Shoulder Season started as a 4 star read for me because truly, what is more compelling than getting inside the head of a Playboy bunny? I was so intrigued to read about Sherri Taylor's experiences that both led her to her bunnyhood and those that resulted from it. She's a bright, quiet, lonely small-town girl who has recently lost both of her parents—and who wouldn't want to get the hell out of Dodge after that? Who wouldn't seek change and the opportunity to recreate your image and your life if it becomes available to you? That's exactly what Sherri does when she lands the job at the resort, but she takes it to the extreme before she can even realize it, and there are tragic consequences that shape the way she views her life and the relationships in it forever. In the end, she discovers that it's one particular missing detail from her understanding of said tragedy that molded just about the last 40 years of her life. However, we don't really get a whole lot of information about those last 40 years, and I feel that's why this declined to 3 stars for me (or maybe more like 3.5).

I loved reading about Sherri's background and her experiences leading up to working at the Playboy resort, loved her experience training and working there, but I started losing interest. I knew we had to work our way all the way up to Sherri at nearly 60 in 2019, and was wondering how the author would pull that off when she spent so much time focusing on 1981. Don't get me wrong, it was fabulous to spend time with Sherri at the resort in 1981, and I loved her relationships with the other bunnies and her relationship with Roberta, but I thought the other relationships (specifically with the male characters in the book) were not as well-developed because they did not have enough time for their impact on the reader to match their impact on Sherri and her life.

This is not a knock on the content of the book, but the title doesn't seem to make much sense and that cover is both horrendous and hardly related! Such a fun cover opportunity was totally wasted!

All in all, despite its flaws I was totally hooked for the majority of Sherri's story, thought the settings were all really well done, enjoyed the voice and growth of her character, and enjoyed the ending, though I thought it could have been better executed. I look forward to picking up The Second Home and more from Christina Clancy in the future! This is a great lakeside summer read and lots of fun. Definitely recommend!