I love Kelley Armstrong and pick up anything with her name on because I enjoy her writing. I was excited to be able to review this new book for my favorite season! I enjoyed the first 3rd/first half and then it felt like it changed. It lost my attention and began to feel repetitive and that it was dragging a bit. I believe this book would have benefited from being a bit shorter so that it was not repetitive.

The beginning felt like a good haunted house type of paranormal story with a good representation in the character and it turned into something overly gory and unnecessary. While it was a 4 star at the beginning the last portion was about a 2 so I am doing.a 3 star for this rating! I hope to read more from Kelley Armstrong in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and Publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I’ve been seeing posts looking for spooky reads for October and I think this book fits the bill perfectly. The setup of Nicola’s story & what happened to her husband Anton was the perfect pace. Then add in a spooky experience in her adolescence and you get a great addition to the main event, Nicola, her brother in law Jin, a friend Shania & a paranormal psychologist rent a house on Lake Erie that Anton’s family used to own. The bugs, the attempted seance and creepy dolls all around added to the suspense. I am not a fan of stories involving the paranormal especially ouija boards but I enjoyed Hemlock Island last year so I took on this book & I’m glad I did. This was a great spooky story.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy of this book.

I love the way the author tells a story, and I'm loving the way she is sliding into the horror genre ! This book was interesting, I was immediately engaged in the MC's life, what had happened to her, and what might happen to her in future.
The slow exposition was delightfully creepy, and there was character growth shown, as well.
I enjoyed this book , and anyone that likes horror , but not TOO horror, should read this one. It would make a fantastic movie !

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

I'm a huge fan of Kelley Armstrong! This was a little different than my series favorites of hers. This had a definite creepy, atmospheric vibe to it that started off strong. Nicola, who has cystic fibrosis, always expected to die young. Tragically, she ends up burying her husband instead. His final words, "I'll be waiting"... This leads to her trying to contact Anton through mystical ways.

This book had various subplots beyond the reaching beyond the grave and things that go bump in the night. There is Nicola's backstory with a seance and murder of a friend. In fact, Nicola is not even her true identity. There is mystery and suspense, trying to figure out what is true and what is not. There is a connection between Anton and a murderer from the past. Is he really the loving, devoted husband Nicola thought she knew? There is the missing man who may be sneaking into the house. Suspicion is almost as thick as the fog of insects...

The last part of the book became almost a little chaotic It was beyond just a ghost story and suddenly we had dismembered bodies and murderous evil spirits. Oh, my! It still leaves you on the edge of your seat even if you wonder "what?!"

3 stars

Nicola the FMC has been diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis since childhood, never did she expect to see adulthood. Yet, here is she in the 30s and married, but a horrible car took Anton from her far too soon. Stricken with grief at the sight of the crash someone claimed to have seen him become a ghost.


This story was not what I expect from the blurb, while entertaining, there was often times of lulls that were hard to push through that kept me wanting to know the end. While I did finish this story as a whole, I was lacking the intensity that normally comes with *ghost* stories. Overall there was many twist that kept me enticed enough to not DNF but unfortunately not enough to be at the edge of my seat wondering how this will pan out.

Kelley Armstrong is one of those authors that I would read no matter what she writes.....and I pretty much do that. She writes in different genres and I read her books in each of them without fail. Needless to say, when an opportunity came out to read a new spooky read from her, I jumped at it and snagged I'll Be Waiting.

Our main character, Nicola is grieving the sudden loss of her young husband. As if the loss wasn't enough, he was seen telling her "I'll be waiting for you." Onlookers saw it and made a big deal of it which didn't help Nicola dismiss it. This probably wouldn't have felt like such a big deal except Nicola has already been exposed to ghostly haunts in the past so she has a strong belief in the otherworldly and supernatural.

This book revolves around the story from her youth and how that influenced her entire life as well as her recent loss and how that added to the stress and grief she was already balancing from her earlier years. When Nicola decides to try for a seance, her brother is protective and questions if it's okay for her. But she feels like she won't be able to move forward without answers. From the moment the group arrives at the house where they plan to carry it out, things are strange and only continue to get worse.

This book as well-written and twisty. I enjoyed it and could barely put it down.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: I was also provided with an early listening copy from NetGalley. I really enjoyed the audio - - the narration was really strong and made the storyline even more believable. I would recommend the audiobook for this book without question. 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for early copies of both the ebook and audiobook.

I've been hearing about Kelley Armstrong's books for years, though I'd never actually read one before I'll Be Waiting. But when I stumbled across the description on Netgalley, I knew I wanted to read it. There was something about the setup that just got into my brain and I had to see how the book would turn out.

I love a creepy ghost story, especially during spooky season, and this was an excellent supernatural horror. It was fast paced and compelling, while also exploring themes of grief. There's a lingering question throughout: is there an afterlife? This was a horror premise I hadn't read before, and I really enjoyed it. I found Nicola to be a really sympathetic character to follow, and I was on the edge of my seat for the entire reading experience. I would definitely recommend this to any fans of supernatural/paranormal horror!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for granting me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Wow! I’ll be waiting was my first introduction to Kelley Armstrong as an author. Let me tell you I was happily surprised. I myself love a good scary, ghost and supernatural story. So when I came across this one on NetGalley I requested it immediately,it went straight to be fall tbr.

This book had me on the edge until the end. It’s perfectly creepy for spooky season, atmospheric in the best way. I’ll be waiting was filled with mystery, suspense and gruesome horror scenes. Kelley did an impeccable job at weaving a well written and paced narrative. The book follows a widower by the name Nicole who is not a novice when it comes to horrific tragedy. She heads to her late husband’s family Lake house in order to try and communicate with him through a seance. During her time at the Lake house she is accompanied by family, friends and a hire medium who are there to assist her with finding closure for her husband’s death. After the first day is where things start to unravel and the skins crawling, hair raising paranormal thrills begin.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan for giving me this an arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

I have read many books by Kelley Armstrong and I have to say that this one was just not one I enjoyed. I was bored and it took me forever to read.

I'll Be Waiting is the perfect creepy ghost story for October! This is not quite my normal read, but I love Kelley Armstrong's books, so I read everything she writes. Nicola lost her husband Anton in a car accident and is trying to reach out to him. After many attempts she finally feels like she found the right person to help her, a professor/medium, and along with her brother-in-law Jin and new friend Shanie, they go to a beach house on Lake Erie that she and Anton had been to. But things go from bad to worse and she needs to figure out if someone is sabotaging her efforts and what is really going on!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Publication date: 1 October 2024

I found this a bit too predictable but it was still a decent read. Not a bad story. Pace was fine. Overall a lot of info on seances and different types of grief. Nice to see a main character with CF and experience her day to day needs

I love this time of year. While some people like horror movies, I really like a good horror story -- one that will make me put the book down for a moment, only to grab it back up and devour the words on the page, because I have to know what's going to happen. This requires a good bit of tension and suspense in the writing and believable enough so the reader can just sink into the story, even though it might be scary or intense.

I'll Be Waiting grabbed me right from the start. Nicola and Anton are likable characters and their circumstances are gut-wrenching. But this story asks -- what about the afterlife? And it answers the question with a tight horror story with ghosts and evil spirits and a whole lot of holding my breath.

I really liked this story and it will be on my favorites of 2024. The tale is believable, especially if you have a belief in the afterlife. And while a horror story, the love story between Anton and Nicola is expertly woven between past and present. There were plenty of surprises I didn't see coming. I just loved it! Definitely recommended for horror fans.

I’ll Be Waiting- Kelley Armstrong
Narrated by Jennifer Pickens

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Narration 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Y’all I have read my fair share of horror and thriller books and the sheer fear that this book induced in me has never happened before. I felt like I was right there in the action of the book that genuinely was scared about what was going on. There were so many twists and turns and revelations that I was audibly gasping. This was such a phenomenal book, I’ll be thinking about it for a while.

Jennifer Pickens did such a great performance with this audio. She knew exactly how to capture the fear the characters were feeling and make the listener feel the same fear. Fantastic job!

Seance gone wrong
Malevolent spirit
Secrets

That unexplained coolness in the air, the creaking of the floor, the thump in the middle of the night. Creeped out factor was high during this read.

I couldn’t put it down wanting to know more about the main character’s past and what this would mean for the seance she was going to be attempting.

The ending chapters made me gasp and just kept me turning those pages, ignoring everyone around me. Highly recommend this book if you love hauntings.

Recently Kelley Armstrong has become one of my go-to authors for several genres from romance to mystery, time travel, paranormal, and horror. I enjoy her stories, settings, characters, etc. and her latest entry into what I would call a mystery/paranormal/horror mashup is just another example of my growing love for her stories. I find them enjoyable, accessible, and relatable. I quickly switched between the ebook and audio for this one because I was too intrigued to put it down. The audiobook is narrated by Jennifer Pickens who smoothly led me through the story and gave great voices to the characters and suspenseful setting.

Nicola drew the interest of the media when her late husband, Anton, was caught on video in their final moments expressing his sentiments that he would be waiting for her. The drama drummed up by the media implying she is a dying woman is a far cry from her daily life as a cystic fibrosis patient and results in all sorts of spiritualists and frauds soliciting her business to hold seances to provide closure. Nicola’s friends and family are concerned by the way she is coping with her grief. They all agree to one last final attempt at contact with Anton with a reputable professor of parapsychology in an isolated Lake Erie beach house previously owned by Anton’s family.

The story is told in first person by Nicola. I’m not very familiar with cystic fibrosis or how to manage living with it, so I found this aspect of Nicola’s life very educational. The opening accident and subsequent seances quickly drew me into the story fascinated and questioning exactly what was happening. It’s implied early that there are secrets in Nicola’s past that are contributing to the strange events from the seances despite the obvious fraud.

The story alternates between the strange happenings in the rental house and Nicola’s memories of events from high school when something tragic happened in her group of friends keeping me on the edge of my seat. My only quibble is that I figured out a major twist early on, but I still enjoyed the ride and was surprised by quite a few of the later revelations.

Recommended to readers who enjoy ghosts and séance type stories.

Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and St. Martin’s Press for a copy provided for an honest review.

Who doesn't love a Kelley Armstrong book when you're in the mood for a spooky, eerie, paranormal read? I learned several years ago that she would be a good go-to author for me when I'm in the mood for the genres. Nicola Laughton is the MC and she's been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and living with it since her childhood. Plus, she lost her parents in a car wreck that also left her injured.
She is now an adult and married. And as her luck would have it, tragedy struck again and she's lost another loved one, so she sets out to somehow contact her loved one in the afterlife. From there it really piques my interest. She's just been through one tragedy after another, and she wants desperately to somehow maintain contact.

For me ghost stories are hit-and-miss. This one just happened to hit just right. I loved it! Honestly seances aren't my thing since they deal with the paranormal if RL so in real life I stay away. But in my book world, the seances she went to in order to make contact with her loved one(s) was so spooky and convincing.

I was genuinely excited to dive into this ARC, especially given that I am a huge fan of the author. The premise of the plot was captivating, filled with potential for a gripping novel, however through much of the book, I found myself struggling to stay connected.

Fortunately, in the last 1/4 of the book, the plot began to pick up steam, revealing some intriguing twists and deeper layers that piqued my interest. However, I ultimately was disappointed in the book as a whole and how it was wrapped up.

I appreciate the opportunity to read this ARC and look forward to more from this author.

Nicola always thought she would precede her husband in death due to her battle with cystic fibrosis, but he is killed in a car accident shortly after they are married.

After an incident from her childhood, Nic is convinced there are ways to talk to the deceased and spends her time trying to find an authentic method of talking to her late husband. Her efforts dredge up memories of her past and her interactions with the paranormal that had catastrophic endings. Was it real then? Is it real now? And when is it time to give up?

Very fast paced and held my attention to the end, but it did feel like it jumped the shark there at the end and turned gruesome.

When I first saw the cover of I’ll Be Waiting I knew it was going on my spooky season tbr. Lucky for me I was gifted an audiobook by @netgalley and@stmartinspress

The book centers around Nicola. She has defied the odds and is still surviving with cystic fibrosis, but she is mourning the recent death of her husband Anton. His last words to her were, “I’ll be waiting for you”. Nicola rents a house at the shore that belonged to Anton’s family and hires a medium to help her communicate with him. What ensues is an interesting and sometimes spooky reflection on the nature of grief.

I loved the first half of this book as it builds atmosphere and has some genuinely spooky moments. The early communications with Antonio had an eerieness that gave me chills. The book stalls a bit in the middle so that took a bit of a push to get through. Eventually it becomes evident that something more malevolent is at play here and the book enters full blown horror and gore territory, although it was a little late in the book to have a huge impact. And while I enjoyed this, those early scenes were the ones that really haunted me. I would probably call this horror lite.
I recommend this book for people that want their spooky a little on the milder side.

This was a nailbiting suspense as Nichola and friends do a seance to try to summon her dead husband , only her past comes back in full force and the evil begins .