I thought this would be more of a mystery but it really wasn't. That's okay. More of an exploration of toxic friendship and that was interesting. Definitely a lot happening here, maybe too much. But still good.

Two unlikable main characters and I can’t bring myself to care about them or what’s going to happen to them. DNF. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook to review.

Bye, Baby is a domestic thriller that had very little thriller portions. The reader goes in knowing what happened, but not how or why. As the book unfolds the reader finds out the ins and outs of the relationship between Billie and Cassie. It did not seem at though any character was meant to be liked, making it hard to connect to the book. The entire concept of the book is unrealistic, especially with the fact that no actions had any consequences.

The narrators, Helen Laser, and Karissa Vacker, did a wonderful job of playing portraying the two friends throughout the course of their relationship.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced listening copy, and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book.

This was the first book I've read by Carola Lovering, but I'll be taking a look at her backlist now because I really liked the way she writes. There wasn't a ton of action in the story (the parts that *did* have action had A LOT of action though), but I was still fully invested the entire time, and I think that's a big credit to Lovering's writing.

I loved that the book was told from alternating viewpoints, and while I didn't particularly like either of the main characters, I could understand their friendship and how/why it fell apart. A great, compulsive read even though it was more of a character study than a thriller. I would recommend!

Billie and Cassie… best friends until they are not.
They met in seventh grade, continued their friendship throughout college until they drifted apart. That was when Cassie met a new group of friends. Cassie has always been snobbish. Her grandmother spoiled her with gifts and trips. She seeks friends with family money and prestige. She marries a man who comes from money and uses that to launch her clothing business and her influencer status on Instagram.
Cassie grew up with her mom and stepfather. She adores her mom and despises her stepfather (with good reason). She has a difficult time coming to grips with her mother’s illness.
Billie’s life falls apart on the night of Cassie’s 35th birthday party, which she was not invited to. When she is pet sitting for her boss in the apartment under Cassie’s, she hears a baby crying. Not in a good frame of mind, she investigates where the baby’s cries are coming from, only to realize it is Cassie’s 4-month-old daughter. Before she thinks it through, she suddenly has the baby in her arms. The suspense that occurs from this point on left me quickly turning the pages.
The chapters alternate between Cassie and Billie, providing both of their viewpoints. The timeline includes both the past and the present. Most of the time, Billie was a likable character for me, while Cassie was cold and calculating.
This is a character driven novel, involving secrets, obsession and a very complicated friendship.
Trigger warnings for sexual abuse and Alzheimer’s disease.

Many thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Published on March 5, 2024.

Carola Lovering can do no wrong in my eyes. Everything she writes is quick paced and ridden with guilty pleasure qualities. Bye, Baby is no exception. Cassie and Billie are childhood best friends who have naturally drifted apart in adulthood. Cassie is now married to a wealthy man and they’ve just had a baby. With a beach house, a home in the city, and high profile friends, she has it all. Billie on the other hand is a luxury travel advisor and while she does get to travel all over the world, life hasn’t been as easy for her. When Billie continues to try to re-bond with Cassie in adulthood, Cassie ices her out. Without even thinking Billie kidnaps Cassie’s daughter with the intent to scare her into being friends again. With alternating timelines featuring the girls in high school and as adults the stakes are high when secrets come to light and consequences are dangled in the balance. I blew Through this so fast and I’m already awaiting Lovering’s next work! Highly recommend.

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

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! Bye, Baby is a friendship drama that is not quite a thriller/mystery but has some suspense to it. It took awhile for the story to build up but overall I enjoyed it. What would you do if your best friend took your baby? This was my first read by Carola Lovering and it certainly wont be my last!

Review: Carola does it again. Wow, I devoured this book in two days. I absolutely loved it!

What I loved is that the book opens up with the action, then goes backwards in time leading up to that action. The timeline starts a few weeks later before the incident and also goes back to Cassie and Billie’s childhood from both their POV.

I was so connected to each character. You know the writing is good when you are still rooting for flawed characters. Both main characters were flawed, real, emotional, and engaging. Even though you know what happens, you are still rooting for the characters. The character development was phenomenal.

Another thing- I love books that deal with the insanely wealthy. looking into their world is so intriguing to me. This book has all the elements that make an amazing book- secrets, friendship, jealousy, insecurity, and glamour.

Definitely add this to your list! It starts as a thriller, but it’s more of a domestic suspense/drama. It’s a page turner that I couldn’t put down. Highly recommendation.

I am absolutely loving the thrillers that delve into the dangers and challenges of sharing your life on the internet with strangers. This book was twisty and highlight's Carola Lovering's talent in portraying complex and often toxic female friendships. Many trigger warnings, so make sure to check those before reading!

This is my first book by Carola Lovering and I felt is was just ok. Told in alternating timelines, you follow the friendship between Cassie and Billy through high school years and and adulthood. Although there are events in both timelines that tries to keep the plot moving, I felt it dragged through the first half of the book. I also found the adult version of the girls to be very unlikeable. Cassie is a wife, mother and influencer that is unhappy in her life, but gives the world the perfect life that we see so often with influencers. The two grew apart, due mostly to an event from their teen years, but Billy remains obsessed with Cassie and stalks her online, until a pivotal event causes them to come together once again. The main tiwst in the story line is predictable and, in my opinion, not very climatic. Overall, I did enjoy the second half, but again was predictable towards the end. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this novel.. Others may enjoy it, but I do not thin this author is for me.

Maybe 3.5 stars.

This was a bit up and down for me. Two women, their relationship as best friends since childhood - also up and down. Cassie now with her requisit rich husband and new baby, is a popular influencer on Instagram. Billie couldn't be more different, a travel advisor with a couple of male relationships she can brag about but no desire for children, at all. Something in their pasts changed their direction, their dynamic, their future. Something that they can't discuss or even acknowledge. Then, in present day, Billie does something so ridiculously stupid that I wanted to smack her. The book changed in that moment because it was too out of character for her and suddenly made no sense.

I will say it was uphill from that point as some of the other characters shone brightly with their steadiness and wisdom. But things still weren't exactly sitting well with me at the end.

This was a domestic thriller not a suspenseful thriller. What a toxic friendship between the two main characters. I didn’t like either character but I guess that was the point of this story, who was telling the truth and who was the better person. A good book club title. 3.5 strs

This is my first book by Carole Lovering, and I won’t be shy to pick up her backlist after reading Bye, Baby.

I can’t agree with some of the promotion I’ve seen for this book, touting it as a thriller. But if I was told it was a book about obsession and morally grey characters and their actions, I would buy that. When an author has me feeling empathy and hope for the “bad guy”, I am pretty pleased. This book will have you looking at your friends, and really questioning how true that friendship is.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the gifted eARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I really enjoyed this book! The only reason I did not give it 5 stars was I really didn't care about all the flash back chapters, I found them pretty boring, and didn't really add anything to the story for me personally! I have heard this classified as a thriller and I do not agree, I would say it is closer to lit fic but in the best possible way!! I really loved Billie's character! I could relate to her one a deeply personal level , and I love when that happens in a book!

Wow, this book was just excellent. I now want to read all of Carola Lovering's back catalog! Billie and Cassie are old best friends who have had a falling out in the past several years now that they are grown. Cassie is a successful influencer/business owner who has recently had a child. But when her child is suddenly kidnapped during a party (that Billie wasn't invited to), she suddenly realizes maybe she needs her old best friend after all. But who kidnapped her child and why?

This was a fun telling of two old friends with old secrets and a fun look into the lives they have grown into. Billie really wants to be there for Cassie but she has a lot of her own hangups and insecurities and finds it difficult to support Cassie's posh influencer lifestyle. The twists and turns in this book are super fun and had me hooked. The ending had me floored! 5 stars!

Thanks to the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for a review!

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering 4.5 stars

Carola did it again with another drama that kept me at the edge of my seat. The crux of the story is Billie and Cassie's relationship, you get both of their POVs and dual timelines which really highlights all the complexities of their friendship - both the good and the bad. While it is a character heavy story, the tension builds throughout and you are just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I am a similar age and point in life to the characters so I found it especially relatable in its commentary on how life and friendships change as life events (career, marriages, kids) happen.

I also love rich people behaving badly in NYC. It was engrossing, entertaining, and thought provoking, highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! Great story- pulled into it and couldn’t put down. Didn’t see the end coming

I greatly enjoyed this one. I didn't agree with the actions of a character but I did feel for the friendship dynamics.

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.

Once fiercely bonded by their secrets, Cassie and Billie have drifted apart in adulthood, no longer the inseparable pair they used to be in their small Hudson Valley hometown. Cassie is married to a wealthy man, 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 and childless, and no longer fits into her world. But Billie knows the worst thing Cassie has ever done, and she will do whatever it takes to restore their friendship…

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.

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I devoured this in one sitting! I could not put it down and given how it starts, I just had to know what was going to drive Billie to this moment. I loved every moment of this book and it's such a refreshing and great exploration into the complicated weave of female friendships and how hard it is to let go of relationships that have such fundamental roots in our lives. For Cassie and Billie, their lives together are fraught with constant tests to who they are and who they want to be. It is a friendship that has its own code and as someone who is still friends with someone from grade school, I know what it's like to feel almost trapped in it simply because of the amount of time, history, and effort shared in it. They are both the worst and best thing to happen to one another and because of that, there is connection that cannot be faked or replicated with any other person. Everyone's motivations in this book are so genuine in context that you feel like another part of this extended group just watching everything unfold like gossip told over drinks with an old friend. Phenomenal and heartbreaking, it made Lovering an insta-buy author for me and I can't wait to see what they come up with next.

✨ 4 STARS ✨

going into this, i was not sure what to expect. this is my first book by this author and it is more of a fictional docunovel rather than a thriller. it is a telling of the hardships of friendship through dual perspectives and timelines.

billie and cassie have been besties since they were young but like most friendships, theirs started to fade out. billie is single and childless, still mourning the loss of her mother and childhood trauma. cassie is now a new mom, business owner, and influencer who has married into old money, a life billie no longer fits into. they remain tied only through the secrets that keep them bonded.

the story follows their struggles in a fading friendship of adulthood. the dual perspectives allows the reader to understand both characters while the past and present tense feeds depth into it as well. cassie and billie’s story holds realness and is relatable to most women growing up and having to navigate friendships and relationships, both new and old.