Kelley Armstrong has never done me wrong, not even once. Fantasy, romance, mystery, all have been fabulous. So when I saw she has a new horror book, you know I immediately picked it up, and I am so glad I did.

Nicola lives with the ticking clock of Cystic Fibrosis, and she never expected to outlive her husband Anton. When he is killed in a horrible car crash and dies in her arms, his last words to her are “I’ll be waiting for you.” Despite being a skeptic, since that day she has visited multiple spiritualists, hoping for verifiable contact with him, but to no avail. She is going to try one last time, with a ‘reputable’ medium, and she and a couple friends rent a beach house once owned by Anton’s family for the séance. Things start to go wrong almost immediately, but is it Anton? Or is there something else, something dark, in the house? And Nicola can’t help but remember the first time she attended a séance, as a teenager, and the terrible events that happened then.

This is exactly my kind of horror/thriller. It kept me guessing and there were tons of reveals along the way that made me doubt what was happening, along with Nicola. I devoured this book; if I’d been watching it as a movie, I would have been screaming at each turn, with each jump scare. Even with all the misdirection, everything was tied up by the end in a very satisfying conclusion. I recommend this for anyone who wants a paranormal, haunted thriller. It’s intense, creepy, and perfect for a spooky season read.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for giving me this review copy in exchange for an unbiased opinion.

This was so unexpected and gripping. As she starts finding bodies and revealing more of her last, we learn that our MC isn't as innocent as she says.

#IllBeWaiting starts with bumps in the night and rachets up the tension from there. There are two timelines in the book, and they both feature seances gone wrong. The main character and supporting characters are well-developed. As the book progresses, tension accelerates to a hair-raising climax. Kelley Armstrong has created a solid ghost story.

Title: I’ll Be Waiting
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Genre: Horror Mystery
Publisher: Saint Martin’s Press ~ Minotaur Books
Pub Date: October 1, 2024
My Rating: 2.3 Stars
Pages: 335

Nicola Laughton was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis when she was just a child. She is now in her thirties and was married to Anton. Sadly only months after they married he was killed in an automobile accident. He lived long enough to utter five words to Nicole
“I’ll be waiting for you.”

II have read several Kelley Armstrong stories but not her tales of ghosts. I am okay with paranormal and ghosts. Unfortunately this didn’t work for me ~ I am sure it was me not Ms. Armstrong as I know many readers love this!!!
I however, struggled with it – may have been bad timing on my part. I knowI like this author and definitely will read another story she writes.

About the author~ Kelley Armstrong spins tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She's the author of "Women of the Otherworld" paranormal suspense series and "Darkest Powers" young adult urban fantasy trilogy, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and far too many pets.

Want to thank NetGalley and Saint Martin’s Press-Minotaur for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for October 1, 2024.

I'll be honest, the only thing I truly appreciated was the CF representation. I feel this book isn't for me but doesn't put me off of Kelley Armstrong's writing because it was genuinely well written, the story and subject matter just wasn't the most capturing for me.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this early review copy.
Such a great supernatural/horror book. I absolutely love Kelley Armstrong's books, and this is a different genre from her than what I'm used to reading. I love how she writes a variety of genres. I loved the characters and all the twists and turns the book took. It was fun trying to guess throughout the book what was actually happening during their seances or if things were being faked. I really enjoyed the many levels of skepticism I felt throughout the story along with Nicola. Who could she actually trust? What really happened in the past and in the current day? Can she really make contact with her deceased husband?

I'm giving it all the stars because I had a hard time putting it down. Poor Nicola has Cystic Fibrosis and is resigned to dying early, so she doesn't want to let go when her beloved Anton dies first, telling her as he dies "I'll be waiting." She goes to a fairly remote cabin with some people who want to help with a seance, and there are odd noises, a missing person, and multitudes of insects. These elements created a spooky atmosphere and I enjoyed how creeped out I got. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

Nicola Laughton’s husband Anton died in a car crash just months after their wedding. As he died, he told her “I’ll be waiting for you.”

Nic has been preyed upon by fake spiritualists and is sinking into obsession and depression. Her friends find a professor of parapsychology to give her one last chance of contacting her husband.

They contact someone, but Nic isn’t sure it’s actually her husband.

I’ll Be Waiting is super spooky and kept me guessing throughout. I loved the way it combined grief horror with a mystery and a bittersweet love story.

Also, Nic has Cystic Fibrosis, which I haven’t seen in a horror heroine before. I really liked how much it added to her character and the tension of the novel.

I’ll Be Waiting is going to be on my favourite horror of the year list, no question. It’s a perfect read for spooky season.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for my review copy.

I love Kelley Armstrong books and they always seem to have me stressing out and finishing the book in one sitting because I can't stop reading them! I'll Be Waiting fell a little short for me, I just couldn't quite connect to the characters and it felt a lot more drawn out than her other books. I found myself skimming some chapters just to get through them.

I think the premise of this book sounds phenomenal, but it just need a little bit of cleanup to make it an edge of your seat book! I definitely think I'm one of the few who didn't love this, so I'm definitely blaming this on a me thing.

Dang, this was SCARY.

When Nicola's husband Anton dies in a car accident, she becomes a viral sensation. Not only is she terminally ill with cystic fibrosis (at thirty-eight, time is rapidly running out for her), but a passerby claims to have seen Anton's ghost say to Nic, "I'll be waiting." In fact, Anton does say this before he dies, but the ghost element really gives the story wings and makes it go viral.

Nic spends eight months going to various seances, trying to make contact with her late husband. They're all unsuccessful: she discerns how they're all charlatans. Yet, she can't give the idea up, so she plans for one final seance, after which she'll call it quits.

This is where it gets scary. Nic and her friend Shania, from grief group, and Jin, a guy in a relationship with Nic's brother Keith, rent a house in the middle of nowhere with a parapsychology professor. They succeed in making contact—only, it's pretty certain that not just Anton is there, but some other dark entity...

Throughout the story, there are flashbacks to Nic's high school days, when she was known as Janica and had a seance with two friends. The one friend is convinced she's possessed, so when they have a second seance, this friend goes crazy and murders the third friend. We later find out that the friend was indeed possessed by her evil aunt. And apparently Shania is the friend's younger half-sister! Who apparently sought out Nic to get revenge on her now dead sister's behalf since Nic's testimony sent the possessed sister to a mental institution.

We also find out that Jin put tapes of Anton's voice to give Nic some comfort. She actually does make contact with him, though, and he says even though he's waiting on the other side, she doesn't have to rush to join him.

Anyway, a scary and pretty sad book. But I enjoyed it. The pacing is fantastic and overall, I liked the characters. I'd definitely recommend it!

I am not a fan of supernatural and horror stories. However, I have become a fan of Kelley Armstrong over the last five years or so. I'll be Waiting is a story with ghosts and seances which is not my cup of tea but I could not put this book down! I think Kelley Armstrong is a master storyteller and especially with intrigue and mystery. I'll be Waiting did not have the strong character development that I have come to appreciate from her. However, I didn't care the twists and turns kept me turning the pages and wanting to find out what had happened that fateful night so many years ago. I highly recommend picking this title up, even if supernatural stories are not your jam. You will not be disappointed. I eagerly await Ms. Armstrong's next book.

I received an ARC ebook from NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.

Nicola never expected to live into adulthood and find love after being diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. But that all changed when Nicola met Anton in her thirties and fell in love. With some advancements in medicine and luck, Nicola is still healthy and may have a few more years with her beloved new husband. But, this martial bliss is cut short only a few months later when Anton dies in a horrific car accident. Before Anton died, he tells Nicola "I'll be waiting for you."
Nicola is now a widow and has to deal with the tragedy and extensive media coverage. Also, she is convinced that Anton just might be waiting for her on the other side when a witness claims that they saw Anton's ghost hovering over his body.
Nicola has seen countless mediums, all frauds. She is beginning to lose hope. That is until she decides to hire a proper expert, a professor of parapsychology. With the help of the professor, Nicola was attempt to contact Anton one last time. To conduct the séance, Nicola will travel to Lake Erie to stay at a beach house that Anton's family once owned. She will enlist the help of her brother-in-law and a friend to be witnesses to the séance. And, she will bring Anton's ashes with her. No matter what happens, Nicola hopes that she will finally have closure. But, when she arrives at the house, strange things begin happen and Nicola's mysterious past begins to unravel.
I really really wanted to like this book. It had such a good premise. I thought it was going to be a supernatural book with lots of romance. But, it was completely different from what I had envisioned. The book began quite slow. I found myself having to force myself to read the book. It is only until it got to the last third that the story started to pick up the pace. Nicola spends a lot of the book reliving flashbacks from her childhood, and I found that it hindered the pacing of the story.
I found that this book reminded me a lot of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. I liked the idea of a house full of secrets of the past, and the possibility of Nicola being an unreliable narrator. But, I found that the story was sort of lack-lustre.
Overall, it was entertaining. It was not exactly the book I thought I was going to read, but sometimes these things happen.

I am a huge fan of this author, and couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one.

It was well written. However I found that the characters didn’t interest me as much as those in some of her other books. I also found that the plot was paced a bit slowly for my personal preference.

Overall, this book was good, but just didn’t draw me as quickly as those in some of her other series (I especially love A Stitch in Time and Havens Rock)

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for providing me with an ARC of this book to read and review.

This was an interesting book, outside of my normal reading type, but I still enjoyed it, though I did find some part a tad repetitious. Nicola Laughton is in her late 30's, which in itself is amazing, having been diagnosed as a child with cystic fibrosis her life expectancy wasn't long. Advances in drug and medical devices have extended her life and enabled her to do things she never thought possible, going to college, founding her own company, marrying the man she loves, Anton, then losing him in a car accident and as he's laying on the side of the road his last utterance to her is I'll be waiting. Which was heard by a bystander who promptly told a newspaper who made into a, Terminally Ill woman holds dying husband who says he'll be waiting. Of course every psychic in the country bombards her with promises that they can reach through the veil and contact Anton. Nicola does go to several but quickly becomes skeptic after many of these people use false means to try to prove they have contacted Anton. Along the way Nicola has made friends with a young woman, Shania, who is also getting over the loss of her sister, they along with Nicola's brother in law decide to hold a special séance at a lake house that her and Anton had spent time at, included is a professor of parapsychology who promises that he can do what others have failed to. There are flashbacks to when Nicola was in school, Anton was at the same school for a while, Nicola moved away after an incident with her and two friends went very awry. The group experience strange occurrences, sounds of someone walking, voices, and a very large cloud of insects that are so dense they can't see through them. All builds to an ending that I could not read fast enough. I would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #St Martin's Press for the ARC.

This tense thriller proves yet again that Armstrong can write in any genre. Nic, a recent widow with cyctic fibrosis, is grieving her husband by exposing fraudulent mediums, a hobby that has bordered on obsession if you ask her family. At one last seance the past and the present will collide in a breathless story that melds suspense and paranormal in the best way possible. Did she really know her husband? Does she really know herself? The reader will find out as they join her down this suspenseful story.

What if you knew that because of your illness, you would die before the love of your life? But what if fate had other plans. Nicola and her husband Anton are in a horrible car accident, and he is the one who dies. Nicola is grief stricken and cannot get Anton’s final words out of her mind. She starts visiting psychics, one after another, hoping that one of them will be able to reach Anton.
Finally, she believes she has found someone who is legitimate. Soon she has rented a house on Lake Erie, where she shared many good times with Anton. Just Nicola, her brother-in-law, a friend, and a trusted professor, who is going to help them contact Anton. But strange things start happening and Nicola wonders if she ever really knew Anton.
This one started out a bit slow, but as the story progressed, well, let’s just say it grew on me. I was sure I knew who the bad person was, but alas, I was mistaken.

This author excels at every genre she chooses to write in! This is another of her paranormal tales, an atmospheric and twisty story perfect for spooky season. The beginning was a bit of a slow burn but the story got moving soon and then I didn't want to stop reading. A very enjoyable read!

I'll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong is a complex, twisty, and thrilling tale of paranormal horror that builds bit by bit towards a stunning conclusion. It is sure to keep any reader anxiously turning the pages.
As a long time reader of Armstrong's, I was as eager to read this book as I always am. I did find, however, that I had difficulty getting into the first half of the book. For me, it dragged somewhat. By the halfway point it picked up and it wasn't long after that I was postulating my own theories as to what was going on in the house.
Armstrong blends past and present, back and forth, to weave a truly complex tale, meting out clues in seemingly innocuous passages so that the ultimate solution will come as a surprise for many.
Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of #I'llBeWaiting.

This was such a great atmospheric read that will be perfect for the spooky season! I really enjoyed this book.

Nicola is our MC who never expected to live into adulthood being diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as a child. Only she does and she meets her husband Anton who tragically dies in a car accident just months after getting married. People at the scene witness a moment when he says “I’ll be waiting..” as his last words to her and she is bombarded with mediums from all over to call her dead husband up from the spirit world for her and when one finally does, secrets from her past and a dead body stir up trouble. It’s certainly an interesting premise.

This book definitely had the perfect eerie setting at a lake house on Lake Erie for the seance and the atmospheric vibes were there with all the spooky happenings. I will say this book was darker in the sense that it was a bit more sad and depressing than I had anticipated but it still left for a good story. It’s a well-written albeit slow-burn, paranormal ghost story with palpable tension and suspense. Plus it has an awesome cover!

I haven’t read that many ghost books but this is by far the BEST one. From the very beginning I was hooked! The characters, the suspense, the drama. Everything was incredible.
The story revolves around Nicola who’s lost her husband in a tragic accident. She proceeds to go to seances to try to contact her husband and finds the flaws and hokey in every single one of them. A couple friends convince her to do one last seance, something more legit before giving up on it for good. What they don’t know is that this isn’t her first rodeo with spirits, and Nicola isn’t her real name.

The only thing I would change is the pacing? It felt like this book gave me information dumps and just drew out the story longer than it needed to be.

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FYI: on a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars ~ Nothing at all. Chefs kiss. No notes.
*4 Stars ~ It could us some slight adjustments here and there but pretty solid overall.
*3 Stars ~ Adjustments need to be made and rewriting needs to be done. Good but could be a lot better. I read it once and don’t need to do it again.
*2 Stars ~ This book needs a lot of work. Whether it be rewriting the plot, characters, style or ending. Something or everything needs to be changed.
*1 Star ~ Dumpster fire.