Amber House (Amber House, Book 1)

Amber House (Amber House, Book 1)

By Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed, Larkin Reed

2 ratings 2 reviews 6 followers
Book 1 of 2 in the  The Amber House Series
Interest LevelReading LevelReading A-ZATOSWord Count
Grades 9 - 12Grades 2 - 5n/a4.3101280
"I was sixteen the first time my grandmother died. . . ."

Sarah Parsons has never seen Amber House, the grand Maryland estate that's been in her family for three centuries.  She's never walked its hedge maze nor found its secret chambers; she's never glimpsed the shades that haunt it, nor hunted for the lost diamonds in its walls.

But after her grandmother passes away, Sarah and her friend Jackson decide to search for the diamonds--and the House comes alive.  She discovers that she can see visions of the House's past, like the eighteenth-century sea captain who hid the jewels, or the glamorous great-grandmother driven mad by grief.  Sarah grows closer to both Jackson and a young man named Richard Hathaway, whose family histories are each deeply entwined with her own.  But when her ghostly visions start to threaten the person she holds most dear, Sarah must do everything she can to get to the bottom of the House's secrets, and stop the course of history before it is cemented forever.
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
ISBN-13: 9780545434171
ISBN-10: 0545434173
Published on 8/27/2013
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 368

Book Reviews (3)

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The book Amber House, was first thought of by author Kelly Moore in the 1980’s but it stayed just a draft for many years. Later on her children Larkin and Tucker Reed decided to get with their mom to finish and publish this extraordinary piece . This novel is the first in the trilogy, and is a young adult mystery with just the right amount of romance. From beginning to end this book kept me engaged and on my toes. The story was so very well thought out and written that it made it very painless to follow the storyline. The book was packed with just enough of everything from mysteries and treasures to unexpected plot twists and a sort of love triangle. Amber House was also not hard to get into like most mystery and young adult novels I have read in the past, the book kept my interest the whole time and didn’t feel like a chore to try to finish. Sarah and her younger brother Sammy, have to go to the Amber House after their grandmother passed away. Soon after they arrive, they realize the house is a lot more than it seems. From rumors to lost diamonds, to secret staircases there is so much that they try to explore before their mother sells the house and everything inside. Sarah begins to unpack the rich history of the house and its concealed memories of the past, and from this develops a deep connection with the house. This story is a great reminder that demasking the past can help you see why people or things turned out the way they did, how the past can affect future generations. For example Sarah’s mother has always been cold hearted and angry, since she could remember but never knowing why. Not until Sarah began to search and discover secrets of the house, and the tragedies that caused her mother to be the way was. She then felt compassion for her mom, by knowing what she went through and it changed how she saw her mother, but it didn’t take away the things her mom had said and done. If Sarah never dug up the past, she would probably spend her whole life never truly understanding her mother. I think that a lot of people myself included, can relate to not being able to understand how someone is until after you learn what they have been through. It can change your whole outlook on the person, and like Sarah, have sympathy.

Do you like haunted old houses with tangled histories and lots of secret passages? If so, Amber House is the mother lode. This is the kind of book where the heroine figures out there’s a hidden staircase because, while it’s nowhere to be seen in the house itself, a dollhouse based on the real house does have a staircase in that spot. If this appeals to you — and it definitely appeals to me — you need to read Amber House.

I just finished reading this book. It is a very good book! Amber House is a little mature though.