Don't judge Bye, Baby on the title. While part of the plot involves a missing infant, the novel mostly explores the deep bonds of friendship, and what happens when the lives of Billie and Cassie move in vastly different directions. Friends since they were kids, Cassie and Billie both grew up in dysfunctional households-although in Billie's case her circumstances were more despicable than dysfunctional. Going to college at different schools in the same city, Cassie and Billie lean on each other through multiple trials with their friendship intact. Until Cassie starts hanging out with a wealthy crowd and eventually marries Grant- his trust fund makes Cassie overlook the fact that Grant is a cad, while Billie struggles to pay her bills. It's really hard to like Cassie-she is pretentious and selfish-and you instantly side with Billie as Cassie and her friends exclude Billie from their lives. But when things take a very dark turn it's Cassie you'll cry for. An exploratory tale about the "haves and have nots," Bye, Baby is gripping and intense, with a series of extremely poor choices at the center. The writing is edgy in the best way, and while all the characters (except for Billie's new boyfriend Alex) are deficient in empathy while overflowing with greed, you'll get sucked into their orbit quickly. Bye, baby explores an age old conundrum..is the opposite of love hate or apathy, and really which is worse? Even more, you'll forever ponder another eternal question...do two wrongs ever make a right?

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my review!

4/5 stars! Sometimes the stories that keep us hooked are the ones where we DESPISE the characters. The unlikable characters (minus poor Baby Ella) don’t drag the story down, but instead, keep the reader moving along and wondering, “gosh, what will they do next?”

The story is split into two unique parts: Part 1 gives essential background information, specifically building the personas of the main characters. Part 2 answers the burning questions. The ending did not completely satisfy me. I was hoping for more character development or “lessons learned” for Cassie and Billy.

Many thrillers lose readers along the way with sub plots and flashbacks. While past and present events coexisted in Bye, Baby, the author moved the story along in a way that doesn’t confuse the reader.

Quick beach read for the
influencer age. Murder,
kidnapping, Insta.
⭐️⭐️⭐️🌟

I give haiku reviews but am happy to provide more feedback.

This book is wildly entertaining; sometimes dark, sometimes light but overall such a good (and terrifying) story! Billie and Cassie become best friends at a young age and believe they are destined to be in each other's lives forever. But of course life gets in the way as Cassie marries young and has baby Ella. Billie has "issues" as her mother gets dementia in her 40's and has married Wade, a disgusting man who fancies Billie and will eventually pay for that! Their friendship goes through many ups and downs and Cassie hasn't even spoken to Billie for years after finding a new set of friends who worship her and her high-end influencer posts on Instagram. And then in an instant everything changes as Billie makes a rash decision that can never be taken back.
And on a semi-related note, they call each other "Baby" after Dirty Dancing, their favorite movie (one of my faves as well) and it blends into the themes beautifully!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

The book started slow for me, but before I realized it I was hooked. I just had to know how it ended. The relationship between Cassie and Billie was complicated. A majority of the story was unraveling why they each acted the way they did to each other. In the end we will find out why and how they move on. I enjoyed the book and I’m sure others will as well.

Bye Baby tells the story of Billie and Cassie, friends since childhood, who have grown distant over the years. Now both in their mid- 30s, Cassie is a married popular Instagram influencer and high-end boutique owner who recently had a baby, and Bille feels left behind in Cassie’s shadow because she is still in the dating world and child free.
With dual timelines alternating with the beginning of their friendship and the night Billie snatches Cassie’s infant daughter, both perspectives are shown. But why would Billie commit such a heinous act? The story unfolds at a perfect pace that left me wanting to read more and more.
I loved this story; the toxicity of this friendship is shown in the flashbacks along with a strong bond and neediness of each other that eventually boils over.
This was a 5*read. Thank you St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the E-Arc and the chance to review it!

I found myself not able to stop reading this book. I truly wanted to find out what happened next. We all have that best friend that we grew up with and remained in our lives as an adult, but what kind of friend takes your baby off your terrace??? Clearly this book deals with issues that women have when they were once inseparable as youth but estranged when becoming adults. One friend might handle it fine but the other is not ready to be replace. I enjoyed this book but I did not love it. I would recommend to my book club or my close friends.

The story of a distorted friendship. What was once a live or die twosome from childhood through high school dissolves when Cassie obsesses over her new wealthy cohorts at Harvard, while co-dependent Billie whines about losing her best friend. The plot continues through adulthood with a few twists and turns along the way.

What I liked: Flashbacks to explain the growing up years. Chapters with alternative points of view.

What I didn’t like: The repetitive plot. I did a lot of skimming.

(By the way, Cassie earned money as an “influencer.” That’s a current trend that baffles me. Yes, dear reading friends, I am old!)

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read and review this ARC.

The book was really enjoyable in the beginning and really enjoyable at the end. But it felt like the middle dragged on for a while. I had to take a break from this book to read something else and come back to it because the pace was slower than I would have liked and the unhealthy obsession Billie had with Cassie was hard to read at times, though that is likely intentional. Overall the book was good.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advanced reader copy. Oh my I do not know where to begin.! This book had me from the prologue and I had trouble putting it down for the days that I read it. We have two incredible characters in this book Billie and Cassie.. They meet as kids and then their friendship over the years has so much entangled within that connection. The story will have you angry, furious and the times turning pages so quickly to see what’s going to happen.. Billie and Cassie have so much history, but what happens within their strained relationship will have you reeling till the final pages. Get ready for a great book.!

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy of Bye, Baby. It’s a must read! The book kept me entertained and on the edge of my seat.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. I'm a huge fan of Carola Lovering, and this didn't disappoint. In my opinion this is the darkest of her novels, but I loved the relationship between the two women. You can't really compare any of her books but the writing is always top notch. I binged this, and can't wait for her next one.

This was an interesting look at how people perceive things, having many side elements, like rape, instability, social class, abortion, not wanting children, influencers, and Alzheimers disease. Too many issues cloud the story and make the original story get bogged down with the other side issues. Unfortunately for me, it added elements that were not fully brought out and made for a somewhat tedious story at times.

The book is marketed as “A missing baby. A fraught friendship. A secret that can never be told,” it opens up with the baby missing. But, halfway through the book, the baby is returned, the friendship is still fraught, and the secret has been revealed. It seemed like all the cards had been played, yet the book still had over 100+ pages left.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for an ARC of this book.

I wouldn’t say this is a thriller it read more like fiction with just a small amount of Suspense. The story is about a toxic friendship and told in two POV Cassie and Billie. I enjoyed the story the writing style is what I really liked about the book which kept me going. The ending for me was just meh it fell flat, left me having mixed feelings about the book!
Still worth the read and I would still read more books by this author.

An eye opening novel about friendship, between two women who grew up with and without a silver spoon. It’s a great story about infatuation, survival, lies and growing up. Friends get us through life, but they do come and go as we learn and grow. For some people it’s hard to let go of the friends we know we no longer have anything in common with or those who are just filled with childhood memories and nothing else.

Bye, Baby is not what you think the title means and it’s beautifully explained at the end of the story.

3.5⭐️ This is the story of two unlikable people and their incredibly toxic friendship. Cassie is a stuck-up gold digger, and Billie is a girl who needs some serious therapy. The dual timelines help explain the mystery that binds these two together all these years. I was expecting a thriller, so toward the end, I thought something more sinister would happen, but nothing did. All in all, it's a quick, enjoyable read. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book. I could not put this book down. I have read some of Lovering’s other books and this is, by far, the best! Billie and Cassie are friends. They grow up together and grow apart. On a night when Billie is not at Cassie’s glamorous birthday party, she steals Cassie’s baby. And brings her back. The things that led up to the kidnapping and return, and the subsequent fallout, will have you reading this book in one go. This book is perfect for a book club, we all know people like Cassie and Billie. It will also, most likely, be made into a movie. I got to read this in the late Summer. This would make a wonderful beach read.

I enjoyed this story, it was different than what I’ve read before. It’s about a toxic friendship held together by a trauma bond and how people grow apart & have different values in life. It was very well written and I felt the connection with the characters from the beginning. I felt more connected to Billie, and not so much Cassie that was more interested in money and Instagram fame. It was like I was watching a drama show on TV that didn’t make me cringe. Definitely recommend this as a drama and 100% not a thriller though.

Every parent's worst fear - kidnapping. Carola Lovering's Bye, Baby is not to be missed! Cant' wait to read her next work.

I actually really enjoyed this book. An interesting plot and complex characters lifted this novel to a new level.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127305890