Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering

 

My thoughts

I've enjoyed this author's books before and this one was very good also. Not exactly edge of your seat thriller or a mystery, but more of a story of friendships. Some tense moments yes, but friendships that are strained. 

This story is told in two parts. It's also before and after. Before the baby was found and after it was returned. Also in the years when Billie and Cassie were first such good friends and after they grew up and drifted apart. Not drifted so much as Cassie decided she didn't want any reminders of where she grew up. Of what she was before. Of her life before she found the rich life she always dreamed of. She decided she didn't need Billie anymore.

Billie and Cassie were best friends. They did everything together. Even when Billie was going through something that no female should ever have to go through Cassie was there. Cassie helped Billie. Helped her get away from things. She was her best friend. Until she wasn't. Until she decided Billie just wasn't good enough.

This story made me so mad in places. It brought tears to my eyes. I felt so bad for Billie and I did not like Cassie. Even when they were young and professed to be the best of friends I just didn't like Cassie. She is self centered and thinks only of herself. Of what she can have. Of how many followers she can get. Of how much money she can have. She marries a very rich man and does not want anything to do with her own sister or mom and dad. She's too good for anyone except her rich friends.

Billie is more down to earth but with some problems. She's been hurt and had such a hard life. Her mom is sick and only has a few years left. Her stepdad controls everything. Including where or if she goes to college. Billie gives her whole heart to Cassie. She would do anything for her. 

The only characters I liked in this book were Billie, Jane, and Alex. Cassie and her friends I would never tolerate. Though they are much needed in this book and make it was it is in many ways. But it centers around Billie and Cassie. You'll know all about each one. All of their secrets and dreams. Their fears. Their faults. Their weaknesses. This is a story of friendships that can dissolve over time. 

Thank you #NetGalley, #CarolaLovering, #StMartinsPress, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book. 

4.5/5 stars and a high recommendation. 

Synopsis

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.