. Tight costumes, weight checks, standing in stilettos for hours on end, putting up with drunk club members and yes, dealing with all the numerous propositions that many of the girls accept as a side gig.

As Sherri begins to acclimate to the lifestyle, she finds herself struggling to find happiness. Drugs and drink don’t help and the abundance of male attention makes it hard to find true love but there are some good people looking out for her which gives her hope.

I found this book to be a quick read and I was pleasantly pulled along for most of the story but Sherri makes some very bad decisions and I kind of lost interest in her. Then, the last quarter of the book took a huge leap and turn. My copy was a review copy and it’s quite possible that something was left out because it seemed to lack a transition piece into the next part of the story. It was abrupt and jarring and not believable at all. I literally put it down and said, “Oh, come on.”

I really loved and enjoyed Clancy’s last book, The Second Home. I highly recommend it. However, Shoulder Season missed the mark for me. It lacked heart. I wanted to know Sherri more, which made her a likable character even though she did things to frustrate the heck out of me but the story was not believable and I feel like there was so much more to know.

This was a review copy but also on my 10 Books of Summer list so I am making progress with that list!

For more reviews, visit my blog: <a href="http://bookchatter.net">Book Chatter</a>.

TW: Drug use, sexual assault

19 year-old Sherri Taylor grew up in the small town of East Troy, Wisconsin. She plays the organ at her local church, cares for her sick mother and has never had a boyfriend. When her mother passes, she is left with no idea of what she will do next until she happens to have the opportunity to audition to be a Playboy Bunny at the Playboy Resort at Lake Geneva. To Sherri’s surprise, she gets the job and is suddenly thrown into the realities of a world she was not prepared for. The story follows Sherri through her experience as a bunny and all of the choices she made, good and bad, that made her the woman that she is today.

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This was a heart aching coming of age story about a young naive girl who is thrown into the world with little to know preparation of the life’s pleasures and cruelties. It was very interesting to read about Sherri’s experience as a bunny, the training she went through and her relationships with her fellow bunnies and the sisterhood they shared. I found myself getting extremely frustrated with Sherri at times and the choices she makes but that is reality, she is a human being she’s flawed and that made me really appreciate her character. I absolutely loved reading about Sherri’s relationship with her best friend Roberta and their ups and downs and their journey form where they started to where they ended up. There were some parts that were difficult to read, especially the trauma Sherri goes through which made my heart break for her but then you also see her grow from what she’s been through.

I would like to thank @netgalley and @stmartinspress for an electronic copy of this novel for exchange of an honest review.

What a great summer read!! Enjoyed the peak inside the Playboy Bunny life. Just enough scandal and juice to help pass the time on these warm summer days. Would be great book club discussion at the beach with an older generation who has their own story or two. Great writing!

Thanks to St Martin's Press + Netgalley for the e-ARC of SHOULDER SEASON by Christina Clancy, pub date July 6, 2021.

I requested this one after hearing J Ryan Stradal chat about it and I am so glad I did. From the WI playboy mansion house to the fast pace and captivating writing - this needs to be on your summer tbr - especially if you're from the midwest like me.

When I read that this book was about a playboy bunny resort in the 80s, I wanted to devour this book, but in the end, the book left me desiring more.

Shoulder Season is a coming-of-age story of a teenage girl named Sherri dealing with the loss of her parents and what it means to be alone in the world. She goes with her best friend to interview for a Playboy Bunny position at the local resort one day. Sherri gets the job, but her best friend doesn't, and Sherr quickly leaves her life in her quiet hometown for the party lifestyle of the Playboy Bunny. We follow Sherri as she works at the resort, becomes addicted to drugs, and her post-Playboy bunny life.

I loved the writing style, and I devoured the story. However, I found myself hating the character of Sherri, and I wasn't interested in her drama and romance storylines. I just wanted to know more about the women at the Playboy Bunny resort.

Overall, this was an excellent read for summer, and I hope people can enjoy this book on the beach!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC of this book.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Shoulder Season by Christina Clancy follows Sherri, a newly orphaned teen, as she pursues a job as a Playboy bunny in Lake Geneva Wisconsin in the 1980s. This book was full of historical fiction and insider information of what it was like to become and remain a Playboy bunny. I found this aspect of the book very interesting. I had a difficult time enjoying Sherri's character as I cringed at the bad decisions she made during her 20s. Her pursuit of men to find love and acceptance was a sad aspect I didn't enjoy. The relationship she develops with an older man is a tragic theme throughout the book. In the end, Sherri becomes successful but I had several questions linger about that backstory.

Clancy's research of the Playboy Mansion and job requirements was fascinating and a highlight of this book.

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my honest review.*

Sherri lives in East Troy, WI and has just lost her mother who she was taking care of after her high school graduation. Now an orphan, she is looking for the next step in life. So she goes on an interview at the Playboy Resort on Lake Geneva and gets the job.

What an interesting look at the behind the scenes of the resorts. I didn't realize that they were all over the country/world. Sherri does a lot of partying at the resort with her new bunny family. The story was very easy to get sucked into and made it hard to put the book down. Sherri was quite naïve going into the job and it was hard to read some of the things that happened to her. I guess I was a little naïve in reading because there were things that were revealed at the end of the story that I wasn't expecting.

Another great book by Christina Clancy!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for gifting me a digital ARC of the sophomore book by Christina Clancy. I was a huge fan of her debut novel, The Second Home, and with Shoulder Season she has given us another finely-crafted, atmospheric novel. 4.5 stars!

Sherri has had a difficult life, never quite fitting in at school and eventually losing both parents by the time she was out of her teens. On a lark, she accompanied her best friend, Roberta, to an audition at the Playboy Club in nearby Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. When she is surprisingly hired, she quickly learns that the job is not as glamorous as anticipated but still opens up doors she never dreamed of. For the first time, living in dorms with the other bunnies, Sherri gets quick lessons in sex, drugs, money, friendship. When she meets Arnold, she feels love for the first time but can't quite navigate both her worlds.

This book took me back in time to the early 1980s and the author is skilled at putting you into the atmosphere of her settings. I really felt for Sherri who was experiencing as a young adult things she should have experienced earlier when she was forced to grow up and take care of her sick mom. She wanted to be the life of the party to make up for never fitting in. But all her decisions would come to weigh heavy on her heart and soul. I really raced through this novel, engrossed in another world!

I really wasn't sure what to expect when I started Shoulder Season. It starts out innocently enough. We get to observe Sherri, a very successful women, as she meets with clients and works through her morning appointments. Later, as she goes though her emails, she finds one from an old friend, telling her it's time to return home to deal with the past, something she dreads having to do.

Then we are thrown back almost 40 years, back to 1981, to watch Sherri's life unfold, observing all the good and bad decisions she makes and all of the ups and downs she goes through. Almost on a fluke, she ends up becoming a Playboy bunny. The reader gets an inside look at what the women had to endure to be a bunny, the glamour as well as the pitfalls of the lifestyle. I thought it was interesting to get this behind-the-scene look because I was there in that era when Playboy Clubs were very popular.

Christina does a wonderful job of capturing the time and making the reader feel the joys and struggles of the lifestyle that Sherri was living. She definitely didn't have an easy life but she persevered and got through it, learning from her mistakes and coming out the other side a better person—even though her journey took her down a very rocky road.

I loved this book just as much as I loved her previous one, The Second Home. Christina writes eloquently with words that just flow into your mind. Both of her books have been stories to treasure and I highly recommend Shoulder Season!

Wonderfully evocative and the perfect summer read. A coming-of-age story with so much rich detail about the bygone Playboy era. Highly recommend!

Shoulder Season was such an interesting book! I really like books that take place in the 70’s and 80’s and this book fit perfectly into that time frame.

The writing in Shoulder Season was great, this is the second book I’ve read by Christina Clancy and I can’t wait for more. I like her unique writing style and original stories.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a copy of Christina Clancy’s novel, Shoulder Season, in exchange for an honest review.

Only child Sherri Taylor is nineteen when she finds herself alone in her small Wisconsin town, with both of her parent’s having passed away. Her parents left behind their apartment and her father’s old watch repair shop, both properties that she can’t manage to sell in a bad economy. Sherri’s life prospects seem bleak, until her childhood friend, Roberta, suggests that they both apply to be bunnies at the new Playboy resort that is opening in nearby Lake Geneva.

Sherri is quiet and meek, while Roberta is brazen and outgoing. No one is more surprised than Sherri, when she lands the job and Roberta doesn’t. Soon, Sherri’s eyes are opened to a new lifestyle, one where she is discovering a sense of power. Sherri leaves behind her depressing apartment and small town, to live in the dorms at the Playboy Club, quickly becoming entrenched in the partying lifestyle of her fellow bunnies. She attracts the attention of several suitors, including a Hollywood stunt man and a trust-fund baby from a prominent midwestern family.

Shoulder Season is a gripping story. I enjoyed the historical elements and even spent some time looking up photographs of the real Playboy property in Lake Geneva to see pictures of the club and bunnies from the early 80’s. I was born in 1977, so this is a bit before my time, but my mom used to tell me about the Playboy clubs and how they were seen as sophisticated and cosmopolitan. Clancy’s writing transported me to that era and gave me a taste of that world. It’s fascinating.

Sherri is a frustrating protagonist. She makes choices that had me screaming at the book. That said, Clancy made me care about Sherri, which is why I was so upset by her choices. As with any great story, Sherri has a solid character arc and is able to find peace and forgiveness. Her redemption isn’t trite at all, it’s balanced within the story.

Shoulder Season has a really surprising plot twist that changes Sherri’s world view. I was caught off-guard by it and it packs an emotional punch.

On a personal note, a small part of Shoulder Season takes place at the Palm Springs Art Museum in California, which is one of my favorite places. We are even headed to Palm Springs next week!

Shoulder Season is a page-turning story with fabulous locations and affecting character relationships. I highly recommend that it be added to your TBR pile. Clancy is a new-to-me author and I look forward to reading her other books.

Small-town girl Sherri Taylor never imagined herself as a Playboy Bunny. She went on the interview with a friend yet she gets the job! "Shoulder Season" is the story of how she embraces her life as "Bunny Sherri" with abandon, while also searching for what she really wants out of life. A wild ride with poignant pitstops, the book captures her life on the cusp of adulthood while immersing us in the world of the early 1980s. Definitely worth reading.

This story is told from the present to the past and the opening doesn't give much information about Sherri other than she is a special events manager in Palm Springs. She is contemplating returning to her hometown, East Troy, Wisconsin, after receiving an email.

In 1981, Sherri lives alone above her father's repair shop, both her parents have passed away. Sherri had spent several years caring for her mother and now finds herself wondering about her future. At her friend's urging, Sherri tags along for an interview to be a Bunny at the Playboy resort.

Things don't go as planned when Roberta isn't hired, but Sherri is. Sherri finds herself free room & board and making more money than if she'd stayed in her hometown. The old Sherri didn't have many friends or adventures, but the new Sherri is reinventing herself. She feels sophisticated, although still very naive. She enjoys being a Bunny and all the perks that go with it.

Sherri has always felt her hometown was boring and plain. She decides to make up for that life by attending parties. She allows people to take advantage of her that will become lessons of hard knocks. Sherri ignores advice to slow down until one fateful day following an incident, she will be haunted, and even leaving won't bring peace.

Forty years later, Sherri returns home to East Troy and is able to see her hometown through a different lens and learns a few truths that can set her free.

I first felt very sorry for Sherri having cared for her mother and after her mother's passing was left alone. The town she lived in didn't offer many opportunities. After Sherri was hired as a Bunny, her personality changed where she seemed to always want to party and which lead her down a dark path. She was quick to grab hold of anyone she felt could elevate her status while turning her back on her true friend. When she met Arthur, who seemed to genuinely care for her, she would use him because he didn't quite fit into her dreams the way she imagined. I began to loathe Sherri. By the end of the story, Sherri had matured and wasn't as critical of the place she left. She learns some facts that had she known beforehand, her life would've led to a different outcome sooner. I liked that Roberta and Sherri's friendship despite the many obstacles was still intact.

I received an ARC from NetGalley via St. Martin's Press and I have voluntarily reviewed this book.

What a perfect summer read! I really enjoyed getting to know the characters in this book and going on a journey with them.

Shoulder Season by Christina Clancy is a historical women’s fiction novel set in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in the early 1980s. While this title is fiction it is based on a true location of the Lake Geneva Playboy Club. The club was opened in May of 1968 as a Playboy resort and stayed through the early 80s with young women dressed as the famous Playboy Bunnies waiting on guests. After it closed up the resort was eventually sold and reopened in the 90s as the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa.

Sherri Taylor grew up in the neighboring small town of East Troy never feeling like she fit in and always awkward in her own skin. At nineteen Sherri’s best friend told her that she was applying at the resort to be a bunny and she wanted Sherri to tag along and interview too. Sherri thought she was crazy to go along thinking there was no way she would ever get the job so when she was offered the position and her friend wasn’t she was shocked. Sherri couldn’t turn down the opportunity to make more money than she would at anything in her small town so she accepts the job and heads to Lake Geneva.

As they say, you learn something new every day.. I had no idea before picking up this title that there even were Playboy resorts across the country at one point. I think it was interesting to get this glimpse of what probably was close to reality for these ladies in that era. The book spans forty some years from start to finish with Christina Clancy’s writing reminding me of a Danielle Steel novel where there are times that seem a bit too info dump-ish to cover a lot in the book. I’m not a huge fan of that style but will be forgiving when the story is compelling enough to keep me engaged through those moments which was what I found in here. I also really enjoyed how everything came about in the end making this one worth the read overall.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.