Solid 3.5 for this read
Not the usual book I go for but I was pleasantly surprised about it. The characters are very lovable and I enjoyed the story.
I feel the ending is a little flat and also the pace of the book was slow for my liking.

I will definitely look into her the other books from this author

Bye, Baby
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the eARC! This story is fast-paced and had me instantly intrigued. While the events weren’t exactly thrilling and nothing with malicious or nefarious intent really happened, in my opinion (not that bad things didn’t occur) I’d call this a suspense more so than a thriller. Even though I found most of the book to be in the “falling action” part of the story it was never boring. The writing was well-done and I greatly appreciated the dual narrators to ground us in each of the FMCs personality and plot line. This won’t be for everyone, but I enjoyed it and would absolutely read more by the author!

I'm hooked on my first experience with a Carola Lovering novel. From the moment I read the synopsis, I knew I was in for a ride. Once I started listening to the audiobook, I was utterly engrossed, unable to tear myself away.

Lovering weaves a tale through dual points of view, alternating between past and present chapters, providing perspectives from both Cassie and Billie. Their friendship forms the story, exploring themes of growth, secrets, and the inevitability of change. The story exudes a thrilling vibe right from the beginning, drawing me in with its suspensefulness.

Neither Cassie nor Billie are loveable characters; they're flawed, complex, and interesting. Their ever-changing dynamic held my attention, especially as their relationship faced challenges.

The narrator's performance deserves commendation for breathing life into Cassie and Billie, making their journey all the more enjoyable.

Bye, Baby
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Carola Lovering

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: A missing baby. A fraught friendship. A secret that can never be told.

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.

So begins the story of Billie and Cassie's friendship--both in recent weeks, and since they met twenty-three years ago, in their small Hudson Valley hometown the summer before seventh grade. Once fiercely bonded by their secrets, including a traumatic, unspeakable incident in high school, Cassie and Billie have drifted apart in adulthood, no longer the inseparable pair they used to be. Cassie is married to a wealthy man, has recently become a mother, and is building a following as a fashion and lifestyle influencer. She is desperate to leave her past behind--including Billie, who is single and childless, and no longer fits into her world. Hurt and rejected by Cassie’s new priorities, Billie will do anything to restore their friends

My Thoughts: Happy publish day! This is a story of two friends, thick as thieves in high school, where the secrets began, and lose touch as adults. It begins with a woman screaming, Cassie, because someone has taken her daughter. Billie looks down holding Cassie’s daughter. Then we go back to the beginning, right before seventh grade when they met and became thick as thieves. Through school, the secrets begin, intertwining them together. They go through life together until about their twenties when they get separate apartments. As soon as Cassie meets and marries a wealthy man, their relationship begins to dwindle. Cassie wants higher class, where Billie is content with what she has. Cassie desperately wants to put the past behind her, does that mean Billie too? Will Billie be hurt by this and retaliate? The story has sexual abuse, Alzheimer’s disease, gold digger, social media, and influencer ups and downs.

The story is narrated by both Cassie and Billie, in their respective perspectives. The storyline flips between past and present, to fill in the gaps of what happened to lead them to this point. Their relationship has a big secret in the middle of it that seems to lock them in together, however, as life does, we grow and sometimes falter away. The supporting characters were fantastic and really elevated this story to another level. The characters were relatable, while being liked and hated at the same time. The characters were well developed with depth, were mysterious, yet intriguing, and creatively spun throughout the story. The author’s writing style was complex, suspenseful, twisty, and just brilliant. Lovering is a master at writing psychological thrillers that will keep you guessing and turning the pages until the end. This was more of a women’s literature, but I can see the thriller components in there. The plot had multiple twists, secrets, and betrayal.

I had the pleasure of having both the digital and audio versions. I preferred the audio version. The narrator was awesome. She did an excellent job of voice variation and character distinction, I could tell when Cassie was narrating and when Billie was narrating. Her pitch and flow was spot on. I always listen to my audiobooks on 2x speed and had no problem understanding and keeping up. This was my second Lovering book and I love her writing style. The story captivated you from the prologue and kept you glued through the epilogue. It was everything you want in a psychological thriller, it was captivating, gripping, twisty, and kept you on the edge of your seat. I highly recommend picking up this book!

4.5/5 ⭐️

I really enjoyed this one! I don’t know if I’d say it was a thriller though? You know from nearly the get go who took the baby and why… but it still had so much raw emotion and kept you sucked in. Not only that, but it seemed very realistic and possible which doesn’t happen often in thrillers.

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. This story is about frieships and what we do when we love those friends and when we feel we're losing them. To an extreme. Then throw in some childhood trauma and social media toxicity!
I found myself rooting for Billie and really wanting to hate Cassie...which is kinda fu**ed up.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

3.5 stars from me! I did really enjoy this one. The storyline kept me intrigued the whole time. I think the biggest issue I had with this book was that one of the main characters was SO unlikeable. I know it was needed for the storyline but it did make it somewhat unpleasant.

I’m not sure that I would necessarily consider this a thriller. Maybe more along the lines of a contemporary fiction. There were not any parts that had me on the edge of my seat. The creepy mother’s boyfriend was about the only thing that gave me some Karin Slaughter vibes. I thought that was going to go down worse but it fell short.

I did also enjoy the timelines. They go back and forth between past and present which I am always a huge fan of! Overall, I enjoyed this enough that I would still recommend to friends! I look forward to reading her other books.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and the author for an ALC of this one!
Publication Date: 03/05/24 ☺️

I went into this in a thriller mood and I was a little bit disappointed. So please do yourselves a favor and don’t expect a thriller read when you pick this up 😅

This is mainly a story about a friendship that started dwindling down since one of the two besties became a mom and the lengths people go through to get that friendship back.

This was a very bingeable read that you wouldn’t be able to stop listening/ reading to! I went the audiobook route because @karissavacker and I think she really saved the book for me!

I’m not super into storylines that uses drama as the main driving plot so I didn’t fully enjoy this one. I get what the author was trying to do as well but the mom influencer aspect was a little bit too shallow and made one of the main characters unlikeable for me. But again, the things that I didn’t love about this book are purely subjective and I know a lot of people enjoyed this so definitely don’t cross it off your list because you might end up loving it!

This book comes out today! So definitely let me know what you think when you decide to pick it up!

Lastly, this is a friendly reminder for us all to be careful of what we post/ share to our social media accounts 💗

Thank you @stmartinspress for the ARC and thank you @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for the free audiobook! 💗

💭 Are you still close to your friends when you were in grade school?
☕️ Because I’ve moved residences my whole life, unfortunately I’m not as close to my grade school friends as we were back then. But we do stay in touch occasionally, thanks to Facebook and Instagram 😅

Bye, Baby is another gripping and intense novel from Carola Lovering

Lovering expertly weaves relationships (and their accompanying drama) into her plot-heavy thrillers and Bye, Baby is no exception. This story follows the fraught friendship of Cassie and Billie, a pair who grew up in the Hudson Valley and now live increasingly separate lives in NYC.

I love the way Bye, Baby captures the evolution of a female friendship from childhood to adulthood. The ebbs and flows of closeness, the romantic relationships and friendships that interfere, the resentments that form like cracks. Cassie and Billie’s friendship is depicted in the extreme - this is a thriller after all! - but is also made up of elements, like a childhood traumatic event that bonded them, that make this extreme plausible.

Aside from the relational aspects, the story hooked me from the start, but left me unsatisfied at the end. Without giving anything away, the resolution felt overly coincidental and yet also predictable.

I also wrestle with the character development. Cassie is an influencer and though that created great potential, she instead embodies almost every negative quality touted about the profession and consequently feels like a caricature. I don’t expect a ton of nuance in thrillers, but even this surprised me.

The audio, narrated by Helen Laser and Karissa Vacker, is fantastic. Highly recommend that route if you pick this one up!

I devoured this book! I was nervous to read it based on the synopsis and my personal postpartum issues, but I’m glad I did. I really liked the examination of life long friendship and obligation vs. true friendship. I actually liked the characters as well. I found them generally likable and it was interesting to examine social media and wanting to have kids or not.

This book was… something; I can’t quite put my finger on it. I was definitely gripped with suspense right from the beginning and could not put the book down. The ending, however, was not what I was expecting to be—in a slightly disappointing way. I just thought there would be more to it. The story jumps from past to present, and I love the dual point of view of narration of the two main characters. As far as psychological thrillers go, this is one of the better I’ve read from a psychological stand point, I just wish it had ended with a bigger bang.

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, if I wasn't going into it expecting that. The entire thriller aspect was ruined because although one of the main characters was experiencing something horrific from her POV, the reader had the other POV where we knew it wasn't anything bad. It was almost as if the plot twist was revealed too quickly.

I spent the entire book waiting for something to happen, really anything, and it just didn't.

For my psychological suspense readers you’re going to want to grab Carola Loverling’s Bye, Baby. An exploration of secure the bonds of youth that become uncomfortable as we grow older. It’s a story of privilege, the slow burn of jealousy, a curated life both mocked and craved. What would we do to get and keep the attention of someone when it’s gone?

This is the story of how 35 year old Billie West kidnaps her best friend, Cassie Barnwell’s, infant daughter. Somewhere between high school and their early thirties there’s been a shifting, a movement where Billie is no longer a priority to Cassie. While this is easily explained by Cassie getting married, having a baby, vastly different socioeconomic status, the underlying current feels like something different. Billie’s outsized reaction certainly gives a clue. Is it her unhealthy obsession, or is there something else going, perhaps both?

Told in alternate voices between Billie and Cassie Loverling expertly takes us between four POV’s: then and now for each Billie and Cassie. It’s incredible effective. I dual read/listed on ebook audio which is my absolute favorite way to read, giving me the best of both worlds! I never have to leave my stories behind. The audiobook is narrated by Helen Laser (Yellowface, The Second Chance Year) and Karissa Vacker (A Flicker In The Dark, Check & Mate). If you’re going to choose one format (and I have to choose favorites) go with audio on this one. The voice acting is so well done and adds the extra depth I’m always after in my audio experience. The nuances of this relationship is so well captured.

I binge read/listened to this one in a day. I couldn’t put it down! I recommend for weekend reading, something compulsively unputdownable. This is great to stick in your tote bag as you start to head out for sunny adventures!

Thank you so much to my friends at St Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for the early egalley and advanced listening copy via Netgalley.

I really would not consider this as thrilling or a mystery. I would say at times it was suspenseful, but over all a pretty bland story about these main characters.
I will say Carola Lovering does a fantastic job of describing the toxic friendship of Cassie and Billie and the trauma from the past that has led them to be the adults they are, despite the 20+year friendship. Despite being boring at times, Lovering's writing style kept me intrigued on what will come of things next.
I really struggled liking or relating to the main characters and the jumping from past and present was confusing at times and hard to keep up with the timeline. I think this is why I felt it was more of a boring read.
The romantic story with Billie and Alex helped keep interest in the overall story.

In the end I didn't love it and didn't hate it. Not exactly binge worthy and at the same time I finished it pretty quickly.
I love this author's writing techniques in this story and others, and I will continue to go for her stories despite this mediocre review.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy of the audiobook.

Cassie and Billie were best friends. But as time has elapsed, Cassie has pushed Billie away. Cassie is a major social media influencer with tons of followers and Billie knows a terrible secret. Cassie just cannot risk it. Then the unthinkable happens. Cassie’s daughter is kidnapped and Billie is the only one she wants around her.

I love how the author creates empathy and compassion for Billie. Or rather, that is what I felt. Even though Billie made a mistake, my heart went out to her. I was so hoping it all turned out well…you will have to read this to find out.

If you can’t tell, I am not a big fan of Cassie. However, my heart went out to her when her baby came up missing….Genius writing, in my opinion. There were quite a few places in which my emotions didn’t know where to go. I definitely am looking up this author’s other books! I will be thinking about this one for quite a while.

The narrators, Helen Laser; Karissa Vacker…FANTASTIC! Of course, if you follow me at all, you know I love Karissa Vacker and she and Helen made a fabulous tag team for Cassie and Billie!

Need a good psychological and emotional thriller…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

Let me start by saying, if you are going into this book thinking it’s a thriller then you’ll be disappointed. With the main plot being about a missing baby, it’s very easy to think this is a thriller. It’s truly more of a character driven suspense. I found this one to be boring and lacking something. I felt like there was really no point to the story and I was honestly pretty disappointed!

Billie and Cassie have been friends forever, they know all each others darkest secrets. But they have grown apart. Cassie always dreamt of getting back to the luxurious life she had before her father squandered all their money away and Billie is dealt a bad hand at home with a single mom. There were a lot of issues in this book that could have been dealt with a little better. Both characters are unlikable and never redeem themselves. This book is about a toxic friendship and the codependency that comes along with that. I really needed more from it. I was hoping the ending would be more thrilling.

Thanks to the publishers and netgalley for the advanced copy.

Engrossing story, a little dark and predictable towards the end. All in all a solid story worth the read. Narration was good as well.

This wasn’t really a mystery, but I’d consider it slightly suspenseful.

This had a heavy focus on toxic friendships, trauma, and the way those things affect people well into adulthood.

I was frustrated with both of the main characters at different points throughout the story, but Lovering did a great job of helping you understand why they are the way that they are. Despite all of their flaws, and they had some really unlikeable traits, I still found myself wanting everyone to have a good ending.

This was definitely a binge-worthy book and I can’t wait to read more by Lovering!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy of the audiobook.

Narrators Helen Laser and Karissa Vacker come together in this dual POV suspense novel about a diverging friendship and the kidnapping of an infant daughter. I felt they brought emotional depth to each character which kept the story engaging as an audiobook. I was able to listen at 2x speed, I may have been able to go further ahead but I didn't attempt it. I felt like it was a good pace. Five stars for the narrators, three stars for the overall book.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for gifting me an ALC to review.