This one has been recommended to me (a notorious wolf xenofiction fan) several times, so let's see what the buzz is about regrading this series with its first book: Frozen Secrets. Spoilers ahead.
Aurora is a winged Sky Wolf and is loyal to a fault to the Sky Wolf royal, Queen Tempest. But when her brother gets her to meet wolves of the other elemental species (Fire, Earth and Water)a forbidden act, Aurora starts to slowly question her loyalties, especially with Tempest demanding she spy on these wolves. Aurora and her new friends Ember and Nautilus now have to make a great journey of peril and self-discovery in order to not only save themselves, but also all of Elementa.
I like this book. It's solid. It's nothing groundbreaking in regards to it being a fantasy animal xenofiction, but I genuinely liked this one. I had fun reading it, the world is creative and expansive and our main characters are quite fun. The villain was also an imposing threat and the final resolution was a satisfying one. There's also some good setup for the future books: with Aurora and her friends vowing to try and make peace between all the separated elemental wolf packs.
Do I have some gripes? Yeah, here and there, but nothing major. First, I did spot several errors in regards to punctuation and spelling. Which I usually don't make a huge fuss about for indie books, especially those published by younger authors, but still I do bring them up in my reviews. Again, not really something that bothers me that much but they still technically shouldn't be here.
What else got me to not give it a higher rating was that the book is a bit...basic. Don't get me wrong, it's not super generic, there's tons of interesting world-building and concepts to be found here. But for some things the execution was a bit basic. Not bad, mind you, but kind of by-the-books if you get what I mean. Especially Aurora's arc. From pretty much the moment she got introduced as a Tempest-idolizing young Sky wolf who was quite xenophobic and racist towards the other elemental species, I could instantly tell what her arc was going to be and how it was going to play out. And the book...pretty much followed exactly what I imagined would happen with no real surprises for Aurora's character (at least so far in book one). And that's not bad, but I just find the execution of her arc this way to be rather bland.
And also a bit rushed. Again, it's not a bad arc and even it being a very by-the-books character arc isn't bad (just a tad cliché), but the pacing also just bothers me a bit. From the moment Aurora meets wolves of other elemental species, particularly Ember, she instantly kind of just starts to bond with them and question her beliefs regarding them and by extension Tempest (because Tempest is basically the one pushing all the xenophobia and racism to other species onto her subjects).
Which is an arc I can buy, but I don't think that after Aurora's first single time of meeting them she should instantly be questioning everything she knows. In the early chapters she's very clearly shown to be incredibly dedicated to her Tempest-idolizing and following her rules to a T, including being racist and xenophobic to the other species. Of course she's going to go through her arc of realizing Tempest's rules and racism are bullshit eventually, but for her to instantly start having doubts at the first meeting feels a bit rushed. Honestly if this had happened at her third or heck even second meeting after bonding more with these wolves or having a thorough talk about it with Blizzard I could buy her slowly starting to doubt her loyalties, but not at the first meeting. So bottom line with Aurora's arc is: it's a standard one and executed with not a lot of surprises, and it's a bit rushed, but it's also not bad.
The other characters I did find quite likable, with Ember (who is clearly hiding secrets), Nautilus and his friendliness and unique heritage, and Sandstorm, who is by far my favorite. She's not nice; she's cocky, she's overly aggressive and violent and even scars our main character, but she's also not a villain. Tempest is also a pretty basic villain but she does serve as a legit threat and she does have some depth to her with her clearly being driven mad with grief over the death of her daughter. Not that it justifies any of her actions, but I do appreciate that late into the book we were given a glimpse into the emotional side of things for her. I wonder if they'll develop her further in future books?
So overall this was a neat little xenofiction. Yes, I have a few issues with it and it's not the most unique storyline or character arc ever, but it's still well-written and the world-building is neat, to the point I can't wait to see more of Elementa in future installments as we get to explore the other realms (based on the ending of this book).
Rating: 3.5/5
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