You know a book is well written when you want to root for the perceived “villain”! I could not put this one down- I wanted to know every second of Billie and Cassie’s history. The author touched on many relevant topics in the current time of our lives and I think they were all well handled and very interesting. There’s not so much of a *twist* as the big issue is well known prior to reading BUT finding out how it’s resolved and how their histories are entwined into their current lives is messy and addictive to read. Kinda like watching your favorite influencers Instagram stories! Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

4.5/5 stars! A well written novel about a childhood friendship that's changing as it ages, once bound closer by shared trauma but now drifting apart as what happened to them moves farther into the past and their lives turn in different directions. A story about how loyalty can quickly move towards dependence and even toxic obsession. While I wouldn't necessarily classify it as a thriller/mystery novel, Lovering has an easy-to-read style that keeps you engaged the entire way through.

The characters are well-developed, in both their past selves and their present selves. There's Billie - loyal friend, dependable to a fault, with a selflessness and urge to make those she loves happy that I think my fellow people-pleasers and I can relate to. There's Cassie - relatable in her journey into all that comes with motherhood, driven to get what she wants out of life but superficial and self-absorbed in every way. I had a love/hate relationship with each woman, feeling empathy and understanding towards them/their actions at times and wanting to shake them out of frustration at others.

This novel felt more like an adult coming-of-age story, breaking free from past traumas and realizing that as we get older, the people we thought we needed so desperately when we were young turn out to be the people we should let go of in order to finally grow into ourselves.

Big thanks to St. Martin's Publishing Group, Carola Lovering and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This was a delicious recipe for a thriller. The characters were perfect, the plot was thrilling, the way the author unraveled each and every surprising twist was masterful. I loved the way it was told in alternating perspectives and I got to know the crazy back story of this twisted friendship. It’s amazing how far someone is willing to go to protect their childhood friend only to adopt a new life and forget they exist. Until… they are forced to remember. Loved!

I don’t know why I torture myself with suspense/thrillers bec they drive me bonkers wondering what will happen! Bye, Baby definitely did a great job of that! Thoroughly enjoyed it! The character you love. The character you hate. The event that changes things… that’s really not what the story is about. The reality of what the story is about. All of this is in Bye, Baby.

At the end I almost thought it was anti-climactic but realized it was actually something to leave me thinking. What a fantastic book club pick! I can 100% see a discussion on the ending as well as other parts of the book.

I loved it!

Bye, Baby is marketed as a thriller, but it's much more of a character-driven drama. Billie is the more likable character, and Cassie is just awful. There are parts of their relationship that I think everyone can relate to (friendship breakups), but the book is just.. boring. Nothing happens, and then something happens, but that something is described on the back of the book! And then more of nothing. Lovering can write, but she didn't really construct a plot with this one.

Captivating and anxiety ridden!!!!! I was obsessed right away with this one and I loved the way it was written. The author did such a great job of painting this in a way that the whole book played out like a movie. There was so much detail and I loved the constant back story so you could really get a sense of the girls relationship. I HATED Cassie. Talk about insufferable!!!!!! The book isnt as thrilling as I would have liked but it was still quite an amazing story thats basically just about how heartbreaking it can be to grow up and grow apart from people

Overall, I enjoyed this book, however, there were a few kinks that tripped up the narrative; one, there being too many themes. Is this a murder mystery, domestic drama, child abuse, mental health, romance, psychological thriller? It’s a little bit of everything.
Bye, Baby follows the friendship between two childhood besties, Billie and Cassie. You get a good glimpse into these girls’ personalities early on and it helps you to better understand them as adults. Warning, their friendship is TOXIC! So many times I wanted to scream at Billie to leave already! As the women drift apart with their very polarized lifestyles and busy schedules, Billie becomes desperate to keep their friendship afloat. The “evil character” in here was, eh. He was way too over-the-top stereotypical. He wasn’t believable.
The writing was excellent; it read like a movie. It’d make a phenomenal thriller on TV for a late Friday night chill with pizza and beer. It’s a spiderweb of conflicts and misunderstandings that’ll give you all the cringe. I 100% would've dumped Cassie ages ago...

The book revolves around a kidnapped baby, but I wouldn’t necessarily consider it a thriller. It mostly centers around the complicated relationship between two lifelong friends. Billie and Cassie have been friends since childhood but the events and choices in their lives bring them closer and further apart. When Cassie’s baby is kidnapped, their friendship becomes even more complex.

This book was hard to get into because I found the characters so incredibly unlikeable. Cassie is an Instagram influencer and Billie can’t accept that her friendship with Cassie is wavering. Once I got over that original hump, I couldn’t put it down! I flew through the rest.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Billie and Cassie are childhood besties, who have been through so much together and have a deep connection. They have faced trauma, loss, and love together. However, life happens and they grow up and apart. Cassie finds a new niche and she gains fame through her Instagram account; while Billie feels left behind and disregarded. Billie longs for her old relationship with her best friend, and feels an unexplainable pain when she is once again left out by Cassie. In a moment of extreme emotion, she reacts in a very hurtful and illegal manner. As she hears her best friend’s guttural screams, she looks down and finds Cassie’s infant daughter in her arms.

I didn’t find this to be a thriller, but it did have moments of good suspense. The plot was predictable and I found myself often anticipating the next thing to happen. I enjoyed the dual timeline and the dual POV. I loved the modern context and found the friendship and struggles truly relatable. There are so many side elements like trauma, rape, dementia, and loss; maybe too many. I loved the depth of the characters and the plot, but felt like some of the details were thrown in and not given the time they deserved. Overall I did like it, and it was entertaining.

Carola Lovering you are such a great author. While reading this book I wanted to skip to the end to see what the outcome is. Cassie and Billie are long time best friends. Billie hears Cassie screaming that her baby is missing. Billie looks down at hers arms and is holding Cassie's baby. A relatable exploration of an old friendship with new tensions. This book is full of suspense with characters you’ll love-hate and a setup that’s irresistible. Highly recommend.

I absolutely gobble up Loverings novels the minute they come out so I was thrilled to receive an ARC for Bye, Baby. I was hooked within the first few chapters but felt it went on for longer than it needed to. Really liked the past and present back and forth though.

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

This was a great mystery with lots of intense twists and turns. Definitely recommended for fans of the genre.

Heart wrenching, raw and full of untold trauma and secrets to take to the grave. This suspense filled thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat as everything unravels and spins out of control.

Billie and Cassie, two friends close to each other pushed away by growing up and adulthood. Where Cassie became a mom, found money, a husband and more friends while Billie sits with the strain of desperately trying to maintain a relationship doomed to fail. Even with being ghosted and entirely left out of even the most important things.

Cassie, I never liked with her materialistic and fake mannerisms, where money and name brand labels are more important. All tied up with a bow with her addiction to social media and the presence she has over Instagram. I truly felt for Billie throughout the novel as we see into her side of things and press forward.

The prologue is incredibly inviting and pulls you in for a ride where you don’t know what lays around the corner. Where by the end, truth prevails and truly sets you free.

If you like a good thriller with a good dash of suspense and drama, you’re sure to pick this up and get lost in the story as I did.

This book kept me on my toes. With a rich history, Billie and Cassie have had a following out. Cassie’s baby goes missing and Billie finds herself with the baby (page 1!). I couldn’t wait to finish this book. The ending was not what I expected.

This was an absolute great thriller of a book. I was ask to read this book and given 72 hours,to read it. believe me I read it in 24 hours. I just couldn’t put it down. I love the way the author went from Cassie to Billie, the two main characters in this book, from childhood to college to marriage, to separation of the two. And the deep dark secret that the girls share.
I can’t wait to recommend this book to my book club, I would love to hear a discussion about why did Billie feel such a dependence on Cassie and no matter how many times, Billie always went back to her.
Billie, had a sad life with her single mother, who found a boyfriend Wade, who was a real dirt bag.
Then there was Cassie, a money hungry girl, who wanted it all and got it. She was a blogger and with Instagram shared her whole life, til the night that her baby went missing.

Carola Levering never disappoints! Her latest, Bye, Baby is impossible to put down! It twists and turns and keeps you guessing until the very end. Highly addicting read!

Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange of an honest review.

Billie and her best friend Cassie have been inseparable since meeting in middle school. They share a secret they will take to their graves, but even this secret cannot prevent their friendship from growing in different directions. Cassie has moved on and has slowly shut Billie out of her life, but Billie grasps at straws to keep Cassie close and be at her beck and call. One night in a moment of weakness after Billie realizes Cassie has lied to her about plans for her birthday, Billie makes a rash decision to do something that inevitably sets the wheels in motion to finally be the end of their friendship. Told in alternating perspectives of Billie and Cassie, the plot jumps in time to see the progression and final end to their friendship.

I loved this book. I gave it 5 stars because Carola used so much detail and captured the pain and hurt each character faced in both their past and present. It was a beautiful story of friendship and the consequences Billie faced after making a split decision to take Cassie's baby. Billie's anger was justified, but even she realizes by the end of the story she should have just moved on and ended her friendship with Cassie. She had been grasping at straws for so long to save their friendship, her actions made her do something out of character for her and something she ultimately regrets. Billie gave Cassie too many chances and offered her more forgiveness for her behaviors than she should. The only thing I would have changed about this book was taking out the Prologue. I did not like knowing right off the bat that Billie was the one who took Cassie's baby. I felt like knowing that ruined my appreciation of who Billie was and what she went through with her mom, Wade, and the hateful things Cassie did to her that led up to the moment she snapped and took Ella. I think Billie telling her side of the story and finding out she took Ella in the moment would have been better than reading it as a Prologue. Just my opinion.

I loved everything else about this book. The song references, the brand labels mentioned, and fancy restaurant. Carola does a great job of representing the life Cassie chose to live and thinking people were beneath her. Billie started off the story as the villain, but by the end you realize Billie is such a good person at heart who just had a bad hand of cards in life. This was a wonderful, well written plot. I will absolutely recommend this book to my friends.

I just loved this book. Well written with chapters just the right length
With the back and forth of previous time to current made it easy to understand the story.
Love/hate relationship was spot on.
Definitely a book to read.

This was a DNF for me, I didn’t think to look up trigger warnings before I read this book. This was heavy and just not for me.

Thank you netgalley, Carola and St. Martins Press for the ARC!

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering
.
This is the story of Billie and Cassie. They used to be close but now are drifting apart. Then Cassie’s baby goes missing and their relationship changes again. Because Billie took the baby.
.
This was a really addicting read. I did a structured read so only read a certain section each day, and I found myself thinking about it after my section for the day and wondering what was going to happen next.

I would like to give the author a major kudos because they know how to really write an excellent unlike able character. 😂 Despite really NOT liking this character, I could not stop reading.

I feel like the abduction part of the story was written in the least triggering way, so if that is a trigger and you are curious about this one feel free to DM me any questions or concerns.

4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was a binge-worthy read, no slow parts to me, I wanted to keep reading, and I would recommend for sure.