Oh my gosh this audiobook was absolute perfection! It was so captivating I finished it in less than 24 hours, I literally couldn’t stop!

Thank you, NetGalley, for an audio-ARC of Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering.
A story of friendships that have grown apart. A story of hurt feelings and raw emotions that create a series of events that change lives. Through this novel, Lovering shows the feelings of betrayal and rejection. This book is being pushed as a thriller or suspense;. however, it's worth noting that readers expecting a traditional thriller may be disappointed by the lack of suspense or action-driven plot twists. Instead, Bye Baby, is more concerned with exploring the intricacies of its characters' inner lives and the complexities of their relationships.

Ooh yall this one was wild!! Bye, Baby was a fast paced drama filled suspense that had dual timeline and povs, family drama, friendship drama and was very character driven.

I loved the influencer side of this book and could definitely relate to some! I really liked this book and can’t wait to read more from the author!

I will read absolutely anything by this author, and "Bye, Baby' did not disappoint. Loved the structure - two present-day POVs with one character also having a POV in the past.

Publishers - more like this PLEASE.

Bye Baby by Carola Lovering. I was SO excited about this book! I loved this book until the very end. The ending was so predictable and fell short for me. It really was disappointing. I was waiting for a huge twist but it was just okay for me.

This book was not for me, but the audio narration is what kept me going. I liked the difference in tone for Cassie and Billie.
First off, this book should not have been classified as a thriller. I think I would have enjoyed it more,

A lot of these characters remind me of people I’ve seen on reality TV. They are rich, shallow, and image obsessed. Their tea is strong, and you kinda don’t want to look, but you also can’t look away 🙃🫣. (Have I mentioned that I love reality TV? ☺️) This is a story about toxic friendships, betrayal, and trauma. It’s psychological fiction with a heaping dollop of suspense. I flew through this book and could not stop reading.
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Someone has kidnapped Cassie Barnwell’s baby and blown up her world. That someone happens to be her old childhood best friend, Billie. Once inseparable, Cassie and Billie have grown apart over the years. Cassie seems intent on widening that divide and surrounding herself with rich Harvard elite, while Billie wants nothing more but to be back in Cassie’s orbit. Billie and Cassie share a dark secret, forged in childhood trauma. But will their secrets continue to bond them together, or will they ultimately tear them apart?
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Cassie and her socialite friends trash talk Billie. They are cringey and unlikable, and their casually misogynistic husbands are even worse. (There’s also the blasé way they abuse alcohol like it’s trendy and cute.)
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Billie could be a likable character you want to root for, but then there’s that whole kidnapping bit 🫣. I feel like Billie comes across as a bit of an antihero, and I always appreciate an antihero story.
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I loved the depth in the POV and timeline shifts. Also, Lovering’s description of Alzheimer’s felt very authentic and relatable.
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Ultimately, I enjoyed this book. I read and listened to this one. The narration by @hlaserwolf and @karissavacker was phenomenal. Thank you to @macmillan.audio @stmartinspress @netgalley for these ARCs!
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Bye, Baby - Carola Lovering
4/5⭐️
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TW: sexual assault.
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“Maybe that’s just how friendship works when you’re young. Maybe the choice to tether yourselves to each other isn’t a choice at all but an unconscious pull that doesn’t require an explanation, a response to a shared circumstance, joined with something in your heart that feels good and right.”
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4 stars!

"Bye, Baby" by Carola Lovering is an excellent, dramatic, thrilling piece of fiction about toxic friendships, motherhood, our internet-obsessed culture, obsession in general, and trying to erase your past. I really, really dug this story! I couldn't stop reading - I *had* to finish it sooner rather than later. I was totally immersed in this story and these characters! I think this book is very well written, even when it switches between past and present timelines. I found this to be twisty, turn-y, suspenseful, and sort of sad. It is a thoroughly laid-out novel about the dissolution of a friend pairing that was once thought to be indestructible. Though Lovering divulges a big part of what happens in chapter one, that's only a small portion of the puzzle that is Cassie and Billie's decades-long friendship. The book also has an interesting subplot about Cassie being an influencer and how that fuels her paranoia after her baby is kidnapped. She is addicted to her phone, addicted to the praise random strangers give her, addicted to sharing even the most insignificant details of her life for even a modicum of praise. Stories like this make me think twice about what I post about myself, my life, and my people online... you never really know who is watching! So many secrets, so many lies, so much drama - you really can't go wrong with this story! I highly recommend it. I also think this story is successful because of the incredible dual audiobook narrations by Helen Laser and Karissa Vacker. They so eloquently, effortlessly, and intricately portray these characters.

Thank you to NetGalley, Carola Loverling, and Macmillan Audio for the complimentary ALC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

I listened to the audio version of this book narrated by Helen Laser and Karissa Vacker. The narrations were done very well and added to the experience of the book.

This story is a dual timeline and dual point of view. The two main characters, Cassie and Billie, had been friends for a long time, so part of the story goes back to their past. They both also offer their own thoughts in a more current timeline centered around the kidnapping of Cassie's baby.

I really don't know how to classify this book. It is full of suspense, but there's really not a mystery since the author keys you in almost immediately as to who kidnapped the baby. It's more of a story of a friendship and the death of that friendship and the secrets that were kept as part of that friendship. However you want to classify it, it kept my attention and I enjoyed listening to it.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the copy of this audiobook. All thoughts are my own.

I CANT STAND Cassie. I thought for sure her husband was sleeping with his cousin the whole time.
Billie should have dropped her crazy ass in high school.
Bye, Baby... More like BYE BITCH.
sorry, I really didn't like how a 35 year old was still acting like a "Immature Mean Girl"
But the book was great! 😂😂😂😂

Publisher's summary
Every friendship has its shadow...
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…

Thanks NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for the ARC of this book!

Bye, Baby
A Novel
By: Carola Lovering
Narrated by: Helen Laser, Karissa Vacker
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release date: 03-05-24

This satisfying psychological thriller was a great mix of nostalgia, modern motherhood, the complicated bonds of lifelong friendship, superficial social media influencer culture, and so much more. I'm docking it a star because I felt like a couple of scenes involving SA were unnecessarily graphic, and I was expecting a more mind-blowing ending. But otherwise, I enjoyed it. Great work by both narrators. They really helped sell the story.

This book took me a bit to get into but after the halfway point I did enjoy it and it wasn’t my favorite thriller but it was still good.

Lovering is a master in writing about drama and toxic relationships and we get all of that and so much more in Bye, Baby.

Told in dual timelines and multiple POV’s, this book is really a slow burn domestic suspense that is a character study in human behavior and the role social media plays in our society.

I love the premise of the story and thought Billie and Cassie’s characters were well developed and It was great getting glimpses into their past to understand how their friendship was formed and evolved. What I had a hard time getting over though was how unlikable they both were😬 - I wanted someone to root for and didn’t get it. The audio narration was wonderful but having these two in my ears for 9+ hours with their narcissism and frustrating decisions was maybe a little too much and I wonder if I would have had a different experience reading a physical copy.

In the end I did enjoy the exploration of female friendships and motherhood and if you are a fan of character-driven stories with complex personalities, this may be a book you will want to pick up!

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering is one of my favorite mystery/thriller books of the year so far! Lovering did an excellent job of keeping this book suspenseful at every turn. The sequencing and pacing were very perfection. I couldn't put it down! I enjoyed reading about these characters, their ascent/descent into madness as well as the cat and mouse/mysterious elements that were consistent from the first page. Fantastic narrators! I'd love to read more books narrated by Helen Laser and Karissa Vacker. Lastly, I need to dig into this author's backlist immediately!

I had a great time with this book! I have wanted to read Carola Lovering’s work for some time but this is the first time that I have picked up one of her books and it was a winner for me. The reader knows from the start who is responsible for kidnapping baby Ella, which is a fun way to let the story unfold. Billie and Cassie have known each other since they were children even though they aren’t as close anymore. After the kidnapping, Cassie only wants Billie around, not knowing that she is the one who took her daughter in the first place.

I was on the edge of my seat waiting for everyone to figure out what really happened and there were some pretty intense situations from Cassie and Billie’s past that we learn about as we work our way through the story. I didn’t dislike either of these 2 women but I did feel myself more drawn to Billie and hoped that she would figure a way out of the mess that she had put herself in. Billie has a lot of positive things going on in her personal life and I wanted to see her keep that momentum going.

I listened to the audiobook and thought that the narrators did a great job with this novel. Helen Laser’s and Karissa Vacker’s voices were distinctive enough so that I always knew which character’s perspective was being portrayed. I thought that both narrators did an excellent job of bringing the right amount of emotion into their reading which helped to bring the story and characters to life. I am certain that their performances added to my overall enjoyment of this story.

I would recommend this book to others. I was hooked by this story early on and couldn’t wait to see how things would work out. These two women share a long history and a whole lot of secrets and I enjoyed learning their background one layer at a time. I hope to read more of this author’s work very soon.

I received a review copy of this book from Macmillan Audio and St. Martin’s Press.

Bye, Baby was a captivating book by Carola Lovering, a new author for me. It was fast paced and well written. Bye, Baby explored the complicated friendship Billie West and Cassie Barnwell shared from around the time they were about twelve years old through the third decade of their lives. It was told in alternating first person narratives that switched back and forth between the past and present.

Billie and Cassie could not have been more different from one another if they tried. From their upbringing, relationships they had with their parents, outlooks on life and their priorities in life they differed greatly but they shared a bond of friendship with one another. From early on, Cassie took the role of leader and Billie became the follower. Billie gave in to most of Cassie’s demands and requests. There was a secret they shared that bounded them to each other.

Cassie’s family had been considered wealthy until her father lost all their money. The change in lifestyle that Cassie’s family had to make was hard for Cassie to accept. Cassie had always known that someday she would marry someone that could provide the kind of life she felt she deserved. Her aspirations were high and her expectations were unbending. Cassie was a very shallow person and one would even call her a snob. Cassie was fortunate enough to be accepted to and attend Harvard, while Billie, although having better grades than Cassie was lucky enough to attend Northeastern. Cassie set her sights high on making friends with some of the richest and most influential women in her year at Harvard. She chose friends who would benefit her and help her live the life she dreamed about. Billie and Cassie continued to be friends during those years but Billie was always expected to join Cassie at Harvard.

Years later, Cassie and Billie were in their thirties and their friendship had become strained. Cassie was married to just the sort of man she intended to marry all those years ago. She and her husband had recently had a baby girl and Cassie was enjoying motherhood. All of Cassie’s friends now were new mothers and had also married well. Cassie’s friendship with Billie had grown distant. To Billie’s dismay, Cassie rarely thought about Billie or included her in her day to day life anymore. Cassie had moved on from Billie. She had a whole new group of friends and Billie just did not fit in with them. Billie was still single and made it known that she did not ever want children. This was something that Billie had known about herself for a very long time. When Billie allowed herself to fall in love, it had become a contention between herself and the man she had fallen in love with. He had wanted to have children and Billie knew that she didn’t. Those differences caused them to end their relationship. Despite the fact that Cassie hardly if ever contacted Billie or included her in her life, Billie continued to be obsessed with Cassie and still craved her friendship. Unfortunately, it was all one sided.

On the night of Cassie’s thirty-fifth birthday party, Billie happened to be in another apartment in the same building that Cassie, her husband and baby daughter resided in. As Billie was doing what she had come to do, there was an unmistakable series a loud screams and unmistakable crying. Billie soon realized that the crying was coming from Cassie’s neglected and forgotten baby daughter. Even though Cassie had told Billie that she had had no plans to celebrate her thirty-fifth birthday, Billie soon discovered that that had been an all out blatant lie. From what Billie gathered, there must have been at least fifty guests that were helping Cassie celebrate her special birthday. Cassie had deliberately lied to Billie and chose not to include her in her celebration. Billie wasn’t sure what possessed her but the next thing she knew she was climbing up the fire escape and grabbing Cassie’s baby. She just wanted the baby to stop crying. What had Billie done? When Cassie discovered that her baby was missing she screamed a bone chilling scream that was undeniably terrifying. Billie overheard Cassie telling her friends that she needed Billie. How could Billie get Cassie’s baby back to her without her learning that she had been the one that had taken her? How would all of this affect Billie’s and Cassie’s friendship going forward?

I was not a fan of Cassie from the onset of the friendship she formed with Billie. Cassie, in my opinion, was obsessed with material things. She was very self-centered and latched on to those that could improve her life and make her look better. I felt sorry for Billie. She was made to endure and witness some things in her earlier years that most likely made her try and hold on to Cassie and the friendship they shared longer than she should have. I was glad that Billie was able to learn from all that she went through and ended up evolving into a more secure and happy person. I really enjoyed the ending of Bye, Baby. There were several topics that were touched upon that included Alzheimer’s, sexual and emotional abuse, friendships, obsession with social media and motherhood. Overall, I enjoyed Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering and recommend it highly. Publication was March 5, 2024.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for allowing me to listen to the audiobook of Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering through Netgalley in exchange for this honest and voluntary review.

Bye Baby is by Carola Lovering. This is listed as a thriller but is more a dark and twisted tale of friendships and relationships gone wrong.

Growing up, Cassie and Billie were best friends, sharing everything as they grew up, including secrets. This story shows how people change as they get older, and how someone that is extremely important at one point in life, may not be later.

Cassie has always wanted to live the high life. She wanted stability, a handsome rich husband, and a life full of luxury items. Although she had a good childhood, her father’s gambling kept them living in a moderate income. Her rich grandmother doted on her, even paying her way into an expensive college, giving her expensive gifts.
Her new life is everything she dreamed of, a handsome husband, a large social media following, new rich friends, her own clothing store, and a new baby. She has left her past behind, and that includes her friend Billie, and their secrets.

Billie has always worked for what she wanted, studying and trying to get ahead with her hard work. She only had one true friend that she could depend on, the one person who knew the secrets she kept locked away, and that was Cassie.

Her new life includes a handsome new boyfriend, friends that support her, and job that she enjoys. What she doesn’t have anymore is her best friend Cassie.

Cassie has been pushing her away more and more, and as Cassie’s 35th birthday approaches, Billie realizes just how unimportant she is in Cassie’s life.

Billie is asked to do a favor for a friend and ends up right downstairs from her “friends” birthday bash, and out on the balcony is Cassie’s newborn daughter, alone and crying. When Billie makes the stupid decision to climb up the balcony and comfort the child, and ends up kidnapping the baby, things quickly get out of hand.

The story is a decent pace, flipping from past to present. As the story unfolds, you find just how bad Billie’s life was, and just how long Cassie wanted to be one of the elite. The story is listed as a thriller but other than a small twist, there isn’t really much mystery. The book is well written and definitely enjoyable.

I didn’t really like the characters very much, although I liked Billie more than Cassie as you feel for her and what she has endured. Cassie stays the same, only changing when her daughter is kidnapped, and then returns to an annoying snobby person.

This book had lots of triggers as it touches on a step parent molesting their stepdaughter (although over the age of 18)
Alzheimer’s/ Dementia
Kidnapping
Murder

I would read other books by this author as I enjoyed it.

"She used to be my family."

We all have that childhood friendship we thought would be forever. Then life happens. One moves away, goes to college, gets married and has children. In the intense, often startling, Bye, Baby by introspective author Carola Lovering, we experience two young girls becoming best friends, sharing adventures and secrets. But what happens when those adventures and secrets lead to the unthinkable...when being away from your BFF may be the healthier choice or when judgement and jealousy replace the love?

These moral dilemmas happen to Billie and Cassie, opposites from the start. Cassie dreams of being a social influencer with a rich husband. Her dreams come true. Billie has always struggled in life. Left with a slimy stepfather when her mother suffers from early onset Alzheimers, Billie just wants to survive. But when Cassie makes the ultimate sacrifice for Billie do they owe each other life long friendship?

The incomparable voice actresses Karissa Vacker and Helen Laser are phenomenal as these traumatized, often self-destructive women. Told in alternating perspectives, I'm worried that I felt more connected to Billie, considering she kidnaps Cassie's baby in the prologue and we look back at how we got to this point.

Melding drama, traumatic friendship, murder and mystery this writer has created the ultimate book club read loaded with heavy discussion topics such as judgement for not choosing motherhood.

I didn't agree with all the choices at the end but the journey from the opening shocker to the final resolutions will have you saying hello to this unique author.

I received a free copy of this book/audiobook from the publishers via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

A great read about forced female friendships, along with a mystery/thriller component. Great read/listen!

I was given advance access to the Bye, Baby audiobook in return for an honest review.
Carola Lovering is a new to me author. I loved this book, and before I was even finished with it added a few of her books to my Amazon cart.

Loved the format of the book- dual POV from Cassie and Billie, past and present. The two have been friends for 20 years. Bille is devoted to her career, while Cassie is married and has a baby. At the beginning of the story Billie kidnaps Cassie's baby. You'll read/listen how it got to this point. The book had my attention instantly.

I highly recommend this book!

Trigger warnings-
+ kidnapping
+ murder
+ Sexual abuse towards a child (I had to fast forward through these parts of the story)