AL Knorr Books in Order
Find A.L. Knorr books in order, with short summaries, series guides, and easy where-to-start advice for her mermaid, fae, and elemental fantasy worlds.
Last updated: July 5, 2026
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases (at no extra cost to you).
Publication Order
30 books
Born of Water
by AL Knorr
2016
Targa joins a Baltic salvage dive hoping to keep her mother's mermaid secret buried. A strange shipwreck, a local boy, and her own awakening powers make that impossible.
Returning: Mermaid's Return
by AL Knorr
2016
After years in the ocean, Mira returns to Saltford because her siren nature demands a mate. Human life, real feeling, and rules older than she is quickly complicate the plan.
Born of Aether
by AL Knorr
2017
Akiko has spent years hiding the truth about herself. A summer abroad gives her a shot at freedom, but the dangerous magic bound up with her past may not let her walk away cleanly.
Born of Earth
by AL Knorr
2017
A disappointing trip to Ireland turns strange when Georjie sees cocoons no one else can. An old diary, a family curse, and restless ghosts lead her toward the earth magic hidden in her blood.
Born of Fire
by AL Knorr
2017
A summer au pair job in Venice seems lucky until Saxony learns one of the boys is carrying lethal fire magic. Family secrets, criminal danger, and a power she never asked for change her life.
Pyro
by AL Knorr
2017
Home from Venice, Saxony finds family tension, suspicious fires, and a brother who seems to know too much. A phone call to Basil Chaplin points her toward the fire mage world waiting beyond Saltford.
Ascendant
by AL Knorr
2018
Jordan is deeper in Oriceran now, chasing answers about her mother, her bloodline, and the world beyond the portal. New allies, sharper enemies, and growing magic force her to rise fast or be left behind.
Born of Air
by AL Knorr
2018
Petra sees an archaeology dig in Libya as her chance to reach Cambridge, until a discovery in the desert changes everything. Ancient secrets awaken her powers and put a target on her before she understands them.
Combatant
by AL Knorr
2018
Jordan rescues her father only to find Rodania facing sabotage and harpy attacks. As she trains for war and bargains with dangerous powers, she must hold her found family together through the coming assault.
Descendant
by AL Knorr
2018
Jordan Kacy's search for her missing mother changes when a family locket opens a portal to another world. With a reluctant winged ally at her side, she follows the mystery into magic, danger, and unsettling truths.
Salt and Stone
by AL Knorr
2018
Back in Poland, Targa wants a real future with Antoni but fears telling him what she is. A missing stone and an ancient force drag them into a dangerous undersea mystery.
Surfacing
by AL Knorr
2018
Mira is stuck on land, raising her daughter and fighting the ocean's call while trying to build a human life. Work, prejudice, grief, and mermaid danger all close in at once.
The Elementals
by AL Knorr
2018
After their separate supernatural summers, the girls finally compare notes and join forces. What starts as an exciting project turns deadly when they unleash an enemy their individual powers cannot easily stop.
Transcendent
by AL Knorr
2018
After battle, Jordan and her allies still have too many enemies and too little time. Harpies, politics, dragons, and betrayal all converge as she fights to protect the people she loves and finish the story.
Bones of the Witch
by AL Knorr
2019
In the Scottish Highlands, Georjie hopes to learn more about her earth magic, but finds a mummified body and a living curse instead. To save a missing girl, she must dig into family history and old evil.
Born of Metal
by AL Knorr
2019
After losing her parents, Ibby clings to school, work, and the hope of helping her uncle. A hidden artifact in the British Museum awakens strange powers and pulls her into a fight tied to her oldest bloodline.
Salt and the Sisters
by AL Knorr
2019
Targa and Mira hunt the origins of the mermaid curse through rare clues, old ruins, and dangerous truths. Breaking the spell may finally be possible, but only if Targa can face its full cost.
Salt and the Sovereign
by AL Knorr
2019
Bel wants to end her mother's brutal rule, but first she has to survive life on land and the pull of the siren's curse. Love, memory, and a kingdom in crisis all press in at once.
Ashes of the Wise
by AL Knorr
2020
After burying a vicious witch, Georjie learns the earth has helped the enemy rise again. Chasing answers through Scotland and the fae realm, she must master her power before the hag claims her ashes.
Fire Games
by AL Knorr
2020
A fight between rival fire mage schools puts Arcturus Academy itself at risk. While Saxony's love life grows more complicated, she has to help save the school before the battle costs them everything.
Fire Trap
by AL Knorr
2020
Saxony's first term is over, but the trouble is not. Torn between her feelings for Gage and a dangerous bond to his twin Ryan, she faces blackmail, divided loyalties, and growing danger inside the academy.
Firecracker
by AL Knorr
2020
Saxony survived the Burning, but Arcturus Academy may be even harder. Asked to protect a vulnerable student while hiding her own dangerous edge, she is pulled into rivalries, secrets, and a school where power can turn ugly fast.
Heart of the Fae
by AL Knorr
2020
Georjie is forced into a risky alliance to stop the black witch hunting her. To save an innocent and uncover the truth about her family, she may have to offer herself as bait.
Metal Angel
by AL Knorr
2020
Ibby pushes deeper into the truth of the Inconquo as ancient power and modern conspiracies collide. With her family and her allies on the line, she has to decide what kind of guardian she will become.
Metal Guardian
by AL Knorr
2020
Ibby is trying to rebuild her life when old enemies return and her bloodline is targeted again. Treachery, secret societies, and rising metal magic force her back into the fight for London's survival.
Legends of Fire
by AL Knorr
2021
Saxony wants a quiet break from Arcturus Academy, but an old promise drags her into Naples and back toward dangerous enemies. With the fire mage world unraveling, she must repay debts, protect friends, and keep moving.
Source Fire
by AL Knorr
2021
The fight for the future of the fire magi reaches its breaking point. With allies wounded, enemies closing in, and hard choices everywhere, Saxony has to risk everything in the final battle.
A Blossom at Midnight
by AL Knorr
2022
Jessica Fontana, a sheltered half-fae village girl, is swept into Solana's royal household when the Calyx discovers her gifts. Palace life brings wonder, buried family secrets, and court tensions far more dangerous than she expects.
A Memory of Nightshade
by AL Knorr
2022
As Jessamine settles into court life, new visitors, old grudges, and shifting alliances pull Solana toward trouble. Beauty, duty, and political ambition collide as several lives start moving toward the same hard reckoning.
A Shiver of Frost
by AL Knorr
2023
Turmoil follows the Midwinter Festival as trials, strikes, quarantine, and frozen magic shake Solana. Jessamine and her allies are pulled between love, court duty, and gathering threats from every side.
Where should I start?
If you want the core elemental story: Born of Water → Born of Fire → Born of Earth → Born of Aether → Born of Air → The Elementals
If you want mermaids first: Returning: Mermaid's Return → Falling → Surfacing → Salt and Stone → Salt and the Sovereign → Salt and the Sisters
If you want magical school drama: Born of Fire → Firecracker → Fire Trap → Fire Games → Source Fire
If you want fae courts and nature magic: Born of Earth → Bones of the Witch → Ashes of the Wise → Heart of the Fae → A Blossom at Midnight
If you want portal fantasy outside the Elemental world: Descendant → Ascendant → Combatant → Transcendent
Author bio
A.L. Knorr is a Canadian fantasy author whose books are packed with elemental magic, mermaids, fae courts, adventure, and young women figuring out who they are under pressure. She now lives on the Mediterranean coast with her husband, who is a chef, which she jokes is especially useful because she struggles with toast.
That sea-and-sun setting feels right for her work. Oceans, coastlines, hidden histories, and old powers tucked beneath ordinary life show up again and again in her stories.
Before she became a full-time author, she studied dance and worked in marketing for a Canadian bath and body company. She has said that stories were always there in the background. She learned to read very young, skipped a grade, and spent years carrying characters around in her head before she finally sat down and wrote one of her own.
Then she finally started.
Knorr wrote her first book in 2016, when she was 38. That book was Born of Water, the start of her Elemental Origins world, and it quickly set the tone for what readers now expect from her: contemporary fantasy with strong emotional stakes, supernatural transformation, friendship, romance, and a brisk sense of momentum. Her first six books, the Elemental Origins series, were written partly while she was spending time in Italy and the UK, and that travel shows in the way her stories move through vivid settings.
If you start with Born of Water, you get mermaid mythology, family secrets, and a heroine pulled toward a life she never fully understood. Born of Fire shifts into Venice and fire magic, while Bones of the Witch leans into Scottish mystery, folklore, and earth power. Later books like A Blossom at Midnight open the door to a much broader fae court fantasy, and Descendant shows that she is just as comfortable writing portal fantasy with strange new worlds, winged allies, and high stakes.
Her books tend to center girls and young women who are capable, messy, stubborn, loyal, and often a little overwhelmed at first. That is part of the appeal. Readers come for magic and danger, but they stay because the characters have to grow into their power instead of arriving fully formed. Across the different series, Knorr returns to a few favorite threads: hidden inheritance, found family, old wrongs that still shape the present, and the tension between ordinary life and the supernatural world pressing in around it.
She is also very clear about the kind of stories she likes to tell. Her fantasy leans clean, with no on-page sex and little interest in shock for its own sake. The focus is on adventure, emotion, relationships, and the thrill of discovering that the world is stranger than it looked five minutes ago.
These days, she keeps expanding the worlds around Elemental Origins, the mermaid books, and her fae-centered fantasy, while also writing in shared universes like Oriceran. Whether she is sending a teenager into the Baltic, the Scottish Highlands, a fire mage academy near Dover, or a portal into another realm, the through line is the same. Big feelings. Real danger. And a heroine who has to decide what she is going to do with the power now in her hands.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.
















































Comments
Did we miss something? Have feedback?
Help us improve this page by sharing your thoughts