What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I read the book series as a kid, but I'm unsure of the exact date... must have been in the early to mid 2000s though? They were hard cover books, btw, dunno if that helps!

Either way I don't remember a lot of details about the plot just a lot of small specific things. For example, the cover, as described in the topic is red, featuring an image of young boy holding a hawk which is surrounded a rectangular gold border that's kinda segmented into these smaller gold rectangles each with individual jewels (Sorry if that sounds a little confusing, maybe I'll draw a picture or something if someone asks, hahaha).

It's part of a series that has at least two books. I'm unsure if there's any more since I borrowed it from the library, and they only had two! But either way, the second book's cover has the similar gold border with jewels but is blue rather than red. I forget what the image is though...

As I mentioned before, I'm not entirely sure of the larger plot, but I recall the first book focusing on this boy who was an apprentice of some sort? Perhaps to a magician or alchemist or something, I'm not too sure of the details. As mentioned in the topic, he has a pet hawk. I think something happens to the magician, and the apprentice is asked to protect these jewels, which he ends up storing in a secret compartment in his sword.
Later on he meets this commoner girl, who I think might have been a thief. I don't remember much about her other than that she's able to walk very quietly by walking while rolling on the balls of her feet, and also breathe very quietly as well.

The second book is a portal fantasy about a boy from our world ending up in the world of the first book. Once again I don't remember a lot of plot details, but it starts out with the boy ending up trapped some place with some ne'er do wells who steal his sneakers, until he escapes thanks to the help of another boy who has no tongue.
The protagonist later runs into the two characters from the first novel and joins them on their journey.
I also remember the protagonist develops a crush on a princess, and there's some mention of a red dragon and a white dragon (similar to the ones of england and wales?) and the symbol known as the dragon's eye.
There's also a scene on a boat where they discuss the colours of royalty or something. Sorry if it's kinda vague, I'm just trying to get as much info as I remember out there.

Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention! The books take place in a sort of pseudo-medieval fantasy world.

I can also tell you this series is definitely not Deltora Quest (Other people have suggested that to me, so just mentioning, hahaha)!

Thank you so much for reading this thread, and I appreciate any help offered!

SOLVED: The series is the circle of three

You gave a good description. I'm sure some YA fantasy readers will recognize the series?

A few more questions:

Do you remember the villains? Were there any other fantasy characters, like witches, trolls, fairies, etc?

In the 2nd book, where was the portal located? In basement, in forest, stc?

Thank you for your message Tab!
I unfortunately don't remember any villains or where the portal was located though... If I remember anything else I will definitely update it, but at the moment that's all I got.

Could it be Circle of Three? Both premises you mention are part of the same book, and the kid from our world, Walker, was irritating.

Circle of Three by Erica Farber for the link - I think.

Kris wrote: "Circle of Three by Erica Farber for the link - I think."

Yep, that's it.

Good find, Elias!

BTW we still need confirmation from Elissa if that is the book.

Right, I mistook "Elias" for "Elissa". :)

It probably happens more often than we notice!

Yes, that's absolutely it! Thank you so much for all your help, and sorry for the late response.