Thieves at Heart (The Valley of Ten Crescents #1) [Kindle Edition]

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a fan of traditional fantasy. Elves are usually not my thing, and the plots that tend to come with fantasy bore me. For whatever reason, I just can't often get into a fantasy book.

But I just finished Thieves at Heart and it was the first fantasy book that's held my attention the whole way through. It doesn't exactly have a plot -- that is, external happenings driving the story -- but it holds up very well as a story driven by the characters. Well-- that's not entirely true, because how can you end on a cliffhanger if there's not plot? (And what a cliffhanger! I need the sequel!)

Anyway. It could use a bit more copy-editing, and there are some parts where uncommon words are repeated multiple times in a paragraph, and I have a pet peeve for the breath/breathe mistakes a lot of writers make, but it's still otherwise a well-written novel following a little half-elf girl's induction into a group of thieves. I enjoy the characters, the plots, Tavi's rebellious adolescence... Yep.

So overall, I give it four stars out of five. It's a great story to read, and you too will be wanting the sequel to be out *right now* when it's over.

I love fantasy books and "Thieves at Heart", by Tristan J. Tarwater, is a good book. However it didn't engage me enough to be considered as a serious page turner.

"Thieves at Heart" is about a young half-elf girl, Tavara, who gets picked up by elite thieves. There are no vivid descriptions of "jobs" being done except for a shell game and a scene or two of planning jobs. The story mostly meanders from chapter to chapter. There was not much of a plot in this book; nor was there a sweeping story arch or major action that occurs to hold the reader's interest.

I had a little problem with the time line in the book - I understand she starts off as a young girl and it ends sometime after she is 13 years old but during the whole reading I never knew precisely how old she was in any chapter until she gets to age 13 and has her first menstruation "red earth". The reader then discovers she has been with her mentor for 7 years which is near the end of the book. After her "red earth" moment she starts basically sleeping around, which left me wondering, is she still 13 or has another year or two gone by.

I did like that Tavara is an intelligent likeable character with believable thoughts and feelings. In addition, I liked that the story setting possesses a more down to earth fantasy storyline. Apparently there is no magic or monsters, and the elite thieves possess more realistic abilities. The book ends on a great cliffhanger, leaving me with the desire to find out what happens next.

For the Authors first book, I think she did a great job. If she continues writing, her craft will only get better. I for one look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

An interesting read. Is my universe rocked by this novel? No. But it was nice to not have a lot of suspense while peeking into this young half-elf's life.

While full in description of the place and physical characteristics of the populace, I felt I wasn't given enough emotional flesh to understand the main character. I was glad to see that certain topics avoided by most authors were presented here, i.e. menstruation, and others.

I have to agree with Caytlin Reese in her assessment of the book. Not sure if her edition was Kindle or not, but as I have seen in other Kindle books, the formatting and editing are often messy. Hopefully, as everyone learns the Kindle format we'll all learn how to avoid such mistakes.

Though I didn't feel bonded to the character, I did find that I want to read the sequel.