Thank you to Netgalley, Carola Lovering & St. Martin’s Press for an arc of Bye Baby in exchange for an honest review. This review is wholly my own (except for any quotations) and may not be reproduced.

Synopsis (quoted) – Review Below

“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.”

This is actually my first Carola Lovering novel!! I know – GASP!!! The story just sounded to amazing to pass up. Old friends who were bound by secrets, but now as adults, don’t really fit into each other’s lives and then one does the unspeakable!

This story was so consuming – I started it and ended it all in one day with very few breaks. Don’t come to my house this week, you can definitely tell what got put on the backburner while I read nonstop!

This story is told from multiple POVs and multiple timelines, which I don’t always enjoy, but it worked here. Not only is the story extremely suspenseful, but it also dives into the world of influencers and toxic friendships.

If the fact that I read this in less than 24 hours wasn’t a hint, this story reads extremely fast and will keep you gripped from start to finish. The characters were written to perfection. The twists, turns, revelations, ending – none of them disappointed.

Now, excuse me while I go add other Lovering titles to my TBR!

4.5/5 Stars – HIGHLY recommend!

Lovering does it again with her latest novel. She does complicated, toxic relationships like no one else; truly. The central relationship in this is complex, at times one-sided and immensely frustrating yet deep and sincere. It’s like (and unlike) many of my younger friendships and it’s fascinating to read. I will read anything and everything this author puts out. She’s never missed for me.

Absolutely fantastic plot! Could not put the book down once I began reading it. Cannot wait for it to be released. Will recommend it to everyone I know!

ook review of my latest read!
Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to @stmartinspress
and @netgalley for this early release copy.
I started this one night and finished it the next day! I loved the last book I read by her as well, Too Good To Be True.

She sets such a suspenseful book that you will want to get to the end to see what happens to all your characters.

Billie and Cassie are long time friends and this story is told from both points of view and with looks back into the past as well as the present to see how they have gotten to this point. They have drifted apart but how did they drift to the point that Billie has kidnapped Cassie's baby?

You will love both characters and feel desperately for both. Friends and friendships evolve and change. This is the complicated story of two best friends.

This will be out March 5th, 2024. Grab it!

#crazybooknerd
#bookstagram
#netgalley
#byebaby
#suspensefulreads

This new to me author nailed it. Right from the start I connected with story and characters.
Billie and Cassie are friends since childhood. But in recent years, even while living in the same building, Cassie moved on, wants to leave Billie behind. On a fateful day her baby daughter is gone missing and a wild ride begins.
Bye, Baby by C. Lovering, published by St. Martin's Press is a mystery thriller of its finest, full of unexpected twists and turns the book tells a story of growing, social media in all its forms, of friendship and more.

Dark secrets come to light in this twisted psychological thriller. I enjoyed the back story of the two friends to bring together the details of what happened on the fateful night that Cassie’s baby is taking. It takes the whole book for everything to finally click into place. 3.5 stars

Teenaged Billie and Cassie are the best of friends, doing everything together...including sharing a terrible secret about Billie's abusive step-father. Once the two girls go off to different colleges in Boston, things start to change as Cassie pulls away from Billie. A shocking event pulls the two friends together again, now in their 30's, but the truth starts to leak in and both women may finally see the truth.

First, I love Carola Lovering and scooped up this ARC immediately. Bye, Baby focused again on complex female relationships, throwing in interesting twists and character development that I've come to love in Lovering's books. I kept oscillating between liking and disliking both Cassie and Billie as the story progresses. The chapters from the past were perfectly placed to help lay the foundation of who and what shaped both characters and made them who they were in the present day. While there wasn't a huge thriller vibe here, this book was more women's fiction to me, I still adored it and would recommend for readers who enjoy authors like Celeste Ng or Mary Beth Keene.

Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and provide my honest review to Bye, Baby. Pub date March 2024.

Carola Lovering explores women's issues and relationships in an unflinchingly honest way. When Cassie moves to town in high school, she and Billie become fast friends, despite their differences. Cassie's family had money and her dad lost it all in bad investments and Cassie is determined to live a blue-blood wealthy lifestyle. The two young women stay friends through their teens and twenties, Cassie helping Billie with a horrible, traumatic situation, but when Cassie meets the WASPy man of her dreams, she distances herself from Billie and Billie is hurt. Cassie becomes an influencer and Billie becomes borderline obsessed with her, seeing her new life hurting Billie every time...until Billie does something and the friendship turns around, only Cassie doesn't know what Billie did and if she finds out, it could ruin everything.

This book explores the competitive, catty nature of female friendships with such raw honesty. I loved it.

I really enjoyed Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering. The characters were easy to connect with, the plot was engaging, and the elements of influencer/Instagram culture were well executed.

This book made me think about friendship, comparison, and obsession. It was exciting, interesting, and a really enjoyable read.

4 Stars.

I love Carola Lovering and was super excited to get the invitation to read this. I really enjoyed it. It was a great look at how some friendships don’t follow us all throughout life and the pain that can arise from that.

I’m not quite sure how I would categorize this book. A psychological thriller, but without any murders or actual damage done? A who-dunnit where you know from the start who-dunnit and why-they-dunnit? It is really a book that is more about the complexity of relationships but reads like a thriller. Whatever it was, I loved it and appreciated the chance to read an early review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

The queen of toxic relationships is back - this time with a turn - a toxic friendship! The relationship between micro-influencer Cassie and her childhood best friend, Billie, can only be described as toxic, unhealthy and beyond damaged. The alternating viewpoints and timelines kept me turning the pages eager to see how this one would play out.

4.5 stars and another winner for Carola Lovering!

Thank you to St. Martins Press for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

I seriously loved this book! It was so well written and the characters were so fully fleshed out. I rarely see it done this skillfully, especially without boring the reader. I wasn’t even slightly bored, I read this book until the wonderful ending! She is clearly a very talented author, I’d love to see what else she comes up with. Billie was completely likable and nuanced, I found myself wishing that things turned out differently for her so fervently! Cassie was less charming, but I couldn’t hate her. This author is damn good at what she does and I was so very sucked in until the very last word!

"Tell Me Lies" made me a Carola Lovering fan, and she has not disappointed since. "Bye, Baby" is as dark and thrilling as ever and may be my favorite work she's ever done.

OMG THIS BOOK! Let me say that I was addicted right from the first page and couldn’t wait to keep reading. The suspense was crazy and the tension and betrayal were incredibly thrilling to say the least. This book kept me on my toes trying to figure out what the truth was and how it was all going to end. I didn’t want to put this down and Carola did not disappoint with this one!! Thank you Carola, St. Martins Press, and NetGalley for the arc!!

4.5 stars!

This is the story of a friendship between Billie and Cassie. They became best friends at age 11 and were inseparable until about a year and a half ago. When they were young, they spent all their time together and shared deep- dark secrets, and vowed that this would how they would always be. Billie is content with her life and her status whereas Cassie has always strived to achieve a higher status and will do anything to make that happen. As Cassie climbs the social ladder to make that dream a reality, the gap between these two widen and widen until Billie hardly recognizes her friend at all. Billie can't let the friendship go that easily or all the hurt that has come along with it and one day she snaps and does something unthinkable.

In my opinion, I wouldn't categorize this has a thriller- mostly a women's fiction story with suspense. It's about childhood friendship and that morphs over time. It's about letting go of the people you thought you knew to allow them to become the people they want to be- even though that hurts. It's about love, resentment, promises, secrets, and loss. I really enjoyed this story and I felt really empathetic toward Billie the most, but toward all the characters really. It felt like it could be a realistic story about childhood friendship.

CW: childhood trauma
sexual abuse

I haven’t read anything by Carola Lovering, but after reading Bye, Baby, the rest of her books are going on my TBR list. Bye, Baby was a fast-paced domestic thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. I couldn’t put it down! Highly recommend to anyone who loves books featuring toxic friendships and complicated relationships. (One thing to know going in is that this book does contain lots of abuse and trauma.)

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read the ARC.

Carola Lovering reads the diaries I don’t write and exposes my most sacred insecurities through her writing. At around 61% through the book I put it down fearing how much I identified with the “villain.”

Jealousy being her biggest crime. Admittedly I’ve been upfront about how jealous I can be -not materialistically, instead how people choose to spend their time. The main character, Billie, feels similar. She just wants her best friend back.

Growing up Billy and Cassie were thick as thieves and knew all of each others secrets. They were forever bonded by something that happened in high school- a secret they would take to their graves. As they grew older, Cassie married, opened a signature boutique, had a baby and chronicled it all on Instagram. Her stories being the only window Billie had into her childhood bestie’s life. Billie couldn’t understand why Cassie pushed her away, and clung to the hope their relationship could be revived.

When Cassie’s baby goes missing, all she wants is her best friend Billie by her side. By morning the baby is mysteriously returned, and Billie is back helping Cassie process the trauma.

Lovering writes from both Billie and Cassie’s perspective giving you full view into the story as it unfolds. Her writing is brilliantly vivid and I can’t wait for you to read this one. If you haven’t read “Too Good to be True,” “Can’t Look Away,” and/or “Tell Me Lies,” consider reading them all this summer your assignment.

“Bye, Baby,” is our next March. Thank you thank you thank you Marissa Sangiacomo , @stmartinspress @netgalley and @carolatlovering for the early read. I can’t stop thinking about it or talking about it.

Bye, Baby
A Novel
by Carola Lovering
This was a great read. Damn, my mouth hit the floor and blew my socks off. Billie West was one I could most relate to. Cassie is the usual "Look at me, look at my life" hundreds of times. I despised how mean she was to a friend.I read it and loved it.

This was sooooo good! Cassie and Billie’s friendship is not your average. Growing up together and being best buddies includes secrets that can never be shared. It’s kind of an obsession but to me it was sad when one had to deal with so much trauma in her childhood. A good example of stupid media influencers and their ridiculous lives. Love how this ended. I love this author !