I had high hopes for this one after LOVING Too Good to Be True & Can’t Look Away, but found myself incredibly frustrated with both FMC’s and the miscommunications (or lack thereof). Cassie was absolutely awful, selfish, unlikable and annoying. Billie was frustrating. That said, I was curious enough to keep going to find out how this story played out and I really loved Alex. I was happy that they ended up okay/working things out. Overall, I liked this one enough- but it wasn’t a fav. Thanks so so much for my galley!!!!

This book literally left me speechless. Two women were best friends growing up, and began drifting apart once they reached college age, when they went to different colleges. Cassie Barnwell went to a prestigious and expensive college, where she made a lot of friends and future contacts. She married well and now has a child. She has an upscale clothing shop and is an influencer with a fair following. She promotes the articles she has in her shop. Cassie thought her life was just about perfect, and then her infant daughter disappeared one night.

Billie West's mother had died and her college money was no longer available to her, so she was not able to attend college with Cassie, something they had always planned to do. Billie worked to put herself through college, and is co-owner of a business which arranges tours and vacations. She also leads a lot of the tours in exotic, interesting places. Billie is marriage-shy, due to having a front-row seat to her mother's horrific remarriage. For everything she has going for her, she still wants her best friend back, but her best friend has moved on.

This story is full of unexpected twists and some shocking revelations. I recommend it for every reader who enjoys a good character driven thriller.

My thanks to the author, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book. It was my pleasure to voluntarily read and review it.

Bye, Baby is definitely not what I expected based on the first chapter. This book has some aspects of a thriller, but the real focus is on the dynamics of female friendship when people start becoming mothers. I was hoping for Carola Lovering’s style of writing from Tell Me Lies—toxic, sexy, entertaining. This book definitely brought toxicity through the codependency of adult friends. While I could relate to the struggles of female friendship in our thirties, I found the constant need for approval from a friend to be hard to relate to, at least currently. I also found a lot of the plot to be predictable, and I had trouble caring about any of the characters. It was still enjoyable, though. I appreciated the examination of how friendships changed post-baby. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Carola Lovering for the ARC.

“Bye, Baby” is Carola Lovering’s fourth novel. I absolutely devoured it. I read this book over the course of two days (but it could’ve been one if I started sooner in the day) and it was great. This book examines what happens when best friends grow apart. It’s an incredibly relatable topic and I found myself both rooting for and against the characters at the same time. Both main characters were really dynamic, in part due to the dual perspective of the novel.

Billie West is in a tumultuous relationship with her lifeline friend Cassie. Cassie has managed to outgrow their small town life, and finds herself married to a wealthy New Yorker. On top of this, she has a young baby and a blossoming Instagram following as a fashion influencer. Billie is childless, single, and works at a travel company, which allows her to explore the world. It seems that there’s no room for Billie in Cassie’s new life, so she decides to make the room for herself. When Billie hears Cassie’s screaming, she knows that she’ll be called to the rescue. She managed to hear Cassie’s baby crying one floor above her, and Billie decides she has to take action. So without much thought she kidnaps the baby. Is a missing child enough to reignite their friendship?

“Bye, Baby” will be published on March 5th, 2024. I am eternally grateful to St. Martin’s Press as well as NetGalley for the DRC of this amazing novel.

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering

352 Pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: March 5, 2024

Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Friendships, Relationship Dynamics, Kidnapping

Billie and Cassie grew up together and were best friends even though they were so different. Billie’s mother suffers early onset Alzheimer’s, and her stepfather is abusing her. Cassie plans to attend Harvard while Billie goes to Northeastern. Cassie wants so much more out of life. She wants to marry for money and improve her station in life. Now that she has graduated college, married, with an infant, she is a micro-influencer. She has close to 49 thousand followers. When her infant daughter is taken, she realizes there is more to life than Instagram and posting for strangers.

The story has a fast pace, the characters are well developed, and it is written in the first-person point of view from two different perspectives. The characters are flawed but believable. Billie is clingy and Cassie is shallow. The title comes from their favorite teen movie, Dirty Dancing, “Nobody puts Baby in the corner.” As teens, they called each other Baby. This is the story of friendship and how much a person can take before breaking. If you like stories that involve friends with drama, you may enjoy reading this one.

I genuinely enjoyed this book! It was nothing too insane for a thriller and yet I was completely invested.

Billie and Cassie were the best of friends growing up. Once they entered college they started to drift apart, Cassie more so. She began to leave Billie out of things and seemed to be heading in a different direction in life. Before Billie knew it she was learning about Cassie's life through her Instagram account, along with the other 45,000 followers. As hard as she tries she cannot seem to rekindle the once unbreakable bond she and Cassie used to have, until Cassie's baby is kidnapped and she leans on Billie more than ever before. As Billie starts to put everything aside for the friendship, Cassie starts to delve deeper into the kidnapping and wonder if Billie had something to do with it.

This was the first book I've read by Carola Lovering and after reading it I will definitely seek our her earlier books! This had me on the edge of my seat in a "I don't want to read it, but I can't stop looking away" type of book. The type where you know the main character will eventually be found out and you cringe at her actions. I couldn't put it down and it's a must read for anyone who loves suspenseful stories.

This book!!!!! Omg! This book consumed me and did not let up for one single moment. I could 100% relate to the intense bond between Billie and Cassie, and also to the fact that friendships evolve; people change. In “Bye, Baby”, Cassie and Billie are closer than sisters and share soooo much together, including a deep secret, but as life moves forward, the friendship changes. All is somewhat ok until one night when Billie does something terrible, causing a set of repercussions no one can stop. This is such a great book! I absolutely loved it. If you love thrillers but also books about female friendships, this is for you. And if you don’t like those types of books, this book is still for you!!! Do not pass this one up!
Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the ARC!

It focuses on a sort of toxic friendship between Billie and Cassie who are truly like sisters who understand each other really well and have been through some difficult circumstances in the past that binds them together forever. Now in their thirties, they have completely different worlds especially as Cassie has curated her world just the way she wants though she is an absolute shallow gold-digger and has hurt many people on her path to money. Billie continues to live in the past and expects to be Cassie’s BFF but in reality Cassie has moved on to different spheres in the society and this makes Billie almost stalkerish.

In spite of these unlikeable characters, it was an entertaining read and it is the author’s writing style that manages to hook the readers into this plot. Billie’s boyfriend Alex was the only likable character and all others were really flawed yet I wanted to shake Billie hard so that she comes to face reality about her friendship with Cassie and lives her life for once. The kidnapping of Cassie’s baby felt like an explosive start and I expected more wild twists at the end and wanted to be surprised but it was more of a mature and calming end showing how much the characters valued each other’s presence in their past.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martins Press for the gifted advanced copy!

I love Carola Lovering’s books and have read every one of them. Her writing in Bye, Baby is stunning as always, really captivating. And this story had me fully invested until the middle when we found out what happened. After that I sort of wanted it to wrap up a bit faster or something exciting and different to happen in the last half of the book. But overall this was a very enjoyable read. I am a dedicated fan and will absolutely read the next one!!

Carola Lovering, is and always will be one of my favorite authors.

I have tried to pin It down with what I love so much about her writing and the truth is, that is it, it's her writing. Her style is fluid and can make even an intimidatingly lengthy book, breeze by in a day. I get completely lost within the chapters and find myself thinking about these people as though they exist.

I read a few other reviews that have said there are unlikable characters and the truth is, I liked them all (except Wade), flawed and all. The bond Billie and Cassie, even though at times one sided, was also a really strong bond that each girl needed at different points in their lives.

Cassie is selfish, a golddigger. However, she is also an incredible mother who just wants the best of what the world has to offer. Can any of us say we want differently? Cassie just set her mind on something and went for it. The boys whose hearts she broke were better off without her and with a person who would truly appreciate them. In my head, we all end up with who we are supposed to. Grant, an equally shallow human, is perfect for Cassie!

Billie, I loved her. I loved her loyalty and her unwavering support for Cassie. Some might see it as an obsession but these two girls lives intertwined so much at such crucial moments that they were more like sisters than friends and I understand why Billie didn't want to give that up especially being as though she didn't do anything wrong.

Things I loved about this book :

1. All the Dirty Dancing references
2. The friendship that once existed between these women
3. Alex and Billie, how real their relationship was, with all the chaos and flaws

I would love to know more about what happens to Alex and Billie. Im never one for sequels but I feel like there is a lot more that can come from this story.

Bye, Baby, is sure to be a hit and I can almost guarantee this book is made into a mini series to follow in the footsteps of Tell Me Lies.

As always, Carola Lovering, has done it again, 5 stars.

Teaser :

A missing baby. A fraught friendship. A secret that can never be told.

On a brisk fall night in a New York apartment, 35-year-old Billie West hears terrified screams. It's her lifelong best friend Cassie Barnwell, one floor above, and she's just realized her infant daughter has gone missing. Billie is shaken as she looks down into her own arms to see the baby, remembering—with a jolt of fear—that she is responsible for the kidnapping that has instantly shattered Cassie’s world.

So begins the story of Billie and Cassie's friendship—both in recent weeks, and since they met twenty-three years ago, in their small Hudson Valley hometown the summer before seventh grade. Once fiercely bonded by their secrets, including a traumatic, unspeakable incident in high school, Cassie and Billie have drifted apart in adulthood, no longer the inseparable pair they used to be. Cassie is married to a wealthy man, has recently become a mother, and is building a following as a fashion and lifestyle influencer. She is desperate to leave her past behind—including Billie, who is single and childless, and no longer fits into her world. Hurt and rejected by Cassie’s new priorities, Billie will do anything to restore their friendship, even as she hides the truth about what really happened the night the baby was taken.

Told in alternating perspectives in Lovering’s signature suspenseful style, Bye Baby confronts the myriad ways friendships change and evolve over time, the lingering echoes of childhood trauma, and the impact of women’s choices on their lifelong relationships.

Thank you St. Martin Press, Carola Lovering, and Netgalley, for allowing me to read and review early in exchange for an honest review!

What a ride! Best friends turned enemies with plenty of twists and turns to keep the suspense going. Highly recommend!

Carola Lovering’s novels are all brilliant ! I was so excited when I saw she had a new one coming out and had to read it ASAP, the rest of my TBR be damned. This one kept me super hooked and interested the whole time. You have a love/hate relationship with both Cassie and Billie, the two main characters. The kiddnapping of the baby is a wild addition to the story and keeps you on the edge of you seat, flipping pages to see what happens to everyone once this has been done. This novel really explores old friendships and strings that still keep us connected with friends from the past, even though you are growing apart. Highly recommend !

Thanks Netgalley and St.Martin’s Press for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Billie and Cassie have been friends since childhood. As adults they couldn't be more different. Cassie has a newborn baby, a fledgling career as an Instagram influencer and is married to a very wealthy man. Billie is single and has a job in the travel industry. Billie longs to be a part of Cassie's life. She practically stalks her online and is thrilled when she gets any attention from Cassie. Suddenly someone takes Cassie's baby and Billie is back in as Cassie's best friend. But who took the baby and why?
This book was very slow for me and nothing much really happened in it. We get flashbacks from Billie and Cassie's childhood and find out what is keeping them linked together. It still doesn't explain why Billie was so obsessed with Cassie. I found them both to be unlikeable characters.
Thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book for review.

Thank you for an ARC.

I typically love Carola Lovering. Tell Me Lies and Too Good To Be True are amazing. Bye, Baby fell very short for me, though.

I find it unlikely that a kidnapping outdoors, during a dinner party, in NYC would go unnoticed. It seemed totally unrealistic to me. I also don’t understand why Cassidy became so obsessed with Billie toward the end of the book; this seemed unfounded to me.

The scenes about sexual abuse became unnecessarily comical because of the poor language choices. The author wrote “his dick boings…” when referencing an instance of sexual abuse. This is not a smutty sex scene; please don’t call it a “dick” at this moment. And don’t say it boings. Your audience shouldn’t be rolling their eyes and laughing during this part of the book. The language compromises the severity of sexual abuse.

I do not recommend this book. The end picked up somewhat, but ultimately, there is no resolution that makes reading this book remotely worth it.

I don’t recommend it. The two stars, rather than one, is because I know the author has potential to do better. She has in the past.

I really enjoyed Carola Lovering’s Tell Me Lies, Too Good to be True, and Can’t Look Away. This book is also well-written but the two main characters are completely frustrating and dislikable. Lifelong friends Billie and Cassie are now in their 30’s living in NYC. Their friendship has deteriorated to the point where Cassie didn’t invite Billie to her 35th birthday party. Billie makes a terrible decision (one of many) that causes irreparable trauma to Cassie. We learn about many different issues Billie and Cassie experienced growing up. Billie and Cassie are deeply flawed characters who make unfathomable decisions throughout the book. I’m disappointed with this one and hope that Carola Lovering’s next book will be more like her first three. Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

((4.5 / 5.0) Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering was a bingeable thriller I could not put down. In it we meet Cassie and Billie, two childhood friends who have drifted apart in adulthood. Billie longs to reconnect, but Cassie is in her own world of Instagram influencing, motherhood, and socialite life. One night something tragic happens with Cassie and it catapults these friends back together. I suggest knowing little more on plot, though you can see more in the publisher’s description.

Let’s talk mood instead, to help you know if the book is for you. It’s fast-paced and alternating POV, along with alternating timelines. There isn’t a crime to solve as a reader, you know what’s happening because of the POVs, so the tension comes from the secrets being kept and if / when they will come to light. At the center of the story is a toxic friendship and a few snobby, elitist characters. The story has closure in the end and is a quick, entertaining read.

This one doesn’t come out until next year, but I also enjoyed the author’s prior book, Can’t Look Away, and would recommend it as well. I’m going to try her other backlist books, too, so let me know if you recommend any.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the complimentary, early copy – it was an exciting read!

Content warnings: child abuse, sexual assault (with a few descriptive scenes), kidnapping, toxic friendship

Thank you net galley and publisher for this ARC! I’ve read every book by Carola Lovering and this book was great. I couldn’t put the book down once I started it. Initially I found the alternating chapters and timeline a little confusing but then I got used to it. I found it interesting to learn more about the girl’s complicated relationship and past and I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen.

Cassie and Billie were childhood best friends, but now as adults, they have drifted apart and have both desperately tried to forget the past and a secret they both share.

Cassie is now a mother, a business owner, and a social media influencer. Billie is single, childless and no longer fits into Cassie’s world. Tired of constantly being rejected by Cassie, Billie does the unthinkable and takes Cassie’s infant daughter, until she realizes the mistake she’s made in doing so and secretly returns her. Now Billie must try to hide the truth about what really happened the night Cassie’s baby was kidnapped and that it was her who did it all along.

Bye, Baby is a suspenseful and realistic story about an unhealthy, obsessive friendship. This book had a lot of hot mess moments where you felt the need to look away but couldn’t. I thought the author gave an interesting look into the dark and toxic side of influencer culture, along with toxic friendship dynamics that were frustrating yet entertaining.

I liked that this book was told in alternating perspectives between Cassie and Billie from both the past and present, so you could see both sides of their story. I actually felt for Billie the most, as Cassie had a lot of VERY unlikable moments. Throughout the entire book, all I could think was how much Billie deserved better.

Thank you to St Martins Press for this ARC!

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.