thank you to st. martin’s press and netgalley for this arc!!

REVIEW ↡
i devoured BYE, BABY and loved this story so much! cassie and billie’s POVs were equally entertaining to me. i loved the behind-the-scenes writing of being an influencer, the detailed references to new york city and what’s trendy lately, and the flashbacks to understand how their friendship had evolved. this is a great, quick thriller to get out of a reading rut as well. can’t recommend it enough!

This might be my favorite book of this author's so far! Bye, Baby is about two friends that are trauma bonded due to childhood events but then living as young adults in NYC and trying to navigate very different lives. One night a decision is made from one of the friends that changes everything. The tension is palpable which causes you to have a hard time putting the book down.

Review4.5⭐️
This is another great book by Carola Lovering! I was obsessed with Can’t Look Away two years ago and when I got the opportunity to read an early digital copy, I had to get my hands on it. I ended up doing a combination of reading and listening to this one and I couldn’t not put either down! This book is by no means a thriller/mystery in my opinion. It was suspenseful at times, but I felt like if toxic relationships were its own genre, this is exactly where it would fall. This book alternated between past and present timelines and the past helps you understand why Billie is trying so hard to keep her friendship with Cassie. It did a great job depicting how friendships grow apart and how something traumatic can bring you back together. The ending was predictable considering what Billie does (read the synopsis), but it didn’t make the ending any less sad for Billie and Cassie. Overall, I think this is a great domestic drama and I will read whatever Lovering puts out next.
Thank you St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for sending me an early digital copy to review.

This book sucked me in immediately and kept me hooked through the entire story! The dual pov and dual timelines had a chance to be confusing or messy, but the writing was clear and each storyline was easy to follow and differentiate.

Characters were flawed, but believable and I was deeply invested in Billie’s story. Quite a few dark topics, but the author does a great job of giving the detail we need without being unnecessarily dark, though still making the gravity of the situation clear.

I really enjoyed this book and would love to read more by this author in the future.

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering

Although I wouldn’t classify this as a thriller, it was an engaging, fast paced, page-turning read.

Cassie and Billie were childhood best friends who have drifted apart in adulthood. Their dynamic is an interesting one of Billie, single with no children, wanting to fit into Cassie’s life, a married mother and social media influencer.

The story really revolves around relationships and friendships and unchangeable circumstances that drive the characters to make desperate and impulsive decisions.

The authors writing made this an enjoyable, although slightly anxiety-inducing, story in the best way! I loved the alternate points of view and while I did feel it wrapped up a little “too perfectly”, I dont have any complaints about the ending.

Overall definitely worth a read!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for the reading copy!

I was intrigued by the mystery at the center of this novel and it helped keep my attention to the story. I rated 3 stars because the writing style could be better and there wasn't a lot of character development. The pacing also started to drag in the middle. Ultimately, I would still recommend this book to family and friends looking for an enjoyable read. The twist at the end paid off!

When I finished this read, I texted my sister immediately texted my sister and told her to read it so I had someone to talk about it. I was drawn into the world while also not trusting or liking the main character, in fact I didn’t like most of the characters and didn’t really know how I wanted it to end. Who Cj made it somehow more enjoyable.

Domestic suspense is one of my faves when it comes to thrillers. Featuring an obsessive and toxic friendship, dual POV, and all the drama, I devoured this story right up.

I think it’s most fun to go in with this one blindly, as to avoid spoiling anything, but the plot centers around childhood best friends Billie and Cassie, now in their 30’s.

I paired the book and audio, and loved the immersive read! Narrated by Helen Laser and Karissa Vacker, a powerhouse duo that really brought Cassie and Billie to life, voicing their alternating POVs.

*many thanks to St Martin’s Press, Macmillan audio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Bye, Baby releases March 5, 2024

On the eve of Cassie’s 35th birthday party, her baby girl is kidnapped by the one person who knows her best.
Is this spur of the moment decision a ploy to gain back the attention of Cassie and pry her away from her growing social media following? Or is this a case of two women naturally drifting apart after 23 years of friendship and growing up together?

Through dual pov’s and flashbacks, we see how Billie and Cassie interact with each other and spend their day-to-day lives living in NYC in the days leading up to and immediately following the kidnapping, as well as what they went through in their teens and 20s for them to have such a precarious friendship.

This novel explores themes of friendship, family, motherhood, and trauma in a way that is unsettlingly compelling and all too real. There is so much depth and nuance to the characters that makes this much more than a mystery or psychological thriller.
I especially loved the dichotomy of Cassie and Billie through the lens of one happily being a mother, and the other happily being childfree by choice. I think there should be more books that depict younger women who choose to lead a childfree life/relationship across all genres!

No matter if you love or hate these characters, the toxicity, or the codependency, I think we can all relate to holding on to a relationship (romantic or platonic) that has run its course, even if you don’t quite understand why the other person started distancing themselves in the first place.

Lovering provides great character studies of flawed and complex characters. I can’t wait to see what she writes next.

cw: graphic SA, Alzheimer's, abortion

This book was well written, however its hit a mystery or thriller by any means and that is what I was expecting. Definitely disappointed.

Thank you so much St. Martin’s Press, Carola Lovering, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and honestly review this book.

I was so invested from the beginning. The author did a great job of keeping my attention and keeping the momentum going throughout the book.

Billie kidnaps her childhood best friend’s child for a couple hours, then returns her. Billie keeps this secret from Cassie, along with all the secrets she has kept of Cassie’s. Will she ever tell Cassie what she did?

I enjoyed this novel, all the way until about the last 10%. I was hooked, the plot moved between past and present timelines. The novel explored the progression of adult relationships from childhood friends to adults. It was relatable in that regard. These two women went through it as teenagers. What I didn’t enjoy was the anti-climatic ending. I was expecting more zing when it was all revealed and I felt that it all fell short. Big bummer there but I really enjoyed it up to that point and would highly recommend.

2.5 stars
Cassie Barnwell, influencer, wife, entrepreneur, but most importantly she is a mother. When a mysterious message left on her social media about something from her past she begins to get anxious. While at a party she discovered her husband with an empty stroller, panicked she calls someone from her past to help her find the suspect. This was a very odd book, it had me reading to the end mainly because of the backstory and mysterious past but it was rather lack luster when it’s fairly obvious what happened. I found the main character to be annoying and ungrateful. Billie’s character was also odd, I didn’t understand the fact of her being so so jealous of her friend and I mean creepy obsessive jealous. Borderline stalker.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The author weaves suspense with an alternating heart-breaking backstory. A story about friendship, secrets, and lies.

The beginning of this book was so well-paced, and I was engrossed in both the present-day and flashback timelines. The psychological consequences of the kidnapping were well-explored, and I enjoyed understanding the POVs of both of the main characters. However, the last fourth of the book or so just sort of dropped off for me. I thought there would be more drama or a third act incident that would leave me shocked. I feel like the suspense was building up to the reveal, but it was actually relatively anticlimatic. Overall, I still really enjoyed the story though and would like to read more from this author.

The characters in Bye, Baby were so toxically addicting. Lovering wrote these characters so well that you aren't sure if you're supposed to love them, relate to them, hate them, or all of the above. She wrote the influencer trope in a way that wasn't cringe, which is rare to find.

This one kept my interest throughout - it was very cat and mousey. This was my first book of Carola Lovering and I plan to read more!

Carola Lovering’s Bye Baby is an intense psychological thriller that explores the complexities of female friendships. With plenty of twists and emotional depth, Bye Baby keeps readers hooked from beginning to end, offering a look at how friendships can evolve in dark, unexpected ways.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this eARC.

Do not go into this book expecting an edge of your seats thriller. I know the cover and blurb sort of hint at it, but I felt like it was so much more.

Yes, there is a thriller aspect. There is a missing baby for crying out loud! But the heart of the story lies in its main characters Cassie and Billie and their relationship which started neither 30 years ago. It reminded me of most friendships as they grow older...one decides to remain childless and all while the other has a family and friends that she has more in common with than her old one. That sums up Cassie and Billie.

But there is more. The girls have gone through a lot together which will sort of explain or at least make you somewhat understand her behavior, especially in the beginning.

Again, go in to this book blind! Don't have any expectations.

A great, fast-paced thriller. I couldn’t put this book down! While I didn’t love how shallow the friendship between Cassie and Billie felt at times, by the end, I could see how their pasts shaped who they were. I really appreciate when an author gives an unlikeable character a bit of redemption.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an advance digital copy!