He’ll Be Waiting

Tess Porter finds herself waking up in a hospital bed, left arm in a cast, and very disoriented. Why is she here? Where is her boyfriend James and why hasn’t he come to visit her yet? Why isn’t her best friend Izzy there with her either? As Tess struggles to remember what put her in that hospital bed, she finds that the truth hurts more than any physical pain she could ever go through. One of Tess’s nurses, Lydia, gives Tess a journal and tells her that it may help to write down what she does remember in order to jog her memory of that fateful night. As Tess starts recalling bits and pieces, a phone call from James, picking someone up from the airport, making lasagna, the truth starts to unravel and she feels as if she has nowhere to turn. Her father is in and out of the hospital to visit her but their relationship has been strained for the past months, even years. And her mother is acting very oddly.

He’ll Be Waiting is the next book you won’t want to put down. Everything from the cast of characters to the plot to the way the author unfolded just a little bit of the story at a time will keep you up wanting to know more. As the main protagonist, Tess is very likable but because we know that she is straining to remember what happened, she is also a bit unreliable at times. The diary entries were an excellent addition to the book because the reader is able to get a better feel for Tess’s personality and understand her relationship between her mother, father, James and his family, and Izzy. The one part that I think could be taken out or integrated better was the introduction of Tess’s temporary roommate Annie. Although we share some sweet moments between the two girls and her name does pop up again at the end of the book, I felt that this character was not really necessary to the overall story. It would have been nice for her to be there throughout the book and not just for one chapter. Even with that, this book is a one hundred percent winner and has all the elements of a great novel. Heartbreaking, yet satisfying, Liz Alterman’s He’ll Be Waiting is a book for all fans of the Young Adult genre.