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 .

Nicola has dealt with the fact that she is dying her entire life. Born with cystic fibrosis she never expected to live long enough to fall in love and get married. Once she did she always expected he would outlive her. Now she is dealing with his death after a fatal car crash. Searching for proof of life after death things turn twisty in a secluded airbnb. Good narration, keeps you coming back to find out what happens.

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 received an audiobook copy from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

I would say this is more like 3.5 stars.
This was good from the beginning and had awesome creep factors throughout the novel and I would have absolutely given it more stars and then.....the last few chapters. They were just jam packed with so much craziness and not necessarily in a good way. The 'who done it' seemed rather ridiculous and rushed. It felt like the author was just trying to ensure all questions were answered and it was convoluted answer to all the questions, including from childhood. With that, since this was the audiobook, it was a little confusing when we went into flashbacks/dreams/memories of Nicola's past because it did not seem to differentiate it. I would be confused about what was happening, then realize it was in the past, not present time. I am sure reading it the font changed or something, in the audiobook it was not well separated. Then we get to the very last chapter of the novel and...it felt like a super abrupt ending and now we are done. Just an odd ending. I really love Kelley Armstrong's time travel murder mystery novels, but thus far with her horror ones, they seem really good, until the ending.

This book was creepy and thrilling and just so so so good. It was the perfect fall read to bring in spooky season with. I cannot recommend it enough for thriller lovers

A perfect read to start spooky season! I love a paranormal story with just enough creep factor to make me turn the lights on if I’m at home by myself, and this was definitely a great choice for the start of fall.

The pacing drew me in right away, and had me flipping the pages so fast to find out what would happen next. I thought the characters were well developed, and I was curious to find out more about Nicola’s past.

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗢 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗘𝗖𝗧
Ghosts
Sprawling estate with creepy dolls
Mystery
Themes of grief
CF rep

🎧I did an immersive read of the book with the audiobook and loved it! The narration was great, performed by Jennifer Pickens, and she truly paired the voice of the characters so well. It added so much tension to the atmospheric story, and gave me the unsettling vibes as if I were right there summoning spirit in a sprawling estate.

*many thanks to Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio, and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

This was a sad and semi depressing story. Nicola Laughton has Cystic Fibrosis and was never supposed to make it to adult hood. She has and married Anton. Months after their wedding, they are in a car accident and Anton dies. While dying he tells her “I’ll be waiting for you.” Since the accident, Nicola is obsessed with mediums who claim they can contact the dead. During one of the sessions, weird things start happening. I did think this was going to be more of a horror story, and it just wasn’t quite there. There was a lot of repetition in the writing, and I never really connected with Nicola as a character. I predicted the large twist at the end and the last third of the book seemed out of character from the first two thirds. I do like paranormal reads, just this one wasn’t for me.

I enjoyed this audiobook. It was perfect for spooky season. I liked how yes it was a horror book, it also had more emotional depth and great character development. I was intrigued right from the start. The only thing that I struggled with was all the secondary characters, so it was hard to keep track who was who. I did a review post on this on my Bookstagram that I have linked down below.

I sadly could not get into this book. Possibly because I am not really into mediums and physics and such which is what this book is based on. I still enjoyed the narration and the basic idea of the plot though!

Thank you for this ALC!

4.5/5
My first Kelley Armstrong, but most certainly enough to make me want to go right back and read every single thing she's written, and to keep an eye out for all future releases. This was the best kind of horror there can be as far as I am concerned - as careful and tender in its approach to the horrors of real life as it is unflinching in its approach to the horrors of a world beyond. I'LL BE WAITING starts off quiet, mellow in its grief, but it slowly becomes an unhinged rollercoaster that makes it nothing short of unputdownable. I find it rare for horror to manage to get a physical reaction out of me, but this made my skin crawl and my hair stand on end on quite a few occasions, and it kept me tense and on edge more often than not.
I cannot recommend it enough.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. The first third of the book dragged a little for me, but the last 2/3 of the book definitely picked up the pace. This will be the perfect book to read this October!

✨This was a #BookstagramMadeMeDoIt read. I’ve seen multiple reviewers saying how much they enjoyed it, so I dove right in. It was so fast-paced that I finished in one day – just the right amount of spooky with an unexpected love story as well.

✨This is definitely a horror novel, but it’s layered with other themes as well – and this may be my favorite thing about the book. You have your horror with ghosts and spirits, and you have your mystery with flashbacks bringing in the main character’s back story. You also have thriller and romance elements with a well-developed cast of characters and a spooky setting to die for.

✨I really enjoyed the twist at the end that I didn’t see coming.

🌿Read if you like:
✨Cystic fibrosis rep
✨Ghost stories
✨Creepy old houses
✨Genre benders
✨Themes of loss and grief
✨Spooky season reads

🎧I listened to this book on audio and really enjoyed the narration by Jennifer Pickens @jenwrenpickens. There were many character voices to sort through, and she performed them with their own unique voices. So well done.

This is how you write a ghost story. It was dark and atmospheric. I enjoyed the mystery, the ambiance of horror, and how the tension was slowly built as the book went on.

This story centers around Nicola. She's a widow, and although skeptical, she's been trying to contact her husband's spirit with a seance.

I loved the plot of this book even though it felt slow throughout. The twists were fantastic, and once things really got going, I was heavily invested.

Jennifer Pickens brings a lot to the story with her narration. She helps instill a sense of deep foreboding into the story.

I'll Be Waiting is the perfect book to add to your October tbr.

Many thanks to @macmillan.audio for this ALC.

As a 30-something woman living with Cystic Fibrosis, Nic expected to be the first one to die in her marriage, but fate and a snowy road had other plans: After a car crash, her husband Anton dies in her arms, telling her with his last breath that he’ll be waiting for her on the other side. After months of failed seances with fraudulent spiritualists, Nic’s friends and family find a reputable medium and convince her to make one last-ditch effort to contact Anton. In a lake-front estate once owned by Anton’s family, Nic hopes to finally reach her lost love from beyond the veil. But as frightening things start happening in the house, and as Nic’s past seems more present than ever, she begins to wonder if something else – something more malevolent – wants to make contact instead.

I’ll Be Waiting has a lot going for it: an isolated lakeside setting, a diverse cast of characters, and a plot full of paranormal thrills and things that go bump in the night. Kelley Armstrong integrates the past and present timelines seamlessly, and there are plenty of shiver-inducing moments. I loved Armstrong’s decision to write the book from the perspective of a character with a chronic, often terminal, illness; this aspect gave Nic a unique worldview that was engaging, thought-provoking, and educational for people like me, who don't have a lot of familiarity with CF. There’s lots of nuance and texture in the plot, and the interactions among the characters felt authentic. I paired my reading with the audiobook read by Jennifer Pickens, who imbued Nic with a lot of emotion and had a perfect sense of timing in the spookier moments.

I’ll Be Waiting did, however, lose its way for me a bit at the end. I saw the twist coming, but even aside from that, the plot devolved into a gore-fest that felt out of sync with the rest of the book. Armstrong set up a traditional haunting in the first two-thirds of the book, but went in a different, more chaotic direction at the end that didn’t quite satisfy me.

That said, though, I think most readers of paranormal fiction will enjoy I’ll Be Waiting, and it’s definitely a perfect read for Spooky Season. Thank you to Macmillan Audio and St. Martin’s Press for the early reading opportunity.

This is exactly what I wanted in a ghost story! I couldn’t stop listening. I loved the story and the atmosphere. I will definitely be recommending this to everyone!

This was a very good haunting story! I enjoyed the way it incorporated skeptics and believers into the story. I think it dealt with the character's grief very well and was a fun story all throughout.

3.5 stars.

A dark, compelling story of the ache of grief, the paranormal, and the struggle to go on. The author did a very good job of conveying Nicola's shellshock of losing her husband suddenly in an untimely death, and the longing and desperation to connect with him again via seances. It's easy for someone in this mental state to be taken advantage of and prolong her grieving process, so you're not sure if the occurrences that feel very familiar to Nicola are in fact her deceased spouse. Then someone dies. And someone else goes missing. And there's no one for Nicola to trust.

This is more psychological thriller than ghost story or horror. I found it tense and interesting, but I really wanted more... just more.

Wow! Nic has your sympathy right off. She has far outlived her life expectancy as a person with cystic fibrosis. She finds love and then loses it in a tragic accident. Her final moments with her love, Anton, are witnessed by a lot of people who share her story and make har a minor celebrity.

My opinion of this book changed every few paragraphs. I loved the parts in which the con-artist mediums are exposed. All of these people wanting to take Anton's last words "I'll be waiting" and somehow make them true. Prove that he was really hanging around waiting for her. But they all fail.

There are more seances and that part starts to get repetitive. A spooky story brings it back. Towards the end it goes from connecting everything in a satisfying way to completely over the top. It's hard to say too much without saying why I had these opinions, which would be too revealing. Let's just say there is some romance, some supernatural, some violence. It's all there.

I have been a fan of Kelley Armstrong’s paranormal series for 20+ years (Bitten and Stolen are seriously some of my fav werewolf books of all time), but I this was my first time reading her more contemporary books. I was reminded with this novel what a brilliant writer she is, especially when it comes to creating characters that are fully realized and complex.

Overall, I’ll Be Waiting is a good old fashioned haunted house story. The psychological stress as the main character battles with whether she is witnessing true paranormal phenomena, or if her mind is conjuring ghosts from her own tragic past, creates plenty of suspense and creepy vibes.

I felt like the first half of the book was very engaging, but the middle was too long, dissipating the tension. The finale of the book was action packed and paid off in many ways, if not entirely unpredictable. Overall, an enjoyable read and perfectly timed for adding to a spooky season TBR list.

𝗜'𝗟𝗟 𝗕𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗯𝘆 𝗞𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘆 𝗔𝗿𝗺𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 is the perfect read to kick off the spooky season! 👻 As a longtime fan of Armstrong, I couldn’t wait to dive into this one, and it did not disappoint! From the very start, Nicola Laughton’s story grabbed me—her journey is both heartbreaking and gripping. After being diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis, Nicola never expected to live long enough to experience love, but Anton changed that… until a tragic accident claimed his life. His final promise to wait for her on the other side haunts her, and when the media claims witnesses saw his ghost delivering that message, things take a chilling turn.

I was drawn in by Nicola’s struggle with grief and the supernatural. When a medium is brought in to help, the eerie atmosphere ramps up—locked doors mysteriously open, strange footsteps echo, and Armstrong’s writing sends shivers down your spine. The twist about Nicola’s past, and the discovery of a body, had me glued to the pages! 😱

Suspenseful, creepy, and full of surprises, this book is a must-read for anyone who loves a good thrill. 📖✨