Tristan J. Tarwater

Thieves at Heart – Book 1

My Rating - ****

Welcome to the world of the Valley of the Ten Crescents, a fantasy world similar to, but not quite the same as our own world in some past time. In this book Tristan J. Tarwater tells the story of a little orphaned half-elf girl who is adopted by a man who is, by his own admission, an accomplished thief and who goes to some trouble to train her in the arts of thievery as well.

This is basically the story of how Tavera, the little elf girl grows up. The story is a series of scenes from the girl’s life. Tavera occasionally remembers a scene from earlier in her life, but there aren’t a lot of flashbacks to earlier times, and the main scenes progress in chronological order, although there are some years skipped between some of them.

Derk and Tavi are loosely associated with a group of thieves – something like a Thieves Guild, I guess – that calls itself ‘The Cup of Cream’. They consider themselves the best of the best of the thieves, and Derk actively trains Tavi so that she will one day qualify for full membership in this group.
One interesting facet of life in the Valley of the Ten Crescents is their religion. They apparently worship a moon goddess of some sort. There is a temple to this goddess in every city, and Tavi and Derk occasionally go to prayers there without feeling any discomfort or embarrassment about it, although once Tavi wonders why there are laws against stealing since the goddess herself sanctioned thievery by stealing light from her brother, the sun.

A lot is hinted at around the edges of Tavi and Derk’s life together that is not fully explained. All in all, an interesting story.

I first received a copy of this book in exchange for a review. I was so intrigued I bought the whole set.

Self-Made Scoundrel – Book 2
My Rating *****

This is the prequel to Thieves at Heart. In this book, Tristan J. Tarwater gives us the story of how Derk, Tavera’s adoptive father, came to be a thief. It’s not what you would expect.

It seems that Dershik Cartaskin began life as the son of one of the Ten Crescent’s barons. Unfortunately, his father seemed to feel that he had to treat his subjects badly in order to maintain control of the Barony, and as time went on, Dershik found himself feeling more and more that he did not want to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Eventually, Dershik finds it necessary to fake his own death and move out into the world on his own, becoming a thief and gambler, and taking the alias Derk.

This book is in many ways the most satisfying of the set, with more in the way of plot, several well-defined adventures, and even a couple of love stories. The stories behind several of the characters who appeared briefly in Theives at Heart are given in more detail. The religion of the Moon-Goddess is explained in more detail, and in one of his adventures, Derk accompanies some of his new friends on a mission for her church.

Red Moon Rising – Book 3
My Rating – ****

In the third book of the set, Tristan J. Tarwater picks up the story again more or less where it was at the end of Thieves at Heart. This one finds Tavera across the valley from where she left Derk after being initiated into the Cup of Cream, regretting that she didn’t go back and save him in spite of his specific requests that she not do anything of the sort.

In the village of Whitend, which this year is considered part of the Freewild instead of its proper Barony (due to, um, technical difficulties) Tavera finds a bartender surnamed Tender who also serves, unofficially now, as magistrate and ‘brown cloak’ (keeper of law and order), and also assists the local priestess, who holds services in his bar, when she’s not too drunk.

When the priestess is kidnapped by members of a cult that is a warped, blood-sacrificing version of the normal Moon-Goddess religion, Tavera, Tender, Tender’s brother Little, and another woman, Gaela, undertake a mission to find and rescue her, an operation that makes it necessary for them to uncover her secrets.

This is basically the only adventure in this book, but it is a good solid one.

Little Girl Lost – Bonus story

This is a short story telling how Tavera came to be in the custody of Prisca the Tart where Derk found her. It does not go into her very early childhood; apparently what she told Derk about that in Thieves at Heart is the most anybody knows about that. This story begins when she is sold to the sausage maker she worked for prior to running away and being found by Prisca (a woman I expected to push her into the oven a la Hansel and Gretel any minute), details her tasks while working with this woman, and tells the incident that caused her to run away.… (mehr)

The idea of going on a long adventure has always appealed to me. Whether it is the call of the unknown or the opportunity for change, I have often wondered where I would go. The thought of bringing others with me has not always been overly appealing to me, but when the time is right it would be nice. This book is about a group of individuals that make it their choice to go off on an adventure to save a person who is important to them. They each have their own reasons for doing so, but all agree that the person being saved is worth it. The lead character of this book is a rough around the edge woman name Tavera, who is quick to judge and slow to trust. Her world is based off of the sleight of hand and the slow to notice. It is in this book that we are introduced to characters, such as Tender, that believe in the good of mankind. Will Tavera and her companions be able to save their missing friend? Can Tender teach Tavera that not all is lost in the world? Is it is possible for a damaged heart to be mended with compassion and companionship?

This book was very different for me and I truly enjoyed reading it. I like how the author created a broken character, but allowed the character to be mended in an honest way. The world is full of unique people that have all kinds of baggage and it takes time to heal both mind and heart. I like how the character Tender was portrayed as someone who was both brutal, but kind at the same time. It reminded me of a pro-wrestler when I was reading about him. I also enjoyed the other personalities of the characters and enjoyed how diverse they were. I found the back drop of the story to be smooth and even though I have not read the previous books, I was not lost whatsoever. I am very pleased with this story and highly recommend it. I have to give a big shout out to the author and goodreads to sending it to me in a giveaway. It was much appreciated and I honestly had a good time. Thanks so much! … (mehr)