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.*

***

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.
***
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.
***
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.
***
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.”
***
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.
***
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.”
***
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.
***
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.

I find it hard to review a book like this. Was it entertaining? Yes, up until the end (which fell flat for me). Is it a mystery? Ehhhhh. Honestly, I think I would have given this a higher rating had the ending been a smash. I guess I wanted something a bit more twisted — it lacked the wow factor.

Regardless, it’s a quick and easy read that some people may really enjoy! It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Publishers for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I tore through this book. Less thriller, more domestic suspense, this is a story with strong themes on friendship, childhood trauma and the way that secrets can haunt us. I really enjoyed the two POVs, toggling back and forth between Billie and Cassie throughout. Even though we witness Billie’s horrible act—kidnapping her best friend’s infant— I found her to be an extremely likable character and found it easy to connect with her and root for her. I enjoyed the ending and feel that it offers good closure to readers.

Thank you St. Martin's Press for granting me permission to read this ARC for NetGalley. Female friendships can be complicated and heartbreaking and sometimes they unravel with changing dynamics like relationships and kids. Carola Lovering writes about the ups and downs of Billie and Cassie's relationship overtime with real depth. Secrets and childhood trauma bond the girls but as adults they are pulled in a different direction. When a crisis pulls them together one last time it's a reckoning with the past and for the future and it will be their final undoing.

Two long-time friends, Cassie and Billie have moved into their mid-thirties with different lifestyles. Cassie marries into money - lots of money - and has a baby that she adores. Cassie also has a botique store, with plans for another, and she has built quite a presence on Instagram.

The two women have been friends since high school, but Cassie is now more connected to the rich women in her husband's social circle. Her closest friends now are several of those women who also have children, so their lives are centered on spending money and doting on their children. Cassie does love her daughter, which for me was the one redeeming quality that made me like her even a little bit.

Billie, now shunted aside and deeply wounded by what she sees as a betrayal, acknowledges that her jealousy is childish and non-productive, but she can't help it, it hurts. And that hurt drives an anger that she can sometimes hardly suppress.

What keeps this story from evolving into simple teenage relationship problems taken into adulthood, are the things that bound these girls together from the beginning. There was so much childhood trauma for them both, and neither ever got professional help in dealing with them. And there is the one big secret that binds them together.

While there have been good times for the girls as they navigate through high school and college, it's clear that the friendship is dysfunctional and perhaps wouldn't continue to exist if not for that secret. Billie knows that Cassie aspires to things that hold no interest to Billie, and there is desperation in her need to keep Cassie as a friend.

I can't say I always enjoyed the read, but I did understand what drove the misguided choices characters made. There was never any doubt about the characters motivations that were defined by the effects of a traumatic childhood. And maybe the reader isn't supposed to always like what Cassie does when she goes overboard to show off her wealth. Or what Billie does when she's feeling especially desperate and lonely for her friend. They aren't very "nice" people when that happens.

But the author always gives them a redeeming action, that makes things okay for a time. That contrast between the dark side of this friendship and the light is handled perfectly.

If you're looking for a read that explores a most difficult friendship between two women, you won't be disappointed with Bye, Baby.

P.S. As a writer and reader who always looks for the ways a story fulfills the title, this one does in several ways. One is obvious, the other subtle that I didn't see until the very end of the book.

This was an engrossing story that came to a very satisfying conclusion.