Shoulder season

Review by Booklist Review

After growing up in the small town of Easy Troy, walking into the Playboy Resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, felt to Sherri Taylor like stepping into an entirely new world. Poured into the iconic costume, hustling for tips, and living with women from all walks of life, Sherri quickly understood that the Playboy Resort was an education, a job, and a lifestyle. But one with a seedy side. Sherri encounters more than her share of disrespectful customers and the access to alcohol and drugs soon becomes overwhelming. After an unexpected tragedy, Sherri flees the resort for a complicated journey of renewal. Jumping between the past and present, Clancy's (The Second Home, 2020) second novel leads readers through Sherri's upbringing, her brief but captivating career as a Playboy Bunny, and her late-in-life reflections. Based on true experiences, Shoulder Season is a clear-eyed look at a job so often shrouded in intrigue. Fans of J. Ryan Stradal and Elyssa Friedland will enjoy this Midwestern coming-of-age story that is tinged with tragedy and the lasting power of camaraderie.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

---

Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Clancy (The Second Home) delivers an engaging if overheated story of a woman's trajectory from naive Midwesterner to Playboy Bunny, and, eventually, a new life in California. In 1981, recently orphaned Sherri Taylor, at 19, is hired to work at the Lake Geneva Playboy Club Resort, near her home of East Troy, Wis. Sherri quickly loses her innocence (by choice) and enters a world where cocaine and diet pills are the norm. An object of desire by guys who turn her off, she eventually encounters two men who steal her heart--one from California, another closer to home--and a heartbreaking accident forces Sherri to reevaluate her life and her friendships. She then drives to Los Angeles, where her luck begins to run out, but as the reader knows from a prologue set in the present day, things will turn out just fine. Despite some over-the-top melodrama, Clancy offers an entertaining behind-the-scenes view of the Lake Geneva resort, where wholesome, fresh-off-the-farm young women wear stiletto heels and skimpy costumes adorned with bunny tails and bunny ears, live in restricted dorms, and must adhere to rules about maintaining their weight and not mixing with customers. It's not the most memorable tale, but it's worth taking to the beach. (July)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

---

Review by Library Journal Review

In 1981, a Playboy resort opens in Lake Geneva, WI, and 19-year-old Sherri Taylor joins the organization. Sherri had spent her teenage years friendless while caring for her terminally ill mother. After her mother's death, Sherri got a last-minute invite from a childhood friend to tag along to Lake Geneva, which led the former church organist to a life she never thought possible--one with friends, parties, and an opportunity to leave her tragic past behind. No longer held down by the expectations of others, Sherri learns to take ownership of her sexuality and pride in her work. Soon, her heart is torn between beautiful, distant bad boy Mitch and kind, smart Arthur. Her inability to choose between the two leads to tragedy, and her life quickly spirals out of control. VERDICT Spanning decades and ranging from the Midwest to California, Clancy's second novel (after The Second House) is an elegiac ode to a place that might feel at once familiar and lost to time. Uneven pacing causes some scenes to fly by too quickly, and the denouement feels like a reading marathon, but fans of J. Ryan Stradal and Jami Attenberg will root anyway for Sherri to come out on top.--Portia Kapraun, Delphi P.L., IN

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

---