“King may be the wife of Pat Conroy, but with The Sunday Wife, she established herself as an authentic Southern novelist in her own right. In her latest book, she shows her talent for creating honest, three-dimensional characters… …King’s knack for writing women’s friendships is bound to earn comparisons with Anita Diamant, though fans of all things Southern are bound to find her tone similar to Jill Conner Brown’s nonfiction work… …Highly recommended for all public libraries”
— Library Journal
“With her touching tale of six middle-aged women, Cassandra King will please women who enjoy reading… …King provides readers a strong sense of place in her book… …The Same Sweet Girls is better than most mainstream women’s fiction because it blends well-crafted tension with the usual themes of sappy sisterhood.”
— Foth Worth Star Telegram
“The Same Sweet Girls (SSG) are neither sweet nor girls but rather a bodacious group of women… …In this wide-ranging story, Alabama native Cassandra King constructs wise, funny women with full-blooded lives and depth. You’ll admire the way she slips effortlessly between the surface stuff and the soul-searching in this tale of good, true, and occasionally fickle friendship…”
— Southern Living
“There’s plenty of gossip and speculation as each “girl” hides secrets, past and present, making it an intriguing and fast read… …The book is a wonderful depiction of the intimate and sometimes complicated friendships women form. Love and loathing, trust and apprehension, seem to weave throughout all the relationships. “The Same Sweet Girls” will renew readers’ appreciation for the strength and comfort female friendships bring at any age…”
— Macon Magazine
“THE SAME SWEET GIRLS is based loosely on the author’s own circle of friends, and as warm tribute to their friendship – indeed, to all friendships – it succeeds nicely…”
— Bookpage
“A man reading Cassandra King’s new novel, “The Same Sweet Girls,” might feel like he’s just stolen a copy of the other team’s playbook. Intertwined intricacies of six complex women, women who have been friends and confidantes for decades: It might sound like the fiction (and friction) of “Desperate Housewives,” except that King’s novel is better… …Fans of King’s previous work, however, will still find in this book the colloquial charm, the “cornbread-talking” characters, plus a sometimes poetic style that is reminiscent of her real-life counterpart, Pat Conroy, with just a dab of Lee Smith or Anne Rivers Siddons for good measure.
The subtle ending borrows from F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, preventing simple classification, placing King among her contemporaries in fiction.
All told, King is about spinning a good yarn, and in the end, it’s the story that sticks.”
— Charleston Post and Courier
“King’s previous novels, “The Sunday Wife” and “Making Waves,” have been praised as “rich,” “lush” and “enticing.” Overall, “The Same Sweet Girls” is no different. Its emotional depth is apparent on almost every page, and it lends itself to the kind of immersion many readers desire in a novel…”
— Denver Post & Rocky Mountains News
“BookSense, an organization of independent booksellers with stores in all 50 states, has already named ”The Same Sweet Girls” its book of the month for February. But just as important to King, it has received a good reaction from the critics who matter most – the real Same Sweet Girls.”
— Birmingham News
“…Within a few short paragraphs, this wonderful novelist has the reader captured. Almost immediately I thought about two of my favorite novels by women writers, Lee Smith’s Fair and Tender Ladies and Babs H. Deal’s Three O’clock in the Morning. These are good, strong, beautifully rendered tales about good, strong, beautifully realized characters.”
“With a sleight-of-hand used with the ease and perfection of a master novelist, King creates a world in which her six young women move together… …King creates her own brand of unique Southern woman — each of the sextet full of salt and vinegar, each able to stand on her own…”
“As a novelist, King soars with this magnificent story of these women who love each other deeply while taking cheap shots and verbal stabs.”
— Montgomery Advertiser
“…This bittersweet new novel by the wife of best-selling novelist Pat Conroy is every bit as delicious as the novels about the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Six extraordinary middle-aged women have met twice a year since graduating from college. During their reunions, they drink, they laugh and they sing while recalling past good times and current heart-breaks. At the conclusion of each weekend they crown one of their own, proclaiming her Queen of the Same Sweet Girls…”
“The novel is filled with many surprises… …The biggest surprise is the ending. Reviewer ethics won’t allow me to reveal it, but I will say that it’s right on, revealing once again the strong bond of uncompromising loyalty and love that can exist among women. King admits that she belongs to a real life Same Sweet Girls group, which has reunited every year since college. She claims that none of the women in her group “would ever carry on like the shameless hussies in this book.”
— News & Record (NC)
[King] has an eagle eye for life as we are living it right this red-hot minute… …talent for creating memorable characters who reveal themselves in juicy dialogue and smart-talking commentary.”
— Mobile Register (AL)
