I'm thrilled to help spread the word about Liz Alterman's debut release,
HE'LL BE WAITING!
He'll Be Waiting is a standalone YA Thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat and up reading all night!
Synopsis:
What would you do to remember? What would you give to forget?
When Tess Porter agrees to pick up her boyfriend’s college pal at the airport on a snowy December night, she has no idea she’s about to embark on the most dangerous ride of her life.
Two days later, the 17-year-old wakes up in a hospital with broken bones, unable to remember how she got there. Her parents are acting strange, and neither James, her boyfriend, nor her best friend, Izzy, has visited.
As she struggles to physically recover, Tess wrestles with haunting questions: What happened? Will her memory ever return? And what if she’s better off not recalling any of it?
And check out Liz's He'll Be Waiting playlist to enhance your read!
Excerpt:
“Tess! Tess!’ Mom pats my right arm gently. “Honey, wake up, you’re having a bad dream.”
I stare at her, confused. It was so real. I’d been tumbling, falling down beside a flat cement wall. I’d tried to stop myself, but there was nothing to grab on to, no banister or ledge. All I could smell was damp, wet earth. A man stood above me. I couldn’t see his face and had no idea who he was. But one thing was clear: He’d come to hurt me. Me specifically.
In my nightmare and in real life, my mouth is dry, my tongue as sandpapery as Daffy’s. I can’t speak. My heart gallops, thumping hoofbeats pound in my ears.
“This is how it ends!” he shouted in the dream, his voice echoing as I plunged into total darkness and struggled to crawl out of sight. I couldn’t move. My legs wouldn’t work.
I want to tell Mom everything, but I can’t catch my breath. Was it only a dream or does it have something to do with my accident? What if it’s one of the flashes Lydia talked about? Memories attempting to resurface? Is the man in the dream Nick? My head hurts thinking about it. For once, I'm actually grateful to be in this hospital bed. Safe.
My Review:
I went into this book expecting a thriller but He'll Be Waiting is so much more. It's about Tess's journey through grief, remembering what happened to her, and learning to move on even when it seems unbearable.
Tess is 17, it's just before Christmas and she's waiting on her perfect boyfriend James to come home from college for the holidays. But James has a request, a friend of his is stranded at the airport. He's lost his phone, wallet, and luggage and he needs somewhere to stay for the night. Could Tess go pick him up? Wanting to do anything for James, Tess quickly agrees. Driving in the growing blizzard Tess picks up "Nick" from the airport. He seems to know all about her, even the layout of her house. He gives Tess the creeps... but just who is the person she picked up at the airport really? The answer to that will put Tess and James in the crosshairs of a deranged killer with a vendetta against Tess's family. And not everyone will make it out alive.
I couldn't stop once I started reading this book. It was tense and twisted but the further I read, as I watched Tess experience grief, loss, and reliving the events of that awful night I had all the feels, including more than a few tears.
I really loved this book and I'll definitely read more by this author.
My Rating:
4.90 of 5 Stars!
Meet the author:
Liz Alterman lives in New Jersey with her husband and three sons. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Parents, McSweeney's, and other publications. He'll Be Waiting is her first young adult novel. When she isn't writing, she spends most days microwaving the same cup of coffee and looking up synonyms.
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