Author: Carola Lovering

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

ISBN: 9781250289360

Billie West knows that most people would probably envy her life. As an employee at a boutique luxury travel agency, she zooms around the world with her boss and good friend, Jane. They live and work in New York City, but Billie has seen enough Instagram-worthy sites to make any influencer drool.

Except the influencer who matters most to her: her one-time best friend, Cassie Adler. Ever since Cassie married her hedge fund-manager husband, Grant, she dropped her maiden name and Billie as a friend too. Now Cassie has a gorgeous husband and home and a brand new baby to boot. She’s also a lifestyle influencer with nearly 50,000 followers, and Billie is one of them. It’s the only way Billie can stay current on Cassie’s life, because Cassie is the type of person to share everything with the internet: how many times she had to get up with her baby; the brands she wears and, therefore, endorses; and updates on her chic boutique where it costs $600 to buy a blouse. 

Cassie is well aware of Billie’s desire to reboot their friendship, but she’s over it. Why doesn’t Billie get the hint? Cassie has ignored enough texts and calls that anyone would have figured it out. But Billie keeps calling, keeps texting, keeps asking to get together. 

That includes for her birthday, and Cassie doesn’t want to deal with the secondhand embarrassment she feels in front of her friends when Billie’s around. So she lies when Billie asks if she has anything planned and then goes ahead with the birthday bash Grant wants to throw her. Except she gets so involved in the party that she forgets that Billie will see her constant updates on Instagram. 

By one of life’s cruelest coincidences, Billie ends up in Cassie’s swanky building on the night of her birthday. She discovers there’s a huge party in full swing and is furious. She’s also in a position to change Cassie’s entire life with a single impulsive move: Billie takes Cassie’s baby right from her balcony. 

When Cassie gets word that her baby is missing, she’s frantic and reaches out to the one person who she knows will be there for her the way she needs: Billie. She needs the one person who knew her before she was Cassie Adler, before she had all this money and this rich life. Because Cassie knows that, thanks to the secret they share from when they were teenagers, Billie will be the one person to fight the hardest to get her child back—never guessing Billie might be responsible for her greatest pain.

Author Carola Lovering balances chapters between the friends with ease, giving readers the opportunity to get to know both of them. As the story unfolds in real time along with how the women became friends in their tween years, Lovering will keep readers engaged as to what happens after Cassie’s baby goes missing. Unlike some books, Lovering surprises readers with the choices both Billie and Cassie make. 

Although Billie is the clear protagonist, at times it’s hard not to wince at her neediness. Lovering carefully puts Billie in a position where even readers will roll their eyes at her and occasionally sympathize with Cassie. Despite Cassie’s shallowness, there’s no doubt she loves her child and wants to take care of her. The element of groundedness is a masterstroke on Lovering’s behalf, leaving readers wondering whether Billie really does deserve sympathy all the way through the story.

If the book can be faulted anywhere, it’s for the slight lack of backstory development on Cassie. Readers will learn firsthand what binds the two friends to one another with Billie’s experiences taking the lead. Cassie’s backstory is shared but needed more in order to feel as lived in as Billie’s story does.

Still, for the most part the book is an immensely satisfying read both as an analysis of friendship and as a sometimes-thriller. Readers who enjoy clever back-and-forth between characters, particularly those in forced proximity will enjoy this one. I recommend readers Bookmark Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering.