so much anxiety. I was so scared for Billie the entire time, even after the ending. I love seeing how stereotypical Pinterest moms view those who don't have children, mainly cuz it hits on another level of anti-feminism. I actually really liked Cassie's character, not her personality, but it was so interesting to see her standards and how she grew from this experience (hint: she didn't). I'm still conflicted on if it was wrong for her to "kidnap" Ella.

I didn't know what to expect from this book when I first started it, but I absolutely loved it. It was wonderfully written and touches on many different subjects. I highly recommend!

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering is just wow. I'm usually never surprised, but this one blew me away.
Oh my word!… What a great storyteller Carola Lovering is! From the fabulous plot which quite frankly had me on the edge of my seat throughout to the amazing character development, I am overwhelmed by this book! It was so good!
This book is fantastically written, another amazing success from Carola Lovering.
It all flows really well and the descriptions really put you in the picture.
An astonishing novel!

Thank You NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

"Bye, Baby" by Carola Lovering is Friendship and Women's Fiction With a Touch of Suspense!

Billie and Cassie met during the summer before seventh grade and quickly became best friends. Whatever was lacking at home, their friendship filled. Connected at the hip, so to speak, each would do anything for the other.

After high school, they begin to drift apart. As Cassie becomes engaged to a wealthy man, Billie notices subtle changes in their friendship. When Cassie has a baby and Billie remains single and childless, she realizes there's not much left that connects them. Still, Billie remains hopeful...

"Bye, Baby" is told in Cassie's and Billie's first-person narratives through short, alternating chapters. The focus is on the 30 days before Cassie's 35th birthday, and on the backstory of their friendship. Initially, I didn't care for either protagonist but as the details of the friendship began to unfold, my understanding of both characters levels out. It's a complicated relationship, to say the least.

This was an immersion read-listen through the gifted DRC and ALC. The audiobook narrated by Helen Laser and Karissa Vacker was my preference, but either format will deliver a great experience.

"Bye, Baby" feels more like Friendship and Women's Fiction with a touch of Suspense rather than a Mystery-Thriller. The pace is consistent and the contrast in personalities between the two main characters contributes to the emotional drama of the story. I enjoyed this far more than I expected to and I love the way it ended. Recommended!

4⭐

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and Carola Lovering for a DRC and an ALC of this book through NetGalley. It has been a pleasure to give my honest and voluntary review.

What happens when the friend you knew and loved can't fit you into their life anymore?? An outstanding portrayal of life in the shadows of someone famous, while the other is floundering to get by. There is so much history between the two POVs, Cassie with her influence job on social media plus married to a very wealthy Grant, then there is Billie who will melt your heart with her life story nothing short of heartbreaking and cheering for her strength to move past it. What she won't get past is her love and obsession for her best friend for the last 23 years. Checking Cassie's social media account several times a day to see how she is functioning on a daily basis with her thousands of followers and her new store. Now her fascination with her new baby, Ella!
Cassie has a new mix of friends with the same amount of class and money, looking down on her past friendship with Billie.
Leading Billie on, then discounting her in front of her high class friends leaves Billie envying her lifestyle. This deals with the trauma of childhood abuse and trauma and how the one thing that ties Billie and Cassie together is the one thing that drives them apart. Their restoration of the friendship is quickly dissolved and reignited several times. Cassie's baby Ella goes missing and we know from the beginning of the story Billie has taken her. The countdown to that down draws us into the past and what happened up until this incident. I do know Alex is an outstanding boyfriend and one of my favorite characters.
I will not forget this one and it may be my top book for this year under mystery thrillers. Our lives are connected and tangled with so many people, but can be shattered in no time with hopes and dreams that change by the by product of our raising or our classes.
Thank you St. Martins Press and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Kapow! The Prologue grabbed me and I sneaked in pages by listening to the audio when walking the dog and reading the digital on my Kindle in between. Lovering tells the story of Billie and Cassie's friendship with two present POVs--one from each--and interludes from that past by Billie. This book may try to cover too many themes: friendship, assault, social media, privilege, Alzheimer's, choosing to be childless, and more. . . One thing I especially loved was the crossover reference to previous title Can't Look Away. Unfortunately there were quite a few F-bombs. Leaving this at a four-star rating. My favorite title from Lovering is still Too Good to Be True.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, St. Martins Press, and NetGalley for an audio and a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this story! It was less thriller than I was expecting and more of a domestic suspense, but it was very entertaining and read quickly.

It took place in NYC and focused on two women who had been friends since childhood. One who was an instagram influencer married to a rich husband with a new baby and living in the penthouse apartment. The other, child free by choice, navigating new relationships and working as a travel consultant. It explored the way friendship changes over the years and how people change. One night, during a huge birthday party, the baby goes missing, abducted from her stroller where she was napping. I really don't want to say much to avoid spoilers but it gets interesting!

There aren't any huge twists in this story as everything is laid out pretty early on. But honestly, it doesn't really need the twists. It's more dramatic than thriller and I still really liked it.

I read this is less than 24 hours, every minute in between being a mom, wife and friend. I lived and breathed this book. The beginning which was part 1 was so intriguing. Part two was filled with so much anxiety I couldn’t put it down. I needed to know how it happened, what was going to happen and how everything would end. This book did not disappoint.

I do have to say there are three very big trigger warning.

Let it be known I love @carolatlovering . While I’m not a mystery/thriller fan, her stories are page turners that keep me wondering throughout. Bye, Baby tells the story of Billie and Cassie-childhood best friends, now estranged as adults. The book begins with Cassie realizing her infant daughter is missing, and Billie notices the baby is in her arms. The tale that follows takes us many places, and what’s so masterful is how the reader feels about the two main characters as the story progresses. Lovering is a master at manipulating the reader this way, and I loved the ride. This is an excellent read! Thank you to @netgalley and to @stmartinspress for the advance copy of this book that releases on 3/5. #byebaby #carolalovering #springreading #springreads

Two friends with a tumultuous relationship, now thrown back together by a missing baby. Had promise and started strong…but second half felt very slow.

Billie and Cassie have one of those once in a lifetime friendships, having grown up together through their worst times and seen each other at their lowest points. Fast forward to adulthood, and they have drifted apart. Billie is single and has no desire to have kids, Cassie is a stay at home new mom who married into a wealthy family. When Billie accidentally kidnaps Cassie’s baby while she’s in a daze, she realizes things will never go back to how they were.

Marketed as a thriller, this book read like much more than that! It was a real analysis on female friendship, and how things can evolve over the years as women go through different experiences in their own lives. I loved the tangled and complex web of friendship that Lovering wove, and I liked that the reader got both perspectives. This book should come with a trigger warning for sexual assault as one of the characters does experience it and it’s described in detail. There was lots of effective suspense building and I would definitely read another one by this author!

Bye, Baby 🍼👒🌆🚓📱
by Carola Lovering
4.4/5 ✨

This novel had me picking it back up no matter how many others I had sitting in my "Currently Reading" pile. Something about the two main characters, Billie and Cassie, kept drawing me back in. I had so many highlighted passages while reading/listening to it, most of which made me feel understood as the friend with no kids (and no desire to change that, either). Lovering does a wonderful job of highlighting the brutal landscape that is female friendship and dynamics. While some of the flashbacks threw me off guard, most of them provided important story and world-building information. If you're a fan of mildly thrilling domestic thrillers, you'll enjoy this one (that's not a read, this is just more psychological than physical in terms of thrills).

I have to say, I was more inclined to turn on the audiobook of this title than to pick up the eARC! The narrators, Helen Laser and Karissa Vacker, are amazing and bring so much life and personality to the story that's being told. If anything, I'd recommend the audiobook of this title.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Carola Lovering, narrators Helen Laser and Karissa Vacker, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to read (or listen) and review this ARC!

Old friendships can be so complicated. So many layers and so much history. Cassie and Billie's friendship goes way back. They met in middle school in Red Hook in upstate NY. Cassie had just moved from Connecticut after her dad managed to loose most of his portion of the family money and Billie lived with her Mom and her Mom's lecherous boyfriend Wade. They become fast friends confiding with each other and sharing secrets - until there is one that completely changes their relationship.

Now that they are in their 30s, life has changed. Billie has a dream job working with a prestigious travel firm. She works directly with the owner of the company and her boss/mentor, Jane. Cassie has married into money and lives with her husband Grant Adler, who is a trust fund baby, and their baby daughter Ella. She is a small business owner and a growing Instagram influencer. Their lives have taken different routes, but Billie still clings to the relationship that was and the one huge secret that the two have kept for over a decade.

One terrible night - while Grant and Cassie's newer - more wealthy - friends are throwing her a 35th birthday party, Ella is suddenly gone - taken from the terrace of the Adler's Penthouse Gramercy Park apartment and then surprising returned - left outside their front door in the middle of the night.

The story goes back and forth delving into the relationship between Cassie and Billie - then and now, while Cassie deals with her new fears and Billie with her guilt.

I didn't really want to like this book as it was hard to like Cassie, but seeing her become vulnerable made me want things to turn out OK and while I started the book both liking and feeling sorry for Billie - in the end, I just wound up feeling sorry for her.

There are some great twists and turns and while some are believable, other are not. Still it is a compelling story and kept my interest for the entire book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

I read this in two days, I was so invested in Billie and Cassie! These characters were so well developed, I never knew when to hate a few of them and when to love them. Were they good people? The plot was also so interesting.

I'm not sure I would call this one a thriller, but its a goodie! Two friends have grown apart after being besties in middle & high school. Billie and Cassie, now in their upper twenties, live in NYC and have pretty different lives. Billie is obsessed with the way things were with Cassie and wants her friendship back. Lots of unveilings from the past and done very well. Great character development with a strong quick hook. I was turning the pages throughout and kept engaged. I will probably check out Lovering's backlist now, this was my first book from her. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance e-copy in exchange for my opinion. Bye, Baby will be available on 3/5/24.

Billie West and Cassie Barnwell Adler had been the best of friends until their very different lives drew the 35-year-old women apart. When Cassie's infant daughter goes missing from her upscale Gramercy Park apartment she shares with wealthy husband Grant, who is to blame? We learn it's her old friend Billie. How did a friendship go so wrong? In the chapters that follow, the story is told of the days leading up to this shocking occurrence and what happened afterwards. The story of Cassie and Billie, from their first meeting as teenagers in a small Hudson Valley, New York town to their college years and beyond, reveal a friendship that became more toxic over time. Billie is single and travels around the world for her job. Yet she becomes obsessed with the married Cassie and her growing role as an online fashion/lifestyle influencer whose posts make life look perfect. While they had grown apart, they shared a dark secret that binds them together. And who does the frantic Cassie turn to when her daughter goes missing? Billie.

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering delves into many topics including the complexities of female friendships and family relationships. I found myself fully invested in the story as it starts so creatively with one friend taking the other's child. Rather than being a mystery about a kidnapped child, it was a story about two very different women with a long history together. And one toxic friendship. I was obsessed with finishing it in one (rainy) day.

Thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for my advance copy! I am such a fan of Lovering! She writes females so well, especially messy, and realistic ones. Both women annoyed me at times and yet I really had to keep reading to see what was going to happen. I loved the dual POV and the location of the story. The toxic friendship trope is a favorite of mine and always relatable. I could see a bit of myself in both women and I loved the focus on NOT wanting to have children. The tie in with Dirty Dancing was also a nice touch!

Thank you @stmartinpress @macmillan.audio for a copy of this. I was expecting a thriller, a mystery of a missing baby but didn't get it in this book. The opening line for this book started so strong and I was invested. This book focuses more about childhood friendships that drift apart as you get older. Cassie is a micro influencer and her former BFF has been left in behind because she doesn't want children. Billie is desperate to maintain their friendship as see her friend only online. There really isn't any mystery with the baby missing so I was a bit disappointed with it. I did enjoy seeing their friendship flashbacks and their complex relationship. I did enjoy the dual narration between the two characters.

Bye, Baby is a gripping novel that explores the dark side of female friendship, the consequences of betrayal, and the power of secrets. The story begins when Billie, the narrator, kidnaps her best friend Cassie's baby. As the reader wonders why and how Billie could do such a thing, the novel flashes back to their childhood and teenage years, revealing the complex and troubled history of their bond. Billie and Cassie share a traumatic event that haunts them both, but also drives them apart as they grow up and pursue different paths. Cassie becomes a wealthy and successful influencer, while Billie struggles with her career and love life. Billie feels abandoned and resentful of Cassie, and decides to take a drastic action to get her attention and revenge.

The novel alternates between Billie and Cassie's perspectives, creating a suspenseful and engaging narrative that keeps the reader guessing until the end. Lovering does a great job of portraying the psychological and emotional nuances of both characters, making them flawed but sympathetic. The novel also touches on themes such as motherhood, identity, social media, and mental health, adding depth and relevance to the story. Bye, Baby is a compelling and addictive read. Perfect for fans of domestic thrillers with complex female characters.

I listened to the audiobook and read this title!! Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio/Macmillan

Bye, Baby intricately explores the complexities of friendship and betrayal as Billie grapples with the guilt of kidnapping her best friend Cassie's infant daughter. Set in New York City, Lovering's suspenseful narrative/story keeps readers engrossed as they navigate the evolving dynamics between the once inseparable friends. With alternating perspectives and themes of childhood trauma, the novel offers a gripping examination of the lasting impact of women's choices on their relationships and the secrets that bind them.