Review: Goodbye Earl by Leesa Cross-Smith

Goodbye Earl by Leesa Cross-Smith

Blurb from Goodreads:

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.

 After being blown away by this author's debut last year, I have to say this book was a departure and not necessarily in a good way.  The four POV intermingled at times and the skipping around of the timeline became confusing... a chapter would start in one place and end up somewhere else with no means of how it got there; it just felt like a lot of skipping around.  I didn't love this book but I believe in this author and will continue to read her work.  Hope you have better luck with this one!

Goodbye Earl comes out next week on July 3, 2023 and you can purchase HERE.  

Yep. That electric slut-red cherry on top of the Goldie Dairy Dee sign was zapping like always, even though Kasey Fritz hadn't been back home to see it in fifteen years. She rolled the rental car window down and stuck her hand out--like maybe she could touch the ghosts she knew were there, like lightning bugs wisping through the summer dark.