I genuinely enjoyed this book! It was nothing too insane for a thriller and yet I was completely invested.

Billie and Cassie were the best of friends growing up. Once they entered college they started to drift apart, Cassie more so. She began to leave Billie out of things and seemed to be heading in a different direction in life. Before Billie knew it she was learning about Cassie's life through her Instagram account, along with the other 45,000 followers. As hard as she tries she cannot seem to rekindle the once unbreakable bond she and Cassie used to have, until Cassie's baby is kidnapped and she leans on Billie more than ever before. As Billie starts to put everything aside for the friendship, Cassie starts to delve deeper into the kidnapping and wonder if Billie had something to do with it.

This was the first book I've read by Carola Lovering and after reading it I will definitely seek our her earlier books! This had me on the edge of my seat in a "I don't want to read it, but I can't stop looking away" type of book. The type where you know the main character will eventually be found out and you cringe at her actions. I couldn't put it down and it's a must read for anyone who loves suspenseful stories.

This book!!!!! Omg! This book consumed me and did not let up for one single moment. I could 100% relate to the intense bond between Billie and Cassie, and also to the fact that friendships evolve; people change. In “Bye, Baby”, Cassie and Billie are closer than sisters and share soooo much together, including a deep secret, but as life moves forward, the friendship changes. All is somewhat ok until one night when Billie does something terrible, causing a set of repercussions no one can stop. This is such a great book! I absolutely loved it. If you love thrillers but also books about female friendships, this is for you. And if you don’t like those types of books, this book is still for you!!! Do not pass this one up!
Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the ARC!

It focuses on a sort of toxic friendship between Billie and Cassie who are truly like sisters who understand each other really well and have been through some difficult circumstances in the past that binds them together forever. Now in their thirties, they have completely different worlds especially as Cassie has curated her world just the way she wants though she is an absolute shallow gold-digger and has hurt many people on her path to money. Billie continues to live in the past and expects to be Cassie’s BFF but in reality Cassie has moved on to different spheres in the society and this makes Billie almost stalkerish.

In spite of these unlikeable characters, it was an entertaining read and it is the author’s writing style that manages to hook the readers into this plot. Billie’s boyfriend Alex was the only likable character and all others were really flawed yet I wanted to shake Billie hard so that she comes to face reality about her friendship with Cassie and lives her life for once. The kidnapping of Cassie’s baby felt like an explosive start and I expected more wild twists at the end and wanted to be surprised but it was more of a mature and calming end showing how much the characters valued each other’s presence in their past.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martins Press for the gifted advanced copy!

I love Carola Lovering’s books and have read every one of them. Her writing in Bye, Baby is stunning as always, really captivating. And this story had me fully invested until the middle when we found out what happened. After that I sort of wanted it to wrap up a bit faster or something exciting and different to happen in the last half of the book. But overall this was a very enjoyable read. I am a dedicated fan and will absolutely read the next one!!

Carola Lovering, is and always will be one of my favorite authors.

I have tried to pin It down with what I love so much about her writing and the truth is, that is it, it's her writing. Her style is fluid and can make even an intimidatingly lengthy book, breeze by in a day. I get completely lost within the chapters and find myself thinking about these people as though they exist.

I read a few other reviews that have said there are unlikable characters and the truth is, I liked them all (except Wade), flawed and all. The bond Billie and Cassie, even though at times one sided, was also a really strong bond that each girl needed at different points in their lives.

Cassie is selfish, a golddigger. However, she is also an incredible mother who just wants the best of what the world has to offer. Can any of us say we want differently? Cassie just set her mind on something and went for it. The boys whose hearts she broke were better off without her and with a person who would truly appreciate them. In my head, we all end up with who we are supposed to. Grant, an equally shallow human, is perfect for Cassie!

Billie, I loved her. I loved her loyalty and her unwavering support for Cassie. Some might see it as an obsession but these two girls lives intertwined so much at such crucial moments that they were more like sisters than friends and I understand why Billie didn't want to give that up especially being as though she didn't do anything wrong.

Things I loved about this book :

1. All the Dirty Dancing references
2. The friendship that once existed between these women
3. Alex and Billie, how real their relationship was, with all the chaos and flaws

I would love to know more about what happens to Alex and Billie. Im never one for sequels but I feel like there is a lot more that can come from this story.

Bye, Baby, is sure to be a hit and I can almost guarantee this book is made into a mini series to follow in the footsteps of Tell Me Lies.

As always, Carola Lovering, has done it again, 5 stars.

Teaser :

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 friendship, even as she hides the truth about what really happened the night the baby was taken.

Told in alternating perspectives in Lovering’s signature suspenseful style, Bye Baby confronts the myriad ways friendships change and evolve over time, the lingering echoes of childhood trauma, and the impact of women’s choices on their lifelong relationships.

Thank you St. Martin Press, Carola Lovering, and Netgalley, for allowing me to read and review early in exchange for an honest review!

What a ride! Best friends turned enemies with plenty of twists and turns to keep the suspense going. Highly recommend!

Carola Lovering’s novels are all brilliant ! I was so excited when I saw she had a new one coming out and had to read it ASAP, the rest of my TBR be damned. This one kept me super hooked and interested the whole time. You have a love/hate relationship with both Cassie and Billie, the two main characters. The kiddnapping of the baby is a wild addition to the story and keeps you on the edge of you seat, flipping pages to see what happens to everyone once this has been done. This novel really explores old friendships and strings that still keep us connected with friends from the past, even though you are growing apart. Highly recommend !

Thanks Netgalley and St.Martin’s Press for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Billie and Cassie have been friends since childhood. As adults they couldn't be more different. Cassie has a newborn baby, a fledgling career as an Instagram influencer and is married to a very wealthy man. Billie is single and has a job in the travel industry. Billie longs to be a part of Cassie's life. She practically stalks her online and is thrilled when she gets any attention from Cassie. Suddenly someone takes Cassie's baby and Billie is back in as Cassie's best friend. But who took the baby and why?
This book was very slow for me and nothing much really happened in it. We get flashbacks from Billie and Cassie's childhood and find out what is keeping them linked together. It still doesn't explain why Billie was so obsessed with Cassie. I found them both to be unlikeable characters.
Thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book for review.

Thank you for an ARC.

I typically love Carola Lovering. Tell Me Lies and Too Good To Be True are amazing. Bye, Baby fell very short for me, though.

I find it unlikely that a kidnapping outdoors, during a dinner party, in NYC would go unnoticed. It seemed totally unrealistic to me. I also don’t understand why Cassidy became so obsessed with Billie toward the end of the book; this seemed unfounded to me.

The scenes about sexual abuse became unnecessarily comical because of the poor language choices. The author wrote “his dick boings…” when referencing an instance of sexual abuse. This is not a smutty sex scene; please don’t call it a “dick” at this moment. And don’t say it boings. Your audience shouldn’t be rolling their eyes and laughing during this part of the book. The language compromises the severity of sexual abuse.

I do not recommend this book. The end picked up somewhat, but ultimately, there is no resolution that makes reading this book remotely worth it.

I don’t recommend it. The two stars, rather than one, is because I know the author has potential to do better. She has in the past.

I really enjoyed Carola Lovering’s Tell Me Lies, Too Good to be True, and Can’t Look Away. This book is also well-written but the two main characters are completely frustrating and dislikable. Lifelong friends Billie and Cassie are now in their 30’s living in NYC. Their friendship has deteriorated to the point where Cassie didn’t invite Billie to her 35th birthday party. Billie makes a terrible decision (one of many) that causes irreparable trauma to Cassie. We learn about many different issues Billie and Cassie experienced growing up. Billie and Cassie are deeply flawed characters who make unfathomable decisions throughout the book. I’m disappointed with this one and hope that Carola Lovering’s next book will be more like her first three. Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

((4.5 / 5.0) Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering was a bingeable thriller I could not put down. In it we meet Cassie and Billie, two childhood friends who have drifted apart in adulthood. Billie longs to reconnect, but Cassie is in her own world of Instagram influencing, motherhood, and socialite life. One night something tragic happens with Cassie and it catapults these friends back together. I suggest knowing little more on plot, though you can see more in the publisher’s description.

Let’s talk mood instead, to help you know if the book is for you. It’s fast-paced and alternating POV, along with alternating timelines. There isn’t a crime to solve as a reader, you know what’s happening because of the POVs, so the tension comes from the secrets being kept and if / when they will come to light. At the center of the story is a toxic friendship and a few snobby, elitist characters. The story has closure in the end and is a quick, entertaining read.

This one doesn’t come out until next year, but I also enjoyed the author’s prior book, Can’t Look Away, and would recommend it as well. I’m going to try her other backlist books, too, so let me know if you recommend any.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the complimentary, early copy – it was an exciting read!

Content warnings: child abuse, sexual assault (with a few descriptive scenes), kidnapping, toxic friendship

Thank you net galley and publisher for this ARC! I’ve read every book by Carola Lovering and this book was great. I couldn’t put the book down once I started it. Initially I found the alternating chapters and timeline a little confusing but then I got used to it. I found it interesting to learn more about the girl’s complicated relationship and past and I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen.

Cassie and Billie were childhood best friends, but now as adults, they have drifted apart and have both desperately tried to forget the past and a secret they both share.

Cassie is now a mother, a business owner, and a social media influencer. Billie is single, childless and no longer fits into Cassie’s world. Tired of constantly being rejected by Cassie, Billie does the unthinkable and takes Cassie’s infant daughter, until she realizes the mistake she’s made in doing so and secretly returns her. Now Billie must try to hide the truth about what really happened the night Cassie’s baby was kidnapped and that it was her who did it all along.

Bye, Baby is a suspenseful and realistic story about an unhealthy, obsessive friendship. This book had a lot of hot mess moments where you felt the need to look away but couldn’t. I thought the author gave an interesting look into the dark and toxic side of influencer culture, along with toxic friendship dynamics that were frustrating yet entertaining.

I liked that this book was told in alternating perspectives between Cassie and Billie from both the past and present, so you could see both sides of their story. I actually felt for Billie the most, as Cassie had a lot of VERY unlikable moments. Throughout the entire book, all I could think was how much Billie deserved better.

Thank you to St Martins Press for this ARC!

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.

I highly recommend this book. It’s probably the best one I’ve read in a long time. I loved the whole idea of long time friendships from childhood though adults, and the very complicated journey throughout. It wasn’t sappy and everything didn’t end in a neat little bow. The author lets you know the two main characters deeply. I really appreciated that.
Thanks to Netgalley for sharing this excellent book.

There were many times throughout the book I wanted Billie to do something differently. Yet I couldn’t stop reading to find out how it would resolve. Cassie’s ambition & lifestyle reminded me of the Kardashians and how I can be equally annoyed and sucked in. Ultimately I didn’t end up liking either Billie or Cassie but I was relieved by the ending.

I was kindly offered an advanced digital copy and it sounded right up my alley. I love best friends drama and I like the social influencer trope. For some reason I thought this was a thriller (until halfway through the book), then I checked it and found it linked as women’s fiction. I believe it has tendencies to be both.

The characters were really strong as well as the sound side characters. Even the ones you want to hate. I found it easy to follow, I love this kind of story. So yeah, full points from me.

I liked that Billie did not want to give in to the pressure of having to have children. I wouldn't say I like the pressure of society, that they assume everyone lives to be a mother. If you do, that’s awesome and I respect you. But I made my own choice by not wanting any. So I get Billie. I love that this topic is being raised. There is nothing wrong with having kids, same as with not wanting to have any.
I could also relate to the longing for your best friend's attention when you feel they slip away from you. Such a relatable book for me in many ways.

This was my first time reading a novel by Carola Lovering, and I have to say, I was really sucked in! The prologue captured me like no other.

I loved the nonlinear, multi-narrator timeline, with Billie and Cassie’s “now” POV, along with Billie’s “then” POV. I found a lot of aspects to be utterly intriguing, including Billie’s obsession with Cassie, Cassie’s addiction to social media/influencing, and the budding relationship between Billie and Alex, who just so happens to be a cop, assisting with the investigation.

There were a few aspects that I wish were different, including the length of the book (it felt very long at some parts), and the ending (it seemed a little too happily ever after for a thriller in my opinion).

However, don’t let that stop you from picking up this book! Now that I know I like her writing style, I’m eager to pick up her previous bestselling novel, Tell Me Lies!

carola is queen at taking something we’ve all been through & creating a bingeworthy story out of it. bye, baby propulsively dissects the nuances of drifting away from an imbalanced, yet intoxicating friendship. with each new book, i feel like i’m growing with carola.