Winter's Price. The Iron Gate Cycle, #1

Make noise on purpose. Teach quiet to work. Bring jokes. After a hard winter, the river town of Rowanhame is frayed and forgetful-doors that won't listen, lanterns that hush the wrong warnings, corridors that value "calm" over safety. Enter Elara, a clause-writing fixer with chalk under her nails, and Aedric, a rope-smart warden learning to set control down. Together they take on a job no one recognizes and everyone needs: Hamekeeping-making bells honest, doors opinionated, and quiet useful.
What starts with stamped clauses and borrowed chairs becomes a town-wide transformation: a miracle iron gate that answers palms, choirs that move furniture on a rest beat, nettles promoted to "useful stings, " and a harbor taught to let alarms ring. Along the way, Elara and Aedric build a found family of broom-wielders, seamstresses, ferrymen, and kids with lemon stamps-then face a season of trials: a spring flood, a storm-mean harbor, and visiting officials who want to carpet over common sense.
As the work deepens, so does the slow-burn romance between chalk and rope-two people learning to ask "stay" and mean it. And when the town finally earns its name, Elara and Aedric must decide what they're willing to break-and remake-to keep it. Perfect for fans of Legends & Lattes, The Goblin Emperor, Emily Wilde-cozy fantasy with teeth, competence, found family, and witty, nonviolent (mostly) problem-solving.
Series: Book I of The Iron Gate Cycle (Book II: Autumn's Due).