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The Wolves of Elementa #1
Frozen Secrets
The wolf world of Elementa is divided among the packs. Interaction between wolves of different elements is strictly forbidden—and Aurora, a young Sky Wolf, wouldn’t have things any other way. Aurora is loyal to Queen Tempest and the rules she has set for her pack. But when Aurora accidentally encounters wolves from beyond her territory, she begins to question where her loyalties lie.Aurora embarks on a journey to unite Elementa, with the help of her unexpected new friends. However, they quickly learn that not everyone is willing to change their hearts. Will this adventure end up being a heroic quest, or a deadly mistake? Sink your fangs into this epic new series, and discover the world of Elementa!
174 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 20, 2021
87 people are currently reading
176 people want to read
About the author
Sophie Torro
18 books31 followersSophie Torro began writing at the age of eleven and published her first book when she was fifteen. To date, she has published three middle-grade fantasy adventure series spanning 14 books. She has also written and illustrated an educational children’s book series that was included in the grade two curriculum in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In 2018, at the age of sixteen, Sophie was invited to write for TraveLife Magazine, which was one of the largest online travel publications in North America. Each of her five multi-page travel articles were featured as Editor’s Choice.
In 2019, Sophie was featured in an article that received national press coverage (print and online) in Sun Media.
In 2024, Sophie was a creative writing instructor at the Red Deer Polytechnic for WordsWorth: Dragonsong.
When she isn’t writing, Sophie enjoys visiting schools across the country to motivate students, tutoring emerging writers, and hoarding houseplants. She currently lives in Alberta, Canada.
In 2018, at the age of sixteen, Sophie was invited to write for TraveLife Magazine, which was one of the largest online travel publications in North America. Each of her five multi-page travel articles were featured as Editor’s Choice.
In 2019, Sophie was featured in an article that received national press coverage (print and online) in Sun Media.
In 2024, Sophie was a creative writing instructor at the Red Deer Polytechnic for WordsWorth: Dragonsong.
When she isn’t writing, Sophie enjoys visiting schools across the country to motivate students, tutoring emerging writers, and hoarding houseplants. She currently lives in Alberta, Canada.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 13, 2023
Actual rating 3.5 stars
A neat first installment with creative world-building, fantastical wolf species and a good message of overcoming prejudice and standing up to those oppressing you. My main gripe with it was that Aurora's arc was very, very by-the-books and basic. A commonly-executed trope is not bad by default, but it is neat if there is a little bit more added to the execution that makes it just a bit more unique. Aurora's arc just felt a bit predictable and also rushed. I wouldn't call it bad, mind you, I just wish the author did something a bit more creative with it.
Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/20...
A neat first installment with creative world-building, fantastical wolf species and a good message of overcoming prejudice and standing up to those oppressing you. My main gripe with it was that Aurora's arc was very, very by-the-books and basic. A commonly-executed trope is not bad by default, but it is neat if there is a little bit more added to the execution that makes it just a bit more unique. Aurora's arc just felt a bit predictable and also rushed. I wouldn't call it bad, mind you, I just wish the author did something a bit more creative with it.
Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/20...
October 9, 2022
I've read this book three times and loved it every time!!
July 9, 2024
Wonderful book. I’ve read it two times so far. Love the plot and the characters are lovable.
July 4, 2023
This book is amazing! The characters are very loveable and seeing the way they interact was so much fun. I recommend this book for fans of Warriors and Wings of Fire, or really anyone who likes magical wolves.
February 9, 2023
Lots of fun with memorable characters! I recommend this to anyone looking for a talking animal series with a twist of magic.
December 30, 2022
Okay. This was actually great.
A lot of people in my class are obsessed with this series. And I was like…. Um. Wolves with elemental powers? Seems kinda weird but eh I’ll try it.
It was actualy amazing.
Aurora is a great main character (shes the one with wings). Sandstorm is my least favorite character since shes so grumpy, but I sense that she will get more character development later so… yeah. Any secene with Nautilus was lots of fun, plus his secret is really cool.
Idk what else to say lol. It’s a good book. It ended with a plot twist about Ember so I am reading the next one.
Thanks for reading my review. ~ Zoe the wolf fan
A lot of people in my class are obsessed with this series. And I was like…. Um. Wolves with elemental powers? Seems kinda weird but eh I’ll try it.
It was actualy amazing.
Aurora is a great main character (shes the one with wings). Sandstorm is my least favorite character since shes so grumpy, but I sense that she will get more character development later so… yeah. Any secene with Nautilus was lots of fun, plus his secret is really cool.
Idk what else to say lol. It’s a good book. It ended with a plot twist about Ember so I am reading the next one.
Thanks for reading my review. ~ Zoe the wolf fan
March 5, 2025
When I heard about these books, I was THRILLED!
A FANTASY?
About WOLVES?
A whole SERIES?
Written by a young author?
Yes, yes, yes!!!
I loved the storyline.
I loved Aurora, I loved Nautilus, I loved Sandstorm!
I liked Ember. (didn't LOVE, LOVE, LOVE him though)
I loved the world they lived in!
It was so cool to find a series about wolves where the wolves are NOT evil! (sure, there are good wolves and bad wolves in the books, but not the entire species is evil like in most stories)
I loved watching the characters grow closer to each other and evolve in their friendships!
I did think the way the characters sometimes talked about their innermost feelings and life-changing realizations was a little...unrealistic. They were VERY objective, and were able to put into words EXACTLY what they were feeling and EXACTLY why...
I also thought that, often, they didn't ACT like wolves. (spitting, displaying their claws, lashing their tails, slashing with claws instead of biting...) it kind of drew me out of the story and made me think "wait, wolves don't do that!"
But, for the MOST part, they did act like wolves and I appreciated that.
I also felt like the way they disguised themselves with MUD in the DESERT was a bit confusing, and how did the Earth wolves not realize they were not from their pack, even with mud on their fur...?
I liked that queen Tempest had a REASON for turning evil, even if it was a bit last-minute.
I LOVED the different packs, and the different kingdom's habitats-that was super cool!
This story was a fun, lighthearted romp through the wolves' world! I enjoyed getting to know the characters and exploring Elementa through their eyes.
An innocent, fun, exciting story that I wholeheartedly recommend for any wolf-lovers out there, or anyone who wants a light, enjoyable read!
(Just a note: I do change my reviews as I have new thoughts about these amazing stories! Sometimes I’ll add or take away, and the review will probably change slightly in the future, but the same general idea is always the same!🙂)
A FANTASY?
About WOLVES?
A whole SERIES?
Written by a young author?
Yes, yes, yes!!!
I loved the storyline.
I loved Aurora, I loved Nautilus, I loved Sandstorm!
I liked Ember. (didn't LOVE, LOVE, LOVE him though)
I loved the world they lived in!
It was so cool to find a series about wolves where the wolves are NOT evil! (sure, there are good wolves and bad wolves in the books, but not the entire species is evil like in most stories)
I loved watching the characters grow closer to each other and evolve in their friendships!
I did think the way the characters sometimes talked about their innermost feelings and life-changing realizations was a little...unrealistic. They were VERY objective, and were able to put into words EXACTLY what they were feeling and EXACTLY why...
I also thought that, often, they didn't ACT like wolves. (spitting, displaying their claws, lashing their tails, slashing with claws instead of biting...) it kind of drew me out of the story and made me think "wait, wolves don't do that!"
But, for the MOST part, they did act like wolves and I appreciated that.
I also felt like the way they disguised themselves with MUD in the DESERT was a bit confusing, and how did the Earth wolves not realize they were not from their pack, even with mud on their fur...?
I liked that queen Tempest had a REASON for turning evil, even if it was a bit last-minute.
I LOVED the different packs, and the different kingdom's habitats-that was super cool!
This story was a fun, lighthearted romp through the wolves' world! I enjoyed getting to know the characters and exploring Elementa through their eyes.
An innocent, fun, exciting story that I wholeheartedly recommend for any wolf-lovers out there, or anyone who wants a light, enjoyable read!
(Just a note: I do change my reviews as I have new thoughts about these amazing stories! Sometimes I’ll add or take away, and the review will probably change slightly in the future, but the same general idea is always the same!🙂)
September 11, 2024
Came because of the young animal fantasy author, stayed for the fun characters and well written plot.
An enjoyable story! Nautilus is my favorite (and what a fun name!)
I felt that it could have gone a little deeper on worldbuilding, as well as really leaning into the "wolf" aspect of the story (sometimes it felt like a simpler version of Wings of Fire). However, all in all, it's a fun book that encourages readers to put aside their differences and work together.
An enjoyable story! Nautilus is my favorite (and what a fun name!)
I felt that it could have gone a little deeper on worldbuilding, as well as really leaning into the "wolf" aspect of the story (sometimes it felt like a simpler version of Wings of Fire). However, all in all, it's a fun book that encourages readers to put aside their differences and work together.
July 2, 2023
(This review was written by my teenage daughter.)
I thought this book was going to be good, or at least decent.
I was wrong.
Instead, it turned out to be a blatant rip off of one of my favorite books, with shallow characters and a distinctly awful writing style.
I have had trouble understanding why people keep leaving reviews and comments on how GREAT this book is, when it has some very obvious flaws that seem noticeable enough!
First off, it’s essentially a clone of WoF (Wings of Fire). The story is very similar: "members of each group trying to work together to stop an evil queen and a war”. There’s a gladiator arena with a vicious “Champion” who only seems to enjoy fighting, and the main characters must recruit her. Peril, anyone?
The packs are also the same. Sky Pack? SkyWings. Water Pack? SeaWings. Some even LOOK like the original tribes. (Water Wolves being blue or green and having “webbed paws” and gills.)
One of the more unnoticed allusions is the fact that Book 3 is called “Shifting Sands”, which is a term used in the summary of The Brightest Night. “Secrets are hidden in the shifting sands of the desert …”
The title doesn’t make much sense either, as other people have pointed out. What exactly is the “Frozen Secret”? It’s more of a pretty title than an actual descriptor for the story.
Second, Torro has multiple grammatical mistakes and repetitive writing. On the very first page, “noisily” is spelled “nosily”, and later, “unfazed” is spelled “unphased”, which isn’t even a word, as stated by Vocabulary.com:
“A common misspelling is "unphased," which isn't a real word. Faze and unfazed are American English words thought to derive from the 15th-century Kentish feeze, "frighten." Definitions of unfazed. adjective. not worried, disturbed, or dismayed by circumstances.”
Sophie also writes characters’ names multiple times and repeats phrases. For instance, she writes “Ember and the Water Wolf” at least four times on ONE page, and “Aurora” SIXTEEN times in two pages. I know small typos and mistakes are common in books, but there are just too many in this one.
Torro also changes between present tense and past tense weirdly in her story. For example, take this:
“Where is she? Aurora wonderED as she lookED around her village. I hope Queen Tempest hasn’t left yet.
Queen Tempest IS the leader of the Sky Pack, one of four elemental wolf packs that LIVE in the land of Elementa. For as long as anyone CAN remember, Queen Tempest HAS bravely protected her wolves from the dangerous outsiders that LURK beyond the Sky Pack’s border.”
No true wolf facts. Wolves do NOT eat with forks, build cities, or use armor. I know this is fantasy, but some parts simply aren’t plausible. I’m writing a wolf story of my own right now, and I have made sure to do research in order to get everything correct. Wolves in this book also sweat and cry. Biologically speaking, that is impossible.
The so-called “packs” aren’t really packs. In the wild, packs are groups of wolves (usually 6-7) that work together to hunt and support each other. The packs in this book … don’t even act like this. It’s basically the tribes from WoF. Everyone lives separately, under one queen. That’s not how it works.
Aurora’s figure on the cover is inaccurate - she seems to have a horse-like tail, a stocky body instead of a wolf’s lean physique, and a strangely shaped face.
Aurora’s personality seems to change a lot. One second she’s saying “I love Queen Tempest!” the next she’s betraying her, and then she goes back to thinking how great she is. This is annoying. Aurora’s shallowness really irritated me, she has no substance and she’s also overly heroic, flawless, fakely happy, and noble in a way that just doesn’t fit with the story. This made me hate her character, to the point where I would rank her as one of my LEAST favorite book characters ever.
Characters’ personalities are weird. I have no idea why Torro made Tempest so evil without explaining why. Yes, she had a daughter who died, but that’s barely explained, and nobody seems to notice/care. She is still portrayed as “purely evil”.
The kingdom’s citizens seem to immediately accept Aurora and want peace all of a sudden, even though she just deposed their longtime ruler. All of the Sky Pack wolves were mobilized and ready to fight, seemingly eager. Aurora even overheard two guards discussing how excited they were to annihilate Elementa. So how did everyone’s personality change at the drop of a hat - or should I say crown??
Nautilus is the most annoying character I’ve ever read about. He’s cowardly and awkward. But even he is subject to some strange occurrences - he goes from being terrified to visit his home to being ready to go immediately.
In the prologue of the book, I was picturing Aurora as a teenage wolf with an annoying little pup for a brother. However, Torro calls her a pup as well, even though she is depicted as being annoyed by him as though he is younger. Later, Blizzard acts as if he’s older than Aurora, which really confused me, especially when he then calls her “big sister”. Wolf pups are typically born in litters, with multiple born at one time. So technically, Blizzard and Aurora would be the same age. In fact, the whole age thing confused me, as well as the fact that both pups were left alone unsupervised while the whole village gathered together.
Similar covers to many WoF installments. (The most shocking is between both Book Twos.) If you haven’t noticed this, Google “Royal Rivalry Wolves of Elementa'' and “The Lost Heir”. Everything from the background, main character’s pose, and coloring are similar. And the title! The focus of the book! Both are about royalty and returning home. WoE book two is called “Royal Rivalry” while WoF book two is called “The Lost Heir”. Similarly, Flaming Fate and The Dark Secret have similar covers, as do Frozen Secrets - Winter Turning, and Shifting Sands - The Brightest Night.
Everything plays out too easily. There is no real sense of fear or danger that WoF gave you. Everything is happy and sparkly for the threesome as they journey to defeat Tempest. Nothing bad happens, nobody is captured (except for Blizzard, I guess). There’s also an INSANE amount of convenience.The guards who attacked the Hidden Howl not checking if Aurora and the others are really dead? Yup. The fact that Queen Tempest was too easy to defeat, and everything turned out perfectly after that? Yup. Sandstorm immediately joining their side? Yup. Honestly, it’s pretty predictable, except maybe for the part when Cactus and the pups capture them. And while we’re on that topic, if Cactus has parents, where ARE they?? Why would they leave pups to play unsupervised in a destroyed village??
The story isn’t great. The quest began really abruptly and suddenly, and everyone agreed to go with Aurora instantly. Now that Queen Tempest has been deposed, they have no real goal - except now they’re going to visit Nautilus’s family?!! The plot is also very basic and kind of boring. There should be moments of danger, moments of joy, moments of sadness. Instead, all that happens is that Aurora and the others easily recruit Sandstorm within the space of a few chapters (the whole first chunk just filled up with Aurora being a Queen Tempest fangirl and swapping personalities every 5 seconds) and then the end where the group easily defeats the main antagonist.
Some really weird and pointless things happen, like Blizzard’s story about his trip with friends. He repeats “long story short” twice, and acts like he’s traumatized from his friend falling into a snowdrift - ? You’d think this would come up later - maybe he’s hiding something that happened. NOPE. Honestly, I have no idea why that was in there.
“Aurora flattened her ears, feeling weirded out by Blizzard’s bizarre adventure.”
Me too. Me too.
Some things just don’t make sense. Aurora says at one point, “[They aren’t the right wolves to bring with me …] Nautilus is just a shapeshifter with a few extra abilities, not a warrior.”
Oh gee, you think a “shapeshifter with extra abilities” wouldn’t be helpful?? He can change forms to disguise himself, or use his varied powers to escape tough situations!
The wolves also decide to disguise themselves in order to sneak into the Earth Pack City. Ember somehow finds MUD under the desert sand, in which the author has clearly stated is hot and dry. Then, the group smears mud over their fur to make them look more like Earth Pack wolves. How would that even work?? All it would do would make them look dirty, realistically. Earth Pack wolves are also supposed to have a certain body build and fur markings - which all three wolves definitely do not fit the description of.
Finally, I REALLY don’t get the whole ‘destroyed village’ thing. For starters, Aurora, Nautilus, and Ember discover royal Earth Pack armor in the abandoned village, which makes no sense. If the royal family knew about the village’s destruction, why wouldn’t their soldiers have fought off the Sky Pack? They could have at least returned for reinforcements. The village is supposed to be near the City, too, as Cactus points out. The king and queen must have known about the attack, otherwise there wouldn’t be armor there, and they must have known that the Sky Pack was trying to destroy them. And yet, if they were aware that Tempest was trying to take Elementa, WHY DIDN’T THEY RAISE THE ALARM??? Honestly, I’m getting really tired of this.
It isn’t well written. Torro’s writing is very basic. The font is large, so it looks like you’re reading a longer book when it’s barely anything. The adjectives are sometimes used out of order or when they should not be. Here’s a few examples of some weird sentences in which their use of adjectives just felt wrong:
“Queen Tempest regally told the villagers.”
“Aurora teasingly splashed him with a pawful of mud. ‘Absolutely the worst,’ she jokingly agreed.”
“Aurora nervously thought.”
And some repeated words:
“Aurora immediately ran to Nautilus’s cave.”
“She immediately rushed inside.”
Yeah, we get it! She's in a hurry. But could there be at least a LITTLE bit of variation?
Many characters remind me of ones from Wings of Fire. The whole “loyal servant who obeys her queen and then has a change of heart” is just so, so reminiscent of Peril. In Wings of Fire, Peril is her queen’s loyal champion and basically idolizes her. Wolves of Elementa? Same thing. Aurora worships Queen Tempest, until she suddenly meets other wolves and magically becomes a rebel - not the most realistic change of heart. And the name “Nautilus”? There’s a character called that in Wings of Fire - the leader of the Talons of Peace. HE’S A SEAWING!
The pack territories are very WoF-y. The Fire Pack’s territory is a volcano, just like the NightWings’. Water Pack lives underwater in the ocean. SeaWings. Earth Pack in the desert, and their whole way of life? SandWings. Finally, the Sky Pack. They’re like a mix of IceWings and SkyWings.
So overall, the story was horrifyingly similar to Wings of Fire, and simply not a well-written book. The plot was very basic and the characters were annoyingly perfect and heroic sometimes. The book even came with grease smears on the cover and a weird texture that irritated me. Even the pages looked like they were straight out of a Google Doc. However, I still finished the book. It wasn’t TERRIBLY awful, but there were just so many flaws.
Now, you might say, “Well, maybe this was all just coincidence. Maybe Torro’s story is similar by accident.” Sadly, that isn’t the case. On Sophie’s YouTube channel, she has posted countless Warrior Cats and Wings of Fire videos, along with her so-called “original” series, proving that she was at least a little bit influenced by this series. She also seems to be knowledgeable about WoF and a fan, which means she likely took some ideas from the books. It just really makes me angry to see someone just so blatantly take ideas, and seeing her WoF fan videos made me even angrier.
Every grammatical mistake made me want to grab a red pen and correct it. I still might do that. If you like Wings of Fire, don’t read this. It will make you want to scream at the casual way Torro uses ideas from a much better quality series. However, I do think the series could perhaps earn 2 stars if Torro researched wolves, proofread her story, made it longer and less of a convenient plot, and stopped taking ideas from other books.
I don’t know if I’m going to read Book Two. I want to know what happens with Nautilus and the Water Pack, even though I really don’t like his character. Book Two could be better, because this is the first book of the series.
However, if it’s the same I’m probably - no, scratch that. I’m not going to keep reading.
I thought this book was going to be good, or at least decent.
I was wrong.
Instead, it turned out to be a blatant rip off of one of my favorite books, with shallow characters and a distinctly awful writing style.
I have had trouble understanding why people keep leaving reviews and comments on how GREAT this book is, when it has some very obvious flaws that seem noticeable enough!
First off, it’s essentially a clone of WoF (Wings of Fire). The story is very similar: "members of each group trying to work together to stop an evil queen and a war”. There’s a gladiator arena with a vicious “Champion” who only seems to enjoy fighting, and the main characters must recruit her. Peril, anyone?
The packs are also the same. Sky Pack? SkyWings. Water Pack? SeaWings. Some even LOOK like the original tribes. (Water Wolves being blue or green and having “webbed paws” and gills.)
One of the more unnoticed allusions is the fact that Book 3 is called “Shifting Sands”, which is a term used in the summary of The Brightest Night. “Secrets are hidden in the shifting sands of the desert …”
The title doesn’t make much sense either, as other people have pointed out. What exactly is the “Frozen Secret”? It’s more of a pretty title than an actual descriptor for the story.
Second, Torro has multiple grammatical mistakes and repetitive writing. On the very first page, “noisily” is spelled “nosily”, and later, “unfazed” is spelled “unphased”, which isn’t even a word, as stated by Vocabulary.com:
“A common misspelling is "unphased," which isn't a real word. Faze and unfazed are American English words thought to derive from the 15th-century Kentish feeze, "frighten." Definitions of unfazed. adjective. not worried, disturbed, or dismayed by circumstances.”
Sophie also writes characters’ names multiple times and repeats phrases. For instance, she writes “Ember and the Water Wolf” at least four times on ONE page, and “Aurora” SIXTEEN times in two pages. I know small typos and mistakes are common in books, but there are just too many in this one.
Torro also changes between present tense and past tense weirdly in her story. For example, take this:
“Where is she? Aurora wonderED as she lookED around her village. I hope Queen Tempest hasn’t left yet.
Queen Tempest IS the leader of the Sky Pack, one of four elemental wolf packs that LIVE in the land of Elementa. For as long as anyone CAN remember, Queen Tempest HAS bravely protected her wolves from the dangerous outsiders that LURK beyond the Sky Pack’s border.”
No true wolf facts. Wolves do NOT eat with forks, build cities, or use armor. I know this is fantasy, but some parts simply aren’t plausible. I’m writing a wolf story of my own right now, and I have made sure to do research in order to get everything correct. Wolves in this book also sweat and cry. Biologically speaking, that is impossible.
The so-called “packs” aren’t really packs. In the wild, packs are groups of wolves (usually 6-7) that work together to hunt and support each other. The packs in this book … don’t even act like this. It’s basically the tribes from WoF. Everyone lives separately, under one queen. That’s not how it works.
Aurora’s figure on the cover is inaccurate - she seems to have a horse-like tail, a stocky body instead of a wolf’s lean physique, and a strangely shaped face.
Aurora’s personality seems to change a lot. One second she’s saying “I love Queen Tempest!” the next she’s betraying her, and then she goes back to thinking how great she is. This is annoying. Aurora’s shallowness really irritated me, she has no substance and she’s also overly heroic, flawless, fakely happy, and noble in a way that just doesn’t fit with the story. This made me hate her character, to the point where I would rank her as one of my LEAST favorite book characters ever.
Characters’ personalities are weird. I have no idea why Torro made Tempest so evil without explaining why. Yes, she had a daughter who died, but that’s barely explained, and nobody seems to notice/care. She is still portrayed as “purely evil”.
The kingdom’s citizens seem to immediately accept Aurora and want peace all of a sudden, even though she just deposed their longtime ruler. All of the Sky Pack wolves were mobilized and ready to fight, seemingly eager. Aurora even overheard two guards discussing how excited they were to annihilate Elementa. So how did everyone’s personality change at the drop of a hat - or should I say crown??
Nautilus is the most annoying character I’ve ever read about. He’s cowardly and awkward. But even he is subject to some strange occurrences - he goes from being terrified to visit his home to being ready to go immediately.
In the prologue of the book, I was picturing Aurora as a teenage wolf with an annoying little pup for a brother. However, Torro calls her a pup as well, even though she is depicted as being annoyed by him as though he is younger. Later, Blizzard acts as if he’s older than Aurora, which really confused me, especially when he then calls her “big sister”. Wolf pups are typically born in litters, with multiple born at one time. So technically, Blizzard and Aurora would be the same age. In fact, the whole age thing confused me, as well as the fact that both pups were left alone unsupervised while the whole village gathered together.
Similar covers to many WoF installments. (The most shocking is between both Book Twos.) If you haven’t noticed this, Google “Royal Rivalry Wolves of Elementa'' and “The Lost Heir”. Everything from the background, main character’s pose, and coloring are similar. And the title! The focus of the book! Both are about royalty and returning home. WoE book two is called “Royal Rivalry” while WoF book two is called “The Lost Heir”. Similarly, Flaming Fate and The Dark Secret have similar covers, as do Frozen Secrets - Winter Turning, and Shifting Sands - The Brightest Night.
Everything plays out too easily. There is no real sense of fear or danger that WoF gave you. Everything is happy and sparkly for the threesome as they journey to defeat Tempest. Nothing bad happens, nobody is captured (except for Blizzard, I guess). There’s also an INSANE amount of convenience.The guards who attacked the Hidden Howl not checking if Aurora and the others are really dead? Yup. The fact that Queen Tempest was too easy to defeat, and everything turned out perfectly after that? Yup. Sandstorm immediately joining their side? Yup. Honestly, it’s pretty predictable, except maybe for the part when Cactus and the pups capture them. And while we’re on that topic, if Cactus has parents, where ARE they?? Why would they leave pups to play unsupervised in a destroyed village??
The story isn’t great. The quest began really abruptly and suddenly, and everyone agreed to go with Aurora instantly. Now that Queen Tempest has been deposed, they have no real goal - except now they’re going to visit Nautilus’s family?!! The plot is also very basic and kind of boring. There should be moments of danger, moments of joy, moments of sadness. Instead, all that happens is that Aurora and the others easily recruit Sandstorm within the space of a few chapters (the whole first chunk just filled up with Aurora being a Queen Tempest fangirl and swapping personalities every 5 seconds) and then the end where the group easily defeats the main antagonist.
Some really weird and pointless things happen, like Blizzard’s story about his trip with friends. He repeats “long story short” twice, and acts like he’s traumatized from his friend falling into a snowdrift - ? You’d think this would come up later - maybe he’s hiding something that happened. NOPE. Honestly, I have no idea why that was in there.
“Aurora flattened her ears, feeling weirded out by Blizzard’s bizarre adventure.”
Me too. Me too.
Some things just don’t make sense. Aurora says at one point, “[They aren’t the right wolves to bring with me …] Nautilus is just a shapeshifter with a few extra abilities, not a warrior.”
Oh gee, you think a “shapeshifter with extra abilities” wouldn’t be helpful?? He can change forms to disguise himself, or use his varied powers to escape tough situations!
The wolves also decide to disguise themselves in order to sneak into the Earth Pack City. Ember somehow finds MUD under the desert sand, in which the author has clearly stated is hot and dry. Then, the group smears mud over their fur to make them look more like Earth Pack wolves. How would that even work?? All it would do would make them look dirty, realistically. Earth Pack wolves are also supposed to have a certain body build and fur markings - which all three wolves definitely do not fit the description of.
Finally, I REALLY don’t get the whole ‘destroyed village’ thing. For starters, Aurora, Nautilus, and Ember discover royal Earth Pack armor in the abandoned village, which makes no sense. If the royal family knew about the village’s destruction, why wouldn’t their soldiers have fought off the Sky Pack? They could have at least returned for reinforcements. The village is supposed to be near the City, too, as Cactus points out. The king and queen must have known about the attack, otherwise there wouldn’t be armor there, and they must have known that the Sky Pack was trying to destroy them. And yet, if they were aware that Tempest was trying to take Elementa, WHY DIDN’T THEY RAISE THE ALARM??? Honestly, I’m getting really tired of this.
It isn’t well written. Torro’s writing is very basic. The font is large, so it looks like you’re reading a longer book when it’s barely anything. The adjectives are sometimes used out of order or when they should not be. Here’s a few examples of some weird sentences in which their use of adjectives just felt wrong:
“Queen Tempest regally told the villagers.”
“Aurora teasingly splashed him with a pawful of mud. ‘Absolutely the worst,’ she jokingly agreed.”
“Aurora nervously thought.”
And some repeated words:
“Aurora immediately ran to Nautilus’s cave.”
“She immediately rushed inside.”
Yeah, we get it! She's in a hurry. But could there be at least a LITTLE bit of variation?
Many characters remind me of ones from Wings of Fire. The whole “loyal servant who obeys her queen and then has a change of heart” is just so, so reminiscent of Peril. In Wings of Fire, Peril is her queen’s loyal champion and basically idolizes her. Wolves of Elementa? Same thing. Aurora worships Queen Tempest, until she suddenly meets other wolves and magically becomes a rebel - not the most realistic change of heart. And the name “Nautilus”? There’s a character called that in Wings of Fire - the leader of the Talons of Peace. HE’S A SEAWING!
The pack territories are very WoF-y. The Fire Pack’s territory is a volcano, just like the NightWings’. Water Pack lives underwater in the ocean. SeaWings. Earth Pack in the desert, and their whole way of life? SandWings. Finally, the Sky Pack. They’re like a mix of IceWings and SkyWings.
So overall, the story was horrifyingly similar to Wings of Fire, and simply not a well-written book. The plot was very basic and the characters were annoyingly perfect and heroic sometimes. The book even came with grease smears on the cover and a weird texture that irritated me. Even the pages looked like they were straight out of a Google Doc. However, I still finished the book. It wasn’t TERRIBLY awful, but there were just so many flaws.
Now, you might say, “Well, maybe this was all just coincidence. Maybe Torro’s story is similar by accident.” Sadly, that isn’t the case. On Sophie’s YouTube channel, she has posted countless Warrior Cats and Wings of Fire videos, along with her so-called “original” series, proving that she was at least a little bit influenced by this series. She also seems to be knowledgeable about WoF and a fan, which means she likely took some ideas from the books. It just really makes me angry to see someone just so blatantly take ideas, and seeing her WoF fan videos made me even angrier.
Every grammatical mistake made me want to grab a red pen and correct it. I still might do that. If you like Wings of Fire, don’t read this. It will make you want to scream at the casual way Torro uses ideas from a much better quality series. However, I do think the series could perhaps earn 2 stars if Torro researched wolves, proofread her story, made it longer and less of a convenient plot, and stopped taking ideas from other books.
I don’t know if I’m going to read Book Two. I want to know what happens with Nautilus and the Water Pack, even though I really don’t like his character. Book Two could be better, because this is the first book of the series.
However, if it’s the same I’m probably - no, scratch that. I’m not going to keep reading.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 27, 2024
I enjoyed the pacing of this story and the transition between scenes was rather seamless. There was a great balance of visual details to plot and I never felt like either was over-done in any particular scene. Over all, it was a quick, engaging read that was easy to follow. The characters felt different from another and I never lost orientation on which characters were interacting and where the setting was. As a side note, I thought the book cover did a good job of capturing the main territory described in the book.
With that being said, the entire novel was over-saturated with explanation points, especially in chapter 6. This made the drama of the story feel very forced and disingenuous. Like the punctuation, the dialogue was also over the top and made the main gang annoying. Most of their speaking parts were sarcastic, rude or pitiful. This worked fine in the prologue because the characters were actual children. But it didn’t compute in the rest of the story because they were adults, but their voices still registered as children.
The narrator also broke the “fourth wall" a few times and took me out of the story. Like on page 41 when Aurora comments on the names of other characters “Huh, Aurora thought. That’s probably why her name is sandstorm. Not the most creative name. Same goes for Aqua.” I just thought this was a strange thing for a character to comment on and made me question if the writer even liked the names she picked for her own characters. There was also a scene where Aurora describes another character for looking like a “teddy bear”. There are no teddy bears in this universe as far as I’m concerned, ruining my suspension of disbelief. Also, every other chapter ended with foreshadowing that completely spoiled most major events, reminding me that I am reading a fictional book and killing my ability to look forward to any surprise.
The story was cute, lighthearted and pretty reminiscent of the cartoon My Little Pony if anyone has seen it. The relationship between Aurora and Queen Tempest reminded me of the character Twilight and Princess Celestial’s relationship, even the royal guard of the sky pack was similar to the royal guard in MLP, with their shining armor and ability to fly…which I don’t think is necessarily a good or bad thing, just an observation. If anyone enjoys MLP or similar stories, I think this book will be a very rewarding read, especially for middle grade children. The story is also similar to Avatar the last Airbender. Besides the elemental aspects, the main gang is basically team Avatar, (spoilers ahead) with the main character Aurora being the ‘sky/air wolf’, Nautilus having multiple powers, Ember having none, and Sandstorm being the literal wolf reincarnation of Toph….
The reason I am “1-starring” this book is because Sandstorm is ripped straight from Avatar. Like Toph, she is a hot headed, snarky earth bender who is introduced in a fighting arena to a crowd of people and then must fight the main character…exactly like the introduction of Toph. I realized some of Sandstorm’s lines are nearly identical to Toph from the series as well, even using the word “twinkle-paws” to describe the air-bending main character. Yeah, that feels like plagiarism to me, or at the very least, lazy writing.
I was also disappointed that the story opened with a cliche of the main character waking up. Other than that, the rest of the prologue was effective in quickly establishing some important world building aspects and introducing the main characters in an engaging way, the most memorable being the queen/villain. She was mysterious, elegant, powerful and kind…and I genuinely felt intrigued to know more about her. However, everything that was great about this character crumbled when her cartoonishly evil intentions were revealed. On page 40 she states “I want the other packs to crumble beneath me! The queen shouted. “I want the Sky Pack to exterminate the other elementals like the pests they are, so that we, the strongest wolves of all, can rule Elemental!” She laughed wickedly. “The outsiders will die! All of them!”. I couldn’t take her character seriously after this. At this point, she's just evil for the sake of being evil. It would have been nice to have heard at least a backstory explaining her hatred of the other wolves. **Edit after finishing the book**The villain's justification is explained on the 15th to the last page of the book and honestly it felt like a too convenient, last minute decision. The main character just *happens* to walk in on the villain standing by herself explaining why she's angry at the other packs. Maybe this reveal would have been better if discovered in the second book, which would make the gang reflect on how deep the division of the packs goes and realizing that it's going to be harder than they thought to unite Elementa.
In contrast, I appreciate that the main character changes her ways reluctantly and becomes a better person. Her character arc was executed in a really digestible way that felt believable. I appreciated that she was mentally tormented by her loyalty to the queen for a good portion of the book, even making a few mistakes because of it. Her flaws were my favorite part of the story (besides the beautiful description). It personally reminded me of my own torment when dealing with powerful figures I once admired. I think the lessons of this book could lead to some meaningful, thought-provoking questions and discussions about authority figures.
I also appreciated the easy-to-understand magic system of the world, but the world building was a bit of a let-down to me. The visual distinction amongst the species and their territories was good, but I did not detect any major cultural differences amongst the species. I’m not entirely sure if this is what the author was going for or if that will be expanded upon in the next novel…but the other elemental wolves seemed plain and uninteresting compared to the Sky Wolves in this particular book. When a story is about a society of wolves, I fully expected hunting/eating meat to be an integral part of their culture, or at the very least, mentioned. But I was disappointed when the topic was never brought up. I would have loved to have seen how they use their elements while hunting and if there were any taboos with it. I also expected some mention of their spiritual or religious beliefs (especially since the wolves act more like people) but unfortunately that was never brought up either. I thought the fighting arena in the earth kingdom was cool, but I still want to know why they’re fighting? What is the cultural significance of a fighting ring? Is it unique to the earth wolves? How do other elementals view it, or is this common amongst all packs? I Just felt like the book gave us a skeleton of this world and no flesh. (Spoiler) I also want to know why different elemental wolves who visit the “Hidden Howl” are perfectly fine meeting up and soliciting with each other, even being romantic (as hinted by Blizzard), but Nautilus must keep his identity as a hybrid a secret. It seems like a continuity error because it is not explained in the novel.
Despite giving a 1-star, I read this book all the way through. Again, the pacing, imagery and Aurora’s character arc was good enough to let me make it to the end of the book, but it certainly would have benefited from beta readers/editor’s perspective. In summary, the world building was lacking, the villain’s motives are not believable, and Sandstorm is obviously copied from Avatar the Last airbender.
With that being said, the entire novel was over-saturated with explanation points, especially in chapter 6. This made the drama of the story feel very forced and disingenuous. Like the punctuation, the dialogue was also over the top and made the main gang annoying. Most of their speaking parts were sarcastic, rude or pitiful. This worked fine in the prologue because the characters were actual children. But it didn’t compute in the rest of the story because they were adults, but their voices still registered as children.
The narrator also broke the “fourth wall" a few times and took me out of the story. Like on page 41 when Aurora comments on the names of other characters “Huh, Aurora thought. That’s probably why her name is sandstorm. Not the most creative name. Same goes for Aqua.” I just thought this was a strange thing for a character to comment on and made me question if the writer even liked the names she picked for her own characters. There was also a scene where Aurora describes another character for looking like a “teddy bear”. There are no teddy bears in this universe as far as I’m concerned, ruining my suspension of disbelief. Also, every other chapter ended with foreshadowing that completely spoiled most major events, reminding me that I am reading a fictional book and killing my ability to look forward to any surprise.
The story was cute, lighthearted and pretty reminiscent of the cartoon My Little Pony if anyone has seen it. The relationship between Aurora and Queen Tempest reminded me of the character Twilight and Princess Celestial’s relationship, even the royal guard of the sky pack was similar to the royal guard in MLP, with their shining armor and ability to fly…which I don’t think is necessarily a good or bad thing, just an observation. If anyone enjoys MLP or similar stories, I think this book will be a very rewarding read, especially for middle grade children. The story is also similar to Avatar the last Airbender. Besides the elemental aspects, the main gang is basically team Avatar, (spoilers ahead) with the main character Aurora being the ‘sky/air wolf’, Nautilus having multiple powers, Ember having none, and Sandstorm being the literal wolf reincarnation of Toph….
The reason I am “1-starring” this book is because Sandstorm is ripped straight from Avatar. Like Toph, she is a hot headed, snarky earth bender who is introduced in a fighting arena to a crowd of people and then must fight the main character…exactly like the introduction of Toph. I realized some of Sandstorm’s lines are nearly identical to Toph from the series as well, even using the word “twinkle-paws” to describe the air-bending main character. Yeah, that feels like plagiarism to me, or at the very least, lazy writing.
I was also disappointed that the story opened with a cliche of the main character waking up. Other than that, the rest of the prologue was effective in quickly establishing some important world building aspects and introducing the main characters in an engaging way, the most memorable being the queen/villain. She was mysterious, elegant, powerful and kind…and I genuinely felt intrigued to know more about her. However, everything that was great about this character crumbled when her cartoonishly evil intentions were revealed. On page 40 she states “I want the other packs to crumble beneath me! The queen shouted. “I want the Sky Pack to exterminate the other elementals like the pests they are, so that we, the strongest wolves of all, can rule Elemental!” She laughed wickedly. “The outsiders will die! All of them!”. I couldn’t take her character seriously after this. At this point, she's just evil for the sake of being evil. It would have been nice to have heard at least a backstory explaining her hatred of the other wolves. **Edit after finishing the book**The villain's justification is explained on the 15th to the last page of the book and honestly it felt like a too convenient, last minute decision. The main character just *happens* to walk in on the villain standing by herself explaining why she's angry at the other packs. Maybe this reveal would have been better if discovered in the second book, which would make the gang reflect on how deep the division of the packs goes and realizing that it's going to be harder than they thought to unite Elementa.
In contrast, I appreciate that the main character changes her ways reluctantly and becomes a better person. Her character arc was executed in a really digestible way that felt believable. I appreciated that she was mentally tormented by her loyalty to the queen for a good portion of the book, even making a few mistakes because of it. Her flaws were my favorite part of the story (besides the beautiful description). It personally reminded me of my own torment when dealing with powerful figures I once admired. I think the lessons of this book could lead to some meaningful, thought-provoking questions and discussions about authority figures.
I also appreciated the easy-to-understand magic system of the world, but the world building was a bit of a let-down to me. The visual distinction amongst the species and their territories was good, but I did not detect any major cultural differences amongst the species. I’m not entirely sure if this is what the author was going for or if that will be expanded upon in the next novel…but the other elemental wolves seemed plain and uninteresting compared to the Sky Wolves in this particular book. When a story is about a society of wolves, I fully expected hunting/eating meat to be an integral part of their culture, or at the very least, mentioned. But I was disappointed when the topic was never brought up. I would have loved to have seen how they use their elements while hunting and if there were any taboos with it. I also expected some mention of their spiritual or religious beliefs (especially since the wolves act more like people) but unfortunately that was never brought up either. I thought the fighting arena in the earth kingdom was cool, but I still want to know why they’re fighting? What is the cultural significance of a fighting ring? Is it unique to the earth wolves? How do other elementals view it, or is this common amongst all packs? I Just felt like the book gave us a skeleton of this world and no flesh. (Spoiler) I also want to know why different elemental wolves who visit the “Hidden Howl” are perfectly fine meeting up and soliciting with each other, even being romantic (as hinted by Blizzard), but Nautilus must keep his identity as a hybrid a secret. It seems like a continuity error because it is not explained in the novel.
Despite giving a 1-star, I read this book all the way through. Again, the pacing, imagery and Aurora’s character arc was good enough to let me make it to the end of the book, but it certainly would have benefited from beta readers/editor’s perspective. In summary, the world building was lacking, the villain’s motives are not believable, and Sandstorm is obviously copied from Avatar the Last airbender.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2024
I loved Frozen secret so much it was the best book I read so far in reading, at least it is in the top 3 right now.” tHen whY diDn’T yOu giVe iT 5 sTaRs.” The ending was a bit less of what I expected,but I do have to say my expectations were so high. I will start by telling you what I liked about it.
( There are Spoilers )First the beginning of the prologue started very strong, it started when Aurora was woken up by her brother and he told her that the sky pack leader( Queen Tempest )was in their town. This part shows that tempest is a hero to the sky pack and it shows how much Aurora looks up to Tempest. Then it goes to when Aurora was older and she was in the mines. Then her brother showed Aurora the Hidden Howl and she meet Ember.( A few pages later ) Aurora went to the Hidden Howl and Aurora showed a spy the way to the Hidden Howl. That’s when Aurora met Nautilus and Sandstorm, then the Hidden Howl was exploding with sky pack knights. Which was a part that I liked, now I am going to talk about the thing I didn’t like.
( I am skipping to the end now, but there was a lot of fun before this ) This is the part that I thought something was going to happen but it didn’t. Aurora had a chance to become Queen but… She TURNED DOWN THE OFFER…AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
ummm ya why did she turn down the offer she had a beautiful upgrade and when I say that I mean it her wings were tipped with gold.
Even though I only gave the book 4 stars I really recommend this book for all ages and I would like u to recommend this to everyone that has not read it.
( There are Spoilers )First the beginning of the prologue started very strong, it started when Aurora was woken up by her brother and he told her that the sky pack leader( Queen Tempest )was in their town. This part shows that tempest is a hero to the sky pack and it shows how much Aurora looks up to Tempest. Then it goes to when Aurora was older and she was in the mines. Then her brother showed Aurora the Hidden Howl and she meet Ember.( A few pages later ) Aurora went to the Hidden Howl and Aurora showed a spy the way to the Hidden Howl. That’s when Aurora met Nautilus and Sandstorm, then the Hidden Howl was exploding with sky pack knights. Which was a part that I liked, now I am going to talk about the thing I didn’t like.
( I am skipping to the end now, but there was a lot of fun before this ) This is the part that I thought something was going to happen but it didn’t. Aurora had a chance to become Queen but… She TURNED DOWN THE OFFER…AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
ummm ya why did she turn down the offer she had a beautiful upgrade and when I say that I mean it her wings were tipped with gold.
Even though I only gave the book 4 stars I really recommend this book for all ages and I would like u to recommend this to everyone that has not read it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 23, 2023
This review was written by a 13-year-old amateur author.
Ehh, it’s okay. The writing is okay, but there are multiple mistakes. The author uses the same words too close together. “Wordlessly added” is used at least 5 times in this book, as well as “(insert character name) almost fainted from the shock.”
Also, there’s a huge issue with all of Torro’s books that I have noticed.
“The two birds were quickly locked in a swirling mass of snapping beaks and slashing talons.”
This sentence was first used in SkyTalons: Cornelius’s Curse, and I thought it was good vocabulary when I read it. But then, I read the sentence again a few chapters later. And again, and again…
This sentence is repeated 7 times in book 1 of SkyTalons. I read the book and counted how many times she used it.
Then, she used it AGAIN in this book, Frozen Secrets, but changed to fit wolves.
“The two wolves immediately became locked in a swirling mass of snapping fangs and slashing claws.”
I’m currently reading Shadows Within, the second book of SkyTalons, and I will not be surprised if I find it again.
I will not be reading the subsequent books in this series.
Ehh, it’s okay. The writing is okay, but there are multiple mistakes. The author uses the same words too close together. “Wordlessly added” is used at least 5 times in this book, as well as “(insert character name) almost fainted from the shock.”
Also, there’s a huge issue with all of Torro’s books that I have noticed.
“The two birds were quickly locked in a swirling mass of snapping beaks and slashing talons.”
This sentence was first used in SkyTalons: Cornelius’s Curse, and I thought it was good vocabulary when I read it. But then, I read the sentence again a few chapters later. And again, and again…
This sentence is repeated 7 times in book 1 of SkyTalons. I read the book and counted how many times she used it.
Then, she used it AGAIN in this book, Frozen Secrets, but changed to fit wolves.
“The two wolves immediately became locked in a swirling mass of snapping fangs and slashing claws.”
I’m currently reading Shadows Within, the second book of SkyTalons, and I will not be surprised if I find it again.
I will not be reading the subsequent books in this series.
March 10, 2023
This book delivers so much! Mystery, suspense, action, romance, betrayal, adventural freedom, and of course, wolves! The unique story and writing is perfect for anybody of any age or gender. This series has become such a big part of my life and I strongly encourage anybody who wants a great page-turner to consider the first book of the TWoE series, you won't regret it! Happy reading!
June 24, 2025
For a juvenile fiction this book was pretty solid. As an adult its a little simple but that's a reflection of the target age group. There are some plot points that could have been explained a little more though even for a middle grade book. The elemental packs were a cool idea and the plot completed in a nice package. Solid book for kids and a fun quick book for adults.
March 31, 2025
OMG. I never would have expected something this good from a teen author. I wish that Sandstorm had appeared a little earlier in the book. I finished it in a week, which is half the time I would normally finish a book. I will definitely be reading the next one.
October 15, 2023
I bought this book for my granddaughter. She loves this!! 👍
January 10, 2024
It's an impressive start for a teen author, but the writing was a bit rough and hard to follow.
July 7, 2024
To have been written by the author when she was 15 it is quite an impressive piece of work, but it seems a bit predictable and like copy paste of a lot of other stories. It was okay. 2 stars.
September 8, 2024
Good so far
So far the series is pretty good.I'm looking forward to continuing it to see how the story plays out and ends.
So far the series is pretty good.I'm looking forward to continuing it to see how the story plays out and ends.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews