After reading and enjoying The Second Home last year, I was so excited to get my hands on Clancy’s latest novel, Shoulder Season. Set primarily in the early 80s at the Playboy resort on Lake Geneva (which I wasn’t even aware was an actual place!!), it’s probably no surprise that this book is full of drama. When orphaned 19 year old, Sherri, is hired as a bunny at the resort over her wilder and more boisterous best friend, everything about her mundane, small town upbringing changes overnight.

For me, the book had a quick takeoff, a slower build in the middle, and then an abrupt stop. I really enjoyed this coming-of-age story…and especially the late 70s/early 80s pop culture references (there’s even a special cameo from Gregg Allman!).

Not gonna lie though, Sherri made me angry more than a few times throughout the book with the decisions she made. But then I stopped and gave myself a quick reality check when I thought back to allllllll the stupid things I did when I was at that age, and it gave me a lot more empathy for Sherri. But then I quickly blocked out all those thoughts again because 😳😳😳

Overall, I really liked this book and I would definitely recommend picking it up when it hits shelves next week (7/6)! Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was drawn to Shoulder Season when I read it involved The Playboy Club and life as a Bunny. The main character, Sherri, has lived a tough life with a great deal of loss. When she starts with the Playboy Club as a bunny, she sees it as her chance to have a fresh start. She feels as if she's finally getting a chance to "live." Because of this, I was initially sympathetic to her choices. However, as her decisions continued to be more and more questionnable and selfish, she became a character I was continually frustrated with. I disliked a great deal about her until the end of the story when it seemed that she finally "got it."

I did like the look at the history of that time. Also the view into what it was like to be a Playboy Bunny was fascinating as well. Many of the side characters were interesting. A good many of the side characters were also not people I could ever like. Sherri went through a great deal . I just wish she had "connected the dots" and made better choices earlier in her life. Things could have been very different. Of course, I think the author's point is to show how your choices impact not just your own life, but that of others as well

Overall, this was a well-written story that took the reader full circle.


Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own

This was fine. I think it was much ado about nothing honestly. Given the setup, characters, and various plotlines, there were a million stories possible here and the one told was totally fine and readable but the least interesting possibility. Free advanced copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Sherri Taylor applies to be a Bunny at the Lake Geneva resort on a whim, but her decision forever changes the trajectory of her life. Once the organ-playing caretaker of her invalid mother, Sherri is thrown into a completely different world without the maturity to make good decisions. The steady, adoring Arthur seems like her ticket out of the Playboy resort, but she prefers the fast life to the security she thinks Arthur offers. One fateful summer she chooses drugs, alcohol, and her feckless friends with disastrous results.

Forty years later, Sherri has built a secure, affluent life for herself, but she's still haunted by what happened to Arthur. Returning to her small Wisconsin hometown, she finds everything changed, and her assumptions about what happened that summer to be patently false.

Despite the teases about Playboy mansions and drunken, drugged parties, this is a novel about women's friendships and how decisions (good and bad) inform our lives. The Wisconsin setting is as much a character in the book as Sherri, Roberta, Jerry, and Arthur. Sherri's later success doesn't ring true, perhaps because after the detail of her early life, skipping ahead nearly 40 years is disorienting. There are some cringey moments where you'll just want to shake Sherri and tell her to stop, but that's the point of the book, a unique coming-of-age story. #ShoulderSeason #NetGalley

This novel gave me exactly what it said it would on the tin. It was fast-paced, entertaining, and brought up some interesting points surrounding the almost taboo topic of working as a Playboy Bunny. However, I found the writing to be amiss. It sometimes read as though it were a first draft that needed cleaning up. The idea and plot of the book was great, the execution was just a tad messy. I would happily read more by the author as I think they have the protentional to publish something incredible.

This starts in Palms Springs in the present, with Sherri working as a party planner and then moves back in time to explain how she got there. It's a surprising and compelling route. After Sherri is orphaned at 19 and at loose ends, her friend Roberta invites her to ride along to an interview at the Playboy resort in Lake George, Wisconsin. While Roberta doesn't get the job, Sherri does- she becomes a bunny. How her life changes! She's fairly naive for a young woman in the early 1980s (but remember that this is pre-social media) and finds herself in some bad situations with men. She's torn between Mitch, who she met by chance, and Arthur, a wealthy but stable man who has moved to her home town. Equally compelling, though, are her relationships with other women she works with and this is as much about those female friendships as it is about romance. There will be times when you will want to tell her to grow up and others when you will want to give her a hug. There are some twists both painful and positive which are this more than I expected. No spoilers from me. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A very good summer read that will make you wish for a lake vacation.

I was hooked on this book from the beginning. The story is set in the 80’s and the reader learns about life as a Playboy Bunny. I loved all the twists and turns throughout the story, especially the twist at the end. I loved the main character and her development throughout the story. I would definitely recommend this to others.

Thank you to St. Martins and Netgalley for an ARC copy of this title for my honest opinion.

Always a sucker for a story set in 2 time periods, I enjoyed this novel about Sherri, a playboy bunny who lost her way. In the 80's she is working at playboy "family" resort in Wisconsin." Some of her choices are just cringe worthy and hard to read.

In current time she's middle aged and looking for answers to some of the mysteries of her life.

I enjoyed the story and the nostalgia of the 80s timeliness.

Great summer read!

I always wondered what it would be like to be a Playboy Bunny. Christina Clancy’s new book takes you there and lets you experience the good with the bad.
When small-town girl Sherri Taylor joins her best friend on a whim to apply for a job as a Playboy Bunny at the resort near her hometown, she’s shocked to learn she actually got the job. Never fully vested in the choice, it seems that Sherri is simply swept into the river with no chance of swimming back out. The pace is fast, the work is grueling, but the money is better than anything else she could do.
I remember reading articles when I was little about how uncomfortable the Bunny suits were. The author goes into detail about the physical and mental pain suffered by the women as they were required to move and stand in excruciatingly uncomfortable positions while wearing painfully tight high heels and skin-tight suits.
Sherri got caught up in the drinking, late-night partying, and finally, drugs as she tried to keep up. The work was very hard and emotionally demeaning, but there was a camaraderie that bonded the girls together for life.
This wouldn’t normally be a book I would seek out, but thanks to the author’s sensitive writing style, I found it to be a very enthralling and compassionate take on what many people considered “bimbos”, the women who wore the fuzzy cottontail and sashayed around at the Playboy Clubs.
Sincere thanks to NetGalley and St, Martin”s Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is July 6, 2021.

Sherri's friend convinces her to try out to be a Playboy Bunny in the 80's, causing Sherri to reinvent herself as a party girl, experimenting with sex, drugs, and confidence in her body. This was an okay book, but I can't even think of a good way to sum it up. Underwhelming in the end. 2.5 rounded to 3 stars.

From the earliest pages of Shoulder Season, which takes place in the present, we know that Sherri, now approaching her 60s, has endured. This engaging book is Sherri’s journey from a young, innocent, naïve girl from the Midwest to an older and wiser survivor.

I enjoyed Christina Clancy’s first book, Second Home, so this book was one I was excited to read. It did not disappoint. While very different, I, once again, enjoyed the author’s writing style which is crisp and fast-moving. This book clearly required a lot of research to capture the lives of the women who chose to become Playboy bunnies. Shoulder Season also does a good job in providing an early 1980s vibe complete with a cameo by Gregg Allman.

I recommend this oftentimes heartbreaking, coming-of-age story and look forward to Clancy's next book.

Pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this book! Sherri is one of those main characters who is not necessarily likable in the best way- she is flawed and real. There are some decisions she makes that make the reader want to scream. But she is interesting and authentic, and that drives the story. The loose ends tie up nicely and everything in this book has purpose. A great summertime book for adults!

Shoulder Season starts off really slow, but it kind of picks up towards the middle. It, however, by no means is a super exciting book plot-wise. “Shoulder Season” definitely focuses on the characters and relies on the playboy bunny lifestyle to keep the reader invested in the book. Which is a super interesting story-line and definitely drives the middle of the book. It worked for me. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed watching Sherri’s slow decline after becoming a bunny, because you’re watching a character go down a slippery slope, but I was amused watching it happen.

The ending of the book is where it really fell apart for me. I won’t give any spoilers, but when the big climax of the book happens, you skip a bunch of years and Sherri miraculously is able to turn herself around. After watching her decline for the first 60% of the book I was really invested in the work she put in to get back on her feet. I didn’t want a snap-of the fingers resolution.

And then after that, the author spends the last section of the book talking about all these characters and where they ended up, which didn’t have to be included. I, personally, really didn’t care what happened to a large majority of them, especially because the resolution of Sherri already left a bad taste in my mouth.

The book started out strong, but it didn’t pick up too much and I really found the ending to be disappointing.

An inside look at what life was like for the young women who worked as Bunnies at a Playboy Resort in Wisconsin in the early 1980s. The main character, Sherri, is young and naive and she keeps making bad decisions. At age nineteen, I gave her the benefit of the doubt at first, but gradually I got more and more annoyed with her behavior. This book shows the effects of “sex, drugs and rock and roll” on someone who doesn’t have the street-smarts to deal with all of that. We eventually find out how she spent the next 40 years, including one big reveal, as the author ties up lots of loose ends.

An “okay” read, not a compelling one. Because of the prologue, you start out knowing that Sherri winds up a successful business person in Palm Springs, so there was no real tension about her fate. The most interesting part was learning about how the Playboy Bunnies lived and worked.

CW: sex and sexism, drugs, references to racism

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

As someone that grew up watching The Girl's Next Door, I have always been fascinated by Playboy and the culture. 🐰 When I read the synopsis for Shoulder Season I knew I had to get my hands on this book! The plot really transports you back in time and it's easy to fall into Sherri's new world at the Playboy Resort.

In regards to the pace, I thought the plot started out lightening fast - really before we knew it - Sherri was a Playboy Bunny with little lead time and then the ending was slower for me. However, when thinking about it - I guess that is what actually happens when you get older. Things slow wayyy down.

All in all, a fun read that is perfect for summer!

I can't say enough good things about Christina Clancy's writing style and her ability to totally immerse the reader in her stories. This comes to mind while reading this book, 'Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world...' Sherri Taylor is that girl in this coming of age story, trying to escape her boring life in her boring small Wisconsin town of East Troy. So, when her best friend convinces her to audition for a job at the Playboy resort in nearby Geneva, she sets her life on a different path. There are many times in this story I wish Sherri could hear me yelling at her, but alas, she can't hear me and makes some bad choices. All the loose ends come together at the end of this well told story of love, loss, friendship, and family. The narrator for the audiobook did an excellent job. #netgalley #shoulderseason

“After everything she’d been through, it felt so good to be someone else for a change, good to imagine herself surrounded by a close-knit, unmarred family.”

A small town girl growing up on the shores of lakes in Wisconsin finds herself drawn to a family she’s never had. The family happens to be the employees at the Playboy resort on Lake Geneva. The tension is tight, as this reader was waiting for the big tragedy to strike, knowing that among the cliche pitfalls of a “bunny” lifestyle, something was bound to implode.

I have been to this resort in the early 1990’s and was curious to know more of its history via a fun summer storyline. That being said, frankly the plot did not move along at a pace that excites me, and I almost gave up on it before finishing. In my opinion, an interesting premise got bogged down in predictable details of misogyny, and drug/alcohol abuse.

Out of respect for the author I will not be posting a negative review on my social media platforms.

A nostalgic and immersive story that transported me to the heyday of Playboy nightclubs and bunny tails.

Sherri had hopes of going to college after high school graduation. But life had other plans as she becomes caregiver for her sick mom. Sherri is devastated when her mom passes and her boat is now rudderless. On a whim and at the urging of her best friend Roberta, Sherri tries out to be a bunny at the local Playboy Club and hits the jackpot when hired. This small-town girl was never comfortable in her skin and her transformation, highs and lows of her new life are riveting.

Sherri Taylor is 19 years old and now an orphan. On a whim, she goes with her best friend Roberta to an interview at the Lake Geneva Playboy Resort...and becomes a Bunny.

We follow Sherri over the next few years, from being the virginal Bunny to traveling to visit a club member and meeting a stuntman. She indulges in the party life of the early 80s - late night parties, drugs, random sex. She also falls in love, with a man who moved to her small town, the small town that she ran away from.

After a life-changing tragedy, Sherri runs away to the West Coast and spends the next 40 years of her life, deep in grief.

While I've ended the above with a downer - this book is actually quite uplifting. This is a contemporary romance, but it's also an ode to friendship, specifically female friendship.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This cover drew me in, besides hearing a lot of buzz about this title. The story is about a young women, Sherry Taylor, from a small town in Wisconsin who becomes a Playboy Bunny. She plays the organ at church, has a best friend Roberta, but has lost her parents and feels like she has lost her way. Accepted as a bunny, her life changes dramatically. Parties, drugs, sex, and so much more. As she finds her way, moves to California and eventually goes back home. You are pulling for her to get her act together throughout the book.