Having enjoyed Carola Lovering’s previous novels, I didn’t hesitate to add this one to my must-read list.

Bye, Baby ended up being a bit unexpected. It had all of the addictive writing, intriguing characters, and intense storylines that I have come to expect, but this novel was so much more than a domestic thriller, it was a novel about female friendship, how it evolves over time, and the choices that we make as women. It was a thought-provoking novel that, darn it, made me feel a lot more than I thought it would.

Billie and Cassie were friends since the seventh grade. They shared everything with one another: good times, bad times, and traumatic times. They were pretty much inseparable for most of their young lives, but as time goes by, people change, outgrow their small towns, lifestyles, and often outgrow the people that they grew up with.

In a domestic thriller, I am often not overly attached to a particular character. I am there for the ride that the story is going to take me on. With Bye, Baby, I was invested in one of the characters. I cared about her, I wanted her to be happy, and I wanted everything to work out for her. Yes, I cared. Did I think she always made the best decisions? No. Did I want to shake some sense into her and tell her not to do certain things? Of course I did. If she had listened to my good advice, it wouldn’t have been a very entertaining story, though. She had to do what she was going to do, and I was there, flipping the pages as quickly as I could to find out what the repercussions were going to be.

The story alternated between Billie and Cassie’s perspectives, both from the past and present day. I loved seeing their friendship from the very beginning and how it grew over time. They had a closeness that many best friends share, but not all friendships are able to survive the test of time. We always think that we will be best friends forever with our earliest friends, but we don’t consider how we may go in different directions with our life choices and goals.

Bye, Baby was a riveting, twisty read that swept me into the story and kept me glued to the pages. I was invested from the very beginning of Billie and Cassie’s story and couldn’t wait to find out how it would all play out.​

*5 Stars

Cassie and Billie were once inseparable during their youth and young adulthood and have since grown apart. Cassie is a first time mother married to a wealthy man while Billie continues to be child free and doesn’t date much. One fateful night Billie hears Cassie scream from the floor above her, panicked about her missing baby. Billie looks down and sees the baby in her arms. How did they get to this point?

I have loved all of Carola Lovering’s books but this one was absolutely amazing! The complexity of the characters has you loving and hating both at different parts of the book. Told from dual perspectives, it will also have you cringing and asking yourself, “why are we like this?”

Bye Baby was a clench your teeth kind of read but not in the way you might think.

This book made me uncomfortable and put me on the edge of my seat but in a great way. Following Billie and Cassie, two childhood friends whose relationship has grown distant, this book gives a different perspective on toxic friend relationships and what some friends will do to keep them.

I listened to this as well as read it and the audiobook was great. I was listening and flipping pages on my kindle as fast as I could. Lovering kept me wanting more as I tried to figure out what the big climax would be and it wasn’t disappointing. I’m glad that all the loose ends were tied up and that I didn’t feel like I was left wanting more.

I am a big fan of Carola Lovering, so this was a much anticipated release for me! BYE, BABY is a story of suspense about lifelong friends Cassie and Billie. Cassie is married with a baby and wants to leave her past behind — Billie included. When Cassie’s baby disappears, Billie is there to comfort her. She is desperate to restore her friendship with Cassie, and that includes lying to her about the night Cassie’s baby went missing.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Lovering has a talent for writing toxic relationships, and this one was juicy! Billie is overly attached to her friendship with Cassie, even though all of the signs are there that she should move on. I enjoyed the dual POVs because Cassie and Billie are so very different. The author did a great job of revealing just enough at the beginning of the book to build suspense.

This book read as a slow-burn for me — but the chapters are very short, which made it a super quick read! The ending was a little lackluster for me, and I wanted a bit more action, but overall this was a page-turning psychological suspense 🖤

3.0 Stars
Bye, Baby
Carola Lovering

Thank you to #NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the Ecopy of Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering. The story POV rotates chapters between Billie and Cassie, the main characters. The chapters are short and flow well, once you are comfortable with alternating chapters and moving from present to past and back again. I enjoyed reading the perspective of Cassie and her dedication to becoming a lifestyle influencer and the amount of personal information she shares with strangers. In her commitment to this new lifestyle, Cassie finds new friends that improve her career and slowly pulls away from her best friend since they were 11 years old, Billie. Billie is confused by this distance and becomes obsessed with regaining her status in Cassie's inner circle.
This theme was the main plot of the story and it became repetitive and dull. The author shares a lot of Billie and Cassie's childhoods, but again, it dragged on. I would not describe this story as a thriller or mystery. Everything that happens is obvious and predictable. This novel should be listed as a family/friend drama with little surprise or suspense.

This book had so much potential with the plot, but in my opinion, it fell short. Ultimately, the title, cover and synopsis were what drew me in, but it just wasn't for me, and I wouldn't consider it a thriller but more in the suspense genre.

Thank you NetGalley, Carola Lovering for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was provided a free advanced copy of this book from @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
Billie and Cassie met when they were twelve years old and became inseparable! Throughout high school, college, and even early adulthood they stuck together. But as time moved on they began to drift apart. Now at 35, Cassie has married a wealthy man, and has an infant daughter, and Billie is the one still hanging on. Until the day Cassie's daughter goes missing.
I struggled with this one. You know from the back that Billie is the one that takes Cassie's child. But how we get there and how we get from there... was... interesting. I told my husband about 50 pages from the end, "I don't know how this is going to end. If it goes one way, it will be disappointing, but if it goes the other way it would be too unrealistic!" I do think it was an OK ending, but the concept alone was just odd for me.
It is set to be published this Tuesday, 5 Mar, so look into it if it sounds like a book you'd be interested in!
#NetGalley #ByeBaby

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

This was a really hard read, please make sure you check trigger warnings before picking this one up. StoryGraph has really great and detailed TWs so I always recommend checking there before reading most books.

Another thing to note, this really isn’t much of a thriller like I thought it would be so if you are looking for that, you won’t really find it in this book. Very character driven, two unlikable and unreliable main characters make it also hard to keep up with.

Not really my favorite, but not bad if you are looking for a storyline with unreliable narrators and toxic friendships driving people to do horrible things.

Carola Lovering has an impeccable way of writing characters that are so internally awful in the most peculiar ways. Neither Cassie nor Billie were particularly likable - both dark and twisty and messed up, they were fascinating to follow. I was cringing so often as the story line progressed. It was like a car wreck where you can’t look away but you absolutely need to know what happened. The storyline was so unique and kept me engaged the entire time.

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering is such a good domestic thriller.

I read this book in 24 hours. It was so fantastic.

The characters and the plot are fresh and unique.

The twists were fantastic.

There is a crime in this book - a baby goes missing - but it is more a story of a toxic friendship than a psychological thriller or mystery. I was pulled into the story from the beginning and the secrets and lies that were revealed kept me interested. Friendship that goes awry and some suspense made for a really good story.

⚠️ Sexual assault

3.5 stars rounded up

Cassie and Billie have been friends since they were 12 years old. Cassie is a gold digger and wants more. Billie lives with her Mom and her boyfriend Wade. Billie's Mom is diagnosed with Alzheimer's at 47. As they've grown older they've grown out of their friendship. Billie is still holding on. They share a secret.

This book is told in 2 pov's and two timelines, then and now. This book is not really a mystery or thriller. This book did catch me at the beginning but lost me during the end. It fell a little flat. More drama. The characters aren't really likeable. This book wasn't my favorite. 🤷

Billie and Cassie were best friends all the way through college, but then Cassie started to change. If Billie were honest with herself, Cassie started changing long before that. She became money & status obsessed, and only wanted to be surrounded by the uber-wealthy. Then Cassie met Grant and they fell in love, and Cassie wrote Billie out of her life. Billie tried to stay in touch, and Cassie would respond on rare occasions out of guilt, but the friendship was not what it used to be. So when Billie goes to her Boss's apartment to feed her cat while she is on vacation, she realizes two things: 1) her boss has just moved to an apartment right under Cassie's apartment 2) despite the fact that Cassie claimed she was not doing anything for her birthday, Cassie is having a huge party at her apartment. Billie is devastated that she was lied to and as she sits in Jane's apartment listening to the party overhead, she hears the screams of Cassie's baby girl. They go on and on, and the longer they do, the more agitated Billie gets. How can Cassie just keep posting pictures and videos to her Instagram page and ignore her child? How does no one hear her? In a snap moment of insanity, Billie climbs the fire escape and sees the baby alone in her stroller. She takes her and goes back to Jane's apartment and comforts the child. Even after she hears Cassie's screams, and people calling out for someone to call the police, Billie just sits there....numb. She doesn't know what to do. It's not like she can walk up there now and just hand the baby back with no repercussions, can she?

I always enjoy this author's books. This one was no exception. It was told alternating between before and after, so you saw their friendship from the beginning, up through when Billie took the baby, and then after the baby was returned to Cassie. Cassie was a thoroughly unlikeable character,, but I really liked Billie. She seemed genuine, flawed and down-to-earth, not distracted by shiny things like Cassie was. Billie had an extremely tough childhood and that shaped her adulthood. I do need to issue a trigger warning - there are scenes of sexual abuse towards teenagers, so keep that in mind in case that is a trigger for you. This fast-paced drama is perfect for fans of B.A. Paris and Catherine McKenzie.

While I wouldn't call this a thriller, but more of women's fiction with a suspense element, I did really enjoy it. Two friends with a tight bond as teenagers have drifted apart. When one decides to exclude the other from a milestone event, a chain of events is set into place that will cause them both to re-evaluate their bond. Very readable and yet with a lot to discuss - would make a great book club pick!

I’m having such a hard time with this review because while I don’t think the book was bad I just didn’t enjoy it very much. I think going in with expectations of a thriller was not the right mindset. This book was not suspenseful or mysterious at all. It was drama drama drama and I think if I had been better prepared for something more domestic I might have enjoyed it more.

I liked the dual POV and timelines a lot. I thought switching between each character gave a lot of necessary context for their relationship to each other and learning about their friendship as kids solidified a lot of the feelings of codependency. I did not care for either woman though. Both of them had a lot of issues with how they communicated not just with the other but everyone around them. I know that’s part of the drama but it just got so annoying.

The premise was interesting enough but unfortunately the execution ending up being very boring for me. If I hadn’t have had the audio to help push me along I might have not finished. I think a lot of people will like it because, as I said before, it’s not a bad book. It just didn’t fit into what I needed from it to work well for me.

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering is a domestic thriller, which tells the story of a friendship that changes over time as the two women grow from pre-teens to women in their 30's who are on differing paths. Lovering uses a dual perspective, dual-timeline writing style that allows the reader to find out secrets and truths slowly over the course of the novel, which adds to the anxiety induced by two not-very-nice main characters.

The reader knows who kidnapped the baby from the very beginning of the book. The suspense comes in finding out why and how it came about, and then, how it is going to be resolved. a To be honest, I didn't find this domestic thriller to be especially thrilling or suspenseful. I did, however, see it as more of a relationship study, with the ebbs and flows of the girls' friendship over the years extremely realistically portrayed as the BFFs grew up and grew apart. What I struggled with was that both women were, to me, not sympathetic characters, in fact, I disliked each of them very much albeit for different reasons. It was difficult to feel sorry for them or for their circumstances, as neither one made great decisions.

As domestic thrillers go, Bye, Baby will not be tops for my recommendations, though it was a pleasing enough read--just not an edge of your seat thrill ride.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC of Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering. The opinions in this review are my own.

[3.5 Stars]

You should be able to trust your best friend - especially your childhood best friend - right? For Cassie Adler and Billie West, this is unfortunately not the case. After 20 years of friendship, it is clear that they are no longer the friends they once were - and that the secrets they're hiding are detrimental to the other party. However, when Cassie's infant daughter goes missing, the only person she wants to comfort her is Billie - who also may or may not have stolen and returned this child. Over two weeks they rekindle what they once had, but it won't last long. Once the truth comes out, their worlds are shattered even further. Will Cassie understand Billie's motives or is it too late? How will this affect their friendship going forward? They may never recover from this tumultuous night.

I wouldn't classify this book as a mystery/thriller - at least not compared to the usual books I read in this genre. I'm not sure how I would classify it, but I was expecting more twists than the book had. That being said, I did enjoy this book and read it in roughly a day. As some of the twists began to unfold, I found myself wanting more and more from these characters. There were certain parts of the book that I felt could have gotten more attention, but overall, I enjoyed the ride this story took me on. If you do not come at it from a mystery/thriller perspective, I think you'll really enjoy this book!

Cassie and Billie were best friends, from school chums, through college. They were a solid twosome. But Cassie had plans to move upward socially and Billie had no such desire. She wanted to go to college, get a good job, and she wished her mother would come back from dementia. They experience a tremendously momentous occurrence that changes their lives forever.

Cassie is now a new mother, married to a man whose family is wealthy. And she's moved on from her friendship with Billie.

But can such good friends ever really sever their relationship? Until one fateful night when a second tremendously momentous event happens.

The story is told in different timeframes, from each woman's point of view. The reader knows what has happened and it could be gut wrenching, knowing what could happen.

I thought the book was very well written and the story ties all the bits together really well.

Billie and Cassie have been friends since they were children. Now they are 35 years old, living in New York. Cassie has achieved everything she wanted - rich husband, beautiful baby, owning a shop and online business, and quickly becoming a popular online influencer. Billie is still single, working as a luxury travel agent, and wants nothing more than to become part of Cassie's life again. As Cassie rejects Billie again and again, Billie becomes desperate to work her way back into Cassie's inner circle.

This was one of those books that you think is about one thing, but is actually about something else. There's a compelling backstory that ties these girls together, but it's also a great story of friendships ending for whatever reason and the person who isn't ready to say goodbye yet. Cassie is the pretty social media girl you just want to dislike on principle but you'd have to be pretty cold-hearted to not feel for her when her baby goes missing. Billie just wants her friend and nothing she does turns out the way she wants.

I definitely recommend this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Available March 5, 2024.

3.5 stars. With her first three novels, Carola Lovering seemed to have found her niche exploring toxic romantic relationships and the emotional fallout resulting from those entanglements. In Bye, Baby, a toxic relationship is still central to the story -- but this time, it's best friends instead of romantic partners.

Billie and Cassie became instant best friends at age 12, when Cassie moved to Billie's upstate New York town. Now they're in their mid-30s, and their lives have taken very different paths. Cassie married into a wealthy family and lives with her husband and new baby in a swanky Gramercy Park apartment, growing her followers on Instagram as she promotes her upscale boutique. Billie, meanwhile, is successful but single (and childless by choice), and spends her evenings watching Cassie's charmed life unfold through Instagram stories. The women have grown apart, something that Billie refuses to accept. Billie will do whatever it takes to stay in Cassie's life -- even if that means kidnapping Cassie's baby.

Bye, Baby unfolds on two timelines, delving into both Billie and Cassie's current relationship and the past events that caused Billie to trauma-bond to Cassie so strongly. It's not a thriller, but instead a domestic drama/character study that explores the psyches of two women, one of them incredibly damaged. Lovering really excels at this -- painting complex portraits of her characters, exploring the dark things that affect their mental states and the ways they are shaped by their trauma. Billie is such an interesting character, sympathetic both in spite of and because of her choices, while the portrayal of Cassie is much more shallow. I would have liked some past chapters narrated from Cassie's perspective to understand her a bit better. I never connected with her and didn't feel much for her aside from annoyance.

Lovering infuses the plot with lots of interesting commentary surrounding influencer culture, materialism, and the way women's choices are perceived, delving into difficult topics like Alzheimer's disease, sexual assault, and social discrimination and classism. Bye, Baby is a deft exploration of a toxic female friendship from both sides: how it feels to be the one holding on, and how it feels to be the one pulling away. Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the early reading opportunity.