I definitely did not predict the ending of this book! I honestly was expecting a ghostly story. Loved the thrill aspect. If you love the paranormal, murder, suspense, possession this is definitely the read for you!!

Narration and story are both 5 stars.

I generally don’t consume any horror media but the cover, title, summary, and a chronically ill protagonist grabbed my attention.

I had to pause the book several times and avoid reading it at night alone because it scared me! I agonised over Nic’s decisions, fearing for her. As a disabled person, I love how Nic’s character is not all about her cystic fibrosis- instead her intelligence and logical thinking is what really shown through for me.

The ending was brutal and thrilling.

The narrator delivered Nic’s lines perfectly and captured the emotion easily.

Perfect story to read as you get ready for Halloween this year.

Thank you to MacMillan audio and Kelley Armstrong for the audiobook ARC.

The story kept me very invested and I appreciated how everything wrapped up in the end. The narrator was great! I would recommend this book to anyone that wants a light paranormal book and doesn't mind a bit of gore.

Kelley Armstrong delivers another gripping paranormal horror!

Nicola knew that her marriage wasn't meant to be long, but she thought it would be her going first due to her cystic fibrosis - not her husband being taken early by a fatal car accident. Desperate to connect to his spirit and gain some closure, she hires the best of the best and sets up a secluded seance.

I thought this had some fun twists, and I love a good MC with a sketchy history. The past and present chapters were done very well and there was the perfect amount of bumps in the dark. The ending verged on the brink of a little silly, but this is a great fall spooky read and definitely keeps you flipping pages!

I almost had to be in two different head spaces when listening to this. One side is suspending beliefs about spirits and ghosts and seances, listening to a supernatural horror, while the other side this was simply a crime novel. Additionally, going along the ride with MC Nicola was also balancing between two sides: one where she's this widow so desperate to connect with her husband and Nicola as someone trying to grasp what'd happened when she was young. Either way, this was an absolutely great listen for a horror book that contained all the elements that you'd expect.

I liked all the characters in this; each supporting characters were just as interesting to get to know. I loved the pacing and the eventual reveal and outcome; this was so so enjoyable! There were so many moments that would play with your senes - being scared with ghost stories, sad with Nicola missing her deceased husband, aloof when the past started to reveal itself, and just intrigued any time seances were happening. The author will definitely have you so hooked into what would happen for sure.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an audio copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

2.5 stars rounded up. I was really excited going into this one, especially with Halloween being right around the corner. I feel like I just couldn't get into this book though. It started off interesting but became a little repetitive once they got to the vacation house. It stays pretty slow until about 80% when so many different things start happening really fast. I wish that all the exciting things wouldn't have been pushed to the very end and that there were scary things happening all throughout. Overall, it was a decent book.

The publication date is set for October 1, 2024. This audiobook is a perfect listen for fans of the horror genre, featuring all the deliciously wicked elements: a haunted old beach house that used to be in her husband’s family for generations (now a vacation rental), a séance, and a chilling tale about a boy who went into the woods and ended up killing his girlfriend.

The story begins with Nicola Laughton, who has cystic fibrosis, enjoying a happy moment with her husband, Anton. However, tragedy strikes, and instead of Nicola succumbing to her illness as they had both expected, Anton dies. His last words to her were, “I’ll be waiting…” In her grief, Nicola’s private moment is thrust into the spotlight. Desperate to find out what her husband meant and to get answers, Nicola embarks on a quest, consulting medium after medium, to contact her departed husband.

After encountering many charlatans, her brother’s husband, Jin, finally finds a professor of parapsychology who might hold the key to helping Nicola find her answers and hopefully move on. She invites her friend Shania, Jin, the professor Devon Cirillo, and herself to her husband’s family beach house to hold a séance.

Jennifer Picken’s crescendo narration draws you in slowly, building up to a whirlwind climax where everything culminates, and Nicola gets more answers than she bargained for. The story includes plenty of unexpected, shocking elements. Jennifer Picken’s intonations can really build the suspense and make you feel as if you’re part of the crazy and desperate moments. It’s a spine-tingling, paranormal listen that will keep you engaged to the point where you do not want to stop listening. Reading the story was one experience, but hearing Jennifer Picken’s narration made the book come alive, enriching it with the emotions the author intended.

Thank you, NetGalley and MacMillan Audio, for my digital advanced audio copy for my unbiased and honest opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for this opportunity.

Wow but this one will rip your heart out stomp on it shove it back into your body and then grab your hand and whisk you away on a thriller. Like the genre bouncing was wildly fun. The narrator Jennifer Pickens gave voice to Nicola in a way that made this fictional character feel real. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I love Kelley Armstrong and have read most of her books. When I saw this on NetGalley, I was excited to get it early!
I enjoyed this book. The characters were good, especially Nicola. A few parts seemed repetitive, and the possessions were a bit much but overall, it was a good read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

So I requested this audiobook from NetGalley because I really like Jennifer Pickens's narration. I'm not sure if she's relatively new to narrating or just not that prolific, but she doesn't have a huge backlog and I try to snatch up every new release of hers.

It didn't hurt that I'll Be Waiting also seemed like a thriller/horror, which is up my alley. I don't know how to review this novel without spoiling anything though. So much of this is exploring what's real and what's not real and I feel like to talk about that reveals where the plots go. The story did bounce around to cover grief, mysteries, relationships, potential charlatans, action, thrills, horror, etc. It was interesting seeing where the heck the story was going sometimes, and maybe it wasn't as tight as it could have been, but still super enjoyable.

I will also say that I really liked the MC. She's very in her head and analytical. I appreciate a good character who can seem a bit neurodivergent, but I can also see that not clicking with some people.

And back to Jennifer Pickens! Truly one of my favorite narrators right now and has been ever since The Collected Regrets of Clover.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher!

From the book description:<i> 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, 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. 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....</i>

I tend to use the book description when the storyline is complex or I don’t want to give away spoilers in my own description of events. This is definitely the latter case. The story is very intricate, with us meeting Nicola months after the death of her husband, meeting yet another spiritualist. Then the plans to hold one last seance are made and the real “fun” begins. It’s not hard to follow the storyline, but you have to follow along and pay attention.

The book is beautifully atmospheric and, pardon my pun, haunting in its simplicity as a good ghost story, complete with a remote location, seances, a medium you can’t get a good read on, etc. But things aren’t really that simple, of course. There’s always secrets and lies that complicate everything, and the characters in this book are no exception.

What’s frustrating, and kept this from a five-star is that the complications got a little too, well, complicated. There was a lot that went down toward the end, and some of it became hard to follow. Especially when Nicola was so quick to blame everyone and everything as soon as she got even a hint of something “off.”

But, in the end all was answered, and in quite an interesting way, I might add. I did enjoy the conclusion once everything was settled.

I highly recommend this book to fans of ghost stories and other horror genres. This is a spooky tale you won’t soon forget.

Most of this book is ghost stories and drama, and the last 4th is pure chaos and gore! Something for everyone? The MC, Nic, has cystic fibrosis, and it was interesting/heartbreaking to learn about that disease through her experiences. She attempts seance to reach a loved one, and someTHING reaches out. I gave it 3 because it was a little too all over the place, but it kept my attention!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC ecopy.

The premise of this book interested, and I knew I had to give it a shot! While the audio narrator was excellent, I did not get invested in the story until about 50% in. It had a very slow start and I had a difficult tome connecting with the character—which wasn’t a deal breaker—I more had trouble with the repetitive events that made the chapters pass a little slower.

At the 50% mark I felt like things were picking up and I was interested to see what was actually going on! The mystery vibes were strong and the chapters keep going. However, the ending of the book felt a little disjointed from the first part. The first part revolved around mystery & grief & a little paranormal questions, but the second part moved into horror. I ended the book with questions and wanted just a bit more to tie things up.

I did enjoy the mental health rep along with the queer rep during the story.

I'll Be Waiting is much more than just a ghost story. The love story between Nicola (Nic) and Anton, turns into a ghost story when Anton unexpectedly dies in a car accident. Nic, who lived most of her life believing she would die young, is now forced to grieve the loss of her husband and move on with her life. In her grief, Nic has participated in a few seances to contact Anton as she is haunted by his final words, and title of the book, "I'll be waiting." Although none thus far have been anything other than tricks and recordings performed by charlatans, when Nic travels to Anton's family lake house her attempt at a final seance may just bring her closer to her husband.

Kelley Armstrong paints a wonderful narrative throughout this story. I was easily able to imagine all the scenes and flashbacks. There are some light horror elements and a lot of whodunnit vibes. I found the narration by by Jennifer Pickens to be really effective, as she was able to create voice differentiations between characters.

There is a whole cast of characters, which I found to keep the book really interesting and engaging. We are often thrown into flashbacks from Nic's earlier years when she first attempted a seance with some friends. There is a whole backstory here that is VERY fun.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, the author Kelley Armstrong, and the narrator Jennifer Pickens for an ARC of the very enjoyable I'll Be Waiting!

I love haunted house books. They are so hard to get right but I love them. I think this is more of a book about grief and loss. It is also a book about coping. Nicola is a survivor. I love the narration and the romance, as sad as it is.
I love the idea of a ghost husband saying he will wait for his bride.
But I don't know about how it unrolls. It was not what I expected but that is not a bad thing.
I am so glad to see a protagonist with CF. I love the romances with these women.

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. Though the narrator was fantastic, the story just didn't land for me. 2.5 rounded up.

I started the audiobook while working this afternoon and then listened well after I was done working, through dinner, and up to bed time. The narrator is fantastic.

That being said, this was a twisty story with several mysterious elements. We start with a chronically ill grieving widow who wants to contact the ghost of her husband. So, she rents a house they spent time in together, that once belonged to her husband's grandparents. She brings a concerned family member, a new friend, and they're met by a parapsychologist for a series of seances. It's a creepy haunt of sorts. The mystery of a missing boy gets tossed into the middle and insanity ensues.

The ride is tense and wild. I struggled with some of the lengthy flashbacks and thought they could have been shorter. Overall, this was a great listen.

e-ARC from NetGalley.

I loved this. Was it groundbreaking? No. But it didn't have to be.

We follow our protagonist, Nic, as she attempts to deal with the grief of her husband's premature death by seeing mystics and attending seances. After a few charlatans too many, her friends hold an intervention: One last seance, with a reputable scientist this time, and then learn to move on. But things start going wrong early on - a plague of bugs, a missing man, ghostly "pranks" that defy her husband's character. All of this leading to two very important questions: How well did she really know her husband? And what involvement could he possibly have had in the horrific incident that obliterated her childhood?

This book was great. It was twisty and turny. I was never sure what was real and what was not. There were parts of it that were so warm and full of love which quickly transitioned to a cold sense of spreading horror.

What I liked the most was that the author didn't treat readers like we're stupid. Nic is a cynic. She constantly debunks claims and rationalizes the things that go bump in the night. Likewise, we are presented with tiny clues about what's really happening mixed in with the hoaxes and misunderstandings, making it possible to figure out the truth prior to the reveal.

This book was somehow sweet and chilling simultaneously, and I definitely want to check out Armstrong's other work.

I really liked this book, I was unsure as I don't often do horror but the cover was so stunning (I totally judge A book by its cover) I had to try it and omg it was great! It was scary there was mystery it was sad and it was captivating great read for the spooky season I didn't want to put it down.