Title: I’ll Be Waiting
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Published: October 1, 2024
Format: e-ARC
My Rating: 5 stars/5
Synopsis: 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. Worse, that person claimed it wasn’t Anton who said the words but his ghost, hovering over his body.
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….
My thoughts from the Vault
Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC of this book. I chose to review it and this in no way impacts my opinion of it.
When I read the synopsis for this novel, I knew I needed to read it ASAP. As a lover of horror and creepy ghost stories, this was right up my alley. Not to mention the fact that Kelley Armstrong is a master of writing novels that just *grab* me. When I received this e-ARC I immediately dropped what I was reading so I could get a start on reading it.
This novel had me hooked from the very beginning. It had the most delicious creepy vibes and it felt like I was being told a spooky story while sitting around a campfire late at night. I definitely didn’t find this story to be scary as it takes a lot to scare me because I watch horror movies like it is my day job but it was still a very fun read regardless. I could not put this down.
The novel opens with Nicola visiting a medium to try and contact her dead husband. His last words before he passed were “I’ll be waiting for you”. But what did he mean? Is he stuck in limbo, waiting for her to follow? Has he moved on and is resting peacefully? These are the kinds of answers Nicola is after but with each visit to spiritualists or mediums, she’s disappointed. She has become very good at busting hoax séances.
So when her best friends hold a curb side intervention, they agree to one last séance. A week long event with a reputable medium that will hopefully give Nicola the closure she needs.
I found this novel started off quite quickly and it kept this pace throughout the story. I was completely enthralled and it would be torture waiting to read when I was unable to pick up the book.
I found the main character to be quite believable in how she was dealing with her grief and I never found myself questioning her actions. I don’t know much about CF so I can’t speak to how realistic it was portrayed but it felt very authentic.
If you enjoy creepy spooky novels, this one is for you!
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