The Reforging Series
High fantasy novels for readers from teens to adults.
In an alternate Europe, Charlemagne, the great Earth wizard and king of the Franks, turned north to conquer the British Isles instead of going south and east into Italy and Saxony. With Europe a roiling mess of conflict, he directed his wisest and most powerful witches and wizards to use their magic to protect the kingdom’s borders, enforce its laws, and encourage trade. Their response was the creation of four powerful magical entities named the offices, each working in a symbiotic relationship with the head of the corresponding elemental magic guild. The most powerful, the Fire Office, provided the country’s defences. The weakest, the Water Office, dispensed justice.
These four offices served the kingdom of Frankland well in its early days, but a thousand years after their forging, the country is strangling in their iron grip. The country’s needs have changed, but the offices can’t adapt. In their haste to build the offices, the offices’ creators never considered that repairs might be needed.
The Reforging series follows a small group of Frankland’s most powerful witches and wizards, dedicated to rebuilding the four offices, and the challenges they encounter along the way: conspiracies and secrets, magical defences built into the offices that threaten to destroy anyone tampering with them, a rigid aristocracy that would rather indulge in civil war than lose any of their privileges, and a greedy neighbour planning to invade when Frankland’s Fire Office is out of commission for repairs.
The men and women involved in the Reforging effort are Frankland’s finest, but are even they enough to overcome mistakes calcified into stone a thousand years ago?
The Locksmith: Reforging Book 1
Strange that, in a world where membership in one of four magic guilds guarantees respect and wealth, Lucinda Guillierre is terrified of being exposed as a witch. The Fire Warlock finds her attitude puzzling but is not alarmed. Not, that is, until a long-buried secret comes to light.
She has good reasons to be afraid.
As war looms and dangerous romance beckons, who will have the best chance to kill her? Her enemies, her friends, or Lucinda herself?
An empowering adventure through a magical world that is both warmly familiar and delightfully new. Lucinda Guillierre’s journey toward unexpected power hearkens back to the very best of Mercedes Lackey, Diana Wynne Jones, or Naomi Mitchison. A spellbinding beginning to a landmark fantasy series.
– David Bowles, author of the ALA honor award winning ‘The Smoking Mirror’
The Locksmith can be found at Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes&Noble, and Kobo.
Engine of Lies: Reforging Book 2
He never promised happily ever after, but Lucinda is still dismayed by how quickly reality intrudes on her fairy tale. Assassination attempts and lightning strikes disturb her honeymoon, but the return home brings no peace of mind. When the discovery of a magical conspiracy shakes her faith in everything she trusts, she vows to expose the Fire Warlock’s most shameful secret and see justice done.
As a hot summer draws towards a violent end, Lucinda teeters between terror and rage. She’d be less angry about risking her life if she didn’t suspect her husband—her hero!—intends to step aside and let her die.
I really like the way “Engine of Lies” complicates and expands the world Barbara Howe introduces to us in “The Locksmith”. Lucinda continues to be an engaging and admirable protagonist, with many strengths but realistic flaws.
– Tim Jones, author of ‘Where We Land’
Engine of Lies can be found at Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes&Noble, and Kobo.
The Blacksmith: Reforging Book 3
How is the king like a blacksmith? He has a hammer as well as a sword.
Duncan Archer has heard that riddle many times, but he doesn’t know what it means. No one does, not even the members of the Royal Guild of Swordsmiths. It isn’t Duncan’s business anyway. Good sense tells him to stick to beating iron into shape for the residents of his backwater town, and not worry about the king and his nobles pounding Frankland into the ground.
But good sense never stopped Duncan from poking his nose into everyone else’s business. If it had, he might not be a fugitive, the subject of the biggest manhunt in the country’s history.
With a charge of murder hanging over his head like a sword, understanding that riddle becomes much more urgent.
This book retells a great story from a new perspective; the hero who never set out to be one; the common person whose decency puts him on the path to make a difference. I love that the courage needed was not the courage to slay dragons. It was the courage of integrity.
I love how the author weaves current issues into a story with believable characters, but a magical world. I have loved every book in this series so far, and can’t wait for the next one.
– Amazon reviewer
The Blacksmith can be found at Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes&Noble, and Kobo.
The Wordsmith: Reforging Book 4
The Air Guild will regret spurning its most accomplished witch.
Irene van Gelder’s drudge job is killing her, but how can she earn a living as an air witch when her own guild calls her a fraud?
The Fire Warlock doesn’t ask for her credentials, but with tensions rising between the Fire and Air Guilds, proving her value to him is not a safe move. With the White Duchess and her son intent on revenge, what defences can a failure as an air witch muster? All she has is words. Will that be enough to save herself, and Frankland?
The Wordsmith can be found at Amazon, Kobo, Book Depository, or Barnes&Noble.
The Forge: Reforging Book 5
Thunder rolls in a continuous barrage, echoing off mountain walls. Lightning blazes across the sky, one jagged flash after another. The bolts that hit their targets leave charred bodies in their wake. The attacks that miss turn spruce and fir into torches, spreading fire until the entire mountain is in flames. Struggling wizards stand out as black silhouettes against the reds and oranges of the forest fire and the white of the deep snow.
In the valley, villagers cower under beds or huddle in cellars. The bravest peek out through gaps in closed shutters and pray for the Fire Warlock to come and save them.
Their prayers go unanswered. There is no Fire Warlock.
The Forge can be found at Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes&Noble, Kobo, and other booksellers.
As noted above, for a limited time you can get the entire series at a significant discount, direct from the publisher.