Bye, Baby

• Author: Carola Lovering
• Genre: Mystery/Thriller
• Publication Date: March 5, 2024
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: kidnapping, exploitation of person with dementia, sexual exploitation, grief, loss of a parent, sexual assault, alcoholism, murder, trauma, mention of abortion

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.

I was really curious about this story. The plot summary sounded really intriguing, and I couldn’t wait to find out what actually happens in the story. And while there were parts that didn’t quite hit my expectations, it was a really good read for me overall.

Lovering knows how to capture her readers, for sure. The book opens with Billie looking down to see a baby in her arms, while her best friend from childhood, Cassie, is shrieking about her baby daughter being missing. After this short chapter, the story flips back a little bit in time. We see both Billie and Cassie’s POV, both in the immediate and distant past, as we uncover what led up to what were ultimately two traumatic incidents—one that is never mentioned outright, and the other being the kidnapping. 

Both Cassie and Billie were unlikable, but in different ways. And speaking to Lovering’s skill, she somehow managed to make me root for them both. Normally, I’m not a fan of unlikable characters, but there was something about this story that made me want to read through to the end and find out what happens. Their unlikability comes from trauma, rather than simply who they are, and demonstrates how damaged they are from their early years. However, I found myself rooting for both of them to have a happy ending somehow, even if I wasn’t sure how that could possibly happen. 

Cassie is overly focused on gathering things as a status symbol, and is basically an outright gold digger, but outside of that, she’s not a bad person at all. She’s fixated on the tangible things in her life, and has determined that Billie doesn’t fit into her life. Maybe because she views Billie as more of a reminder of the childhood that she is trying to leave behind, but she’s pushing Billie out of her life to the point of being nearly cruel to her. Cassie has a clothing store that recently expanded and added another location, but spends most of her time working as an Instagram influencer. It kind of felt like she looks at everything in her life as a tangible symbol of her status in life, including her daughter.

“The wedding pictures, the penthouse apartment, the beach house, the baby. The life of my dreams.”

Billie, on the other hand, can see Cassie pushing her away, but is doing anything she can to prevent it from happening. She’s willing to demean herself in the extreme for Cassie so that she can still claim the title of friend, but in all areas of her life, she seems like a decent, level-headed adult. But when it comes to Cassie, it’s like she loses all sense. In the absence of being able to spend time with Cassie, she gains a window into her life through her near-constant Instagram story updates. But I found it endlessly frustrating to see Billie sabotaging her relationships for someone who doesn’t prioritize her.

As for the mystery of what happened in the past, that one was easy to figure out. I accurately guessed it at 32% of the way into the book, but since I wanted to find out how Billie ended up with Cassie’s baby, I was still hooked. The fact that there was a second mystery in the story kept my attention focused. And even after finding out how that happened, I needed to know how that got resolved in the end. While it isn’t an overly twisty book, it was fast paced, with short chapters and a gripping plot that always had me wondering what was going to happen next. Even with the fact that the characters were unlikable and one of the mystery aspects was easily predictable, I still found this to be an intriguing read that grabbed hold of my attention quickly and didn’t let go until the satisfying end.

People who have sat around with me while I’m reading, especially when there’s a surprising reveal, a shocking plot twist, or an unexpected event often look up in alarm when I gasp audibly. The gasp factor is directly related to the number of times I audibly gasp during a reading, and there isn’t an upper limit.

Gasp Factor: 1

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