Rating: 4 stars

What do you do when the guy you’ve loved since you were fourteen is sent to the most dangerous prison in Solaria for saving your life?

Okay, so maybe he doesn’t love me back. And maybe getting sent down would seem insane to some, but I’m Rosalie Oscura, champion underground cage-fighter and alpha werewolf from the infamous Oscura Clan. My family wrote the book on criminal organisations and I’ll be ruling this place by the time the next moon rises.

Then I just need to get to work on busting us the hell out of here. ‘Us’ being me, the lion shifter I’ve loved for ten long years, and the most notorious criminal in here – a sinful incubus who’s been condemned to isolation for committing an unspeakable crime.

What’s the worst that could happen? I mean, short of being rejected by my mate, the black-hearted werewolf who rules over my sworn enemies, or getting myself noticed by the sinister vampire guard who has a dark vendetta against me. But how likely is that?

The trouble is, I need the help of those four alpha males to get out of here. And they happen to hate each other almost as much as they hate me.

But I always did love a challenge. And I never did learn when to back down. So how hard could it be to make them accept me as their leader?

Caged Wolf was previously titled ‘Darkmore Penitentiary’ and is a dark, shifter RH with rejected mates, age gap romance, enemies to lovers, psychos, violence and steamy scenes recommended for readers aged 18+.

It is set in the world of Solaria after the events of Zodiac Academy and Dark Fae and contains some character crossover but can be read as a standalone series without having read the other books.

Caged Wolf, the first book in the Darkmore Penitentiary series, was an enjoyable read for me from beginning to end. Like the rest of the series by these authors, this book had multiple points of view and I enjoyed reading the character’s perspectives that were in this book. I love that this series’ main character is someone in both the Zodiac Academy and Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac series that I enjoyed seeing even though she wasn’t a main character.

What this book did well for me was keep me engaged through the story. I feel like the story in this book so far moves along at a steady pace with just enough happening to keep you as a reader eager to find out what’s going to happen next. I feel like what helps with that is the setting as the place Rosalie is in is no ordinary prison. It’s a prison for the most dangerous criminals in the world of Solaria so anything is bound to happen each day she’s there.

What I also enjoyed about Caged Wolf is the character’s points of view we get. I especially found Cain and Sin’s chapters interesting. I loved seeing this story told from Sin’s point of view because of him being an Incubus and is the whole reason Rosalie is looking to bust out of Darkmore Penitentiary. I find Cain’s perspective interesting as well because of him being a guard at this prison and seeing his interactions with all the inmates even though I don’t know whether I like his character or not just because of the way he acts throughout the book. I enjoyed reading the chapters from Ethan and Roary’s points of view as well as they are characters I recognized from reading the Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac series and I enjoyed seeing them here.

What I appreciate about this series so far is that while there’s some romance, I feel like this book was more focused on what was going on to Rosalie in Darkmore Penitentiary instead. You see her different relationships with these guys and how she interacts with them. However, her focus is more on her finding a way out of the prison than developing a relationship with any of these guys. And I enjoyed that because while I enjoyed the last series I read by these authors, it sometimes felt like the plot focused more on the main character’s relationships than on what she was trying to set out to do. So while I want to get to know the characters in this series and see how they develop as the series goes on, it’s nice to have a main character focus on what she’s looking to accomplish.

If there’s anything in Caged Wolf that I have criticisms about it would have to be something in the plot I noticed when reading this book and how this book ended. So what bothered me in the plot of this book has to do with the rivalry between the Lunar Brotherhood and Oscura Clan, which played a huge role in the Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac series. The reason this bothers me with this book is because after reading that series from what I understood, both gangs were no longer at odds with each other. But in this book with the way Ethan acts towards Rosalie as their relationship continues to develop, I feel like I’m missing something here. I know this series takes place years after the other two series I’ve read so I’m thinking maybe the discrepancy I noticed has to do with information I don’t have yet. But it bothers me because its pretty clear from reading this book that the rivalry between the two gangs is still going on.  

With the way this book ended, I’m not completely sure how I feel about it. I enjoy what we find out from Rosalie’s perspective with regards to what’s going on in the Psych unit and the ensuing chaos Sin caused for her so that she could get in there. I enjoy these components near the end of the book because I feel like we find out there’s more going on in the prison than Rosalie expected. And I’m interested to see how this information correlates to the overall plot in this series as I continue reading it. However, what I didn’t like about the end of the book is how Cain acts. While I find his character interesting and want to get to know more about him, I felt like the way he acted at the end of this book was completely unnecessary. Especially because Rosalie saves his life when she very easily could’ve decided to let him die. It made me dislike his character here and eager to see her get back at him for it.

Overall though I enjoyed reading Caged Wolf, the first book in the Darkmore Penitentiary series. Like the rest of the book these two authors have written, the story had me hooked from beginning to end and the characters whose perspectives this story is told through intrigued me to continue reading to see what would happen next. Really excited to read Alpha Wolf, the next book in this series to see what happens next to Rosalie and the rest of the characters in this series.