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

Nicola is still reeling from loosing her beloved husband. Now, she goes back to a place of meaning to them with her brother in law and friend to meet with a ghost expert who will perform a seance.

Kelley Armstrong is a queen of modern day horror novels and this one is no exception! Here's what I loved:

The premise: There is so much to love in this one. It's a ghost story, a thriller, a heartbreaking drama, all in one. The idea that Nicola and Anton's last moment is shared with so many really broke my heart. But that's what leads her to wanting to find out more.

The creepiness: This book has such a good unsettling feeling to it. From the bugs to the noises, there is always something to really get you in the creepy mood. This is a perfect Halloween read!

The characters: You get to see not only the present day characters but some past characters, This dual timeline really gets you into the myster of what is really going on.

All in all, this is a great ghost/horror story!

Thank you to the author and publisher for the gifted copy!

I am a huge Kelley Armstrong fan but this one made me a bit frustrated in the end.  It was definitely spooky and a good start to the spooky season. I loved most of this book but there were times at the end that I was like, "really? IDK that seems out of character" but I went along with it. 

I loved the idea of a terminally ill woman using her husband and thinking it was unfair and wanting some closure.  I related to the numerous people who stood around and video taped the last moments between them on their cell phones and posting it on social media.  It seems nothing is sacred anymore.  I loved learning more about what happened with Nic as a teenager. I had small inklings as we learn about Nic's past about what could be going on and I was sort of right but I had also missed the mark.  It was the Dr. who let me down in the end but everything else was spot on and really entertaining. 

The narrator of the audio book is excellent and really brings a lot to the story.

Good creepy story; especially in the beginning. I enjoyed the seances, mystery, and haunted house stuff. It turned into a different type book at the end that I was not expecting

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.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the concept of this story but found some of it getting repetitive, particularly in the middle before it got exciting again.

If you're looking for a creepy, atmospheric read, look no further. The writing was top notch. I was all in for the first half of the book. The tone felt like it changed in the middle/end and I lost some of my enthusiasm. However, it was the perfect choice to set off my spooky season reads.

This was such a classic “spooky season” book. Nicola and Anton have a later in life love story. After he is tragically killed, the story takes off in an unexpected direction as Nicola becomes obsessed with seances in an attempt to contact Anton. While hopeful, Nicola is also a skeptic at heart and is quick to discredit the frauds. When Nicola gathers a cast of characters to a country home to attempt one last séance, the mystery and the danger intensify as Armstrong gives us a potential haunted house, introduces and explores a horrifying tragedy in Nicola’s past, and unveils an ultimate revenge plot.
I liked learning about Nicola’s past, both her buried teen years and her love story with Anton, through her recollections while she navigates her grief. I liked that she is a skeptic herself as that heightened the tension for me of wondering if the supernatural elements in the story were really happening or would end up being easily explained. As in all her books, Kelley Armstrong can assemble a cast of characters that are quirky, varied, and diverse.
My only small quibble is I was left confused as to the purpose of the protagonist having Cystic Fibrosis. I think it is cool to have a main character with a disability, but the disability didn’t and anything to the story in any way, nor did it particularly educate me as to the nature of the disease.
Overall, I thought this book had a good mix of current and past mysteries, and more than a touch of the supernatural that kept me guessing as to what would happen next.

A big thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Kelley Armstrong's "I'll Be Waiting." This is my first venture into Armstrong’s novels, and it was a memorable introduction.

The book excels in crafting a creepy, atmospheric experience that drew me in from the start. Armstrong’s skillful world-building and knack for creating a chilling mood kept me on edge throughout. The eerie settings and suspenseful moments were a definite highlight, giving the story a haunting quality that I enjoyed.

The first half of the book was a definite 4 star for me. After about halfway through something changed for me, and I started to lose interest.

Despite the shortcomings, "I'll Be Waiting" is a compelling read with a strong sense of atmosphere. It’s a promising start to my journey with Kelley Armstrong, and I’m looking forward to seeing how her other works compare.

Rating
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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'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.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a free eARC of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.

A great spooky thriller that follows a grieving widow trying to figure out if her husband's deathbed promise that he'd be waiting for her "on the other side" is true, and whether the man she married was actually as wonderful as he seemed...

I really enjoyed this one! The main character, Nic, is hilarious, sarcastic, and strong. I loved her narration and found this book to be highly readable. The seances were creepy, the supporting characters were well-drawn, and the pacing was taut. Overall, a very fun read for autumn! If you like stories about possession, seances, and ghosts, this is for you. The added layer of Nic living with cystic fibrosis elevated the story by highlighting the irony that her husband died first and forcing her to reckon with her expectations and desires while living with a chronic illness. I loved seeing Nic's growth over the course of the story as she figured out what she had to live for, and the exploration of grief was touching.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an early copy in exchange for my honest review!

I loved the CI representation shown in the book, it was done tastfully.
It was spooky and perfect for the beginning of my fall reads!

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.

Nicola Laughton 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 - basically, an almost normal life. But soon after being married, Nicola's husband Anton is killed in a car accident, but not without first saying "I'll be waiting for you" to Nicola.

This final moment between the couple was witnessed and photographed and then made public.

Now, in the thick 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.

Nicola is terrified, for a multitude of reasons, both obvious and secret. Number one...Nicola isn't her real name.
---
This is an interesting thriller - it really provided a look as living as someone with Cystic Fibrosis. The grief is HEAVYYYYY in this, and I can't help but feel that Nicola is nearing suicide just to be with the man she loves. It kind of adds a dark cloud to the story, but overall, it's still satisfying.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

My experience with this book was marked by a blend of admiration and mixed feelings. I’ll Be Waiting is a compelling novel that combines atmospheric suspense with deep character development; Armstrong’s writing and the nuanced portrayal of her characters are undeniably strengths of the book. However, the climactic resolution diverges sharply from the rest of the story, leaving a slightly disappointing aftertaste.

From the start, Armstrong’s skillful writing draws readers into a richly atmospheric world. The setting is evocative and eerie, setting the stage for a suspenseful narrative that keeps readers guessing. The novel excels in building a creepy, unsettling atmosphere that makes the reader question the nature of the events unfolding. This tension is one of the book’s greatest strengths, as it keeps the mystery alive and engaging throughout.

The character development in I’ll Be Waiting is also particularly noteworthy. The protagonist, who grapples with cystic fibrosis, is portrayed with depth and sensitivity. Armstrong does an excellent job of integrating the character’s terminal illness into the narrative. It’s refreshing to see a main character with such a condition not being defined solely by their illness. Instead, cystic fibrosis is presented as a part of who she is, seamlessly woven into her identity without overshadowing her entire character. This nuanced approach adds an authenticity to the story.

The backstories revealed through the protagonist’s memories are also a strong element of the book. They offer valuable insights into her past and help build a fuller picture of her character. This narrative technique enriches the overall story, adding layers of complexity and depth.

However, my enjoyment of the novel was somewhat diminished by the final segment. The climax, which occurs in the last 10% of the book, diverges sharply in tone and style from the atmospheric and suspenseful buildup. The resolution feels out of place with the rest of the novel, as the suspenseful and creepy atmosphere gives way to a climax that struck me as overly dramatic and cartoonish. The shift in tone felt jarring and detracted from the carefully built suspense.

Despite this, I’ll Be Waiting remains a compelling read. Armstrong’s skill in creating a haunting atmosphere and developing complex characters is evident throughout the novel. The book’s strengths in character portrayal and atmospheric tension make it a worthwhile read, even if the final resolution didn’t quite meet the high expectations set by the earlier parts of the story.

I really loved the first half (2/3rds?) of this book - it was creepy and atmospheric and extremely mesmerizing. It was engaging from the get-go and kept me turning the pages really easily. The last part of the book was full of twists and turns that totally jumped the shark in a way that wasn’t for me, though.