Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering
Publish date: March 4, 2024

Happy spring, everyone! This is 4th or 5th book by a suspense writer, Carola Lovering. I have never read her book, nor, to be honest, have not heard of her, but I am not a big suspense reader. This book caught me an eye because of this brilliant cover - it's simple but beautiful, and represent the book quite well. It's a story of two female friendship, between Billie and Cassie. They grew up together in a lower-middle class of Hudson Valley, New York, best friends forever... except, well, they grew apart. Years later, they are thirty-five year old, both successful and living in New York City. Billie, a luxury travel consultant, misses her best friend, while Cassie, after marrying a rich blue-blood man, built a new life of a lifestyle influencer and a new mother with a four-month old baby. Cassie has a new circle of friends which doesn't include Billie. Billie is bitter about Cassie cutting her off, while Cassie's popular facade is just that....

To me, the beginning of the book felt very off-the-wall and unbelievable. I almost stopped reading right there and then.
I am glad I didn't though, because the situation gets explained later and the book was well constructed (good job editor) and kept my interest. I finished the book in two days - It was a fun ride. It reminded me of "the Luckiest Girl Alive" by Jessica Knoll. The author pulls together the story well and I could sympathize most of characters in the book, despite I do not share their aspirations. I would recommend the book for young people growing up in digital era who likes suspense novel, such as Paula Hawkins.

I did feel this book was shorter, like 30% shorter. At over 12 hours on audiobook, it felt longer than needed. There were a lot of details, especially the parts from the past, that felt unneeded. I also didn't get along well with the narrator - felt too dramatic and didn't care for her rendition of male parts.

Overall, this is a fun ride for the fan of female friends gone wrong trope. I would give it 3 or 3.5 out of 5 stars.

This advanced audiobook was provided courtesy of Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for review purposes. Opinions herein are my own.

This was such a good book! I loved the characters, and their story. The dialogue was realistic and enjoyable. I was very surprised by the ending!

"Bye, Baby" by Carola Lovering is explores the themes of friendship, love, jealously, childhood trauma and betrayal. The story begins with Billie West finding herself involved in a kidnapping that rocks her best friend Cassie Barnwell's world.

Narrated by Helen Laser and one of my favorites, Karissa Vacker, the audiobook is very enjoyable as it alternates between two characters. Laser and Vacker drew me in with their suspenseful style and well-developed voiceovers, giving us a sense of the tension and secrets shared between Cassie and Billie.

We see how their friendship evolves over time, as Cassie's desire to move on clashes with Billie's efforts to salvage their friendship.

Overall, "Bye, Baby" showcases Lovering's talent for crafting compelling stories. With relatable characters and an engaging plot, this audiobook is bound to captivate listeners. Special thanks to Macmillan Audio for providing an advanced listener copy via the NetGalley app.

Not quite a thriller, but instead a study of a teenage friendship that has turned sour.

This is a study in parasocial relationships and effect of social media on real relationships as well. There was a pretty great story here, lots of dark twists and you can see how our characters arrived at the place they’re at as adults.

I thought the relationship between Cassie and Billie to be so well done and interesting. It was a strange co-dependent, extremely toxic friendship that you can’t help but eat up.

I removed a star since there’s that trope of a character digging themselves deeper and deeper for a stupid decision. The last 20% was so anxiety inducing for me that I couldn’t stand it. And then end just didn’t sit well with me.

The audiobook was extremely well done - the narrator had very distinctive voices for each of the characters and brought them to life wonderfully!!

My Rating: 3.75 stars

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy of Bye, Baby in exchange for an honest review.

Bye, Baby is classified as a thriller, but to me, it felt more like a slow-burn suspense. While it did have some thriller elements in the story, I felt like this book was more about toxic relationships and mental health issues.

This is the first Carola Lovering book I've read, but there is something about her writing style that hooked me in and had me flying through the story. I can't wait to read more of her books.

First of all, I'm so thankful for getting this ARC. I was entering a reading slump, and this book got me through it. I was so interested in the development of the relationships and how the issue was going to be resolved, that I finished in 2 days.
Carola Lovering has great writing skills and her characters were so real and captivating. She brought out conversations that interest me a lot, like motherhood and the past traumas that affects our current relationships. Besides, I read a book not so long ago about women's friendships that felt so shallow and stupid and it annoyed me, so I'm glad I was able to read this one that felt mature and complex.
Oh, and the narrators Helen Laser and Karissa Vacker were great.
What annoyed me was that it was sold to me as a thriller... and this is not a thriller. So I was a bit disappointed with that.

Carola Lovering is one of my favorite authors so this book was very highly anticipated for me. It was not what I was expecting at all but it was so compelling- I binged it in a day. It was also very relatable - I’m sure we’ve all had complex, toxic relationships at one point or another in our lives at some level, and Lovering is the master at writing toxic relationships (I also loved Tell Me Lies and Can’t Look Away). I highly recommend this book, especially if you enjoy alternating timelines and POVs and character driven stories about female friendships.

Many thanks to both St Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Macmillan Audio for early access to this title in exchange for my honest opinion. This is not my first Lovering read and it definitely won’t be my last!
Bye Baby doesn’t come out for a week and a half but I spotted a copy at Barnes & Noble yesterday if you don’t want to want any longer!
And I will warn you, once you start this one it is IMPOSSIBLE to put it down. I started by listening to the audio (with one of my favorite narrators, Karissa Vacker, I knew it was going to be good!) - but then I arrived at a brewery for lunch which had a good playlist, so I switched to reading my eARC because I could not wait any longer to keep going in the book!
This book is more of a suspense read than a thriller, but its propulsive nature makes me feel fine calling it a thriller. It also has women’s fiction undertones - one of the main characters has a four and a half month old baby which plays a major role in the plot. If you’re the mother of a really young one, you may want to hold off on reading this one for a few more months if you aren’t good at separating what you read from your real life… Other than that, I don’t want to say too much because I think it is good to go into a thriller blind. I also did the magical thing where I figured out exactly where I had stopped reading when I switched back to the audiobook on the NetGalley app on the first try, which I don’t think has ever happened before!

I've been trying to branch out into thrillers, not my usual preferred genre. Three stars is a high rating for me when it comes to thrillers. Overall I enjoyed the plot and narration. I liked that there was no cliffhanger.

Another book labeled as a thriller with absolutely zero thrilling aspects in it. Not even sure what the point of the book is because basically nothing happens. Cassie was totally the worst. On a positive note, it was an easy listen with good narrators.

Billie and Cassie were best friends since they were kids. That is, until Cassie marries and doesn't have time for Billie anymore. Billie is hurt and when she finds out she wasn't invited to Cassie's big birthday party she makes a rash decision that changes her life.

This started off great and got a little boring for me but then picked up again in the end. Love and betrayal wow

This book wasn’t what I expected. If you are expecting a thriller then I’m going to let you know it’s not a thriller. It’s more a drama about toxic relationships.

Billie and Cassie grew up together. They lived in the middle class suburbs but they witnessed some childhood trauma that bonded them together. They were the best of friends. More like sisters. They lived together after college until they started to drift apart.

Cassie is determined to marry rich. Her character was self involved, shallow and honestly sort of relatable when it comes to being a mother. Billy is struggling to make ends meet working as a travel advisor (is this job even real?) Billy and Cassie seem to be drifting apart. This is only natural after childhood right? Many friends drift apart, grow up and move on with their lives. The problem is that Billie refuses to let Cassie go. These two women are deeply entrenched in a complicated and toxic relationship.

I thought that this book was well done and the characters were believable even though they were unlikeable. I definitely recommend this book to anyone that likes a book focused on female friendships.

Thank you to netgalley for a copy of this advanced readers copy.

I didn’t love this one. In my mind this was going to be more of a thriller than it was. It had more drama and messed up friendship issues. It definitely felt like it dragged on as when Billie had the baby I thought the book was closed to being over only to realize it was only halfway done. I like the dual narration and the back and forth timeline.

Wow. This book was interesting. I am a sucker for stories about influencers. Some of the book was really disturbing and it felt like parts were just added for shock factor. I loved the narration.

Billie hears Cassie’s screams from the apartment above, someone has taken her baby. And in her moment of absolute fear, Cassie calls to her.
“I need Billie”
Finally, after all the unanswered texts, the screened phone calls, after constantly being pushed away, Billie’s best friend needs her, but when Billie looks down, the sleeping face of her best friend’s baby fills her vision.

This book is a lead up to baby Ella’s kidnapping, with flashbacks to Cassie and Billie’s childhood, and early adult years. With alternating POV chapters we get the full scope of Billie and Cassie’s friendship, seeing the push and pull from both parties.

When I first started the book, I had some issues with the writing style, but the story pulled me in right away. And when I am thoroughly enjoying a story, it is easy for me to over look writing quirks that are not my favourite.

While flawed, somewhat needy and, most importantly, a kidnapper, I felt for Billie. As her full story emerged it was easy to see why she relied on Cassie so much.
Cassie, was kind of awful, and seeing how her friendship with Billie started, how strong it was, it was sad to see how far their friendship declined.

This was a great read and I loved the chapter format. Despite being alternating POVs as well as multiple timelines it was easy to follow and each timeline was very clear.
This was a fast moving story about friendship, status ... and kidnapping

🎧Audiobook review - 4.5/5 🌟 (rounded up)

“The good news is you can’t fuck up what’s meant for you.”

I had a great time reading this book. I am confident that this will be one of my top choices this year and something I won’t soon forget. I would consider it a domestic thriller filled with drama. One of the types that I enjoy the most.

Some didn't think it would be in the 'thriller genre', but I did, because I absolutely felt the type of stirring that I get when listening to a thriller. Was it dark in a serial killer murderous kind of way, no, but I still found it fast-paced and thrilling all the same.

From the start of this book, the author's ability to engage me made it impossible for me to put it down at times. I lost some sleep over this one and all I wanted to do was talk to someone about it. It would be an enjoyable choice for a buddy read or book club.

You have two timelines, two POVs (Billie and Cassie), two girls and best friends since middle school navigating their formative years and all the changes they face, which may bring them closer or ultimately grow them apart. Trauma binds these two girls and they do both.

This book also discusses Alzheimer’s, and really does a great job of nailing it. I know this from experience so if this is something triggering for you, then it might not be for you. If you have any triggers, you may want to check for them across the board.

So the Alzheimer's component is very dear to me, as my mother has Alzheimer's. Many of the things that Billie faces throughout are spot on.

Although there's a lot to process there, these passages hit a chord with me and made me breathless. In that moment, I felt very seen.

“Time hasn't softened the blow of becoming a stranger to the person I love most in the world.”

You see, no one gets used to having a loved one get Alzheimer's.

“I think what I hate most is that she can't know the person I have become, she can't be proud of me, and she can't know the people who have become everything in my life.”

Sharing your life with that person is something you never stop wishing for, but it becomes impossible.

Although there was a lot going on, this book was not confusing for me. Both the FMCs were so different, and the writing was truly brilliant in that regard. I found it easy to navigate and loved both of the FMC's messy hearts for such different reasons.

This narration was also outstanding! Some didn't like the narration of Cassie's character. I did!! Yes, she was annoying, but of course she had to be. Just look at who she has become as a person and it makes total sense to me. One of my favorite parts was when she would say, 'Bye, baby'. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook for this one. It's chilling!

The only thing I disliked. The ending was just a tad too sweet for my liking, so that is why I couldn't quite give it a 5 star rating. However, I decided to round up on Goodreads because of the grip this one had on me from the start. I would definitely recommend getting it when it becomes available and giving it a go.

It’s a yes for me!
@deannsdaildrop

Big thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and Carola Lovering for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Cassie and Billie were best friends, shared a deep secret from their past but now as adults, Cassie wants to push Billie far out of her life. Cassie has gotten everything she wanted, a rich husband, a successful business while being a lifestyle influencer with a large following, and a baby. At her fabulous birthday party, which Billie was not invited to, her baby goes missing. She is absolutely destroyed and instantly feels a visceral need to have Billie back in her life, but Billie isn’t necessarily who she should be trusting.

I listened to a lot of this one on audio and I found it super captivating and instantly engaging but then it didn’t go anywhere. I really enjoyed the backstory of the two women and their friendship, but Billie’s character was frustrating and her actions were not so believable and the middle and end of the book sort of didn’t deliver as I had hoped. Therefore, in the end a fun, quick read that kept me entertained but fell a bit flat.

3.75 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the ARC to review

This book starts off really fast paced and I was HOOKED. Then I got to 50% into the book where the “twist” is revealed and it really died out from there.

The characters became infuriating to me and they made a lot of stupid decisions that frustrated me and made me roll my eyes.

Overall it wasn’t a huge miss because I did really enjoy the first half.. but the first half is the only reason it’s getting 3 stars.

Thank you so much Netgalley & Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This was a fun read. It was full of drama. Suspenseful and Twisty. I thought the ending could have been a little more sinister and not so nicely tied up. Overall, I really liked this book. It's binge-worthy.

Book Releases: March 5, 2024

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the E-ARC. And to Macmillan Audio for the ALC.

All thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.