Not what I expected but I really liked it. Interesting story about the evolution of a friendship from childhood to adulthood. It felt slightly long but excellent characters and plot. Highly recommend!

This thriller gripped me from page 1! It has 2 POVs of the two best friends that include the past and present. It goes through their changing friend ship and the secrets they hid in the past and present. Such a relatable book with how people change when they grow up, how you think your best friend is doing something great for you but it was also for them as well!

I couldn’t put this one down! I love Carola Lovering’s writing style. I would classify it more as a domestic suspense though than a thriller. I kept waiting for a twist that never came. There really weren’t any surprises or twists. Overall though, I still enjoyed the book and would recommend it. Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for this book!

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: Mar. 5, 2024
Billie West and Cassie Barnwell have been best friends since childhood, although since the birth of Cassie’s daughter, Ella, the two have drifted apart. Until the night of Cassie’s thirty-fifth birthday party, when Ella is taken from Cassie’s apartment and Cassie desperately calls to Billie for help. Although estranged for years, Billie is desperate to rekindle the friendship so she reaches out to help Cassie, even though she knows exactly what happened to Ella that night and telling the truth will turn Cassie against her- forever.
Carola Lovering’s new novel, “Bye, Baby” is the story of a missing baby and two best friends with a horrible secret. Narrated by both Billie and Cassie, the novel is divided into two parts and across two timelines- when the girls were young and their friendship was blossoming, to the present day both before and after Cassie’s daughter was taken. Each chapter is identified with the narrator and the date of events so it is easy to tell when you’re reading (and who’s telling the tale).
Cassie is a deplorable character and there was nothing I liked about her. Vapid, shallow and self-centred, I did not connect to her in any way. Although I did not want anything bad to happen to her child, I had no other interest in what happened to Cassie. Billie was slightly more relatable, although as the plot develops, she becomes more co-dependent and desperate, which really made me grow to dislike her as well. Cassie and Billie’s friendship as adolescents was believable, but as adults, I do not see two women with any semblance of self-esteem maintaining this toxic friendship.
Cassie is a young mother and Billie has made a personal choice to not be a mother. Billie speaks of the criticism she faces as a result of this choice, and how this choice has led to the downfall of many relationships. As a non-parent (by choice) myself, I completely empathized with these societal attitudes. However, Billie clings to Cassie in desperation to fill a void in her life, which was less believable and almost insulting. Women who choose not to be parents can live completely fulfilled lives without children, if you can believe it, and as much as Lovering tried to defend Billie’s choice, she did not quite hit the mark.
I haven’t read any other novels by Lovering, but I did enjoy her writing style and I was interested enough in the plot to keep reading. The ending was concise and all of the plot lines had been thoroughly wrapped up, with no leftover questions. Lovering is a talented writer and I look forward to reading her past (and future) novels!

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this e-book. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed Carola Lovering's first book so I was extremely excited for this. This tells two alternating perspectives of childhood best friends who drifted apart in college but are still living near each other in New York City. Cassie has pursued marriage and family, coming into extreme wealth, while Billie has prioritized her career, lived modestly, and focused on putting family trauma in the past. When Cassie's child goes missing, she leans on Billie and multiple secrets are revealed.

The things I appreciated about this book included Lovering's typical exploration of toxic relationship dynamics which in this book centered primarily on toxic dynamics between female friends. I also really appreciated her exploration of motherhood in the social media age, as Cassie is portrayed as a Something Navy-esque blogger, which isn't something a lot of books I've read touched on.

In my opinion, this book has two plots and only one was done well. The first plot centers on a past crime while the second centers on the missing child. I found myself invested in uncovering the past trauma and crimes but the plot following the missing child felt unrealistic. I appreciate an unloveable character but Lovering almost made both main characters unlovable to the point it was hard to believe they ever had the type of codependent sister-like relationship the reader is supposed to believe they had to buy into either plot.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and found myself invested for the first half but by the end I did not want to hear from Billie or Cassie ever again.

This was a wonderful book. A great Thor ill er that kept me guessing the whole time. I would recommend this to all thriller lovers!

SYNOPSIS:
- Billie & Cassie were childhood best friends. Through glimpses of the past, we learn about their secrets, their traumas, and their friendship.
- In the present day, they aren’t as close, and we slowly learn why.
- Cassie is a micro-influencer, as well as the owner of an upscale boutique. Billie works at an expensive, luxury travel consultancy.

MY THOUGHTS
- I wouldn’t characterize this as thriller/suspense, but rather, a well-written drama about toxic, one-sided friendships.
- Multiple POVs (Billie & Cassie) with both present & the past.
- Fast-paced.
- Set mostly in NYC (at least the present). I live in NYC, so I love reading books with this setting.
- Lovering is an incredible writer, and she expertly creates a familiar, relatable story about old friendships. She crafted and plotted a seamless story that you’ll find yourself breezing through until the very end.
- The main characters are both imperfect and flawed. I really liked Billie, and I felt sorry for her throughout the book. The book deals with Billie constantly trying to maintain a friendship with Cassie, instead of letting the friendship run its natural course.
- Cassie wasn’t a likable character, and I thought she was very shallow & nauseating.
- Lovering also explores motherhood AND choosing to be a childfree woman. I loved that she incorporated this, as it isn’t something that many writers acknowledge or incorporate.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Fast-paced + well-written. Drama about toxic friendships.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. It will be published on March 5, 2024.

💎BYE, BABY by Carola Lovering💎

📆PUB DATE: March 5, 2024
➡️Swipe for synopsis
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Format: E-book
Read if you like:
👯Books about female friendship
😮Page turning suspense (not a thriller!!!)
2️⃣Dual Point of View

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Bye, Baby as the synopsis makes it sound a bit like a thriller, but don’t go in expecting that because you will be disappointed. I’d describe this as a dark friendship story with a bit of suspense. If you’ve read Carola Lovering’s books before, you’ll know exactly what I mean! In Bye, Baby we get the POV’s of Cassie and Billie who have been friends since a very young age. Now in their 30s, Cassie has been distancing herself from Billie as they are in completely different points in their lives and Cassie wants to forget the past.

The book starts opens with Cassie’s baby being abducted during a party, and Billie happens to be the kidnapper (not a spoiler, I promise!) You’ll want to keep turning the pages to find out what motivated Billie to take Cassie’s daughter as the book switches between timelines: the days leading up the kidnapping and the aftermath. Bye, Baby explores themes of female friendship, betrayal, obsession, and so much more. While the story is a bit far-fetched, I really enjoyed it and recommend picking it up when it releases in March 2024.

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the copy of Bye, Baby in exchange for an honest review!

This is my first Carola Lovering book and I very much enjoyed this read. I found the story captivating and the narrative was able to seamlessly navigate between different timeframes. The toxic friendship told throughout this book I found relatable in the sense of ending friendships as you age when your priorities and life circumstances change. I also commend Carola for thoroughly discussing the topic of not wanting to be a mother vs motherhood.as I often feel is a taboo subject. I would have liked to see Billie go to therapy to work out her issues around her friendships, motherhood, Wade and Lorraine but overall I really enjoyed the character development and the book as a whole.. I am intrigued to read more from her in the future. Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the ARC.

Is it really possible for a secret to remain a secret forever? Will your "Ride and Die" best friend from high school stick with you throughout your entire life? Or will you grow apart as you grow into adulthood? This book explores that question, along with the toxic life-long friendship of Cassie and Billie. I was expecting a mystery/ thriller from the description of this book, and that is not what this book is. That being said, I did enjoy the ups, downs, twists, and turns of this toxic friendship.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and the author for the advance copy to review!

This book was SO good! I didn’t want to put it down… both main characters were so relatable and so well written that you felt as if you were right there, living their lives with them. I was so invested in this toxic friendship and how everything was unfolding! Both characters did some questionable things but I found myself sympathizing with both of them and I fully understood why they made the choices they made. I love it when the author makes me feel sympathy for morally gray characters! This was a great read with a very satisfying ending and I loved every minute of it. It was my first book by this author but it won’t be my last.

Thanks to St Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and the author for the advance copy!

Can secrets stay secrets forever? This book was crazy, kept me on the edge of my seat until I finished it! Best friends drift apart but can they keep a secret a secret forever? Or can they just call it even and move on? A great read, definitely don’t want to miss out on this one!!!!

*Apologies for formatting which I am unable to edit to correct.*

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Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC of Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering.
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This story absorbed me from the title! “Baby” having multiple meanings to the two main characters, Billie and Cassie/Cassidy. The word encapsulates what the two once had in their insular young friendship during which they bonded over the movie Dirty Dancing, to that fateful action that severed their bond for good as adults living in different worlds.
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Billie strove to return to the original life (and lifeline) shared with Cassie as Cassie tried to escape their unsavory past, fearing it would forever cling. Carola Lovering’s thrillers were all five star reads for me and this one is no exception even as a genre of Women’s Fiction. It has the pacing and suspense of a thriller as we experience the past and present of these two complex characters and page-turn toward their uncertain future.
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This book explores the toxicity and sustainability, betrayals and loyalties inherent in long-term female friendships. Both Billie and Cassie perform feats of support and treason toward the other, with the book’s ending coming to an equitable stance of “even” between the two women.
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Billie’s love for Cassie is engrained in her: “There’s an old stubborn loyalty I cannot fight, a love that lingers in my soul, that’s woven into the fabric of my systemic rhythms. Like knowing how to swallow, how to cry, how to breathe. How do you forget something like that? How do you push a love like that out of your physical body? I wish I could ask Cassie.” Carola Lovering is a highly skilled writer, able to articulate what it is to love even unrequited with one’s whole being.
***
Billie endures heartbreak time and time again at Cassie’s disregard of her love and loyalty, neither of which serve her “gold-digging” goals. Billie comes to painfully realize, “Cassie isn’t mine. She’s never belonged to anyone but herself.”
***
Cassie has always known who she wants to be (wealthy and privileged), and we are witness to the fact that like ephemeral influencer status, her adult dream life is only something rented, not owned: “Even now that we’re married, Grant will never stop doing this—subtly reminding me that the money is his, not ours. He’s the wealthy husband who bankrolls my business. I’m the blue-collar wife who signed a prenup.”
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Billie is collateral friendship damage of the hatred of that blue-collar past. Until tragedy casts aside Cassie’s pretensions and she needs only her former best friend Billie, who comes running even as she herself caused said tragedy.
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This book shows the How and Why of people hurting those loved most, in all personal relationships, and how the “soul of that love remains even after the death of a relationship.”
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Also, the story examines the seeming social and moral duty of a woman to want and have children, and the possibility of being a lovable person lacking that.
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Five stars! I am a forever Carola Lovering fan.

The writing was engaging enough to fool me into sticking with the book much longer than I should have. This book is neither thriller nor mystery, and it doesn’t say anything new about friendship dynamics. The plot is low stakes, and the flashback “twists” are predictable. The worst pet was how insufferable and one-dimensional the two main characters are. Every Cassie chapter oozed of a self-congratulatory Gen Xer failing to make a nuanced statement on social media.

This was overall a good read. The incisive skewering of incredibly shallow influencer culture and women who specifically angle to marry “the right sort of man” while at the same time really sympathetically portraying the depth of a mother’s love for her child is the kind of rich character work I love. Disdaining Cassie Adler is easy. She’s always been the worst. But you can’t deny she loves her kid. Billie, on the other hand, is super relatable until she isn’t. And so we have these two unlikeable women and their codependency and the men and society girls and shit that orbits them and their secrets. I enjoyed the book and found it to be fast paced and compelling.

One of my favorite reads of this year! From the very beginning I was hooked and I could not put it down. The swapping between backstory and present is something I love in a book. It keeps me wanting more information and engulfed in the story. The ending is my favorite but least favorite. Least, because the book is over and favorite because I truly loved how it ended.

Carola Lovering is a new author for me and I really enjoyed her writing and this book.

This psychological story is definitely a slow burn with a dual POV from two besties Billie and Cassie. I understand and agree with the POV’s of both characters. This is not a mystery; it is not a thriller; it is more a look at the relationship between childhood friends and how they grew apart over the years. I felt this book on so many levels, Ugh, why are friendship breakups sometimes harder than romantic relationships??

Cassie and Billie have been besties and inseparable since childhood. Then Cassie meets a man and does the whole marriage and kids lifestyle. Billie is single and childless by choice and finding herself boxed out by Cassie and her new mommy friends. Billie is struggling to reconnect with Cassie, especially because she’s so caught up with the influencer life and posting about her everyday life and daughter. Billie makes a horrible decision based on emotions, she is so hurt by Cassie and my heart broke for Billie throughout this whole book. Lovering did an amazing job making you empathize with both of the characters. I actually liked both main characters for many different reasons.

This was a very interesting book about friendships and even grieving. Unfortunately, friends do come and go and some will only stay for a season or a lifetime. Bye, Baby is not what you think the title means, but it’s beautifully explained at the end of the story.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and the author for an e-ARC of this book, in exchange for my honest review.
Publication date: March 5, 2024.

As a mom, I can no longer read these kinds of books from an objective place. I just need to pass on them as a whole.

This book took turns I was not expecting. It’s the story of two childhood friends who have grown apart over the years but are brought back together by a shocking incident. They share a past full of secrets and trauma - but do they have a future together as friends? With all of the lies and unspoken things hiding in the shadows, it’s hard to tell.

Let me start with saying - I did enjoy this book. It didn’t feel like a thriller or mystery since you knew pretty much everything ahead of time. This book is heavy, sad, funny and emotional all at once. I feel like many people can relate to Billie and the relationship she has with Cassie and drifting apart in a friendship. I was unsatisfied with the ending, I feel like Cassie had little to no character development while Billie was stuck groveling til the end. This book would’ve improved for me if it had more of a mystery element and the characters had some growth through the years. I enjoyed reading it, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a thriller.