Mobile Register – January 7, 2006
“The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King… could well be subtitled ‘A Manual of Sassiness.’ Though she now resides in South Carolina, the author… is an authentic voice of Alabama… The story is told by different SSG members from chapter to chapter... This technique, which brings to mind old epistolary novels, maximizes King's talent for creating memorable characters who reveal themselves in juicy dialogue and smart-talking commentary… King's novels have little pockets of leisure in which everyday details are held up for examination and a chuckle. She has an eagle eye for life as we are living it right this red-hot minute in the Sunbelt Southeast.”
-- Franklin Daugherty

News & Record (NC) – May 29, 2005
“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… The ending...is right on, revealing once again the strong bond of uncompromising loyalty and love that can exist among women.”

Bookreporter.com – March 2005
“The jacket of the book told me that King belongs to a real life Same Sweet Girls group, which reunites every year. Reading this book I know she is writing from the experience of being a lifelong girlfriend not just in name, but from the heart… King writes great Southern women. She nails the voice, the attitude and the endless small nuances... I really enjoyed King's previous book, The Sunday Wife. In The Same Sweet Girls I feel she takes her writing to a new level.”
-- Carol Fitzgerald

Montgomery Advertiser – March 27, 2005
“Within a few short paragraphs, this wonderful novelist has the reader captured... 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.”
-- Wayne Greenhaw

The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC) – March 20, 2005
“The story of the six friends is told by three of the women - Julia, the first lady of Alabama; Corrine, an artist whose medium is gourds; and Lanier, who has the knack of always screwing up her life… The Same Sweet Girls is a story about the power of women's friendships, despite some bickering and mild dislike between some, and it also is about their problems with husbands, children, parents and health. It's also about expectations of Southern women - to always be sweet, or at least to act sweet.”
-- Gwen Fowler

Library Journal – February 15, 2005
“With The Sunday Wife, [King] 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, The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love. Highly recommended for all public libraries, particularly those with strong Southern fiction collections.”
-- Nancy Milone Hill

Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX) – February 13, 2005
“With her touching tale of six middle-aged women … King has created a wonderful crew of flawed but ingratiating characters… Like her husband, Pat Conroy , King provides readers a strong sense of place in her book. Descriptions of crabbing along a pier in Mobile Bay or walks among the foothills of the Smoky Mountains in Georgia provide a beautiful backdrop for the novel... 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.”
-- Andrea Ahles

Southern Living – February 1, 2005
“The Same Sweet Girls are neither sweet nor girls but rather a bodacious group of women in their late forties who first bonded in college. Now at twice-yearly reunions, they eat, drink, and use favorite insider catchphrases… Don't let that rather simple description fool you. 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.”
-- Nancy Dorman-Hickson

Macon Magazine – February/March 2005
“[A] tale of the powerful bond of female friendship…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.”
-- Beth M. Wilson

Bookpage – February 2005
“On the surface, the members of the facetiously named Same Sweet Girls club… seem like unlikely friends… Instead, they seem to draw strength mostly from the history they share – they’re friends because they’ve always been friends, which may be as good a reason as any… King… is known for her emphatically Southern tales. 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.”
-- Rosalind S. Fournier

Charleston Post and Courier – January 30, 2005
“Southern novel has poetic style of Conroy, subtlety of Fitzgerald… The Same Sweet Girls intones real life with real women, complete with the satiric wit and snappy dialogue one might expect in a King cast of characters… As the crises play out, the women come together in intimate, touching ways. King's different narrators ply the story with texture and depth, each woman's thoughts profound, honest and unfettered... The story's momentum gallops along as the characters' crises escalate into a heart-wrenching, powerful conclusion.”
-- Sean A. Scapellato

Denver Post & Rocky Mountains News – January 16, 2005
“King reminds us just how messy friendship can be: Jealousy and admiration are one and the same, and sometimes the least trusted member of the group is the one most capable of a selfless act… King's previous novels, The Sunday Wife and Making Waves, have been praised as "rich," "lush" and "enticing"... 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… a sincere examination into the nature of long-lasting friendship.”
-- Nicole Backens