“What brings you to the Monster Market? You in a band or something?” “So …” He scratched a scab on the bald crown of his head. She straightened, as if being taller meant seeming older. A merchant with whiskered jowls and a fringe of yellowed hair was sizing her up. Not before his wife’s Wyld Heart got her killed, and never once after. Tuck Hashford had never been much for laughing. Tam remembered her mother’s laughter as a kind of music. “Branigan? You know I love him, Lil, but your brother would eat yellow snow if you told him it tasted like whiskey.” “A Wyld Heart needs a wise mind to temper it, and a strong arm to keep it safe.” “It means you ought to be careful,” her father had added. “It means you’re a dreamer,” she’d told her daughter. Tam’s mother used to say she had a Wyld Heart.

“Humorous twists and pulse-ratcheting action abound in Bloody Rose, but its Eames’ knack for heart-wrenching poignancy that makes his warm, wonderful fantasy so harmonious.” - NPR

It’s time to take a walk on the wyld side. It’s adventure she wants - and adventure she gets as the crew embark on a quest that will end in one of two ways: glory or death. When the biggest mercenary band of all, led by the infamous Bloody Rose, rolls into town, Tam jumps at the chance to sign on as their bard. Tam Hashford is tired of working at her local pub, slinging drinks for world-famous mercenaries and listening to the bards sing of adventure and glory in the world beyond her sleepy hometown. But, a secret and dangerous gig ushers them to the frozen north, and the band is never one to waste a shot at glory. A band of fabled mercenaries tour a wild fantasy landscape, battling monsters in arenas in front of thousands of adoring fans.

Bloody rose nicholas eames