This book is a tender and emotional examination of grief with inclusion of the supernatural and ghost stories throughout. It was definitely on the slow side but I liked the eerie aspects and the narrator did a great job!

Content warnings: bodily possession, blood, car accident, physical violence, drug use, psychological abuse

I'LL BE WAITING started off with such a strong concept - the reasoning, the hints that Nicola is an unreliable narrator which encourages readers to question everything they're being told, the "final" seance setup... all great. Even as things start to go sideways for Nic and her guests at at the beach house, I was still riding with the plot. But then Armstrong jumps the shark and the plot becomes so unrealistically convenient and interconnected that it totally lost me as a reader. I would have DNF'd this around the 40% mark but chose to stuck with it to see if the ending was worth the nonsense... for me, it wasn't, YMMV.

Jennifer Pickens does a decent job with the audiobook narration though the flashbacks were particularly confusing since there was no audible clue (tone change, chapter title) to let listeners know the flip from present to past. Hopefully there is in the print version, but I can't confirm that. Either way it made for a clunky reading experience during the transitions.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.

Nicola Laughton has survived against all odds due to medical advancements in treating her Cystic Fibrosis. The novel begins with her husband, Anton, last words to Nicola after a car accident. Her terminal illness and her grief over losing Anton are the emotional anchors of the story, but it becomes clear she is hiding a more profound secret about her past. Nicola's grief over losing Anton and her inability to move on increases her desperation for closure, and her fear of living without Anton drives her to participate in the séance at a beach house. From the moment the séance begins, strange and unsettling things happen, like doors that open on their own, swarms of insects, and the sound of footsteps in an empty house. Nicola's nightmares begin to mirror the strange occurrences in the house, blurring the line between reality and the supernatural. Nicola must confront her past, revealing that this isn't her first time trying to contact the dead. The discovery of a body midway through the novel shifts the story into darker territory, transforming it from a ghost story into a murder mystery. Nicola and her friends try to unravel the mystery before it's too late.

The flow of the story sets an eerie, atmospheric tone. The paranormal element of the story is where the novel truly shines, making the reader question what's real and what might be a manifestation of Nicola's trauma, which enhances the fear factor. You will feel the dread and panic of what is lurking and wanting to harm Nicola. The last fourth of the book speeds up the pacing, and it loses some of the prominent horror elements in the story. The book combines a ghost story with lost love, delivering a compelling mystery. Nicola's story is one of survival and the psychological scars left by her childhood. Fans of paranormal thrillers and psychological mysteries will enjoy the story.

I received an ARC audiobook for my honest review. Thank you, NetGalley and McMillan Audio.

A supernatural horror involving a haunted house, seances, lost loved ones, and a sinister spirit out for blood...

Say less...

ೃ⁀➷ ⋆˚࿔✻˙∘ 𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓬𝓴 𝓢𝓾𝓶𝓶𝓪𝓻𝔂 ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

We follow our FMC, Nicola Laughton who was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a child. Thanks to modern medicine, she has been able to live much longer than predicted, have a job and get married - essentially, a normal life.

But soon after getting married, Nicola's husband Anton is killed in a car accident, which he ominously says "I'll be waiting for you" to Nicola. 🤨

To make matters worse, this final moment between the couple was witnessed and photographed and then made public. Basically a circus show of one of the most traumatic moments of her life.

Now, in the midst of her grief, Nicola has come to Anton's family's home to meet with a professor/medium in order to contact Anton. She's been hounded by mediums for months, saying they were able to connect her with Anton.

Just as the medium is beginning, the house comes alive. Locked doors are unlocked, insects surround the house and voices are heard. Then the bodies start showing up.

Obviously she is terrified and for a multitude of reasons, both obvious and secret. To start...Nicola isn't her real name...

ೃ⁀➷ ⋆˚࿔✻˙∘ 𝓜𝔂 𝓣𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓼 ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

I was really invested in this story for about the first third of it and then it veered off in a direction that really didn't hold my attention.

I think this is a great book to pick up for spooky season, it does get a little outlandish in the second half but if you want something creepy and not super serious - this makes for a perfect choice for an autumnal read.

A huge thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced audio copy - all thoughts are my own. ✨🔮🎃

I’ll Be Waiting takes place following the tragic death of Nic’s husband. A combination of Nic’s chronic illness, her husband’s last words, and a bystander catching a photo of her husband’s final moments causes her story to go viral and sends a flood of fraudulent mediums flocking to her doorstep. After Nic meets a professor promising his interest in her story is purely scientific, Nic agrees to host a seance at her deceased husband’s family lake house along with two close friends.

I’ll Be Waiting is very atmospheric, leaning on its setting to cultivate a feeling of isolation and horror. Lake Erie, combined with the annual descent of midge flies, sets the stage for the rest of the story. The haunting to follow leaves the reader questioning what is real until the very end.

While a majority of the story was engaging and kept me reading until the end, I wish it had a stronger conclusion. I found it a little lackluster and wished the main character had a stronger/more satisfying confrontation with the horror she was running from.

Ultimately, this book lands at a solid 3.5 stars for me. It’s great if you’re looking for a good ghost story. I did not expect some of the turns this story takes and there were times where I was genuinely shocked by what was happening. It was a great story to read to kick off the fall season.

4 ☆
-
The beginning of this story started with a bang and caught my attention! Nicola never expected to see adulthood, as she was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a child. Then, medical advances allowed her to live into her thirties, and she met Anton. Antonio taught her to dream again, and together, months turned into years together until an unfortunate event occurred. Nicola and Anton were in a car accident, and Anton died in that horrible accident, but he lived long enough to utter five words to her, “I’ll be waiting for you.”
Like I said, the beginning started with a bang and held my attention, but once we hit the middle, the pace started to slow down a little. Honestly, this book could have been shorter.
The audiobook was good, and the narrator did a good job with this story. She was easy to listen to.
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬
•Mystery
•Supernatural Horror
•Haunted-House
𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 Oct.1
-
Thank you, Netgalley, and MacmillanAudio for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Kelley Armstrong for the ALC and ARC of this book.

If you love Simone St. James I really think you would enjoy this book. Kelley Armstrong blends paranormal, a smidge of horror, and mystery together beautifully in this.

We follow a woman who loses her husband tragically too soon and as he is dying he tells her he will be waiting. But he wasn’t only heard by her, others around them saw him tell her this in his spirit form. From this point on our main character is contacted by mediums and other paranormal investigators to pray on her grief.

When she’s approached to do a seance in her late husbands family cabin she goes along with it in hopes maybe she will get to hear from her husband one last time. Only she’s not haunted by her husband, she’s haunted by her past and what unfolds in the cabin is a horror no one expects.

I really loved this one. It was different than I expected in the best way. My only complaint is it was a little slow in the beginning and I wish there was more of that ending!
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a paranormal mystery that shines a light on grief and terminal illness. That not only is a good time but really hones in on serious topics as well.

I read and listened to this one and I highly recommend the audio to this.

I enjoyed how this book kept me guessing until the end as to how it would turn out. Each time I started to suspect how the story would end it would change again. The main character was enjoyable, and the cast of characters in the house was enjoyable while nodding towards the traditional people included into a seance.

Holy crap this one had me hooked from the very beginning and had me hooked the entire time. I literally did not want to stop!

I'll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong
Narrated by Jennifer Pickens

Nicola Laughton was never supposed to outlive her husband, Anton. She wasn't even supposed to live into her thirties but her ongoing medical treatments have allowed her to deal with her Cystic Fibrosis in such a way that she is able to plan her life for five years at a time. Having gotten together with Anton, her high school friend of years ago, Nicola and Anton fell in love quickly and before they even got through their first five years together Anton is gone. But as he died Nicola heard him speak to her, “I’ll be waiting for you”.

Eight months later, Nicola is about to stop with her attempts to contact Anton. Now, in one last attempt, a professor of parapsychology is meeting with Nicola and her friends the Lake Erie beach house that Anton’s family once owned. This is a place that has meaning to Anton, a place that he is likely to appear, if such a thing is possible.

Hang on to your Ouija Board because things are going to get creepy, crazy, and chaotic. Summoning the dead may not be a gimmick after all and may be be too dangerous for the living. Jennifer Pickens narrates and helps to enhance the scary, seance on crack, mood of the story. This is not a ghost story for sissies and Nicola, a woman who has beat the odds in life already, is not about to let whatever is coming at her beat her now.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for this ARC.

This was only the second time I read a book by this author. Last year I read Hemlock Island and I loved it! (apparently it's sort of an unpopular opinion...)
So, I was naturally excited to read a new adult horror from Armstrong.
I loved the main character, Nicola, a 37-year old woman diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis, who lost her husband to an awful car accident. I empathised with her struggles and her grief. I actually love to read horror novels with realistic characters going through realistic issues/struggles.

Nicola has a certain past with 'ghosts' or the supernatural occult, ever since she was a teenager.
After a few months she's lost her husband, she tries to contact him, or to his spirit, by performing séances.
She finally (or so it seems) finds a proper medium and they all head (along with a couple of friends) to her husband's old family home in the woods in order to perform a séance that will, hopefully, work and Nicola will be able to speak to her dead husband.
Meanwhile attempting to contact the husband's spirit, weird and eerie things start to happen both inside and outside that house, and eventually people start showing up dead.

I truly enjoyed the first 1/3 of this book: I thought it was very atmospheric and eerie, all characters were relatable enough and there is a lot of drama.
The second third was when things started to get a little disappointing to me: we, the readers, start to get a lot of flashbacks from Nicola's teenage years and to some event that happened in a forest with a few friends. That was when, in my opinion, this book sounded very YA (which is a kind of an issue for me since I don't like YA at all), so it naturally pulled me out of the story several times. I now understand that all those many teenager flashbacks moments had a purpose, but I gotta be honest: I got very bored by them.
In the final third of the book things finally escalate to the big finale, when the séance finally works (because they tried to perform several séances before and they all failed to happen) and we get to the purpose of it all.

My biggest issue with this book lies in the final 15%: it all becomes way too far-fetched, ridiculous even, and the conclusion dragged a lot. The 'teenage forest event' kept coming back constantly, repeatedly, and to me it just wasn't interesting. At all.
I personally was in it for the ADULT drama and repercussions of Nicola's husband death and how she would move on from there.
In the end, there was way too much teenage drama and 'buried secrets from the past coming to light', and the horror itself, which only genuinely happens in the end, ended up being underwhelming, in my opinion.
Too much buildup for too little impact.
In my opinion, the best part about this book is the main character's development. By the end, I felt like Nicola was a real person and I got to know her a little.

I'd recommend this book to any readers who enjoy this kind of supernatural story and don't mind teenage content.
I'll still keep an eye on Armstrong's adult horror novels in the future, though.

I listened to the audiobook and I personally had some issues with it, but I don't truly blame the narrator.
This book has a lot of 'whispering' ("I whisper", "he whispers", "she whispers"). I actually found it annoying and incredibly unrealistic of how much whispering the characters make. C'mon...real people don't whisper all the time. So, it was natural and expected from the audiobook narrator, Jennifer Pickens, that she would voice all the whispering tone by whispering! And she did that, which was a great job.
The thing is: I hate, I absolutely hate when audiobook narrators whisper. And this book has A LOT of whispering. Seriously, A LOT. Unfortunately, I couldn't help but feeling annoyed constantly by the so many 'whispering' passages. Again, I don't blame the narrator - she was just doing her job. I blame the author, really. LOL
So, if you are an audiobook listener who hates whispering - just like me-, I sadly do not recommend the audio format.
But if you're not, go for it. If you can pass through all the (endless) whispering, the narration is actually really good. It can make you feel more immersed in the atmosphere created by the writing.

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio, for allowing me to listen to a free advanced audiobook copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this sinister, paranormal , haunted house mystery/ thriller.

For me the story started as a slow burn, I was wanting the action to start but we have to wait while we are introduced to the characters: Nicola who is 37 and suffers from CF and isn’t expected to live a long life and her husband Anton . I enjoyed that the book was set in Ontario, Canada and the beginning of the story definitely intrigued me.

I enjoyed the books building of tension and the paranormal activity throughout as well as the sinister thought that there is something sinister from the other side coming for Nicola due to her past as a teenager. The house is given a foreboding atmosphere and the audiobook narrator does a great job with a house noises to make it even more creepy , there are many things that happen in the house that enhance the horror elements and made this book unputdownable for me,

I did suspect correctly some aspects of the books plot as the story emerged— and with the audiobook narrator doing a great job of the different characters voices in addition to the creepy house sounds helping to build the atmosphere even more.

The last 1/3 of the book — if you’re able to suspend your disbelief you can really enjoy the far- fetched action packed, fast paced ending.

I recommend the audiobook for the enhanced immersion in the world the author has created.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ALC . This is my honest review.

I’ll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong. Grief, suspense, creepy, plot twists, and betrayal. I was under the impression this book was a supernatural horror. But it was more a suspenseful mystery or thriller with some supernatural tones if I was to describe in my own words. Haunted house, seance, spirits, missing people, murder. I found the overall story decent, but it was too long, repetitive, and dragged out. Audio narration was good, despite the story being drawn out.

I was provided with a review copy of the audiobook and this is my honest opinion. I gave this book 3 stars. (If I am unable to leave partial stars, I will always round up.)

Thank you again NetGalley, and Kelley Armstrong.

To begin with, I appreciated the premise of this book, along with its story and connections. However, it felt quite prolonged. Although it was enjoyable and had supernatural elements, the plot took unexpected turns that weren't always clarified. Ultimately, it didn't resonate with me as I had hoped.

I'll Be Waiting is a supernatural horror novel that delivers some chills. It is not my usual go to, but Kelley is one of my faves so I knew I had to give it a shot. I'm glad I did. Was it my favorite, unfortunately no. The vibes were definitely there, it's a great read for spooky season and I enjoyed the overall feel of it.

The first part was really interesting and held my attention. It was creepy, chilling, haunting and mysterious. The tension was building at a great pace, the atmosphere was on point. But then it just started to go downhill and lose some of my interest. There was a lot of repetition, the seances were getting a little old and boring. Then Nicola started to just get on my nerves and that made me lose even more interest. It is in no way a bad read, it just started off so strong, and had so much potential !

It also did become a little lengthy and over the top for me. The ending did save it a little as it tied up all the loose ends. We also have all the reasoning behind everything which I appreciated. It was still a fun read and I believe paranormal horror lovers will love it.

🎧 The narration by Jennifer Pickens was good. I enjoyed her voice. I thought she was great at playing the characters. She also brought the creepiness factor up a notch with her creepy whispering voice which I liked. I felt the fear and sadness in her voice also.

✨️Thank you to @netgalley, @macmillanaudio & Kelley Armstrong for my gifted ALC in exchange for an honest review.

When terminally ill Nicola loses her husband in an accident, their tragic love story becomes fodder for paranormal investigators, But when old ghosts rear their heads, there's much more to this ghost story than meets the eye.

A great haunting read perfect for the spooky season, readers are kept guessing at each new twist!

It's probably the scariest one I will read in 2024.
Suggestion: Just go blind into this book.
I binged this book because I wanted an answer to. Is this a paranormal read, and there's evil for real? or is it fake, and there is a murderer? I was asking the wrong questions. Great (gorish and mean) ending. It is a book to enjoy more than to read reviews about it.

(Audiobook ARC review)
Do yourself a favor and add this to your spooky season reading list IMMEDIATELY.

I usually dislike thriller/horror genre because it can be super predictable to my ADHD detail brain. Normally by 30-40% of the way through the book I’ve predicted the ending. I was 95% of the way through and still audibly gasping at work. You won’t see the twists coming. 😱

Narration was fantastic. Jennifer Pickens gives the perfect amount of emotion and clarity to deliver a compelling, thrilling adventure. I listened at 2x speed (normal for me).

What a great spooky story!

I'll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong was a spooky and gripping mystery full of supernatural occurrences and danger. The first half of the book started was really strong. The plot was engaging and moved quickly. But I will admit that the pacing really did get off in the second half. Things started to get boring. The protagonist started changing her mind constantly about who was setting her up and it was kind of frustrating. The twists were too easy to see coming. But I did like that despite how far fetched and improbable the ending seemed, the author did manage to cover any plot holes and answered any questions I had about who and why. The audiobook was easy to listen to, and the narrator's voice really added to the eerie tension and dark vibes in the story. This was my first book by this author and I'll definitely be reading more soon.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Overall this book wasn't bad. It was enjoyable, the chronic illness rep was appreciated, and it had the perfect blend of horror aspects. I really enjoyed it, but it definitely is more on the YA side.

Okay, so I reread it and my opinion has changed. I think this book was really done on the chronic illness rep, a beautiful tale of how to process grief, and really scary in parts. Overall, it is perfectly creepy and a great addition to your fall TBR.