Returning
Mermaid’s Return – Book I
It’s time to leave the ocean. Mira has been at sea for… well, she doesn’t know how many years. It’s hard to keep track of time when you live in the ocean. But after enough time, the salt water triggers the desire to procreate, and her time is up.
For weeks, she’s been swimming north. Finding a mate is the most important thing to her right now, and to do that, she has to return to the place where she was last human – the coastal city of Saltford.
Equipped with everything she needs to lure her perfect mate and produce a strong siren child, all she needs is the opportunity to mingle with humans. But when she meets Nathan, the ONE, things start to go sideways…
The Mermaid’s Return trilogy is a companion series and prequel to The Elemental Origins Series, a teen fantasy adventure series by an award-winning author.
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from A.L. Knorr
Excellent first book by a talented writer!! I absolutely LOVED this story!! This is one of those rare, graceful tales that continues to pepper you with delightful surprises along the way, a few harrowing moments and tons of originality. This is the kind of book that when you step away from it, you want to find your way back to it because it draws you in and hooks you on all fronts – from the story, to the characters, to the intriguing situations. Returning is a wonderful first story by a very talented writer, and I am very excited to see what’s next!
Mermaid's Return
Series Complete
Follow Mira, a mermaid, as she returns to land, struggles to integrate into human society, find a mate, and ultimately has to make some hard decisions. Can she cope when tragedy strikes? And strikes again?
Read an Excerpt
ONE
It was time to leave the ocean. My mother had warned me the call would come. She said every mermaid thinks it’ll never happen to them. Life is too good in the salty water, who would ever want to go back to land? But the salt will eventually trigger a siren’s desire to procreate, and my time was up. I was swimming through a kelp forest when the realization struck; weaving between the tall stems, the fronds tickling my tail like fingers as I swam by. I didn’t know how many years I’d been at sea, I didn’t even know how old I was anymore. The salt had faded my human memories almost into oblivion; they seemed more like long ago dreams than actual events from my past.
For weeks I’d been swimming north, instinct taking me back to the shores I last stood on when I had legs and feet instead of a powerful tail. As the temperature of the water dropped, the ocean life changed from bright and tropical to the simpler, less flashy hues of the North Atlantic. I remembered this kelp forest, I’d been here before. It’s the last one before the long stretch to the shores of Atlantic Canada.
The taste of diesel in the water told me I was approaching a shipping lane and I descended to cleaner, darker water. Here, the sharks were many, some of them triple my size. I swam without fear. Sharks have never given me a reason to fear them. At least, not so far. We passed each other at a respectful distance.
As I descend to the sandy marine floor, a shape loomed. The tail end of a shipwreck. There are millions of shipwrecks in the world’s oceans, and exploring them is one of my greatest pleasures. As I approached, my eyes widened. I’ve seen many wrecks, but most are small and not much more than junk. This wreck is a leviathan. I tried to remember if I’d ever seen one so big. I drifted over the ocean liner, calculating its size against The Titanic. No, The Titanic was bigger. But still, this ship must have been palatial in its day.
As I swam the more than half-kilometre length, my eyes took in the collapsed hull, the crushed ruin of her stern, the exposed ribs of iron beams and timbers, and the jutting bow… still proud. Curiosity tugged at me. It would be so easy to stay and explore. A gaping slash in the bow beckoned me, an easy entry point. How I wanted to swim through the crew’s quarters, examine the crushed hallways, shattered chandeliers, and elaborately decorated but rotted ballrooms. This kind of wreck was full of wonder.
Once I’ve found a wreck, I never forget where it is. The ocean was my playground. I pushed the curiosity aside and kept swimming. The hulking wreck disappeared behind me. I promised myself I’d visit her another day. Finding a mate is the most important thing right now, and to do that, I needed to return to the place I last lived as a human. The coastal city of Saltford.
