Lorena Angell Books in Order

If you want the main YA fantasy storyline: A Diamond in My Pocket → A Diamond in My Heart → The Diamond of Freedom
If you want a fuller first arc before branching out: A Diamond in My Pocket → A Diamond in My Heart → The Diamond of Freedom → The Diamond Bearers' Destiny
If you finish book four and want the later escalation: The Diamond Bearer's Secret → The Diamond Bearers' Rising → The Diamond Bearer's Ring
If you prefer romantic suspense over fantasy: Royal Refugee

Lorena Angell grew up in a small town in southeast Idaho, with the Grand Teton Mountains outside her front window and a big, busy family all around her. She has described a childhood full of neighborhood baseball, summer night games, and winters made for sledding, skiing, and snowmobiling. It sounds like the kind of place where imagination had plenty of room to stretch.

Writing was not the obvious plan.

Angell has said she did not do especially well in English class, and she still jokes that the only book report she ever got an A on was for a book she had not actually read. Even so, stories kept showing up. She has described a vivid dream life, and in the early 2000s, after hearing about J.K. Rowling's path to publication, she started writing her own ideas down by hand.

Then she made a practical discovery.

Once she moved from handwriting to typing, the words came faster and she found a rhythm that felt more natural. She spent years querying literary agents, heard a lot of no, and kept going. Eventually she learned the self-publishing side of the business, released her work digitally, listened to reader feedback, and tightened the books through revision, including editing help from Linda Stirling. It was a hands-on route into publishing, and that practical streak still shows in how she talks about writing.

Her best-known work is The Unaltered, a YA series that begins with A Diamond in My Pocket. That book introduces Calli Courtnae, a science-minded teen who discovers superhuman speed, a hidden network of power-based clans, and a mystical diamond that opens the door to much bigger dangers. Readers who like fast pacing, romance under pressure, and secret-world fantasy usually keep going with A Diamond in My Heart and The Diamond of Freedom. Later books such as The Diamond Bearer's Secret and The Diamond Bearers' Rising widen the story into bigger conflicts about loyalty, secrecy, power, and survival.

Angell also writes outside fantasy. Royal Refugee, the opening book in her Lost Crown series, trades magical clans for border crossings, dictatorship, and romantic suspense. Even there, the themes feel familiar: young people under pressure, hidden agendas, hard choices, and the question of who can really be trusted. Across her books, she tends to pair danger with emotion, and big stakes with very personal decisions.

Dreams started the work, but persistence built the career.

Today Angell writes as an independent author and handles much of the publishing and promotion work herself. On her site she talks about life with her husband and three adult children, along with the everyday things she enjoys when she is not at the keyboard, like cooking, barbecuing, reading, hiking, biking, fishing, camping, and gardening. She also describes herself as a movie quoter who likes sarcasm and puns, and she says she enjoys encouraging other authors and young writers.