Below is the complete list of Caroline Peckham’s and Susanne Valenti‘s Cage Of Lies books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Cage Of Lies Books
with Susanne Valenti
- Rebel Rising / Chained (2015)
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Rebel Rising / Chained was published in 2015 and is listed as book #1 in the Cage Of Lies series.
About Cage Of Lies
Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti’s Cage Of Lies series is a dystopian romance and survival story set in a tightly controlled city where the truth has been hidden behind walls, rules, and fear. The series begins with Rebel Rising, which was previously published as Chained, and introduces a world where people are taught to accept the limits placed around them without questioning what lies beyond. That setup gives the series its central tension: the heroine is not only fighting enemies, but also the lies that have shaped her entire understanding of reality.
The main character, Maya, lives in a city that functions like a cage. Its people are controlled by the Guardians, and the world outside the Wall is treated as dangerous, unknowable, or forbidden. Maya’s awakening begins when she starts to question the system around her and discovers that obedience may be the very thing keeping everyone trapped. The dystopian framework is familiar in shape—restricted society, hidden truth, powerful enforcers, rebellion—but Peckham and Valenti use it to build a story driven by urgency, emotion, and the pressure of a young woman realizing she has been lied to.
Rebel Rising establishes the most important pieces of the series: Maya’s growing defiance, the mystery beyond the Wall, the threat of the Guardians, and the need to survive long enough to uncover what the city’s rulers are protecting. The book has the feel of an escape story, but the deeper movement is about perception. Maya has to learn that the rules she was raised with are not neutral. They were built to control what people see, what they believe, and how far they dare to hope.
The series can be slightly confusing in listings because of title history and publishing changes. Rebel Rising is the revised and retitled version of Chained, the original first book of the Cage Of Lies saga. Older references may also show later titles such as Linked, Cut Glass, and Bound connected to the original saga. For readers approaching it through Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti’s current catalogue, the most important point is that Rebel Rising is the key entry associated with the modern Cage Of Lies presentation.
Cage Of Lies is different from the authors’ later, more famous romance worlds such as Zodiac Academy, Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac, Darkmore Penitentiary, and The Harlequin Crew. It is less about fae courts, supernatural prisons, or dark academy romance, and more about dystopian control, rebellion, and the personal cost of discovering that safety may have been an illusion. The romantic element is part of the emotional pull, but the series’ strongest identity comes from danger, secrecy, and resistance.
The appeal of Cage Of Lies lies in its compressed, high-stakes premise. Maya’s world is narrow by design, and the story’s energy comes from watching that world crack open. It is a series about escaping more than a physical place. It is about escaping a manufactured truth, facing the unknown, and choosing to fight when every system around you has been built to keep you afraid.