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Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering

Contemporary fiction

Bye, Baby

by Carola Lovering

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Quick take

Told in gripping alternating perspectives this tense tale follows the dissolution of a friendship when a baby vanishes.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Multiple_Viewpoints

    Multiple viewpoints

  • Illustrated icon, Nonlinear_Timeline

    Nonlinear timeline

  • Illustrated icon, Female_Friendship

    Female friendships

  • Illustrated icon, Mama_Drama

    Mama drama

Synopsis

Every friendship has its shadow…

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.

Once fiercely bonded by their secrets, Cassie and Billie have drifted apart in adulthood, no longer the inseparable pair they used to be in their small Hudson Valley hometown. Cassie is married to a wealthy man, has recently become a mother, and is building a following as a lifestyle influencer. She is desperate to leave her past behind—including Billie, who is single and childless, and no longer fits into her world. But Billie knows the worst thing Cassie has ever done, and she will do whatever it takes to restore their friendship…

Content warning

This book contains scenes that depict sexual assault.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of Bye, Baby.

Bye, Baby

Prologue

October 13, 2023

The baby stops fussing, settling into my arms like a sleepy puppy. The soft weight of her. Her lips pucker, then relax, her little chest rising and falling almost to the rhythm of my own. She is back to sleep, her face peaceful as a porcelain doll’s. That wasn’t hard.

The living room window is open; fevered voices carry in from the terrace of the apartment above. Commotion. Mania. I shouldn’t be surprised.

I recognize the sound of Cassie’s screaming, obviously—I’ve heard her scream dozens of times. Horror movies (she love-hates them); the afternoon we picnicked upstate and she got stung by a whole swarm of bees; the time in high school when she walked in on her ex-boyfriend Kyle and our semi-friend Ashton, manically fucking in her basement during a party. Manically fucking was the way Cassie described it afterward, so that’s how I remember it.

Anyway, Cassie is screaming now the way she did then—except even more psychotically this time, and who can blame her? Her baby is gone.

I picture her one story up, her blue eyes swimming with tears, already swollen even though it’s only been fifteen minutes since Ella went missing. Five since anyone noticed.

In the midst of Cassie’s wailing, I hear her friends banding together. I recognize Ava’s voice, McKay’s. I don’t know the others’ voices by heart, but some of them sound familiar, probably from Cassie’s Instagram stories. Evelyn, maybe Blake? The one who speaks with an upward inflection.

“I just called the cops,” someone says.

“Hold on, where’s Grant?” It’s McKay, panicked. “Someone get him. Someone get Grant!”

“No,” says Cassie, and I hear her sniffle. Eight stories below, there’s a series of violent honking. A siren blares, a high-pitched wailing that climbs into windows and bounces off buildings. Part of the soundtrack of the city.

“Billie,” she says, and I freeze. “I need Billie.”

“Billie? Why?” McKay is the one challenging this statement. Of course. Dumb bitch.

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Why I love it

I recently had dinner with my best friend from college, who I hadn’t seen in years. After our first glass of wine, we were laughing as we reminisced about sneaking out of her parents’ house to smoke cigarettes. By our second, we were in tears; her mother had recently passed away. When we finished our third, we were planning our next date. As we hugged goodbye, I inhaled her familiar spicy scent and wondered why we’d drifted apart. It seems too simple to say that I’d married and had children earlier, while she continued to date cute guys and rise through the ranks at work. And yet looking back, as with many friendships, I suppose there was jealousy and loneliness on both sides.

Enter Bye, Baby. Here Carola Lovering takes an unflinching look at the fragility and dangers of female friendships.

Billie and Cassie were once BFFs, fiercely bound by childhood secrets. However, now in their mid-30s, Cassie—a married new mother and lifestyle influencer—is eager to leave everything in her past behind, including Billie. But Billie, a single, childless travel consultant, still believes they have a special connection and will do anything to restore it.

Told in alternating perspectives, Bye, Baby travels back in time to unspool the complicated dynamics between these two women, and then forward again to explore the aftershocks of a split-second decision that threatens to destroy them both. I found it all totally riveting!

Member ratings (2,048)

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Contemporary fiction
View all
The Last Love Note
What Does It Feel Like?
Anita de Monte Laughs Last
The Wedding People
Honey
The Leftover Woman
The Same Bright Stars
Bye, Baby
Swan Song
The Days I Loved You Most
The Connellys of County Down
Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life
Jackpot Summer
Adelaide
The Collected Regrets of Clover
Again and Again
Evil Eye
Black Cake
Maame
Romantic Comedy
Someone Else’s Shoes
Once There Were Wolves
We Are the Brennans
The Bad Muslim Discount
What Comes After
Olga Dies Dreaming
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel
Monster in the Middle
Nine Perfect Strangers
The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany
The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes
Honey Girl
In Every Mirror She's Black
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?
Sankofa
The Unsinkable Greta James
The Love of My Life
The Five-Star Weekend
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto
The Wishing Game
Behold the Dreamers
The Mothers
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Little Fires Everywhere
The Music Shop
Where’d You Go, Bernadette
The Reckless Oath We Made
When We Were Vikings
The Girl with the Louding Voice
A Good Neighborhood
Big Summer
All Adults Here
Happy & You Know It
Friends and Strangers
The Comeback
True Story
The Last Story of Mina Lee
Troubles in Paradise
White Ivy
This Close to Okay
The Chicken Sisters
The Prophets
In a Book Club Far Away
The Other Black Girl
Apples Never Fall
A Quiet Life
We Are the Light
The Most Likely Club
The Fortunes of Jaded Women
When We Were Bright and Beautiful
The Hotel Nantucket