This was a great read! The characters were super unique and kind of not like-able, but also so relatable. I do wish this has been branded more as a fictional drama, as opposed to a mystery / thriller, since I kept waiting for a twist or something, and there was none. But the ending was still very satisfying! Overall, this was a solid 4 star read for me. Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC!

LOVE a book about motherhood/being female/female friendships but that was the only thing that I really LOVED. Everything else was fine if a bit formulaic!

This was a book about a toxic friendship. I am not a fan of this subject matter, but I struggled through it, The story did get quite involved with dual timelines. This book is probably best as a book club read, as it has many areas for in-depth discussion. If you are looking to read as an escape, choose something else.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

Bye, Baby was to me more of a contemporary women's fiction versus a thriller, which left me disappointed.

Billie and Cassie ahad been close friends since their teens, torn apart when Callie began marriage and motherhood. The two recently connect again one time and Billie instantly realizes how much she missed her friend. Immersed once more in Cassie's life, she can't help but grab Cassie's sobbing baby when no one comes to her aide. Cassie has no ill will when her friendship with Billie grows apart, they are just different people. She agrees to one meet up, nothing more. So why does Cassie start relying once again on Billie when tragedy hits?

I wanted more thrillery elements from Bye, Baby although I was captivated and needed to hear how the story ended up. Several plot points just fell flat for me and again, it felt like a tale with the other woman looking in wanting everything of their one friennd. I wanted, needed more with that ending with the storm brewing. Fans of Carola Lovering's other novels may enjoy this one but for me, I would question picking up another novel by her.

4.5 stars

Ahh this was so good and addicting!!! I was kinda expecting some kind of extra twist at the end, which sadly there was not. But overall loved and would recommend

This book takes a great look at female friendships. The book shows how many things can happen in a millisecond and life can change. This book had me turning the page quickly to find out the ending. A really good and suspenseful book.

I'm not sure how I would characterize this book. It's not a thriller, because you know from the first chapter who did the crime. It's a novel of friendship -- toxic friendships -- the ways you grow apart with friends and they ways the past can fragment those bonds, both quickly and in small, but sharp ways.

Cassie and Billie. Billie and Cassie. For most of their lives, Billie and Cassie have been synonymous with one another. Childhood best friends who followed each other to college in Boston and the start of their professional lives in New York, their bond is seemingly unbreakable. Until it isn't. As Cassie moves to the upper echelons of New York as a new mom and Instagram influencer -- a place she's strived to be since her father squandered their money in her early childhood -- and Billie reckons with her traumatic past, including not wanting children or living the life that Cassie so desperately reaches for, the two best friends slowly break apart. Then a crime occurs that hits close to home for Cassie, and she comes running back to her oldest friend.

I found this book so well written and engrossing. There are trigger warnings galore but the author did a great job towing the line between being realistic while keeping the story readable to thriller-adjacent beginners.

The narrators on the audio version are PHENOMENAL. Highly recommend.

One last thing -- this cover is so ugly. It has to be said.

4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley, Carola Lovering, and St. Martin's Press for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

While this wasn't my favorite Carola Lovering book, I still thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it! I don't think it was as much of a thriller as a friendship drama, but overall it was very entertaining and I enjoyed it. 3.5 star read for me.

This book was really interesting to me. Even thought it wasn’t a 5/5 just because I feel like it wasn’t a thriller and the synopsis gave away basically the whole book, I still found it very enticing and easy to read. There’s themes like toxic friendships, grieving those said toxic friends when that relationship falls apart, loneliness, making friends as an adult, etc. so there’s some relatability to this book. Something I will say, is that it did keep me glued to it, and I couldn’t put it down whenever I picked it up to read, and for that, I gave it a 3.5/5 (rounded to 4) star rating.

Thank you to NetGalley, and the author of this book for sending me a digital ARC copy. All opinions are my own.

This was a story about friendships and how friendships change as their lives go in different directions. A story about Cassie and Billie. Cassie marries a wealthy guy, has a baby and is a fashion influencer. Billie and Cassie have grown apart but Billie just can’t let the friendship go. She eventually kidnaps Cassie’s baby but then returns her the next day hoping no one finds out. Cassie reaches out to Billie when the baby goes missing and soon they are best friends again. Until she finds out Billie was the one who took her baby..

I feel that this is being marketed as a thriller when it is actually a story about toxic friendship and co-dependence. That being said, I did still really enjoy this and it makes me want to check out the author's other books. It was unique and well-written and kept me hooked to continue reading.

I really enjoyed the depth that Carola Lovering put into these characters!

This one was so suspenseful! Dramatic suspense. The audience knew things the characters didn’t a I love that. I also love the depth of Billie’s character. As much as I disliked her actions, I felt immense empathy for her. I wish Cassie’a character would have had that same level of depth. I also enjoyed how this story played out. Lovering always has a way of keeping readers on their toes!

Check out the trigger warnings prior to reading this one! It’s dark.

Billie West and Cassie Barnwell were best friends all through childhood into their young adult years, but they have slowly drifted apart, much to Billie’s dismay. Now in their thirties, Cassie has married rich and just welcomed her first child while she runs a small women’s clothing boutique and shares every detail of her life with her Instagram followers. Billie works as a travel concierge, planning expensive trips for her rich clients. Since graduating college, Cassie and Billie have been on drifting apart, leading separate lives with new friends. Billie is desperate to hold on to Cassie’s friendship, despite Cassie repeatedly rebuffing Billie’s attempts to connect. One fall night on Cassie’s birthday, Billie finds herself not on the invite list for the party being held at Cassie’s apartment. Finding herself in her boss’ new apartment, one floor below Cassie’s she hears terrified screams coming from Cassie’s terrace. Cassie just realized her infant daughter has gone missing, and Billie has just realized she kidnapped Cassie’s daughter.

Both Cassie and Billie were deeply unlikeable people. Cassie was so self-absorbed with maintaining her influencer persona online and shoving a camera in everyone’s face, while Billie really struggled to accept, and really could not accept that Cassie didn’t want her in her life anymore. This story was so suspenseful! The build up to Cassie finally finding out it was Billie that kidnapped her baby was cringeworthy, Billie was frankly in denial that her actions directly contributed to Cassie’s mental breakdown but she just needed to be needed by Cassie so badly that she couldn’t’ face that truth. So well written and it really explored the idea of what it feels like to drift apart from your childhood friends and what it feels like to forge your own path as an adult.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martins Press for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

This was my first novel by Lovering, but it definitely won’t be my last! While there were times that I didn’t much care for the characters, her writing just pulls the reader in and you get so invested in their story. There were times where I just wanted the characters to be open about their feelings instead of pushing them down. However, that being said I loved how she explored the topic of childhood trauma and how it can have lasting effects into a persons everyday life. Overall, while this is more of a mystery than a thriller, I still loved the twists and turns that Lovering had in this book and one that I definitely enjoyed!

Ever since I read and absolutely loved Lovering's debut, Tell Me Lies, I've followed her career and read all of her subsequent novels, with varying success. Bye, Baby, however, reminds me a lot of her first novel in the character development and the way that you can't keep your eyes off the page as you watch in horror at the decisions the characters make. I loved that both Cassie and Billie are mostly unlikable, but you find yourself rooting for them despite how difficult their personalities are. I also loved how Lovering shows this decades-long friendship and how someone who you share so much history with can be someone who doesn't quite "fit" into an adult life, and that can be an okay thing or a devastating thing, depending on your perspective. Bye, Baby is a thriller, but it has a tight focus on these two characters and the relationship between them, making it a story of friendship, abandonment, and obsession all at the same time. I really enjoyed this and feel it's up there along with Lovering's debut in terms of her best novels.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

• domestic suspense
• character driven
• toxic friendship

The characters were well-developed (although not likable) and the pacing was steady. At times, it was a little too over-the-top. This is the first book I've read by this author and it won't be my last.

🗣 Thank you to netgalley and St Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book via gifted eARC! All opinions are honest and my own.

Bye, Baby is a look at how two childhood friends go from being inseparable in youth and early 20's to no longer fitting into each other's lives., Cassie wants nothing more that to marry a very rich man, someone with family money. Billie is more interested in building her career and is very dependent on her friendship with Cassie.

I think both of these women needed some counseling! Told in first person alternating chapters from both women's point of view and going back in time in some chapters, we learn why there is a co-dependence between the women. There was a lot of trauma in their early lives and Billie has a good reason for feeling a strong bond with Cassie, but their adult lives are going in starkly different directions and you know that the friendship can't endure.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This book is a page turner - I read it in a couple days! While not exactly a thriller or even a mystery per se, it is a fascinating story of a toxic friendship. It also covered serious topics such as early onset Alzheimer’s, sexual abuse, and kidnapping and less serious ones like the life of social media influencers. I liked the two narrator format - you could really get into the heads of the two former best friends. I enjoyed reading this! 3.5-4 ⭐️
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. Recommend!

Have you ever had someone in your life that you've loved forever? Not a romantic love but a deep friendship almost like you're two halves of a whole person and then been pushed out of that person's life.
It's like you were never actually as important to them as they are to you. That's what's happened to Billie in this book with Cassie. I've had this happen, and it's such an odd thing when you've shared a world with someone for practically your entire life, and then you're nothing to them.
It leaves you wondering if the way you saw the relationship was one-sided and you were just a placeholder until something better came along.

That's what this book made me feel. I couldn't help relating to Billie even though she definitely goes too far in her quest to be back in Cassie's life.

I loved every moment of this book and breezed right through it. Going in, I was expecting more of a psychological thriller. What it ended up was a story about a toxic and complicated female friendship. This was one of my favorite books I've read in a while.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Once closely bonded by their childhood secrets, Cassie and Billie have drifted apart in adulthood. Cassie has recently become a mother and is building a following as a lifestyle influencer. She is desperate to leave her past behind—including Billie, who is single, living a childfree life, and no longer fits into her instagram-able life. But Billie, desperate to maintain her connection with Cassie, does something that could forever change both of their lives.
-
Wow this book had me hooked for a while, and I mean a long time. I thought this was a Thriller/Mystery but it fits more into something like suspense. The book strung me along with hints of something sinister happening outside of what was described in the synopsis.

I mean, to be fair, the unlikeable characters and obsessive/unrequited friendship was interesting and kept me reading for all 350 pages. Unfortunately, I was not happy with the arc of the story and ultimate resolution. This was extra disappointing because I loved the ride Too Good to be True took me on when I read it a few years ago.
-
Note: there’s a major TW missing in the book for sexual assault.
-
Thanks to Carola Lovering, NetGalley, and St Martin’s Press for a copy of the ARC