I'm partial to Christina Clancy's first book "The Second Home" but this was a quick, easy read. I think it'd be great for a beach vacation - it has substance, but it's not too heavy. The main character is insufferable at times. The parts about being a playboy bunny in the 80s in Wisconsin were eye opening/interesting to me.

Books set in the eighties are now historical fiction and I’m not ok with that. This one almost felt like a memoir which was fresh but was a pretty captivating look at the dark side of being a Playboy bunny

Sometimes I think I’m going to like a book more than I do based on the summary. Unfortunately this was one of those times. I think Clancy’s writing was good, but I wasn’t invested in the story or the characters. The story itself was a really great concept.

This was an interesting book. Sherrie, the main character, really frustrated me. So unwilling to listen to good advice, and so reckless. I enjoyed the stories about the bunnies and the bunny hutch, but it’s hard for me to love a book when I don’t care for the MC. 3 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Shoulder Season follows a small town girl named Sherri who becomes a Playboy Bunny. I was so intrigued to learn more about the Playboy culture and to follow Sherri's life changing love triangle. I love Christina Clancy! I highly recommend this book.

I have tried repeatedly to read this ARC but I just can’t get into it. Neither the characters or the plot draw me in.

Not sense Gloria’s Steinem wrote her expose of life as “bunny” have we seem what it entails to embrace a life on exhibition. It must have been thrilling when Playboy came to Chicago and young women from all over vied for the chance to change the way their lives would go. Here you have a warm and engaging look at life in the exciting world of second hand celebrity.

Combining the allure of the iconic Playboy Bunnies with an all-consuming coming-of-age tale, Christina Clancy, author of THE SECOND HOME, pens another impressive page-turner with SHOULDER SEASON.

The year is 1981, and sex, drugs, and rock and roll have taken hold of the nation. However, one place remains mostly unchanged: East Troy, Wisconsin, a quiet town where everyone goes to church, children help their parents, and no one is expected to leave for very long. For years, 19-year-old Sherri Taylor has upheld the facade of a good East Troy girl --- playing the organ at church, caring for her sick mother, and taking a backseat to her gorgeous, intimidating best friend, Roberta.

However, all of that changes when her mother dies, leaving Sherri free for the first time, but also completely unmoored. She has inherited her mother’s apartment, complete with the empty shop downstairs where her father used to repair watches. But she’s not ready to be a real estate owner, and even with her mother’s building, she’ll need some way to pay the bills. When Roberta secures her an interview at the new Playboy resort in neighboring Lake Geneva, shy, sheltered Sherri takes a chance. No one is more shocked than her when she is selected to join the glamorous girls living in the Bunny Hutch.

There are characters who immediately pull at your heartstrings, and poor, orphaned Sherri is one of them. Hopelessly naive and desperate for an adventure, she is both the best and worst candidate for a job at the Playboy resort. She’s a hard worker with a knack for memorization --- which, as Clancy shows us, is an absolute necessity for Bunnies in training --- but she’s also unsure of her own beauty and worth as a woman.

As we follow Sherri through weeks of hardcore training, from squeezing into suits two sizes too small to learning the famous Bunny dip (a way of serving drinks that prevents them from bending at the waist in their tight costumes) and even to dealing with the hierarchy of girls living at the Hutch, we watch as she blossoms into a confident young woman with a hunger for everything life has to offer. Financially independent, beautiful and desired for the first time in her life, Sherri quickly embraces everything that comes with Bunny life, from the men to the substance abuse to the rock and roll.

Working her way up the resort hierarchy, Sherri finds herself at the height of everything she has ever dreamed of. She has a best friend, Val, to watch her back at work and in their dorm; she has enough money to buy her own car; and she even has men lavishing her with gifts and trips. But with the glamorous lifestyle comes epic pitfalls, and before long, Sherri finds herself embroiled in a brutal love triangle. She has Mitch, a gorgeous California heartthrob who is the life of every party, but she also has Arthur, a good man from back home who sees the full potential in her and wants to give her the world. It sounds like an easy choice on paper, but for a young lady enjoying the first stretches of independence, it becomes much more complicated.

With liquor, diet pills and cocaine added to the mix, Sherri becomes intoxicated by the combination of sex, desire and freedom, clinging to the idea that she can have it all indefinitely, even while her beauty and grasp on life start to fade. When she loses control of herself and her career, a horrific tragedy steals yet another opportunity for her, causing lifelong repercussions that still reverberate nearly 40 years later.

SHOULDER SEASON is a heady, dazzling delight of a novel. Clancy’s research into Bunny life is exhaustive yet incredibly fun to read. From the strict rules about appearance to the exhaustion that comes with performing all day and the sisterhood that comes with being a Bunny, she shares it all. Although the research is compelling, it would be nothing without the unforgettable character of Sherri Taylor. Sherri transforms numerous times, yet every chapter of her life is thoroughly written and full of twists and moments of growth. From her start as an orphaned young woman to her peak as a glamorous Bunny and even later as an older woman, she brims with life and a resounding courage and strong heart. Combined with Clancy’s expert attention to historical detail, Sherri’s life leaps off the page, and her love story, though painful and tragic, is rich and full of tender moments of exploration, jaw-dropping scenes of selfishness, and endless discoveries.

Rounding out Sherri’s story are the friendships she shares with the other Bunnies, a sisterhood that feels as binding as blood, as transformative as romance, and as powerful as life and death. I loved reading every moment of Sherri’s life in the Bunny Hutch, and even when I felt like shaking her, I wanted more and more from her.

I’ll admit that I never took a look at the description of SHOULDER SEASON before reading it. I loved THE SECOND HOME enough that I didn’t need to know what Clancy was writing next as long as I had it in my hands as soon as it was available. Though the setting of a Playboy resort might turn some readers away, this is not a shallow, voyeuristic tale or a gratuitously sexual one. Instead, Clancy uses the Playboy resort --- a complicated contradiction of women’s empowerment and men’s greed --- as a jumping-off point for one of the most beautifully researched and explored fictional works I have read all year.

With a lovable, frustrating protagonist, an intoxicating setting, and a riveting coming-of-age plot full of friendship, heartache and hope, SHOULDER SEASON is the perfect summer read. Those who enjoyed THE LAST BOOK PARTY, BONNIE and JUNE will devour this surprising gem of a novel.

I go back and forth with this book. While I do think it was well researched, and it told an honest story to match the time period, I just didn't connect with the characters, nor did I agree with a lot of their choices. These factors made this a difficult read for me, but ultimately I'm glad I finished.


I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

I loved Shoulder Season so much that I bought a hardbound book for my shelves...and another copy for my sister for the holidays. Christina Clancy just doesn't miss!

Christina Clancy's debut work, The Second Home, was one of my five star reads of 2020. I was thrilled to receive an ARC of Shoulder Season from NetGalley and the publisher.

This is a coming of age story based in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin at the Playboy Resort in 1981. Sherri Taylor is all alone after the deaths of her parents. After a series of incidents, Sherri is hired as a bunny at the Playboy Resort.

I hate to say but I did not enjoy this book. Sherri repeatedly made poor choices even convincing herself to make the poor choices. I finally got to a point that I wanted to shake Sherri.

Even though I greatly disliked this book, I will give this author another try in the future since I enjoyed her first book so much.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What a different kind of story I'm used to reading! You follow this girl who had everything to losing everything when Sherri loses her parents. 19 years old,Sherri has no clue on what to do next! Follow Sherri's life,her adventures,her disappointments as she leaves the only place she has ever known to see what's next for her!! The different people she mets as she travels to her new one..

Reading this was like going home for me. I grew up in southeastern, Wisconsin, and all the cities mentioned were very familiar. In fact, my mother worked at the Playboy Resort in Lake Geneva (not as a bunny.) That’s why I was initially drawn to this—I wanted to read about home.

It’s Wisconsin in 1981 and Sherri Taylor is nineteen years old. She has lost both her parents, plays the organ in her church, but wants more for her life. Her friend tells her that she is going to apply to be a bunny at the nearby Playboy Resort and urges her to go with her. Sherri interviews, but she doesn’t think that she has what it takes. Her life quickly changes, though, as she gets the job and has to go through the strict bunny training.

What entails next is a coming-of-age story of how Sherri grew up in this world. She went from a pure innocent girl to someone who gets caught up in this new world and makes some not so good choices regarding men, relationships, sex, and drugs. More than once, I wanted to yell at her about the choices she was making. I kept reminding myself that she was young and hadn’t had much guidance in her upbringing. She was learning on the go with her bad choices.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the advance readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin's Press and Christina Clancy for free e-ARC in return of my honest review of Shoulder Season.

I enjoyed Second Home by Christina Clancy a lot, and I had no doubt I would like Shoulder Season. There is something special about author's narration style, she manages to excite the reader from the very beginning with her word choosing and sentence structure.

Shoulder Season is a coming age story in a small town. Sherri has lost her mother after a long time of caring for all her needs, and she is still so young. Her life so far was quite closed and intimate, she never ventured far. Her best friends applies for a bunny position at Playboy resort near by and takes Sherri with her. Sherri's life changes in an instance once she gets the job. It is everything she has never done in her life, nothing like she ever feels. It brings her confidence in her looks and strength to navigate men's world.

Mostly I enjoyed the protagonist's development, how she grew with every situation she find herself in, her courage and her weakness, she become a real person to me. Christina Clancy managed to create a multidimensional character.

Storyline was ok, I wasn't really excited about it, though a few twists at the end were quite surprising. I did enjoy reading about Playboy resorts and its culture. For me, an immigrant, I never knew anything about Playboy except the magazine and its mansion.

I enjoy the book and would definitely recommend it to those who is looking for a strong female lead in hard circumstances.

Shoulder Season centers around Sherri Taylor whose father is dead and mother recently passed away. With her high school graduation behind her and nothing keeping her tired to her small town, she goes on a whim, with her high school best friend to audition to be Playboy bunnies at the Playboy resort at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

To Sherri's surprise, she is hired as a bunny and soon is running around in the bunny suits, heels, and ears of the classic Playboy bunny costume, doing the "bunny dip" as she serves drinks to customers. Shoulder Season is ultimately a coming of age story - as Sherri spends her time as a bunny, she goes through all of the rites of young adult passage - drinking and drugs and sex and one night stands and falling victim to frauds until ultimately an end to her employment and a tragedy drive her from Wisconsin to building a new life for herself in California.

I WANTED to love Shoulder Season - I very much enjoyed The Second Home and had high hopes for Shoulder Season, but I frankly hated virtually all of the characters. Sherri was naïve to the point of crossing into idiocy which was grating and other characters ranged from creepy to entitled. I enjoy Christina Clancy's writing and ability to tell a story, but this one was unfortunately a miss for me.

Christina Clancy is such a talented writer. I loved her last book and this one was even better in my opinion. It's told in dual timelines, from the present of 60 year old Sherri, to her past as a 19 year old Playboy bunny at the Playboy Club in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. I loved the 1980's time period, and it was super interesting to see the lives of Bunnies at the Playboy Club. There was sex, drugs, and even a cameo by Gregg Allman! This one will grab you in the very beginning and not let you go until the end. I highly recommend it.

{Thank you to St. Martin's press for my gifted review copy. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.}

Shoulder Season is the second book I have read by author Christina Clancy. The Second Home sold me on her writing style and I was excited by the premise of her newest release. I love a novel that takes you into a very specific time and place, especially one that you didn't anticipate...like the Playboy Resort in small town Wisconsin.

Main character, Sherri, is not your typical Bunny, and this storyline empcompasses so much more than you might first expect. Shoulder Season is a coming of age story (one of my favorite fiction sub-genres!) mixed with the a behind the scenes look at this risqué resort , and of course the required sex, drugs and rock and roll of the time period.

Sherri's naiveté definitely shows at time but she also became quite endearing to me as she matured and grew into the woman she is today. I really enjoyed that this story took us through a 40 year time period, and Clancy's detailed and fluid writing style made me almost feel like I was along for the ride as well. This fictional memoir style read sealed Clancy in as an auto-read author for me and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next. 4/5 stars.

Thank you to St. Martin's press for my gifted review copy.

An interesting look at the lives of those who worked at a Playboy mansion in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in the 1980s, especially the main character 19-year old Sherri, who is at first very naïve, but comes into her own and makes quite the life for herself.

I was a huge fan of Christina Clancy's debut The Second Home, so saying I was excited for Shoulder Season would be an understatement. I loved the fact it is set in Wisconsin as was her previous book, and I especially loved that it was about a Playboy resort which I had no idea even existed there. Sherri is a very frustrating character and makes a lot of stupid decisions while she is a bunny, but you also can't help but feel for her. I could never have imagined what being a bunny would be like, and I loved the glimpse I got of it in this novel. It sounds like such a demeaning experience, and it really is no wonder that Sherri started drowning her sorrows in drugs and alcohol. It all starts with Sherri losing her parents, and her coping mechanisms especially while working at the Playboy resort, are not the greatest. This is definitely historical fiction mixed with a coming-of-age tale and although I struggled with her character, it was worth it to watch her grow up and learn.

I really enjoyed the experience of listening to this on audio, and the audiobook is narrated by Karissa Vacker. She did a great job as Sherri and I really liked listening to her voice, plus she knew exactly when to infuse emotions into her speech. This was a really quick read that I finished in 2 days, and it was really hard for me to put down. There is a huge tragedy that happens later in the book which shapes the rest of Sherri's life, and I didn't see it coming at all. The end also completely surprised me, and I can't believe I didn't figure out what was going on. Overall, this was a very dramatic novel and one that will stick with me for a long time. It feels like it could easily be a true story which is something I always appreciate, and it also has some light foreshadowing that I don't see much anymore but that I love. Clancy's writing style is very readable and compelling, and I can't wait to see what she has up her sleeve for her next novel!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I really wanted to read this book because of its Lake Geneva connection, as I spent a lot of time there. Parts of the story I liked and found interesting but the whole “bunny” thing didn’t really appeal to me.