I found this a bit too predictable but it was still a decent read. Not a bad story. Pace was fine. Overall a lot of info on seances and different types of grief. Nice to see a main character with CF and experience her day to day needs

I love this time of year. While some people like horror movies, I really like a good horror story -- one that will make me put the book down for a moment, only to grab it back up and devour the words on the page, because I have to know what's going to happen. This requires a good bit of tension and suspense in the writing and believable enough so the reader can just sink into the story, even though it might be scary or intense.

I'll Be Waiting grabbed me right from the start. Nicola and Anton are likable characters and their circumstances are gut-wrenching. But this story asks -- what about the afterlife? And it answers the question with a tight horror story with ghosts and evil spirits and a whole lot of holding my breath.

I really liked this story and it will be on my favorites of 2024. The tale is believable, especially if you have a belief in the afterlife. And while a horror story, the love story between Anton and Nicola is expertly woven between past and present. There were plenty of surprises I didn't see coming. I just loved it! Definitely recommended for horror fans.

I’ll Be Waiting- Kelley Armstrong
Narrated by Jennifer Pickens

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Narration 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Y’all I have read my fair share of horror and thriller books and the sheer fear that this book induced in me has never happened before. I felt like I was right there in the action of the book that genuinely was scared about what was going on. There were so many twists and turns and revelations that I was audibly gasping. This was such a phenomenal book, I’ll be thinking about it for a while.

Jennifer Pickens did such a great performance with this audio. She knew exactly how to capture the fear the characters were feeling and make the listener feel the same fear. Fantastic job!

Seance gone wrong
Malevolent spirit
Secrets

That unexplained coolness in the air, the creaking of the floor, the thump in the middle of the night. Creeped out factor was high during this read.

I couldn’t put it down wanting to know more about the main character’s past and what this would mean for the seance she was going to be attempting.

The ending chapters made me gasp and just kept me turning those pages, ignoring everyone around me. Highly recommend this book if you love hauntings.

Recently Kelley Armstrong has become one of my go-to authors for several genres from romance to mystery, time travel, paranormal, and horror. I enjoy her stories, settings, characters, etc. and her latest entry into what I would call a mystery/paranormal/horror mashup is just another example of my growing love for her stories. I find them enjoyable, accessible, and relatable. I quickly switched between the ebook and audio for this one because I was too intrigued to put it down. The audiobook is narrated by Jennifer Pickens who smoothly led me through the story and gave great voices to the characters and suspenseful setting.

Nicola drew the interest of the media when her late husband, Anton, was caught on video in their final moments expressing his sentiments that he would be waiting for her. The drama drummed up by the media implying she is a dying woman is a far cry from her daily life as a cystic fibrosis patient and results in all sorts of spiritualists and frauds soliciting her business to hold seances to provide closure. Nicola’s friends and family are concerned by the way she is coping with her grief. They all agree to one last final attempt at contact with Anton with a reputable professor of parapsychology in an isolated Lake Erie beach house previously owned by Anton’s family.

The story is told in first person by Nicola. I’m not very familiar with cystic fibrosis or how to manage living with it, so I found this aspect of Nicola’s life very educational. The opening accident and subsequent seances quickly drew me into the story fascinated and questioning exactly what was happening. It’s implied early that there are secrets in Nicola’s past that are contributing to the strange events from the seances despite the obvious fraud.

The story alternates between the strange happenings in the rental house and Nicola’s memories of events from high school when something tragic happened in her group of friends keeping me on the edge of my seat. My only quibble is that I figured out a major twist early on, but I still enjoyed the ride and was surprised by quite a few of the later revelations.

Recommended to readers who enjoy ghosts and séance type stories.

Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and St. Martin’s Press for a copy provided for an honest review.

Who doesn't love a Kelley Armstrong book when you're in the mood for a spooky, eerie, paranormal read? I learned several years ago that she would be a good go-to author for me when I'm in the mood for the genres. Nicola Laughton is the MC and she's been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and living with it since her childhood. Plus, she lost her parents in a car wreck that also left her injured.
She is now an adult and married. And as her luck would have it, tragedy struck again and she's lost another loved one, so she sets out to somehow contact her loved one in the afterlife. From there it really piques my interest. She's just been through one tragedy after another, and she wants desperately to somehow maintain contact.

For me ghost stories are hit-and-miss. This one just happened to hit just right. I loved it! Honestly seances aren't my thing since they deal with the paranormal if RL so in real life I stay away. But in my book world, the seances she went to in order to make contact with her loved one(s) was so spooky and convincing.

I was genuinely excited to dive into this ARC, especially given that I am a huge fan of the author. The premise of the plot was captivating, filled with potential for a gripping novel, however through much of the book, I found myself struggling to stay connected.

Fortunately, in the last 1/4 of the book, the plot began to pick up steam, revealing some intriguing twists and deeper layers that piqued my interest. However, I ultimately was disappointed in the book as a whole and how it was wrapped up.

I appreciate the opportunity to read this ARC and look forward to more from this author.

Nicola always thought she would precede her husband in death due to her battle with cystic fibrosis, but he is killed in a car accident shortly after they are married.

After an incident from her childhood, Nic is convinced there are ways to talk to the deceased and spends her time trying to find an authentic method of talking to her late husband. Her efforts dredge up memories of her past and her interactions with the paranormal that had catastrophic endings. Was it real then? Is it real now? And when is it time to give up?

Very fast paced and held my attention to the end, but it did feel like it jumped the shark there at the end and turned gruesome.

When I first saw the cover of I’ll Be Waiting I knew it was going on my spooky season tbr. Lucky for me I was gifted an audiobook by @netgalley and@stmartinspress

The book centers around Nicola. She has defied the odds and is still surviving with cystic fibrosis, but she is mourning the recent death of her husband Anton. His last words to her were, “I’ll be waiting for you”. Nicola rents a house at the shore that belonged to Anton’s family and hires a medium to help her communicate with him. What ensues is an interesting and sometimes spooky reflection on the nature of grief.

I loved the first half of this book as it builds atmosphere and has some genuinely spooky moments. The early communications with Antonio had an eerieness that gave me chills. The book stalls a bit in the middle so that took a bit of a push to get through. Eventually it becomes evident that something more malevolent is at play here and the book enters full blown horror and gore territory, although it was a little late in the book to have a huge impact. And while I enjoyed this, those early scenes were the ones that really haunted me. I would probably call this horror lite.
I recommend this book for people that want their spooky a little on the milder side.

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 .

Kelley Armstrong is the only author to get me to read scary horror. This has all her characteristic great writing and characters, plus a lot of stuff that made me stay up with the lights on! I think people who like horror will enjoy this- unfortunately I’m a scaredy cat so I don’t think I’ll be rereading this as much as I reread her other books.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kelley Armstrong and St Martin’s Press for the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This was so fun. It’s like a spooky locked in mystery with actual vengeful spirits. I flew through it and I really didn’t want to put it down. I loved the characters and the twists. Definitely recommend.

A very spooky ghost story that keeps the twists and turns coming all the way to the end! I was a big fan of this book. A perfect October read for any fans of horror books! The main character, Nicola, starts out a skeptic with an unusual past. But as the story unfolds and you learn more about her past and spooky present things begin to happen that have you questioning what is truly real or fabrication. Having the book from the POV of the widow trying to contact her husband out of love and guilt added such an interesting and important element to this plot that you cannot find in all ghost stories. My only complaint with the book was that it started out a bit slower, but once we got into the action things stayed fast paced all the way to the final conclusion. I am absolutely going to add this to my list to revisit every spooky season. 5/5

This book was quite interesting. Enjoyed all the ghosts and seances. I did like the grieving process the fmc goes through in this. And the emphasis that everyone deals with grief differently

This book started off very strong with a wonderful gothic feel including revealing charlatans for playing on people’s emotions. Then, the house was nice and creepy, especially the dolls. First issue I had with it was the scene where Nicola moved the dolls in a semi-circle around a sleeping Jin, I was giggling about it waiting for him to wake up, but I was sadly disappointed by a dropped plot point. It was a perfect prank that fell flat. That’s about the time it started falling apart. Nicola’s constant guessing at wild theories that I guess were red herrings of the irritating kind (way too many) when I could have told her who the culprit was back at the beginning of the book because I saw it immediately even before knowing all the back story. The saddest part is there was potential for a great story.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you St Martins Press for this e-arc via Netgalley for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

📖A spellbinding new tale of supernatural horror involving a haunted house, seances, lost loved ones, and a sinister spirit out for blood.

What to expect:
👻plague level swarms of insects
👻creepy dolls
👻scary stories within this story
👻set in Canada
👻grief over death of spouse
👻Cystic fibrosis rep

This sucked me in and creeped me out from start to finish! I loved the balance between eerie vibes and humor as the main character's self-talk was full of sarcasm that had me laughing. There was even a dash of swoon as Nic reminisced on memories of her late husband. The pacing in the middle did seem to slow a bit and get repetitive, but overall I ate this up! I also appreciated the chronic illness rep and knew very little about CF before this book. This left me encouraged to learn more by doing my own research so I'd say if there was a goal to increase CF awareness, it was achieved!

If you ever broke out the ouija board with your friends as a kid, this one is for you!

⚠️CW: graphic and heartbreaking depiction of a car accident

I just finished this and maaaannnn, I'm so sad I waited so long! It took me a bit to get into it but when the action started, it didn't let up. I really thought I hadn't figured out around 60-65% through, and I definitely did not. This gets 4.5 stars, but rounded down, because I didn't quite love it enough to rate it 5. But Armstrong is a go-to author for me so I will be continuing to read her books!!

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.

3.75 stars

Ghost stories are always very hit or miss for me, and I had very high hopes for this until around 85% in when things suddenly got wild and kept getting wilder. The tense atmosphere and creepiness leading up to that was great, and I did not guess what was going on, but really who could have, because it was absurd. There were some moments that did creep me out, though, and the writing was good so I still recommend if you're looking for a fun spooky szn read. 

Nicola's husband died in a car crash years ago just after their wedding, but his final words to her were witnessed and recorded by onlookers: "I'll be waiting." Nicola has cystic fibrosis, and the video and her story went viral. Ever since, she's been searching for a medium who can truly contact the dead, so she can talk to her husband again. She thinks she's found one, and she and two friends plus the paranormal researcher go to her husband's old family cabin for a weekend to conduct a series of seances. But of course, the cabin is ~creepy~. And things keep coming up about Nicola's past that she's tried to keep buried, making her wonder if her husband isn't the only spirit they've summoned. This very much felt like a fun, sometimes cheesy, horror movie, so if that's your vibe check it out! Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a bit too much woo woo for me. I loved some of her other books, especially the time travel to 1800's Scotland. But this one just didn't get my interest much.