BYE, BABY by Carola Lovering is a compelling story of toxic friendship, obsession and the consequences of the choices people make. Cassie and Billie have been best friends since childhood. They are bound together by a shocking secret that can never be revealed. Years later, now in their thirties, their lives couldn’t be more different. Billie has a posh career in the travel industry, but has never married and is childless by choice. However, Cassie has what seems like the perfect life. She is married to a wealthy and connected man, has a new baby, owns a high-end boutique and has become an influencer on Instagram, where she documents her every waking moment. With her new lifestyle, Cassie is happy to leave her past – and Billie – behind. But Billie will do anything to rekindle their friendship despite it being clearly one-sided. Does the trauma from the past that connects them keep her holding on to an unhealthy relationship? The story is told from both Billie and Cassie’s points of view which gives an in-depth insight into their characters. Lots of themes are explored: sexual abuse, friendship, motherhood and even murder. I enjoyed this thought-provoking and taut drama and I am grateful to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review an early copy.

I enjoyed this book. I would say it's more drama than physiological thriller. Toxic friendship.
Secrets. & a twist that personally I don't see coming.

It's heavy because irl friendships change;
especially the friendships you have as a child. It's sad really. I know a lot say this book has a lot going on. But I didn't think so.

Very character driven.

This was okay. Kinda predictable. I did like that it was a fast read. Easy to read on a Sunday afternoon.

Billie & Cassie have been lifelong friends, but Cassie has become an influencer and has pulled away from Billie a bit of late. Billie feels as if she is being left behind in favor of Cassie's newer friends and her internet presence. But when Cassie's infant daughter goes missing and is returned later in the same night, she only wants Billie at her side. Billie & Cassie have a history, they have secrets, they can count on each other, no questions asked.

I thought the author did a great job of building Cassie and Billie's characters and crafting a toxic friendship between them. Their relationship has changed over time and in a believable way. It seems very natural the way their relationship has declined. This book was suspenseful, but I wouldn't classify it as a thriller. It was more of a psychological suspense.

3.5⭐️

Dark. Ominous. Emotional.

Billie and Cassie’s decades long friendship is tied to a secret that neither of them want revealed. As they enter different chapters of their lives, one to a family and motherhood and the other more career driven, they begin to drift apart…

Cassie is pushing Billie out of her new life, as she doesn’t fit into it the same way she did before. This all comes blatantly clear to Billie when she goes to feed her boss’ cat (who lives in the condo below Cassie), and realizes she wasn’t invited to Cassie’s birthday party. Then she hears baby Ella on the terrace above, just shrieking and no one seems to hear her.

So what does Billie do? Scales the fire escape and scoops up the baby… As shock settles in, Billie realizes what’s she’s done. Now what?

Can Billie return Ella no questions asked? Does the return of Ella bring Billie and Cassie closer together? Or will Billie’s mistake cost her everything?

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Bye, Baby is set to be published March 5, 2024.

"Bye, Baby" by Carola Lovering is a gripping and emotionally charged thriller that delves deep into the complexities of female friendship and the haunting effects of past secrets. When Billie West finds herself responsible for the disappearance of her best friend Cassie's infant daughter, their once unbreakable bond is shattered. As the story unfolds, Lovering skillfully weaves together alternating perspectives, revealing the intricate layers of guilt, betrayal, and love that define their relationship.

Lovering's writing is both powerful and addictively suspenseful, drawing readers into a tangled web of secrets and lies that keeps them guessing until the very end. Through her exploration of the characters' past traumas and present-day struggles, "Bye, Baby" offers a compelling commentary on the evolving nature of friendship and the lasting impact of our choices.

With its unflinching portrayal of complex female dynamics and its compelling narrative, "Bye, Baby" is a must-read for fans of psychological thrillers. Carola Lovering has crafted a riveting story that will leave readers questioning the boundaries of loyalty and the true meaning of forgiveness.

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering is about two friends who have grown apart as adults and one of them is not happy about it.

" Billie and Cassie have a shared secret in their past - one that could send them both to jail. Cassie has moved into the life she dreamed of - wealth, motherhood and a large Instagram following. Billie wants to go back to having Cassie as her best friend. She can't stop obsessing about Cassie's online life. An event with Cassie's new baby brings them back together but Billie is having difficulty not telling Cassie the truth."

This is not a thriller (even with the dual timelines) It's Fiction/Women's Fiction. It's hard to care about either of the main characters. Billie struggles to move on from a long time friendship. She obsesses over Cassie's IG photos and insta-stories. You do empathize with Billie when you find out the horror of what she went through as a teen. I couldn't generate any sympathy or feeling for Cassie. She is shallow and snobbish and self-centered. She really believes that random strangers care about what bag she has or shoes she wears.

The ending was not what I expected or wanted for this story. It just kind of ends.

If you're looking for drama between old friends, you might enjoy this one.

I’ll be honest, this one started off strong - I was invested, I wanted to see where it was going. I was a little disappointed. I kept waiting and feeling like a huge twist was coming, but it didn’t deliver in the way I wanted it to. I did enjoy the alternating POVs and the flashbacks to their childhood. The pacing was good, it moved quickly. It was a good, quick read but not my favorite thriller. I would definitely read another book by this author though.

Bye, Baby is my first book to read by Carola Lovering and I am hooked. This is a psychological thriller that I could not put down. The toxic friendship and alternating viewpoints captured me from the very beginning of the book. I highly recommend.

Carola Lovering is a new author to me and I enjoyed this novel, Bye, Baby. This book tells the story of two best friends, Cassie and Billie. It’s really hard to give a review of this book without giving it away, so I’ll just say I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good women’s fiction story with lots of twists and turns to keep the reader engaged.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

A must read!!!

Billie and Cassie are childhood best friends. Over time, they drift apart. When the unthinkable happens to Cassie, she reaches out to Billie for support.

This was a really good domestic drama. It touches on friendship, secrets, lies, and motherhood. This had me in the edge of my seat several times. It was one that I could t put down! I thought it was well written and I can’t wait to read more from this author!

📘: Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering
🗓️: March 5, 2024

Thank you to NetGalley, Carola Lovering, and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

*Reviewed on NetGalley, Amazon, and Goodreads.

BYE BABY review

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

💞Talk about a bingeable book! I flew through this one in less than 24 hours! I needed to know how it would wrap up and resolve itself and couldn’t put the book down until I got answers. Unfortunately the back half of this one fell a bit flat for me.

💞Here’s a summary of the plot:👇
Billie and Cassie have been best friends since childhood and became even closer after a horrific night that bound them to forever be in each others lives. Now in their mid 30s, their lives seem so different. Cassie is a lifestyle influencer and new mom who has a hard time relating to Billie who is perpetually single and always traveling to a different country. When Cassie’s baby is kidnapped, the only person she wants to comfort her is Billie. But Billie is the very reason Cassie’s baby is missing…

💞This book started off with a bang! I was hooked immediately and couldn’t wait to find out what would happen. It felt like the story was building to a jaw dropping twist at the end. Unfortunately that twist never came. I kept waiting for some hidden secret to be revealed but before I knew it the book was over and no final twist was there. I enjoyed this one overall and liked the themes of motherhood and friendship. While the backhalf did fall a bit flat, I’d still recommend picking it up if you want a quick, bingeable suspense read! Also perfect for people who want to get into thrillers but don’t want anything too scary!

💞BYE BABY publishes Tuesday, March 5th. Thanks @macmillan.audio and @stmartinspress for my advanced copies!

I could not put this down. I loved this author’s writing style and her depiction of a complex female friendship over the years. While the ending fell a tiny bit flat for me, this was still a well-paced page-turner that I highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review!

3.5 stars

Main Characters:
-- Billie West – 35-year-old luxury travel consultant, lives and works in New York, has just recently started dating Alex, best friends with Cassie since they were 12 until recently
-- Cassie Adler – 35-year-old influencer and owner of a curated clothing boutique branded Cassidy Adler, new mom to Ella, married for a year to the very wealthy Grant Adler
-- McKay Adler Morris – Cassie’s current best friend, she and Cassie met in college, Grant’s cousin, married to Tom, also a new mom
-- Jane Falkenberg – Billie’s friend and boss, married to Sasha, owns the travel company where Billie works
-- Alex Jensen – recently started dating Billie, a New York City police officer, working to make detective

Trigger Warning: child sexual assault

Billie West and Cassie Barnwell met when they were 12, and a traumatic event, something they kept secret their entire lives, binds them. But as they got older, Cassie drifted, spending more time with the rich kids at Harvard in search of a rich man to marry. Now adults living in New York, Billie is happily childless and traveling the world as a luxury travel consultant, and Cassie is a new mom, happily married to a wealthy man, and running her own clothing boutique.

The story unfolds in alternating chapters between Billie and Cassie and with flashbacks to their childhood as well as their high school and college years. Their lives have been intertwined for a long time, but we as readers know long before Billie does that she is more invested in Cassie’s life than Cassie is in hers. But when Cassie discovers her newborn missing, Billie is the only person she believes can understand the trauma she’s experiencing.

There were a number of reveals over the course of the book—some unexpected, some predictable, some that I thought I guessed but was wrong about. But the reason for 3.5 instead of 4 or even 5 stars was that many of them took a long time to get to. Billie talked a lot about her ex, Remy, and a bad breakup that has influenced all of her relationships since, but we don’t get to the details of the breakup until three=quarters of the way through the book. By that time, I was kind of tired of waiting for what sounded like it was going to be a big reveal.

***SPOILERS*** SPOILERS***SPOILERS***

On top of that, both Cassie and Billie became so unlikeable. Cassie is completely obsessed with money and clicks and likes (she’s an “influencer,” after all, with 40,000 followers) but especially money. Billie is completely obsessed with Cassie. But once Cassie’s baby goes missing, suddenly all of the influencing doesn’t matter. She realizes how important the baby is and doesn’t care about Instagram or her boutique. Billie is elated by that because Cassie suddenly needs her again.

But when Billie admits to her friend and boss Jane that she is the one who took and returned Cassie’s baby, Jane covers for her! She just continues on with her life, saying that she doesn’t understand Billie’s friendship with Cassie but, of course, she has Billie’s back.

And when Billie is finally forced to come clean to both her boyfriend Alex and Cassie, Alex is angry at first but forgives her because the Barnwells aren’t pressing charges. Cassie tells Alex to tell Billie that she wants nothing to do with Billie (understandably) and that now they’re even. And then Cassie immediately goes back to her normal influencing life and her own obsession with being accepted by McKay, who couldn’t have cared less about Cassie until Cassie married McKay’s cousin.

The ending became so convoluted because there was so much detail packed into the end that could have been scattered throughout the story. And, honestly, the book could probably be shorter without losing anything. Overall, a little above average and could have been better.

3.5 stars
Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering is billed as a mystery/thriller, but reads as dramatic women’s fiction about old friendships, childhood secrets, and the effects of both on the lives of two now adult women, Billie West and Cassie Barnwell, after 20 years.
The story plays out in dual POV and dual timelines. As adults, the friendship is strained, as Cassie has become a wealthy social influencer and wife with a newborn, with similar friends, and Billie is single, childless, and seemingly obsessed with hanging on to an unrequited relationship with Cassie. No spoilers here—there are some suspenseful incidents, past and present, and decent plot twists. But there are also a lot of head-scratching moments, especially involving Billie’s actions. Be prepared to suspend disbelief a few times.
Billie is a somewhat sympathetic character, but I could not become invested in her complicated circular mental wrangling and behavior. Cassie and her crew were less interesting and superficial stereotypes of wealthy, vapid women.
The writing is solid and the author is a good storyteller. I have enjoyed her previous novels, and I know there are many readers who liked this book and its observations about 35 year-olds with lots of baggage in their friendship. It just did not resonate with me.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

Well this wasn’t at all what I expected. I thought it was going to be a thriller, but it’s not. It’s really about toxic mean girl friendships and what happens when we can’t stop comparing ourselves to others.

Billie and Cassie have been best friends since childhood, but as adults in New York they’ve grown apart. Or at least, Cassie has grown apart – Billie is determined to hold on to what is increasingly a one-sided friendship. For Cassie, her old friend doesn’t fit in with her new mommy-influencer lifestyle, rich husband and jet setting friends. But the two are forever bonded by a shared traumatic past, and Billie doesn't know how to exist without that friendship - she becomes increasingly obsessed with Cassie's life, and regaining what they once had.

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say I was hooked in the first couple of pages. Lovering really sets the hook in immediately, and I just had to keep reading to find out how the characters get to this point. We get POV chapters from both women and the entire time I was reading this, I found myself relating to both of them, and also yelling in disbelief at both of them. Groaning as they made one awful, painful decision after another, but also nodding along with some of their thoughts and feelings. Cassie’s obsession with social media, growing her audience, and letting them into her life to a disturbing degree was especially hard to watch and it's easy to see how it could really ruin someone’s life and relationships. And wow, do some relationships get ruined. This friendship is so incredibly toxic and co-dependent, the perfect breeding ground for disaster.

I wouldn't necessarily classify this as a thriller, but it’s a story about how lies, obsessions and secrets can twist lives into knots. As for the ending, I feel like half of it was believable, and half of it wasn’t. Half of it was satisfying in a karmic way, and half wasn’t. I’ll let you decide for yourself which was which! This was a fast and entertaining read that I don't think you'll quickly forget. Bye, Baby is out on March 5, check it out, and thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy!

Carola Lovering's latest novel is a lot of things, but a suspense, mystery, or thriller is not one of them. I have read two other books from this author, Too Good To Be True and Can't Look Away and enjoyed them both. This book was no different, it was a very satisfying read, though I just wanted it to be clear that if you are looking for a mystery/thriller/suspense, like this book is presented as, then you might look elsewhere.

There are trigger warnings that should come with this book including sexual abuse, severe end stage Alzheimer's, and toxic relationships.

This is told in alternating perspectives and we are also given glimpses into Billie and Cassie's past relationship. It was interesting to see the stark difference of how Cassie and Billie barely speak to one another in modern day compared to how they once were each other's everything.

There are parts of this story that are VERY unbelievable. Instances that honestly barely worked but had to or the plot wouldn't move along like it was supposed to. There are many characters introduced and I can honestly say that I didn't actually like a single one, including the main characters. Despite not liking the characters I really did like the book. My disdain for the characters is what kept me reading.

The plot was a bit slow at first and I was wondering, at times, where it planned to go. There seemed to be so many side stories to fill the pages. Too many topics to cover- sexual abuse, Alzheimer's, friendships, social media influencers, motherhood, and more. The little side topics were an annoying distraction from the big, main incident.

The ending I did enjoy and it was satisfying.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me an advanced e-copy to read and give my honest review.

Bye, Baby is set to be released on March 5, 2024 in the U.S. so pre-order now! It was a 4 star read for me!

Happy Reading!

I enjoyed this story. It's billed as a psychological thriller, but to me it was more a woman's fiction. It dealt with friendship from school to adulthood and how that whole concept changes things. It's written in dual timelines, as well as multiple POV's.

Billie and Cassie met at the age of 12 and became best friends. As adults, one drifts from the other one, which happens in all friendships. Then one night, one does something that is unforgivable to the other.

There are trigger warnings in this book. Child Abuse, Sexual Abuse, and a crime ( I don't want to say which crime bc I don't want to give anything away).

While, I didn't always like Billie or Cassie, I could relate to them. How many of us still talk to their best friend in school, even once a month? I'm sure some do, but for most of us, you grow apart. Rather it's distance, children or just life getting in the way. I will say that their was good character development in the book. The story moved along at a good pace. But, I just didn't think the ending as a whole was believable. That's just my opinion though. Others may think that that would actually happen, but I'm not so sure.

Tentative Publication Date: March 5, 2024

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the E-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

😊 Happy Reading 😊

#netgalley #stmartinspress #carolalovering #byebaby

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Carola Lovering for this ARC!

I was honestly really nervous about picking this one up because being a mom, anything with kidnapping puts me on edge even if I’m reading it! But in this aspect, the kidnapping didn’t make me nervous! It was the lead up and the aftermath that made me uneasy! Which honestly thinking about it now and writing this makes sense because it puts us as the reader into the shoes of the MC and her emotions and anxieties on life, etc..

While there is a TW for this, the sexual assault aspect of this can be hard to read for some readers and while it does make sense to the story.. the detail isn’t all that necessary either.

The storyline and how it ended? Great. But the nervousness throughout the book and more just made me only give it 3 stars.