Review by Booklist Review
Novelist Cross-Smith has made a living writing about women dealing with difficult situations in love and life, and Goodbye Earl continues the trend. Fifteen years after finishing high school, four friends reunite in their small southern hometown. Traumatized by events involving her mother's abusive boyfriend, Kasey has not returned since graduation, and is immediately drawn back into her high-school romance despite being engaged. Rosemarie lives on the other side of the country with her girlfriend and is quietly dealing with a recurrence of an aggressive cancer. Caroline suffers at the hands of her abusive husband, while Ada, the mother of four small boys, is happily married to her high-school sweetheart but carries the secret of her mother's addictions. Cross-Smith shifts point of view between the friends to relay their secrets and suffering, and flashes back and forth in time between 2019 and 2004. There is a lot going on, and things tend to get muddled, but readers of relationship fiction who want the lighter side of dark dealings will find much to enjoy.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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. Agent: Kerry D'Agostino, Curtis Brown and Simon Lipskar, Writers House. (July)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A group of friends have their bonds tested during two challenging summers 15 years apart. In 2004, Rosemarie, Ada, Caroline, and Kasey (who affectionately refer to themselves as RACK) are graduating from high school in a small Southern town. Each is mired in concerns for the future, first-time loves, and tumultuous family situations: Rosemarie and Kasey have plans to move away, while Ada and Caroline plan to stay in Goldie and open businesses together. Fifteen years later, the four are reunited in Goldie for the first time since then, as Kasey has finally returned home from New York for a wedding, which forces her to confront the reasons she left abruptly after her mother's death in 2004 as well as her unresolved feelings for her first love even though she's engaged to a man in New York. But her friends are keeping secrets of their own: Rosemarie is dealing with cancer and balancing her emotions for her two lovers; Ada's mother is addicted to painkillers even as Ada is trying to hold on to her perfect marriage; and Caroline is in an abusive marriage with the son of the town's richest family. The four women must relearn how to be honest and revive their unwavering support for each other when one of their own is gravely injured. Cross-Smith has crafted a dense story of devoted friendship against the backdrop of an overwhelming number of minor characters. The rotating third-person perspective combined with the amount of exposition makes it difficult for a compelling central story to rise to the surface, and once it finally does, the tension is too easily resolved, without the seriousness of violent events ever being fully recognized. An unbalanced novel restlessly forces a happy ending. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
