I liked the concept of this one but oof did it just fall flat. The protagonist was interesting and her story was compelling but that is about where my interest in this book stopped. I felt like it was a bit cheesy throughout and the plot really meandered in my opinion. The atmosphere throughout the story did shine despite the flaws I found in the rest of the book. I think this is a good book for October and going into the colder months but there's really not much else there.

3.5 stars
I’ll Be Waiting is just the spooky ghost story you’re looking for heading into the Halloween season! Nic’s husband died in a freak car accident and she is anxious to make after death contact with him. Cue the scary seance vibes! 👻 I enjoyed the set up and building tension of the story. Though I felt that things started to go off the rails after a time and the ending was a bit rushed, it was still well worth listening to or reading this season!
*Thanks to St Martin’s Press, MacMillan Audio & NetGalley

I really enjoyed this author's horror release from last year, Hemlock Island, so I was excited to pick this one up. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much. I never really connected with the main character for some reason. I thought the mediums/seances sounded like a chilling, sinister premise, but it just fell flat for me in execution. I also had the same issue with this one as I did with Hemlock Island, but even more so,. The context of the ending got way too bizarre. I need the weirdness to be built up better from the beginning to really be on board with it. The story just didn't land for me. 2.5 rounded up.

Thank you NetGalley, Macmillan audio, and St. Martins Press for gifting me the audio and ebook for honest review!

I did end up listening to the audio the entire book so my review will be based solely on the audiobook.

3.5⭐️

I’ll be waiting is a thrilling horror including haunted houses, seances, and demonic possession. I will attempt to leave no spoilers in my review.

Brief summary:
When Nicola’s husband tragically dies in a car accident he says the quote “I’ll be waiting for you”. This is heard by a few bystanders who read into the statement, making it out to be ominous and causing a media circus surrounding the event.
Overcome by grief at being widowed when she was supposed to die first, Nic becomes obsessed with speaking to her husband via seances but becomes increasingly disappointed as she discovers hoax after hoax by supposed “mediums” that are preying on others grief.
In a last ditch effort to speak to Anton before giving up for good, Nic contacts a professor to set up a seance at Anton’s old family home. Supernatural events begin occurring and Nic realizes that she may not have the whole story surrounding the ghosts she is encountering and the people who are helping her seance.

Final thoughts:
First, I really enjoyed the narrator. I think she accurately portrayed grief, fear, and love when appropriate and fit the feeling of the book very well. I loved this book from the beginning and anticipated it being a 5 star read. It had all of the spookiness and ghost appearances that I had hoped for. Slowly this book became a little bit repetitive and boring until out of nowhere it sped up and everything seemed to all be happening at once in the last 20% of the book. The pacing is my primary reason for dropping this book to a 3.5 instead of a 4 star read. I found the ending boring compared to all of the events that occurred throughout the book and the last portion turned into more of a slasher than the spooky horror book that I had started reading and had hoped to enjoy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC.

After the untimely death of her husband, Nicola is understandably drowning in grief and trying to cope with the loss of her beloved. A very rational character who over-analyzes everything down to the wire, she winds up going against her nature by seeking out mediums after mediums for seances. In the hope of reaching her husband’s spirit, troublesome events ensues, keeping Nicola on her toes and fighting for her life as well as questioning her sanity.

This was my first Kelley Armstrong read and I was not disappointed! I loved the suspense, the spookiness, and the way Armstrong was able to keep me guessing about the characters and pondering who could and couldn’t be trusted. I found myself wanting to continue turning the pages, just to try to get to the answers I wasn’t able to quite figure out on my own.

The majority of the book was spent in a lake house, so this was a pretty contained story. The tension and suspense Armstrong was able to create in such a limited scope of environment and number of characters was downright haunting and thrilling. I am definitely a fan of Kelley’s style of storytelling, and will for sure be checking out her other works!

This was certainly a twisted little story. I thought it started out good and interesting. It gets a little weird in the middle and parts seem to drag. There’s some surprises along the way. I would add it to your spooky book list

"I'll Be Waiting" by Kelley Armstrong is a creepy, dark, and disturbing tale about a young widow who is having a challenging time moving on after the death of her beloved husband. The story was somewhat uneven. It started off to a great start, but it slowed down in the middle and the ending was creepy. If you like creepy, this book is for you!

I received an ARC for free and gave my honest opinion voluntarily.

First and foremost, I’m a bit of a Kelley Armstrong fangirl. This is the 15th book (three series and several standalones) of hers that I have read. Suffice it to say. I think she’s an excellent writer and storyteller. Secondly, I love scary, ghost and supernatural stories, and when I came across this one, I just had to have it. With ghosts, a haunted house, a séance, and even swarms of bugs that surround you every time you walk outside, all of which makes for a great story for the upcoming Halloween season.

The book summary basically lays out the start of the story and introduces the MC, Nic, a Cystic Fibrosa sufferer who has lasted long past her expiration date. However, her healthy and fit husband, Anton, hasn’t. Fast forward seven months, and Nic is volunteering as a mentor for a grief counseling facility. It comes across as a kind of 12-step facility where newbies can partner up with mentors, supposedly those who have succeeded in moving through the stages of grief. Lol😂 While Nic is nowhere near getting through the grieving stages, she does have a lot of experience in getting duped by a slew of charlatans who target the newly grieved in scamming them into thinking they can help them “communicate” with their loved ones. This is the type of mentoring she provides to Shania, a woman grieving her sister.

However, Nic’s brother, Keith, and his ex-wife, Libby, and his current husband, Jin, all think that the reason Nic can’t move on is because she truly believes that spirits can be summoned, because of her own past experiences. So, they’re all, including a “reputable” medium, off to a lake house where Nic and Anton loved to visit, with hopes of conjuring up Anton’s spirit once and for all. It’s not long before creepy and scary things start happening. There is also a secondary storyline of the missing son, Brodie, of the woman down the road, Mrs Kilmer, who provides the meals to Nic and the rest of the guests. The son is a drug addict and has a history of not coming home sometimes, but the woman believes that something is wrong.

Most of the story revolves around all the creepy stuff happening around the house and the creepy occurences of a few seances. They realized that at some point, Brodie, was in the basement of the house because they find his drug kit. They even start to suspect that Brodie might be involved in some of the creepy stuff going on in the house and that he’s trying to get them to leave. It's not long before they discover that is not the case. It isn’t until deep into the second half that we discover what Nic has been hiding about her past and how it may be connected to her present. Some of the chapters flip back and forth from Nic’s present and past.

The character development of Nic, and even Anton to some degree, was pretty good throughout the story. She kind of started out as this troubled and grieving widow who couldn’t move on and by the end…..wow!!! Unveiling the fact and fiction of Nic’s memories, real and imaginary, as well as her past was a shocker. The pacing was steady, the storyline was very interesting, and the writing was crazy, bizarre, good too. Classic Armstrong with an outrageously, creepy and super scary scenes. I’m looking at an overall rating of 4.1 that I will be rounding down to a 4star review. I want to thank NetGalley, St Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for sending me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

#NetGalley #StMartinsPress #MacmillanAudio #IllBeWaiting

From NYT Bestseller, Kelley Armstrong, comes a new paranormal horror involving sprits, seances, and secrets…. Just in time for spooky season! 👻

✨Plot Synopsis✨

Never expecting she’d live to see adulthood, Nicola, who has Cystic Fibrosis, has lived into her thirties and has met Anton, the man of her dreams. Months after marrying, Anton dies in a tragic car accident, uttering the words “I’ll be waiting for you” as his last breaths leave his lips.

Hoping to help her deal with her grief after a series of failed seances and fraud mediums, Nicola’s friends petition to have “one last seance” to help her find the closure that she’s been looking. Finding a reputable medium, they rent a beach house on Lake Erie that Anton spent time in as a child.

Almost as soon as they arrive, locked doors begin to mysteriously open, footsteps and creaks can be heard, and Nicola is haunted by nightmares from her past.

✨My Thoughts✨

Having been a fan of Kelley Armstrong since my early teens, I was excited to see she had a paranormal thriller coming out right in time for spooky season. I was captivated with this book from the very beginning, hanging off every twist and turn right until the very end. I did not see the ending coming and my jaw dropped at the final plot twist.

If you’re looking for something to keep you on the edge of your seat, feeling a little bit scared, while also trying to figure out “who really did it”, this is the book for you! It is the perfect book to curl up with a nice, hot cup of tea as the leaves begin to change.

A big thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this paranormal mystery thriller digital ARC with me in exchange for my honest thoughts!

An even bigger thank you to Kelley for writing such an incredible book. Keep doing what you do!

St. Martins Press eARC
What a perfect book for spooky season. Nicola experienced such tragedy in this book. While living with Cystic Fibrosis, she thought she would die before her husband, but a horrible accident takes him first, and she'll do anything to try to reach him beyond the grave - and that's all you need to know. Armstrong writes such creepy, atmospheric horror. This one was so full of is/isn't it scenarios, that I kept going quickly because I had to know what was really going on. I liked how everyone was a bit sketchy because it made me think about all of their different motives and decisions. I thought the suspense and horror elements were so well done. There's believable mysteries here. I even liked the use of flash backs. They were necessary and added just enough to the plot to make it a truly scary story. This one is perfect for fall if you want something a bit creepy.

"From New York Times Bestselling author Kelley Armstrong comes a spellbinding new tale of supernatural horror involving a haunted-house, seances, lost loved ones, and a sinister spirit out for blood...

Nicola Laughton never expected to see adulthood, being diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a child. Then medical advances let her live into her thirties and she met Anton, who taught her to dream of a future...together. Months after they married, Anton died in a horrible car crash, but lived long enough to utter five words to her, "I'll be waiting for you."

That final private moment became public when someone from the crash scene took it to the press - the terminally ill woman holding her dying husband as he promised to wait for her on the other side. Worse, that person claimed it wasn't Anton who said the words but his ghost, hovering over his body.

Since their story went public, Nicola has been hounded by spiritualists promising closure. In the hopes of stopping her downward spiral, friends and family find a reputable medium - a professor of parapsychology. For the séance, they rent the Lake Erie beach house that Anton's family once owned.

The medium barely has time to begin his work before things start happening. Locked doors mysteriously open. Clouds of insects engulf the house. Nicola hears footsteps and voices and the creak of an old dumbwaiter...in an empty shaft. Throughout it all she's haunted by nightmares of her past. Because, unbeknownst to the others, this isn't her first time contacting the dead. And Nicola isn't her real name.

That's when she finds the first body....

In this atmospheric, thrilling new ghost story, Kelley Armstrong's full talents are on display to thrill, chill and leave the reader guessing how Nicola escapes with her life - if she can."

This is just a book I'm dying to read, I'm dying for the cover to be art on my wall.

Unfortunately i made the decision to DNF this book after multiple failed attempts to consume. I hope to pick it up again at a later time.

I loved this story. It was written well, which is something I always expect from Armstrong, no matter the genre. She is excellent with plot, character development, and this book in particular was very creepy. I loved the atmosphere created with the main character's chronic and fatal illness pitted against the ultimate betrayal of of fate/the universe.

3.5 ⭐️

I think this is a great thriller for those that like a bit milder suspense experience. The story is interesting with good pacing. There is murder and it’s fairly descriptive - I don’t want anyone to think that is what I mean by mild. For those that are looking for a more intense experience, this may not be the best choice for you.

Thank you NetGalley, Kelley Armstrong, and St. Martin's Press for this eARC.

I am an unapologetic Kelley Armstrong fan-girl, and I will keep giving all her books a read as she continues to venture into new genres, but this horror novel didn't do it for me. Since I'm not a big fan of horror in general, do give this a try if it sounds interesting to you and you like the genre. The main character, Nicola, has cystic fibrosis, and I did really appreciate learning more about this disease through the novel. At the start of the book, Nicola's husband dies in a senseless, tragic car accident, leaving Nicola grieving and searching for signs of him from the afterlife. Her best friends are her brother's husband and her brother's ex-wife, which felt a little twee, but that's neither here nor there. Nicola, her brother's husband, and her friend from a grief support group go to a secluded house with a professor of parapsychology to try to contact Nicola's husband in an environment free from distractions, and things get pretty crazy once they're there. I didn't hate this, I didn't love it - it was fine if rather over-the-top at the end. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a digital review copy.

A awesome thriller suspense with ghosts,seances ,suspense ,surprises and twists.
Very intense intriguing story.
Will hold you captive until the end.
Voluntarily reviewed

I'll Be Waiting drew me in by the cover and I like this author a lot so I knew this had to be a book that I read. This one is about a supernatural horror which involves a haunted house, seances, lost loved ones and a sinister spirit out for blood. This was so well written and the author knows how to get you hooked from the very first page until the last. The book was a page turner and it was a wild ride that I enjoyed. In this one the charcters were great and I liked Nicola a lot. Overall this was such a creepy and spooky read that I enjoyed. I would recommend this book to any reader who loves horror or ghost stories. Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for this amazing ARC read in exchange of my honest review of I'll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong.

Don't you just hate it when your past comes back to haunt you?

We meet Nicola, a young married woman with cystic fibrosis, as she is suddenly widowed by the reckless negligence of another driver who refused to let a little snow slow him down. There are no answers that really need to be sought out, everything is pretty cut-and-dry... but she has this little thought buzzing around in the back of her mind, like a midge, and she just wants to make sure: He's not on the other side trying to get ahold of her, right? If the metaphorical phone is ringing, she can't stand the idea of not answering. She enlists help from her trusted companions, hires a professor of parapsychology (paranormal psychology), and they embark on a trip to a beloved vacation home they believe Anton's spirit will be drawn to. But, Nicola has other spirits that have been haunting her since her childhood, and they are a force to be reckoned with...

Overall I thought this was a better paranormal story than most. I am a literary horror girl myself, so I appreciated the character-driven story that pans out as we peek into Nicola and Anton's past. I think my character focus may have gotten in the way though, because I found myself questioning many actions from Nicola and others toward the end of the book. I expected them to change, but more through the application of their character qualities, not the character qualities themselves. If you are more into plot-driven narratives though, I don't think that will bother you at all. I enjoyed the narrative, and would absolutely recommend this as a seasonal read!

**Book Review: "I'll Be Waiting" by Kelley Armstrong**

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

I’d like to extend my gratitude to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Kelley Armstrong for providing an ARC of this book. "I'll Be Waiting" proved to be a captivating read, perfectly suited for the fall season with its spooky atmosphere.

The novel offers a compelling mix of seances and supernatural intrigue that keeps readers on edge, constantly questioning the reality of the events unfolding. While the story was engaging and the ending satisfying, I felt there was potential for even more surprising twists. Nevertheless, the narrative wraps up neatly, providing closure and maintaining suspense until the end.

This was my first spooky read of the season, and it has certainly set a high bar. I'm looking forward to diving into more books with similar eerie vibes. Highly recommended for those who enjoy a good supernatural mystery.

This is a very different book from what Ms. Armstrong normally writes. I was reading it & thinking this is a Women’s Fiction book since it deals with the one characters live, past & present. But oh boy, a little more than halfway, things start happening, intensify & rapidly go south. I literally could not put this down, I do not see the ending come at all. It turns out to be something very different than fiction. Way to go! #I’llBeWaiting #NetGalley