Happy Pub Day + Book Review!

‘Bye, Baby’ by Carola Lovering is out TODAY! …Unless you happened to be at any central Iowa Barnes & Noble two weekends ago… it was out WAY early. 🤣

So, this book is about a toxic friendship. Billie and Cassie have been friends forever but they’ve been growing apart the last couple years. Billie desperately wants Cassie in her life but Cassie couldn’t care less. She wants to move on from Billie and they’re troubling past. Become the most popular lifestyle influencer and showcase her beautiful family! SO things get a little more messed up when Billie kidnaps Cassie’s baby!!! *not a spoiler, you know this on page 1.

This was my first book by Lovering! It WILL NOT be my last. It was so twisty, fast paced, relatable, had perfectly unlikable characters, alternating POV chapters, plus the audio narration was great! Thank you @stmartinspress for this gifted book as well as @netgalley and @macmillian.audio for the audiobook.

I haven’t read Tell Me Lies, Too Good to be True, or Can’t Look Away. Which one should I read next?

🖤🖤🖤

A domestic drama about an extremely toxic friendship, marriage, motherhood, relationships and secrets.

I was drawn in by the premise - I find books about toxic friendships to be enthralling. What is it about adults behaving badly that I just can't tear myself away from?

While I enjoyed this, I never felt 100% invested. I think going in knowing that Billie takes Cassie's baby takes a bit of the mystery away. I liked the different POVs and how we slowly find out about their friendship and what caused it to unravel in the past, while experiencing the present alongside them. The dependency between these two women was T-O-X-I-C! When we see what they went through together as young girls the bond makes sense. Yet, you also understand how it unraveled.

I do think there may have been too much explored (toxic friendships & relationships, Alzheimers, abuse, rape, trauma, social media & influencers, social class) and as a result, some elements remained too surface level for me to really care ir feel invested as a reader.

These two women and their partners) drove me nuts for 90% of the book.
There were just too many bad decisions made. There was not a responsible adult in the bunch!

Still, this was an enjoyable listen and if you like character-driven domestic dramas you'll definitely want to check this out.

I finished this book a few days ago, and I'm still trying to sort out my feelings about it. Part of that might be that I went into it thinking it would be more of a psychological thriller, and while there's a touch of that, the stakes aren't life and death - they're love and friendship. Many reviews mention a "toxic" friendship, in the beginning it's a friendship between two girls who are very different, but are still best friends as teens. Eventually those differences remain, and as adults they grow in very different directions, as is the case with many high school friendships. But in this instance, there's a defining moment that creates a kind of "forever" bond between them. Ultimately though, one of them is ready to release that friendship (despite the bond), the other isn't. And that's where the "toxicity" comes in, and one impulsive move brings things to a head.
The history of their relationships with each other and with other significant people in their lives is revealed gradually as the time frame moves between past & present. Lovering does a good job of helping the reader keep track of those time shifts.
Had I read this book from the page, it might've been 3 or 3.5 stars for me - but the narration by Helen Laser and Karissa Vacker definitely improved the experience for me. The voices of Cassie and Billie really helped cement their individual personalities in my mind, and while I wanted to give them each a good shake at various points in the book, I'm glad I read it.
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

This fell a little flat for me. While I enjoyed the story and the morally gray characters, it lacked suspense and would not be categorized as a thriller, in my opinion.

I started this and put it aside as I seem to be about 80 percent dnf at ten percent for 2024 books. I happened to read the author interview with Zibby Owen’s and decided I wanted to read the book based on the interview and theme of women and friendship plus mothers vs non mothers both topics that have always intrigued my fleeting friends non mother self..
. while waiting for the arc I decided to start listening to the audio version so glad I went back to it a well written story with one of my two favorite elements…either something that happens in a day or relationships unfolding over decades as was the case with Billie and Cassie hard to make work in an audiobook but well done esp since I wasn’t a fan of some of the narration and strongly prefer linear storylines..thanks to the author publisher for a story that has depth… I’ve become a huge fan of Zibby Books since reading Here After
and the Zibby book titles will be on my list going forward.

This is a great suspense drama surrounding a twisty, toxic friendship. Billie and Cassie have been friends since childhood. It is only recently that the two began to grow apart after Cassie got married and had a little girl. Cassie always knew she wanted to live a life of luxury but now she seems to be leaving Billie out of everything as she becomes immersed in the life of a wealthy, socialite mom. She has a following on social media that only continues to grow the more she posts her outfits, outings, and swanky events. One such event is Cassie's birthday where her daughter somehow goes missing. It's at this point that Cassie doesn't want anyone but Billie.

I loved the way this story jumped back and forth from the present day to their childhood so we could see how the two girls met and grew their friendship. They had one bonding experience in particular which has kept them close ever since. As we learn more about their past, we see how power structures shifted from one person to the next. Billie goes from seeming completely sane and normal compared to Cassie to appearing to be the crazier one of the two. Lovering had me wondering how everything would wrap up in the end. I was highly entertained the whole way through. In particular, I enjoyed the social media aspect and the discussions around the idea of opening up your life to thousands of people. The female friendship was sweet at times and toxic at others. It was a lot of fun to read from beginning to end.

There is a different narrator for each woman and both did a fantastic job with the characters. They brought to life their very different personalities and helped to keep all timelines straight with zero confusion. I think having the two narrators enhances the crazy friendship these two had and would recommend it on audio. I had not read any of Lovering's books before but will certainly have her on my radar from this point forward. I recommend this one to anyone looking for good suspense with a crazy story to go along with it.

I love the multi POV in past and present timelines. I thought this was a thriller but felt more like womens fiction. This is about friendship and motherhood. The trials of life unravelling the friendship

I enjoyed delving into this toxic friendship. As more of the friend’s pasts are revealed, their relationship evolves and the reader gets a deeper glimpse into their history.
Really enjoyed the complexities of the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

This audiobook was entertaining and I enjoyed it. I liked the alternating viewpoints and how the book kept me guessing until the end.

Wow, wow, wow - I loved this thriller! I'm always a fan of the tension of female friendships, especially going from teenage years into adulthood and boy did this story deliver. I love how it started with the "event" (baby kidnapping) and then backed up to walk us through the events that got us there and the aftermath of it all later on. I will be recommending this one to all!

I fell in love with this audiobook from the first chapter. The perfect narration!!! Storyline will keep you guessing until the end. I was intrigued from the first sentence to the last. Didn’t want it to end. Kudos !!

Great book! I loved the narrator. I thought the relationship between friends was super relatable and it had me invested from the beginning.

I think I went into this book with different expectations based off the title and description. I was expecting more of a psychological/thriller book, but this felt more of a story of trials and struggles of womanood and frienship. It was a 2.5 star read for me.

I enjoyed the two different POVs and the different jumps of past and present. I think the story took a little too long to pick up pace and it felt like nothing significant or monumentous would happen for a while. The pacing was a little too slow and based off the description, I expected the book to have me on the edge of my seat more, but it fell a little flat.

Thank you to #partner St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for the copies to review!

While this is more of a story about lifelong friends than a thriller per se, I enjoyed it very much. Billie and Cassie have been lifelong friends, bonded by secrets, but they have grown apart in recent years. And then Cassie’s infant daughter goes missing, and the only person Cassie wants to call is Billie, which rekindles their friendship. Except, there are more secrets that are revealed, and as we flash back to the past and learn the events of the present, it is clear that this is quite a toxic relationship and maybe always has been.

I loved this one, and thought Lovering crafted these two characters very well. I empathized with Billie and Cassie, but did not agree with either side at times. Overall this was an excellent read that I could not put down given I really wanted to see how it would all be resolved.

I loved the audio too, Karissa Vacker never disappoints and I thought Helen Laser did a fantastic job as well. Definitely recommend if you like audiobooks, it is a great listen.

I loved this one so much!! I could not stop listening to it. This book is not a mystery / thriller like I originally thought, but more of a literacy suspense / drama, which I actually really enjoyed. This story explores complex friendships, toxic codependency, childhood trauma and unhealthy obsession. I loved the ending as well!

I hated Cassie so much, but I loved Billie. And they both needed lots and lots of therapy....

𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙚𝙣𝙟𝙤𝙮:
• multiple POVs
• alternating timelines
• complex friendships
• slow burn drama
• flawed characters
• social media/influencer

This was my favorite quote from the book 🩷

"Maybe that's just how friendship works when you're young. Maybe the choice to tether yourself to each other isn't a choice at all, but an unconscious pull that doesn't require explanation. A response to shared circumstance, joined with something in your heart that feels good and right. The loyalty that follows feels inherent, lasting, tamper proof."

𝘼𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧: Carola Lovering | @carolatlovering
𝙉𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙧s: Karissa Vacker, Helen Laser
𝙇𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙩𝙝: 11h 24m

𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙔𝙤𝙪 @macmillan.audio for my complimentary copy!

This is not a thriller. It talks more about what it takes to maintain a friendship then thriller.

This book is more like a reflection on the use of social media. Cassie and Billie have been Best Friends since they were in school, but after Cassie marries a rich man and makes new friends their friendship kind of fizzles out. Billie can't accept that her best friend has a total different life now and she is a bit obsessed with Cassie's life.

In the end, I felt that both of them were bad people, Cassie has a completely 180 only to go back to the beginning later. It's like she didn't learn anything from her 'phoneless' week.

I received a digital copy from NetGalley for review. All opinions are my own

A twisted storyline that isn’t really thriller or suspense as it we know immediately who did it, but it is a total creep-fest. Billie and Cassie have known each other forever and were BFF’s. For better or worse, they knew everything about each other. Things that should always stay buried and that Billie thought would bind them forever. Cassie has spent most of her life trying to “marry up” and when she finally does and finds a new group of friends she ghosts Billie. Billie can’t let go of her and move forward while Cassie doesn’t even look back. When circumstances put Cassie into Billies orbit she does the unthinkable. It’s an intriguing story that again, even though you know whodunit can’t help, but wanting to know what happens and how the story ends. Enjoyable narration.

I really enjoyed this slow burn domestic friendship novel. One thing that Carola Lovering is so good at is giving you a breadcrumb throughout the book that ties it all together at the end. I appreciated how she was able to weave both the perspective of Billie and Cassie with their joint history throughout the book. I found it kept it interesting and I was dying to know when their "friendship" went all wrong. This is one of those book where you feel almost the most sympathy for the one who has done the wrongdoing, or at least I did! I found Cassie to be almost unpalatable at times, which goes to show what a good author Lovering is. This was an interesting examination of female friendships throughout the course of a lifetime, and how they can affect people. I had a great time reading this book, and I would recommend.

It is important to note that both of the narrators did such a good job bringing this book to life. I appreciated the voice that they gave the characters of Cassie and Billie. It was certainly seamless and I appreciated their work.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced listening copy of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.

Carola Lovering is the master of writing the most unlikable characters in a story that you can't help enjoying. Billie and Cassie have been friends forever, but their recent lives have them drifting apart. Cassie is all about appearance and sharing her perfect life on social media while Billie is just hanging on by a thread in her own life leading her to do something drastic. As the past began to be revealed, Billie's actions become more understandable. Told in alternating viewpoints, this is a tale that is suspenseful and riveting. I will continue to be first in line to read anything Carola Lovering writes.

When I saw that Karissa Vacker was a narrator for the audiobook version, I knew I definitely needed to listen. Karissa Vacker can narrate no wrong for me! I took advantage of having both the ebook and the audiobook to enjoy.

This is my second Carola Lovering book and I enjoyed them both a lot! She’s great at developing a unique voice for her characters and making you understand their decisions even though you may not agree with them. I thought the audiobook narrator did a great job and I was very entertained and moved by the story.