In her novel Shoulder Season, Christina Clancy tells the story of Sherri Taylor, a small town girl that seeks a bigger life. Sherri has been raised in a small Wisconsin town by loving parents.Sherri is a good student and plays the organ in church. She has lost both of her parents by the time she is 19 and interviews to become a Playboy Bunny as a lark. When Sherri gets the job at the nearby Lake Geneva Playboy Club she loves the camaraderie and sense of belonging. Although not allowed to date customers, Sherri becomes involved with several men. Two of these relationships are life changing. This novel provides an interesting foray into what appears to be a very glamorous world.

I loved this book! So many references to businesses, highways, towns etc that I am familiar with. I grew up in the area,. I have never been to the Lake Geneva Playboy Club, but remember it. Such a wonderful story of Sherri and the other bunnies. The reasons why they were there, their experiences while there, the way they were treated and thought of by others. Life in a small town and trying to escape it. Life in the Playboy club and life after the Playboy club. Basically Sherri's life from 1981-2019. So interesting.

This book had an interesting plot and a unique cast of characters. The settings were well described and brought to life through the author's words. However, the pacing of the book was a little off - some parts dragged while others were more interesting. I found the main character hard to like at times, and I think it would have been better to have visited her at the present time more often throughout the story.

Overall I'm glad I read it but I won't be doing a reread. Four stars, rounded up from three and a half.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is my second book from this Author and I really enjoyed it.
Although at times throughout it I wished I could shake some sense into the main female protagonist Sherri.
From her life and times as a Playboy bunny and into her adult years, it made for an interesting & intriguing read.
I gave this book an extra star for the the Rod Stewart & his song "Do you think I'm sexy" and one of the characters helping a turtle cross the road mentions.
I look forward to reading more from Christina.
Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martins press and the Author Christina Clancy for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Having grown up in a small town in Wisconsin, I was eager to read Shoulder Season. Sherri Taylor is 19 and plays the organ at her hometown church in East Troy, Wisconsin. Life as she has known it suddenly ends when her parents die in quick succession and finds herself living a very different new life. Shoulder Season is a 1980s coming of age novel, but with a unique twist. With her parents gone, Sherri leaves East Troy and moves to nearby Lake Geneva to begin her career as a Playboy Bunny. Her new home is the “Bunny Hutch,” an onsite dormitory of sorts for women working as Bunnies. It is there that she learns, among other things, the joys of independence, female friendships, and first love. She also learns about sex, alcohol, and drugs. Sherri’s life doesn’t always go smoothly. There is tragedy and heartbreak as the reader follows her from life as a sometimes naive young woman to life as a wiser and more mature older woman. My life has been very different from Sherri’s but she was a character I understood and cared about. Clancy obviously did a great deal of research while writing the book and it shows. Not just Sherri but all of the characters are well-developed and multidimensional. Clancy has a great writing style and it’s easy to find yourself thoroughly absorbed in the story as it progresses. Whether you’re a historical fiction fan, love coming of age novels or simply looking for an excellent book you can enjoy while you get lost in it, I highly recommend Shoulder Season.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for an ARC copy of Shoulder Season in exchange for an honest review! Christina Clancy's debut novel, A Second Home, was excellent and I was thrilled to receive her next book.

Sherri Taylor is a 19 year old from East Troy, Michigan who has recently lost both of her parents. Her friend Roberta convinces her to join her for an interview as a Bunny at Hugh Hefner's Lake Geneva resort, and she begrudgingly tags along. Sherri gets offered the job and realizes it's a chance to escape her depressing situation and start a new, exciting chapter. Shoulder Season follows Sherri as she becomes whisked away in the bunny lifestyle, and her naivety gets the best of her as she parties hard and trusts easily.

After a few chapters, I was hooked! This was an interesting premise, and I loved reading about Sherri's experiences at Lake Geneva and her fellow bunnies. There were times when I couldn't believe some decisions Sherri made, and wished she didn't let drugs, alcohol and self-doubt lead her astray. Some of the best moments were when she realized her connection with East Troy and how much she needed the influence of the town and her relationships there to help her grow. Some of the twists really surprised me, and the second half of the book flew by.

I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it!

I really enjoyed this book! A while back I listened to a podcast on Dorothy Stratten, a Playboy model who was murdered by her boyfriend in 1980. I was a little obsessed with the glamour of that world back then, so a book set in one of the Playboy resorts had me hooked from the beginning. The main character, Sherri, was frustratingly naive-- to the point where I wanted to go in and choke her. That didn't stop me from wanting to read the rest of it though! I would definitely recommend this for anyone who is interested in the whole Playboy history, or someone who just wants a good beach read.

What a fantastic novel about loss, love, hope and finding out the truth about who you are. Sherri’e life has been about loss and coping until she decides to take a chance and become a Playboy Bunny and the Lake Geneva Resort. What she doesn’t realize is that time in her life will affect her for the next 40 years until she realizes that some times, life just happens.

Shoulder Season is the perfect summer read! I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting and intriguing and it also broke my heart at times. I loved all the characters and the storyline. The book was fast paced and hard to put down. I found myself getting annoyed with Sherri sometimes for her decisions but she dealt with the consequences and in the end, learned some valuable life lessons. Everything about the 80s era depicted in the book felt correct and well researched. Overall, a fantastic, enjoyable read!

Thank you Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy of this book in return for my honest review.

I've been to Wisconsin once or twice, but I've never been a small-town Wisconsin girl like Sherri Taylor, the protagonist in Christina Clancy's SHOULDER SEASON who talks her way into a life-defining job at Lake Geneva's Playboy Resort. I've also never been a Playboy Bunny, but I was transported into a different world and time as vividly and heartfelt as if I felt the pinch of stilettos and fended off unwanted attention. Sherri came from a solid family and community, enjoyed playing the organ, but always had her heart set on escaping small-town Troy City, so she leapt at every opportunity to escape, be it into hard work and managing sky-high expectations or into sex, love, and drugs. Ultimately, after many strange twists and turns, Sherri does escape her known world and builds a life across the country, but only finds herself when she returns to East Troy decades later and discovers the truth about the ones she thought she knew and loved including herself. I stayed up way too late reading this book and I cannot be more pleased that I did. For lyrical writing, a gripping story, fully-dimensioned characters, and a vibe that is like nothing I've ever read before, SHOULDER SEASON is exceptional. Inhabiting that story world let me take a deep breath and return home (and go to bed) satisfied with a great escape. I received an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

I was moved by this story. Delighted to include it in the July instalment of Novel Encounters, my regular column highlighting the month's top fiction for Zed, Zoomer magazine’s reading and books section (full review and feature at link).

The virtues and vices of 1981 - it's all right here in Shoulder Season, along with so much more. I enjoyed Christina Clancy's first book, The Second Home, so was happy to get the chance to read her new book.
I really liked this one - at 19, Sherri Taylor is thrown completely for a loop when her parents die just a few years apart. After her mother's death she's not quite sure what to do with her life. Becoming a bunny at the nearby Playboy family resort at Lake Geneva Wisconsin is definitely not in her plans, but a friend gets her to come with her to interview and she ends up as Bunny Sherri. The story starts with Sherri in the present, around 60 years old, living in Palm Springs California. She finds herself needing to "go home again" and in the process, taking a look back at a pivotal time in her life. As maddening as 19-year old Sherri was at times, I enjoyed going back in time to 1981, a year when I was about 11 years older than Sherri. So much happened in that year that changed the course of her life and informed her subsequent life decisions - when she does go home again, what will she find has changed, and remained the same, and what will she learn?
My thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

Shoulder Season by Christina Clancy is
Sherri a fascinating dive into the early 1980s at a Playboy Resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The story revolves around Sherri, who works as a Bunny when she is 19 and recently lost her mother. The story begins and ends in present-day, when Sherri is in her 60s as she reflects on what happened while she was a Bunny.

Shoulder Season is a coming of age story, where Sherri's decisions in 1981 will affect the rest of her life. The sense of place in Shoulder Season is wonderful and I had a great sense of the characters. Though I sometimes found it difficult to connect with Sherri as she made naive decisions I found really frustrating. The story had some unexpected twists and I wasn't sure what would happen. We get some resolution at the end, but the characters continue to surprise. Overall, a very interesting story that kept my attention. I listened to the audiobook, which was skillfully narrated by Karissa Vacker, who well-embodied Sherri.

Thank you St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

Things are not always what they seem. Young Sherri takes a job as a Playboy Bunny in a small town, and without much emotional direction, learns to do life the hard way. Her work introduces her to lots of men, good and bad. Both Mitch and Arthur seem to offer her exactly what she's looking for. She finds the love of her life, she thinks, but tragically is not able to spend the time with him as she imagined she would. She leaves her small town for life in California, where she lives out most of her adult life. As she approaches 60, an old friend beckons her back to the small town, where she discovers a huge illusion in her memories. She successfully deals with the past, and the book has a very satisfying ending.

This book was very well written and I read it in record time. Parts of the story were somewhat predictable. Young Sherri's behavior was quite annoying, and I didn't find some of her decisions to be believable.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for my NetGalley ARC!

Shoulder Season follows Sherri Taylor from small town Wisconsin girl to Playboy Resort Bunny to California and beyond - Clancy writes a sweeping and complex narrative for our heroine. Sherri is not always likeable - she was simultaneously naive and cruel at points - but I enjoyed the window into the Playboy culture, especially getting to know the other bunnies at the resort.

Be aware that it’s not all smooth sailing for Sherri - like Clancy's first novel The Second Home, this is a beach read with emotional heft, or as some of us have started to say, #DespairOnTheBeach.

If you like coming of age stories, small town heroines, or books about the 80s, this is a good one to pick up. I'm excited to see what Christina Clancy writes next!

This an interesting story about Sherri’s life. She meets some very interesting folks along the way. Some of who will make you laugh and some you may not like so well, just like real life. I enjoyed being with her as she deals with difficulties and enjoys the good times. I think you’ll enjoy this story and the folks you’ll meet along the way. I received this book from NetGalley, but my opinion is my own.

I finished Shoulder Season this morning. I couldn't put it down last night. If you like Daisy Jones, you will love this book. FYI there's a lot of sex and drugs in this book. It is a slow burn. The pacing didn't bother me at all; I never was bored reading of it. It was fascinating to read about the Playboy resort. I didn't know there were so many rules to be a Playboy bunny. It made for a fun read. The only thing I didn’t like was Sherri, the main character. I didn’t connect with her. I didn’t care for the poor choices she made throughout the book. But overall, it was a great read. If you love historical fiction, I recommend read Shoulder Season.

Thank you, @stmartins, for the copy of Shoulder Season.

This was a fun behind-the-scenes look at the world of Playboy Bunnies who didn't live in the limelight. Just the regular ol' bunnies who fetched cocktails, fended off drunk businessmen, worried about keeping their ears on straight, and earned a living. I struggled constantly to remember that Bunny Sherrie, our main character, was only 19. She was incredibly immature but my mental impression of a bunny is someone more sophisticated. These two images clashed with each other constantly throughout the book. Different from many books with dual timelines, this one starts in the present, returns to the past, and then doesn't return to the present until after the 1980s have been fully described. By the time we get to the present again, I am done. I don't need to know when Bunny Sherrie is now and don't need to follow her as she wraps up her loose emotional ends. It felt very disassociated from the main timeline throughout the book. But viewed as a book about a young woman who is able to find herself despite some very unusual circumstances, this makes for a wonderful summer read!

Outstanding! I’m blown away by the new novel Shoulder Season by Christina Clancy. Don’t get me wrong, her first novel Second Home was great but this new novel was even better. I am astounded. I enjoyed immersing myself in this story and I didn’t want it to end. It was that good.

A large portion of the book has to do with a young girl named Sherri who applies for and becomes a Playboy Bunny. We learn what life was like at the resort for Sherri and we find out what the training and expectations were for these women. Although most of the Playboy clubs are closed, a few still exist.

Her research was excellent. It was a big part of what made this book so good. The clubs were considered family friendly and I enjoyed the behind the scenes peek. I think you will too!

Her writing flowed like butter and her character development was excellent. There were parts that were hard to read especially the ones we see mistakes in judgement being made. You care for Sherri enough you want to reach out and tap her on the shoulder and tell her to think twice. I enjoyed getting to know her and all the pieces that make her who she was.

If you liked Second Home, you’ll love Shoulder Season even though it is so totally different. I highly recommend this book!

I received an ARC of this book. Interesting and compelling story of a young woman and her journey through her time as a Playboy bunny. A wild ride through a different period in time. Lots of times I wanted to tell her "No! Don't do that!" Pulled me into her tale and kept me reading until the end.