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Leesa Cross-Smith
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Goodbye Earl: A Revenge Novel Kindle Edition

by Leesa Cross-Smith (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 295 ratings
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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.
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  1. Print length
    401 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Grand Central Publishing
  5. Publication date
    July 3, 2023
  6. File size
    2441 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
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From the Publisher

Goodbye Earl
Goodbye Earl
Goodbye Earl

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Leesa Cross-Smith is a homemaker and the author of Every Kiss A War, Whiskey & Ribbons, So We Can Glow, This Close to Okay, and Half-Blown Rose. She lives in Kentucky with her husband and their two teenagers. Find more at LeesaCrossSmith.com.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BLNCQC55
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Publishing (July 3, 2023)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 3, 2023
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2441 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 401 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 295 ratings

About the author

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Leesa Cross-Smith

Leesa Cross-Smith

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Leesa Cross-Smith is a homemaker and writer from Kentucky. She is the author of GOODBYE EARL, HALF-BLOWN ROSE, THIS CLOSE TO OKAY, SO WE CAN GLOW, WHISKEY & RIBBONS, and EVERY KISS A WAR. Her next novel is the forthcoming AS YOU WISH. HALF-BLOWN ROSE was the Amazon Editors’ Spotlight for June 2022 and the inaugural pick for Amazon’s Editorial Director Sarah Gelman’s Book Club Sarah Selects. THIS CLOSE TO OKAY was a Goodreads Choice 2021 Nominee for Best Fiction, a Book of the Month Book of the Year 2021 Nominee, a Book of the Month Early Release Pick for December 2020, the Good Housekeeping Book Club Pick for February 2021, and the Marie Claire Book Club Pick for March 2021. THIS CLOSE TO OKAY was also longlisted for the 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. SO WE CAN GLOW was listed as one of NPR’s Best Books of 2020 and was longlisted for the 2021 Joyce Carol Oates Prize. WHISKEY & RIBBONS won the 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) Gold Medal in Literary Fiction, was longlisted for the 2018 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was one of O Magazine's 2018 Top Books of Summer. EVERY KISS A WAR was nominated for the PEN Open Book Award (2014) and was a finalist for both the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction (2012) and the Iowa Short Fiction Award (2012). Find more @ LeesaCrossSmith.com

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
295 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Elicia Fox
5.0 out of 5 stars charming, sweet, a little sexy, with a great solidarity plot twist
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2024
Verified Purchase
I loved the way all the women are so present for each other, and the way they navigate disagreements is very honest.
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Sharon Rosenfield
4.0 out of 5 stars Loved women taking matters into their own hands
Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2023
Enjoyable book with separate timelines but it seemed to work. It is so sad that there is not much that can be done about abusive men. The four women were great and felt like complicated real people. I wanted recipes for the pies and maybe an epilogue.
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shopper in VA
3.0 out of 5 stars Good read with many, many characters!
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2023
Verified Purchase
This was a good read but had trouble keeping track of who was who. Had to go back a few chapters many times to figure it out. Good plot, but a bit unbelievable.... could this really happen? Maybe so ---actually, maybe it does but we don't know about it! Did get tired of all the professions of ''love you SO much!!!" thinking that was nice but over the top. The descriptions of the Town of Goldie were nicely done making it easy to envision the place. Tone down the lovey stuff and this story would have been a 4 star. I'd recommend, though, for a good summer read.
One person found this helpful
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M_V
5.0 out of 5 stars A love (and revenge) story!
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2023
Verified Purchase
5-Star Love for this book! Goodbye Earl is a bright, fun, nostalgic, friendship, girlfriendship love story. An exploration of the tenderness and innocence of youth - and the sudden loss of it. Of rebuilding and renewing lives and lost experiences, the absolving and cleansing of friendships, mistakes, and uninvited evils. Goodbye Earl is a beautiful, complex story of four friends, two timelines, two summers, two lifetimes, and two very different outcomes in the adventures of young women’s lives through the righting of terrible wrongs. An ending that both inspires and begs for more, the best kind of summer book for the poolside, the beach, the porch or the peaceful shade of your favorite tree…with a slice of cherry pie and sweet tea at hand.
2 people found this helpful
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E.Snurd
4.0 out of 5 stars Faithful to the Song but with Lots more to Offer
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2023
A story of four women, friends since before they could walk, two with difficult lives and not enough money. One from a hippie music making family. And one from a more traditional solidly ok middle class family. Rosemarie, Ada, Caro and Kasey: RACK. Goodbye Earl riffs of the song made famous by The Chicks involving old high school friends murdering one's husband after he beat her so badly she ended up in intensive care. I thought at first that the characters would be shallow, but they are not. The novel switches back and forth between 2019, when Kasey returns to their little southern town of Goldie for the first time since her mother died and 2004, the year the members of RACK graduated from high school. Domestic violence plays a central role in this book, as it must. Kasey grew up in a household with a violent stepfather. She's engaged now, living in New York and now, back in Goldie, she is instantly swept up into her friends' lives, spending time with a high school love, and finding out that someone they all know is in danger from a violent partner.

I enjoyed reading Goodbye Earl. It was a fast read. A good nod to the song's story of devoted friends standing up for one another. A great portrait of the town of Goldie. A nice dive into good and bad relationships/marriages. A poignant story of loss. For me, one of the most engaging parts involved the women of the town getting involved in a police investigation and each o their statements offered about what a jerk a man in town was, all his life, and that he came from several generations of jerks. So, it's also a story about stepping up and no longer accepting what has always been swept under the rug. Definitely recommend if the kind of book is appealing to you.
2 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer Carol E
2.0 out of 5 stars Nostalgic
Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2023
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I really tried to like this book, but I think my mature age got in the way. It took a lot of effort on the author's part to write this and I do appreciate that.
One person found this helpful
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Peace Finder
5.0 out of 5 stars I couldn’t put it down. Truly unforgettable in so many ways. A MUST READ
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2023
Verified Purchase
Finally revenge. I don’t have “Goodbye Earl” on my running playlist for nothing and now I have this cherished story of truly strong, resilient and authentic women to remember whenever these types of situations arise in life, as the unfortunately always do. As others have said, Leesa Cross-Smith has written so much more than a revenge story in “Goodbye Earl” but the revenge was truly sweet! I read late into the night, woke up and continued. I’ll be feeling the glow of this beautifully written story in my heart probably forever. Thank you Leesa Cross-Smith and all those who supported her in making this book a reality. I think I’ll read it again - right now!! 😊
3 people found this helpful
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Katieneedsabiggerbookshelf
4.0 out of 5 stars so good
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2023
RACK has been inseparable since they were kids. The four girls have been best friends since childhood, and being adults has not changed a thing. This book has a dual timeline between their childhood and current day. Though Kasey hasn’t told anyone, even RACK what happened the day of graduation, when they all come together for a wedding now, the friend group will be brought back to the past, and finally decide to do something about it…

So it’s the beginning of June and these won’t post until the end of July, but damn I don’t know if it’s me or the books, but all the tears this weekend! This book had me laughing, infuriated, and crying. I mean talk about the trifecta. This book truly shows the amaze-balls value of childhood friends. I am so lucky to have some of these friends, and though we don’t live close, when we chat it’s like no time has passed at all. I just adored the friendship, and the close relationships throughout the town of Goldie. While I strongly disliked (maybe even hated) some characters, the way the book came together was just perfection in my mind. As a side note: there is a good amount of domestic violence in this book, so if that is a trigger I would avoid.
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