When Nic’s husband died, his last words were “I’ll be waiting”. Nicola cannot get those words out of her head. What did he mean? Eight months later after seeing several mediums and attending seances, all determined to be phonies, she is headed to a bed and breakfast she and Anton frequented. A renowned medium, one that she’s sure can help her. As the weekend progresses things start to unravel and soon Nic is no longer sure about anything. Is her past coming back to haunt her? This book started strong, but soon lost its appeal for me. A bit on the graphic side and over the top. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Nicola was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at a young age, and didn't think she'd be able to live a long, fulfilling life. Until she reconnected with Anton, a schoolmate from high school. With Anton, she felt like she could do anything... and then he tragically dies in a car accident, his last words being "I'll be waiting." Now, she can't move past his death without closure, and keeps going to psychics who claim to be able to communicate with him.

Nicola is giving it one more shot, at a house they had vacationed at numerous times. Along for the trip is her best friend, Shania, who she met at a grief support group and Jin, her friend and brother-in-law. They have hired Dr. Davos Cirillo, a psychologist who investigates paranormal phenomena. When Nicola and Jin start hearing Anton's voice, they think that they've finally been able to contact him. But when other things start happening, it seems Anton may not be the only one they've brought in. Did their seance work? Is it really Anton? Or is it someone more sinister?

All in all, this was a definite slow burn. I actually had a hard time picking it back up to finish it. Although I love Kelley's Haven's Rock series, this one didn't have the pacing and suspense that the other novels have had. It was still a good read, just not as good as I had anticipated.

This was an interesting book with suspense, mystery and some paranormal things. Nicola is diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and she unexpectedly loses her husband in a car accident. She goes to mediums and is determined to connect with him. But when she finds someone who can help did she release his spirit or someone else’s?
3.75 stars

This book was so gripping! I love a haunted house story and this gave me everything I needed. I found the end a tad drawn out but I didn’t mind too much.

*2.75 rounded to a 3*

Nicola has Cystic Fibrosis, and has never been expected to make it to her twenties. With new medical advancements, she has surpassed her life expectancy and is living a great life. She has her own tech company and an adoring husband Anton. While driving home, making plans for their future, they get in a car wreck. Anton doesn't make it. Their last interaction was posted online by a someone who had stopped to help, noting Anton's last words as "I'll be waiting.". As news spreads, mediums from all over claim that they can let Nicola speak to Anton again. After many failed attempts, she decided to give it one last shot. This is where our story gets going.

I really enjoyed the first part of this book. I thought Nicola and Anton were so sweet together. I even cried when he died, and that's in the first chapter! As the story went on, I also liked the flashbacks to her teen years where something terrible had happened to her and her friends while having a seance in the woods.

Unfortunately, the latter part of the book went off the rails for me. It wasn't that it was necessarily bad, it just descended into chaos and confusion. While it was creepy and suspenseful, it also had some pacing issues for me.

Overall, not a bad book. Just wasn't the perfect it for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for in eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ll Be Waiting is heartbreaking, spooky, paranormal, and twisty. I was immediately drawn into this story and easily binged it in a day. There are so many layers and the revelations at the end will leave your jaw on the floor. The main character, Nicola, has Cystic Fibrosis and Kelley Armstrong does such a wonderful job representing what it’s like living with this disease. Although Nicola is limited in certain areas, she’s still a complete badass and faces her fears head on.

I highly recommend this one for fans of haunted pasts, seances, revenge plots, and a little hint of true love.

If her tragic past is any indication, Nicola Laughton should steer clear of any involvement in seances. When a car accident takes the life of her beloved husband, she can't help herself. She needs to know what else he was going to say just before he died. "I'll be waiting, but..." But what?

Nicola is a skeptic that has gone through a good share of so-called mediums and clairvoyants, all fakes trying to make names for themselves off her newsworthy story. She thinks she's finally found the right professional to help her find the closure. What she's going to get, however, is far more than she bargained for. The secrets of her past are about to surface in a way she could never have prepared for. Was Anton who she thought he was, or, by summoning him, has she inadvertently discovered a malevolent side he was hiding from her? How much longer will he be waiting for her to join him?

I'll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong started out a bit slow for me. It took just over half of the book for Armstrong to set up the story. Once she did, though, the pace picked up steadily (in direct relation to the amount and type of paranormal activity), and I was unable to put the book down until I finished it. In fact, I read the last 142 pages in one sitting. There was some predictability to it, but it wasn't anything that truly affected my experience. You have to go into this one with an open mind and appreciate the author's imagination. Some readers will struggle with the believability factor, but when reading a book involving seances, ghosts and malevolent spirits, can we really place a box around what should or shouldn't be able to happen?

I received a copy of I'll Be Waiting from NetGalley and chose to write this unbiased review.

This magical realism/horror element that Kelley Armstrong has been exploring. Lately has been fun it brings me back to the Otherworld type series. This was interesting. The whole psychic dead husband chronically ill (is terminally ill?), Do you really believe in these psychics are you skeptic?

The whole you can never escape your past was chef kiss. I just wish the pass were more woven into the backstory instead of all drawn out. Let me have it and get it and go.

I really wanted to enjoy this one, I just couldn’t get into it. Thank you for the opportunity to read!

✨ Publication date: October 1, 2024✨

I’ll Be There is a mystery/thriller by Kelley Armstrong. I have read several different genres from this author but I think it’s my first mystery/thriller and really enjoyed it.

Nicola Laughton was supposed to die before her beloved husband Anton. Having been born with Cystic Fibrosis, she wasn’t even expected to make it to adulthood. However with modern medicine and exercise she has been able to keep her lungs in good shape. Although she has survived much longer than expected, Nicola and her husband had always planned for her to die first.

After a tragic car accident, Nicola is left a widow. Anton whispers something with his dying breath and Nicola is desperate to know what he meant. After engaging a well known medium, Nicola sets up a séance to finally get answers to Anton’s cryptic last words.

Nicola has participated in a séance once before in high school. Things went horribly wrong and she ended up having to move away and change her name. What happens when Nicola channels the wrong ghost? What if her past comes back to haunt her (literally). Will she even survive another encounter with the dead?

This was a quick, fun read! I would put this as more of a mystery rather than thriller. There were parts that were meant to be scary but were maybe a bit more predictable than scary. I still enjoyed the book and love this author. This is a 3.75 star (rounded to 4) read for me!

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#NetGalley #kelleyarmstrong #illbewaiting

This is a tough book to review for me because I have such mixed feelings over it.

The beginning of this book truly sucked me in with learning about Nicola, the tragic loss of her husband, and how she handles her grief after. I loved the idea of grief horror mixed with seances mixed with ghosts, but the more things developed, the more I felt my attention dwindling. The second half of the book felt very repetitive and far-fetched, but I was willing to hang in until the end because I was invested. Despite my issues, I never contemplated DNFing this book, which leads me to think it’s more a case of the reader than the book for why we weren’t a perfect match.

Overall, this would be a good option for a reader who wants to dip their toes into horror without any gore or too many scares.

Nicola Laughton has had a raffle death ticket from the day she was born with the horrible, unrelenting illness of cystic fibrosis. Nicola never thought she would ever marry but she did meet the love of her life and sadly he died shortly after their marriage in a horrific traffic accident. Anton's last words to her as he died in her arms was "I'll be waiting" and some witnesses claimed to see his spirit hover over his body for a few moments. Ever since then Nicola has visited mediums and attended seances seeking to prove or disprove of life existing after death.

Nicola rents a summer house by the sea and brings her best supporters, her brother-in-law who is a sceptic and another friend whom she met at one of her seances and who definitely believes in the afterlife and hopes Nicola will find her answers. The medium she hires is also a scientist who comes well recommended.

Shortly after they arrive strange and bizarre occurrences begin to descend upon the group, subtle in the beginning but when swarms of black insects hover outside the house where Nicola can't even go for a walk due to her breathing and the insects flying in her mouth and eyes whenever she steps outside. It is a very strange phenomena to be sure and now Nicola wonders if she's made some very bad decisions about needing to have contact with Anton since all the paranormal experiences seem aggressive and dark so maybe she's made contact with something else and how will she make it all come to an end without any harmful entity attacking her and her friends. Something at this beach house has gone very, very wrong!

Kelley Armstrong has written another suspenseful and terrifying novel that I hated putting down and coming to an end. I enjoyed all the characters and felt they were well developed and I also loved all the twists and turns that K.A. always include in her books. This novel was so enjoyable and entertaining and I am so looking forward to reading many, more books by this author.

I recommend this book to any reader who wants something spooky, unsettling, suspenseful with some tense horror that never lets up and yet a great, back and present story concerning Nicola's chronic,deadly illness and her
courage and stamina of beating the odds of her life expectancy by never giving up! I also loved the fantastic, explosive ending that I never saw coming which kept me on the edge of my seat through the last few chapters!

I highly recommend this fun and exciting horror/thriller novel!


I want to thank the publisher "St. Martin's Press" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this digital copy and thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I have given a rating of 4 1/2 SUSPENSEFUL AND NERVE SHATTERING 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌠 STARS!!

I did not enjoy this book as much as I was hoping I would. It went in a different/weird direction than I anticipated, and it started to hit slasher territory with some over the top hauntings throughout this book that just felt unbelievable/unrealistic.
Thank you to Netgalley and to St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Kelley Armstrong delivers another gripping tale with I'll Be Waiting, a masterful blend of suspense and emotional depth. The story pulls readers in from the very first page, weaving a narrative filled with unexpected twists. The characters are well-developed and relatable. Armstrong's ability to balance tension and tenderness is unparalleled, creating a hauntingly atmospheric mystery that stays with you long after the final chapter. A long-time fan of her work, I appreciate her seamless pacing and vivid prose. Newcomers to Armstrong's work will likely find this book a perfect introduction to her storytelling brilliance.

Kelley Armstrong is one of my favorite authors and this book knocked it out of the park. Nic loses her husband Anton in a horrible accident as the story begins and as it progresses we see her trying desperately to contact him via mediums, all to no avail. Finally, with the help of her brother-in-law she finds someone who seems legit. As Nic, her BIL Jin and her friend Shania meet up with the professor who claims to be able to help her at a vacation home that holds a special place to Anton and Nic, things start to heat up with both Nic and Jin hearing Anton. Strange things begin happening which culminates into a seriously crazy ending. I could NOT put this book down and am once again thoroughly impressed with how Ms. Armstrong manages to create a story that completely drags you into that world and you don’t want to come up for air until it’s done. Kelley Armstrong never disappoints!

I love this author, she has a way with writing the supernatural that sucks you in. I did feel like the beginning of the book was a bit drawn out. But once it got to the meat of the story it was really good. 3.5

Three stars for fairness- I didn't get much more than 20% of the way through this book. I didn't find any of the characters compelling enough to continie even though I liked the premise of the story.

This was the perfect read for the spooky season! I've been loving Armstrong's latest releases and can't wait to see what she brings us next year!

I'll be Waiting is a nice little ghost story. There are definitely some moments that freaked me out in this one! I also really appreciated learning a little about Cystic Fibrosis. Thank you for the advanced copy :)

At first, I was really into this book. It had an eerie tone with the seances and haunted house aspect, and Armstrong did a great job at building tension. However, the last half didn’t really hold my attention as much - it was quite repetitive. Plus there was some crazy stuff that happened that just kind of threw me off. I will say that this was a great read for spooky season, but it isn’t my favourite just due to how long it felt and how outlandish it became.

The cover is also so gorgeous and definitely drew my eye!