Amber House by Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed, and Larkin Reed
♦publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
♦release date: October 1st, 2012
♦hardcover, 368 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
Review: The first words that rush to my mind are Mind blowing! Captivating! This book leaves you breathless with vacant space in your chest needed to be filled. Everything an amazing story should have. A stunning story richly thought out. A beautiful house filled with rich history and southern charm, ancient family secrets, ghosts of the past, blossoming love, and an enchanting masquerade ball. I was pleasantly delighted with Amber House and all of its many marvelous mysteries waiting to be discovered just behind the threshold.
Sarah Parsons is thrust into a new and delicate world in her family’s grand Maryland estate that dates back three centuries. And with it comes three centuries of ghosts and mysteries that are waiting to be discovered and solved. Sarah is caught between her old life in Seattle where she find herself ready to go running back to the comfort of the familiar and that of the new intriguing life that awaits for her at Amber house. Not only does Sarah have to deal with an ancient house and all of its mysteries but she has her icy mother who doesn’t want to deal with the death of her grandmother or the newly inherited house. She just wants to sell the house, forget her childhood and all its pain and go back to the west coast. But Sarah isn’t so sure. The temptation of a treasure hunt for lost diamonds and the allure of the attention from two boys are enough to make her want to stay and see what Amber House has to offer. But what the house has in store for Sarah is more than she is ready for.
Sarah learns of a new and powerful gift that is passed down to every generation of Amber house woman. Just when Sarah is ready to leave it all behind, handsome wealthy Richard, his father, and his sailboat launch into Sarah life leaving her struggling between her feelings for him and for Jackson, the boy who lives on the grounds. And not only has Richard left Sarah questioning, but his father has charmed Sarah’s mother just enough to make her want to stay and throw the most elaborate sweet 16 masquerade ball for Sarah at Amber house to woo potential buyers into its magical web. Now Sarah truly is trapped, leaving it up to her to weave through the maze of the house mysteries, watch her little brother and prepare for the daunting and horrible ball. Not one part if this story is predictable or leaves you for a moment to catch your breath. Just when you think Sarah will figure it all out one more twist spins you to a dead end and sends you doubling back through the maze of secrets.
Amber House is magnificent and rich in storytelling with a new concept that blew me away. I am left eagerly waiting for the next book in this trilogy.
♥Continue on the adventure with the second book in the Amber House trilogy- Neverwas. Released January 7, 2014 by Scholastic.
