If you enjoyed the others from this author/in this series, you'll like this one! This follows Frankie on yet another adventure and I enjoyed every minute.

Another five star read from Gardner. This was my first Frankie Elkin book and I enjoyed it so much, I instantly downloaded the first three after reading. I learned so much about the refugee system and was shocked at times. Overall, an excellent, moving read!

Lisa Gardner has done it again. I found this book very interesting and at times intense. I loved the way Lisa has taken a subject that so needs to be highlighted and shown for the scary, sad, overwhelming life of a refugee yet added in the funny almost comical situation that Frankie Elkin gets herself into in this story. I did find myself struggling with the intensity of some of the written words and the picture that they painted of the refuge camps but then Lisa would introduce a rich gamer with a love of reptiles and that allowed my mind to settle and keep reading.
Frankie Elkin is amazing and Lisa thank you for giving me the chance to learn more about things outside of my comfort zone.
Netgalley and Penguin thank you for the ARC. This review is my thoughts and feelings alone.

Strongly recommend this good, but sad, read

This was sad to read. A young woman, who helped the US in her native Afghanistan, finally got to the US after years of waiting under deplorable conditions in a refugee camp. When she, and then her husband, are missing, leaving their precocious 4 year old daughter alone, Frankie ties to find out what happened and hopefully find the parents.

It was tough to read and see how our promise to help those who could be killed by helping the US just turns out to be a bunch of BS for many people. The timing was bad for me as I was reading this right when all refugee applicants, who had been waiting for years through no fault of their own, were shut down. Despicable.

But, the book and the mystery behind the missing parents was very good. It will haunt me for a long time. Maybe it will help shine some light on the plight of people we used and abandoned.

Kiss He Goodbye by Lisa Gardner
I am a Lisa Gardner junky. I’ve really been enjoying the antics of her newest character, Frankie Elkin. She’s a (recovering) alcoholic that goes around finding missing people. She’s also sassy and full of great one liners.
Her latest mission involves a woman refugee, Sabera from Afghanistan who goes missing and leaves behind a husband and 4 year old child. Not long after the husband disappears and people are after Zahara, the child. Frankie and her newfound crew of entertaining misfit friends are determined to protect her and bring her family back home.
I learned a lot about the Afghanistan culture and the refugee life which is very sad. It was a bit hard to sometimes follow just because it was so different but over all still a good read.

I absolutely love Frankie Elkin!!! She is a fantastic character. Frankie is a finder of missing persons. Said missing persons have usually been missing awhile, their trail has gone cold, and they are not usually still alive by then. Frankie is a solitary person, having suffered a major life tragedy years ago. She does not form long-lasting relationships or put down roots and basically lives a nomad-type existence, helping where she can. I have read all three books in the series and was super-stoked to read this 4th entry! This one was an eye-opener. Frankie is enlisted by a former Afghan refugee to find a different refugee, Sabera, who has been missing for 3 weeks, and no one, including her husband, seems to care. Her friend doesn't think she would've just up and left her young daughter. Sabera has a sad yet fascinating backstory having escaped from Kabul as it was falling under Taliban rule. We learn a lot about the refugee system, something I am embarrassed to say, I rarely think about it. Families torn apart, living for months in refugee camps just to name a few of their hardships. But anyway, Frankie meets a lot of colorful characters along her journey, especially Petunia and her roommates. Frankie may also be developing, dare I say it, feelings for someone and I hope we see her lifestyle changing just a bit to accommodate that. I cannot wait for the next installment. And there better be a next one. Hint, hint!

Thank you so much to #NetGalley, Lisa Gardner and Grand Central Publishing for this much appreciated ARC. All opinions are my own.

I will post my review to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Instagram and other retail and social media sites upon publication day of August 12, 2025.

Frankie Elkins has a mission, to find missing people, whether children or adults, she wants to find them. She doesn’t really understand it herself. She is contacted by a friend of an Afghan refugee . Sabera has been missing for a while now and would not have left her four year old daughter behind. This was quite exciting. Frankie found a place to stay and a job. The place is a high end mansion of a video gaming champion who will be away for a few weeks. The job is looking after a giant Iguana, Petunia, a giganric python, Marge and several baby pythons. This was a hilarious part of the book, Frankie dealing with the snakes and iguana. Lots of fun characters in the book also.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of Lisa Gardner’s latest novel, “Kiss Her Goodbye”. Frankie Elkin is back, searching for the missing, this time an Afghan refugee named Sabera who has disappeared after being resettled in Tucson, Arizona.

As usual, Frankie is quickly immersed in a dangerous situation where Sabera’s troubled past in Afghanistan and complicated family ties may be coming back to haunt her. Complicating matters further is Sabera’s young daughter Zahra who Frankie is trying to keep safe while she tracks down her mother. Meanwhile, to pay her way in Tucson, Frankie is tasked with caring for the pet snakes and iguana of an eccentric young man, whose other employees at the estate where she is staying provide Frankie with invaluable support during her search.

This is another excellent entry in this unique series. Gardner obviously put a great deal of effort into researching the Afghan refugee experience, as the novel provides fascinating and sometimes heartbreaking detail about Sabera’s journey, from her life in Afghanistan to her migration into the United States. A very exciting and moving read, highly recommended. 5 stars.

I will not lie I did not read books 1-3 but it also didnt keep me back I really liked this book!The most beautiful parts of this book were some of the most painful. I know nothing about refugee camps and only hear about the Taliban from the news. I'm so far removed from it all, it didn't seem real. But the author paints such a vivid, bleak picture of despair that you'll find yourself in the camp with these people. To balance out such a stark story line, I absolutely loved how Frankie found lodging and the people she ended up with, which had a lot of lighter 'found family' moments that made this my favorite installment yet. Told in alternating points of view and with dual timelines is something I have always loved and this one I definitely loved as well and recommend highly.

Oh Frankie Elkin, I love you so much! Another hit by Lisa Gardner. This installment of the Frankie Elkin series was gripping and exciting. I couldn't put it down!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Frankie Elkin best describers herself as a rolling stone. Lisa Gardner fans, and by extension fans of Frankie will agree with her assessment. KISS HER GOODBYE is our fourth literary voyage with Frankie.
Lisa Gardner centers KISS HER GOODBYE around an actual event. When the USA left Afghanistan rather abruptly leaving behind a sizable number of people that had actually helped the American military stationed there. Translators who were familiar with the area and knowledgeable about the politics. These folk and their families were left to face the oncoming takeover by the Taliban. They were seen as the enemy and dealt with, seemingly no holds barred. Violence was rampant. Casualties in mass numbers.
One of the tenets of Islam, as Lisa Gardner reminds us, clearly states that only God has the power to give or take away life. The main characters of KISS HER GOODBYE struggle with the knowledge that so many of their traditions and beliefs were being destroyed. This is the ongoing mantra of the book. The intertwining of terror, kidnapping, murder, hiding, secrets, and religion. When you consider worldwide event you have to wonder about killing in the name of religion.
Lisa Gardner plops us right smack in the middle of a puzzle. Some truly genius characters know their way around this puzzle. Frankie Elkin is at a decidedly difficult disadvantage here. Candidly, so are law officials. The repeatedly voiced phrases by a four-year-old just may hold some important clues. Reminder, if Lisa Gardner includes it, it will most probably be important.
Time is not on their side. And Frankie is once again facing down some of her own demons while addressing the danger to those who are looking for the same missing person as she. Sabera, her husband Isaad and daughter Zahra are central to the mystery here. Sabera has been carefully taught by her mother how crucial keeping secrets is to the future of not only their family, but of their country and culture. Danger is ever present. So they speak in code. Isaad is a mathematic genius. And between Sabera and Isaad their daughter Zahra is a sponge. What Frankie understands right off the bat is that the disappearance of Sabera will likely put the family in peril. Again with the withdrawal of troops the citizens were now targets of the Taliban. The destruction of a thriving civilization. Many were able to escape and wound up in American cities. But it seems that the danger may have followed them here.
KISS HER GOODBYE is a page turner. Difficult to put down once you have become invested in the lives of people who face the loss of everything. Not the first time in history. Sabera’s mother rather concisely lectured her on the probability of folks trying to take their prized possessions when they were evacuating. In truth they mostly arrived with nothing but the clothes on their back.

𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆'𝒔 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅. 𝑨 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒏, 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆, 𝑰𝒇 𝒘𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓, 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍?

I absolutely love this series, and this installment hit harder than the others. I can't decide if it's because of Frankie's vulnerability that she rarely shows, because the plot that was so reminiscent of our own current political landscape where it's every man for himself, or because the writing was just so achingly beautiful. I'm going to say it was all of these. Don't read this as a standalone, even though you can. Frankie Elkin has a calling to find the missing, and you need to start at book one and be there for her character development every step of the way.

Aghan refugee Sabera Ahmadi was last seen three weeks ago when she left work. The local police haven't opened a missing persons case, and her husband doesn't seem concerned about his wife's absence. Sabera's closest friend insists that she would never willingly leave her three‑year old daughter. With Frankie on the case, we know that she'll get answers--even if those closest to Sabera won't like what she finds.

The most beautiful parts of this book were some of the most painful. I know nothing about refugee camps and only hear about the Taliban from the news. I'm so far removed from it all, it didn't seem real. But the author paints such a vivid, bleak picture of despair that you'll find yourself in the camp with these people. To balance out such a stark story line, I absolutely loved how Frankie found lodging and the people she ended up with, which had a lot of lighter 'found family' moments that made this my favorite installment yet.

Told in alternating points of view and with dual timelines, KISS HER GOODBYE is Lisa Gardner at her very best. Frankie's story is far from over, and I audibly gasped at this ending. Even though '𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍, 𝑰 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒅. 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑰 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏, 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒌𝒆 𝒖𝒑' is not from Frankie's POV, it shows how our experiences as women--as humans--are all intertwined. Thank you to the author for this book I so desperately needed and to Grand Central Publishing for the early copy. This title is expected to publish August 12, 2025.

Lisa Gardner has done it again with Kiss Her Goodbye. I read this novel in one sitting. The plot regarding the refugees is all too real. It was engaging and the characters were endearing and kept me reading. I fell in love with Frankie Elkin and can't wait to read Gardner's previous novels that feature her.

Frankie Elkin is a character with so many layers. In Kiss Her Goodbye, I felt like she perhaps, will not be such a nomad with a huge heart in the future. No spoilers, but I have my fingers crossed. Also, Petunia stole the show. I will not go into details, but she has the best home life and is just so smart/intuitive. OK onto the story…
Frankie heads to Arizona, when a recent refugee from Afghanistan goes missing. Her husband doesn’t seem overly concerned, but her friend swears that she would not just abandon her four-year-old daughter. The amount of research that went into describing the horrific circumstances behind losing your country, your family, your friends, and your career, was just amazing. As usual, the author wove these facts into a compelling mystery and the pages just flew by.
Did I guess how this would end? Absolutely not. I cannot wait to see where fate takes Frankie next.

I love the twists in this book. Lisa Gardener is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors! Must read!

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

I very much enjoyed this book. The writing was great and the characters were well developed. I hope to read more from this author in the future.

I love Lisa's Frankie Elkin series so I couldn't wait to read book #4, Kiss Her Goodbye. This time Frankie is called to go to Tuscon AZ to find a missing Afghan refugee. Her friend is worried about the young mother. She's been missing for three weeks and nobody seems overly concerned about it. She left work one day and just disappeared. Her friend knows she would never leave her daughter voluntarily though. When a video of the young mother surfaces that shows her walking away from a brutal double homicide, Frankie fears there is much more to her disappearance. When her husband disappears and her 4 year old daughter is a victim of a failed kidnapping attempt Frankie knows she must act fast. There are so many twists and turns in this book! I couldn't put it down. This fourth book in the series did not disappoint and I highly recommend it! Thanks to @NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Frankie Elgin returns, this time she’s assisting a recent refugee from Afghanistan, whose friend has gone missing. This book takes a deep dive into the lives of the men and women of Afghanistan and how they have survived invasions by the Soviet Union, the Taliban, and the American military. Lisa Gardner never disappoints.

Afghan refugee Sabera Ahmadi left work one day and never arrived home. Her husband was unconcerned, but her closest friend feared the worst. Sabera would never disappear and leave her three-year-old daughter behind. Frankie Elkin agreed to aid in the search, which found her in the steamy streets of Tucson.
After Frankie learned about the Ahmadi family's complexities, she realized this would be a complex investigation. The head of the family, Isaad, was a brilliant mathematician. Sabera was a gifted linguist; her young daughter had a photographic memory, and her ability to remember everything may have placed a strange curse on her life.
After Isaad disappears under mysterious circumstances and Azhara’s life is threatened, Frankie fears the family is being targeted and moves ahead quickly to uncover the family’s past to protect them from any further violence.

KISS HER GOODBYE was another excellent installment in the Frankie Elkin series, who continues to grow and deepen along with her adventures. This one explores many facets of being an Afghan refugee, which was refreshing and at times heartbreaking to learn about. A lot of research clearly went into this one and it all came together in a story that was creative, richly imagined, and satisfying.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read and review KISS HER GOODBYE.