Bye, Baby

Billie and Cassie have been best friends since childhood, but as adults in New York they???ve grown apart. Or at least, Cassie has grown apart ??? Billie is determined to hold on to what is increasingly a one-sided friendship. For Cassie, her old friend doesn???t fit in with her new mommy-influencer lifestyle, rich husband and jet setting friends. But the two are forever bonded by a shared traumatic past, and Billie doesn't know how to exist without that friendship - she becomes increasingly obsessed with Cassie's life, and regaining what they once had.

My rating: 4 stars

I don???t want to give too much away, but I will say I was hooked in the first couple of pages. Lovering really sets the hook in immediately, and I just had to keep reading to find out how the characters get to this point. We get POV chapters from both women and the entire time I was reading this, I found myself relating to both of them, and also yelling in disbelief at both of them. Groaning as they made one awful, painful decision after another. Cassie???s obsession with social media, growing her audience, and letting them into her life to a disturbing degree was especially relatable. I???m new to bookstagram and I???m certainly not trying to become an influencer with an enormous audience, but I still see that pressure to regularly deliver content and how it could really ruin someone???s life and relationships. And hoo boy, do some relationships get ruined. This friendship is so incredibly toxic and co-dependent, the perfect breeding ground for disaster.

I don???t think I???d really classify this as a thriller, but it???s a story about how lies, obsessions and secrets can twist lives into knots. As for the ending, I feel like half of it was believable, and half of it wasn???t. And half of it was satisfying, and half wasn???t. I???ll let you decide for yourself which was which for me, but I recommend you read it for yourself and see what you think!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced digital copy!