Bye, baby A novel

Two long-time friends share a horrifying secret. One of these women wants to escape the past by cutting off her friendship with the other. The other woman feels she cannot survive without this friendship. This is the setup for Lovering's (Too Good to Be True, 2021) seesaw suspense story in which the rejected friend, Billie, scraping by and single, is obsessed with Cassie, a wildly successful boutique owner and social media presence whose enviable life and new baby figure prominently in her posts. The story shuttles between Billie's and Cassie's viewpoints, with Billie's voice giving disturbing hints about their lives before Cassie rejected her. When Billie finally manages a quasi-renewal of the friendship, tension really ramps up. Readers will have fun with the depictions of the lifestyle of Manhattan women who seemingly have it all, with the depiction of Cassie as someone whose reality does not match what she posts, and with figuring out what is at the root of Billie's obsession with influencer Cassie. The suspense is a shapeshifter until the very last page.

The mercurial dynamics of female friendship take center stage in this disappointing standalone from Lovering (Can't Look Away). Thirty-five-year-old travel consultant Billie West is devastated by her fraying bond with her childhood best friend, Cassie Adler. Though Billie makes regular attempts to mend their relationship, Cassie often ignores her, and blames her new roles as a social media influencer and mother to three-month-old Ella for the distance. When Cassie's husband, Grant, throws her a birthday party at their New York City penthouse, they have no idea an uninvited Billie is pet-sitting for her boss in the apartment downstairs. After hearing a baby scream upstairs, Billie climbs the fire escape to find Ella alone on the Adlers' terrace, and brings the baby into her boss's apartment. Soon enough, she hears sounds of panic from the floor above--and is pleasantly surprised to be the first person Cassie calls for help, leading her to consider whether Ella might be the bargaining chip she's needed all along. Toggling between Billie and Cassie's perspectives, Lovering doles out details that reveal the disturbing truth behind the women's estrangement. Though Lovering's stylish prose keeps things moving, she never generates convincing stakes for Cassie and Billie's fallout or reconciliation. Given the author's past successes, this is surprisingly limp. Agent: Allison Hunter, Trellis Literary. (Mar.)