Goodbye Earl
A Revenge Novel
-
-
4.1 • 18 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Four women take fate into their own hands in this big-hearted story of friendship, resilience, and revenge on monstrous men, from the award-winning author of Half-Blown Rose.
Taking inspiration from the infamous, empowering song, Goodbye Earl follows four best friends through two unforgettable summers, fifteen years apart.
In 2004, Rosemarie, Ada, Caroline, and Kasey are in their final days of high school and on the precipice of all the things teenagers look forward to when anything in life seems possible . . . from falling in love, to finding their dream jobs, to becoming who they were meant to be.
In 2019, Kasey has returned to her small Southern hometown of Goldie for the first time since high school—and she still hasn’t told even her closest friends the truth of what really happened that summer after graduation, or what made her leave so abruptly without looking back. Now reunited with her friends in Goldie for a wedding, she’s determined to focus on the simple joy of being together again. But when she notices troubling signs that one of them might be in danger, she is catapulted back to that fateful summer. This time, Kasey refuses to let the worst moments of her past define her; this time, she knows how to protect those she loves at all costs.
Uplifting, sharp-edged, and unapologetic, Goodbye Earl is a funeral for all the “Earls” out there—the abusive men who think they can get away with anything, but are wrong—and a celebration of enduring sisterhood.
Includes a Reading Group Guide.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cross-Smith's lackluster latest (after Half-Blown Rose) follows four lifelong friends as they reunite for a wedding and conspire to put a stop to abusive men. Wealthy Ada Plum's younger sister is getting married in Goldie, their small hometown in an unnamed Southern state. For the occasion, Ada's friend Kasey Fritz returns from New York City for the first time in 15 years, long after the tragic death of Kasey's mother and abuse she endured from her drug-running stepfather, Roy Dupont. Though Kasey is engaged to a kind man in New York, she feels a tug toward her old beau Silas Castelow, who's now a cop. Rounding out the friend group are Rosemary Kingston, who's back from Seattle, harboring a dark secret about herself, and Caroline Foxberry, a baker who stayed in Goldie and has recently married Trey, a rich local man known for his bad manners. After Trey beats Caroline badly enough to put her in the hospital, the besties conspire to kill him. As the plot ramps up, the author develops a parallel story involving the summer of 2004, when the foursome talked about killing Roy to protect Kasey's mother. Cross-Smith's villains are cartoonishly evil—the men, plus Trey's coddling mother—and though the friends' motivations are understandable, the story nonetheless feels contrived. Readers will be disappointed.
Customer Reviews
5 Star Nostalgic Friendship Love Story!
Goodbye Earl is a nostalgic exploration of the tenderness of girlfriendship through youth and adulthood. A beautiful, complex story of four friends and their lives through two timelines, the past and the present, and the struggle to right the wrongs of their past (and gets revenge on the Earls that made them who they are!)