Waiting on Wednesday: Amber House and Maid of Secrets

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we just can't wait to get our hands on!

Amber House by Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed, and Larkin Reed

"'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 lost diamonds in its walls.

But all of that is about to change. 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. She grows closer to both Jackson and a young man named Richard Hathaway, whose family histories are each deeply entwined with her own. But when the 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." (from Goodreads)

I'm always up for a good Gothic-mystery-romance kind of read! I'm a little leery about Sarah's visions, but it'll depend a lot on how they're portrayed and incorporated into the rest of the story. The maze element sounds fantastic (so much potential for creepy losing-oneself-inside-it scenes!) and I like that it's given a strong presence in the cover. 

Maid of Secrets by Jennifer McGowan

"Seventeen-year-old Meg Fellowes is a wry, resourceful thief forced to join an elite group of female spies in Queen Elizabeth’s Court. There she must solve a murder, save the Crown, and resist the one thing that will become her greatest freedom–and her deadliest peril.

For Meg and her fellow spies are not alone in their pursuit of the murderer who stalks Windsor Castle.

A young, mysterious Spanish courtier, Count Rafe de Martine, appears at every turn in the dark and scandal-filled corridors of the Queen’s summer palace. And though secrets and danger are Meg’s stock-in-trade, she’s never bargained on falling in love…" (from Goodreads)

Is it just me, or does the girl on the cover have the creepiest expression on her face? Definitely gives the impression that she could kill someone in their sleep. Which makes sense, I guess, with all the thieving, spying, and murdering going on here... I'm hoping this book is something like Y.S. Lee's historical mysteries, because I'd love another series like that!