Below is the complete list of Caroline Peckham’s and Susanne Valenti‘s Darkmore Penitentiary books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Darkmore Penitentiary Books
with Susanne Valenti
- Caged Wolf / Darkmore Penitentiary (2020)
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Caged Wolf / Darkmore Penitentiary was published in 2020 and is listed as book #1 in the Darkmore Penitentiary series. - Alpha Wolf / Captive Fae (2020)
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Published in 2020, Alpha Wolf / Captive Fae is listed as book #2 in the Darkmore Penitentiary series. - Feral Wolf (2021)
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Feral Wolf is a 2021 release and appears as book #3 in the Darkmore Penitentiary series. - Wild Wolf (2024)
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In the Darkmore Penitentiary series, Wild Wolf is book #4 and was published in 2024.
About Darkmore Penitentiary
Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti’s Darkmore Penitentiary series is a dark paranormal romance set in Solaria, the same larger universe as Zodiac Academy and Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac. The series begins with Caged Wolf and follows Rosalie Oscura, a rare Alpha Moon Wolf shifter who deliberately enters the most dangerous prison in the kingdom. Her mission is personal from the start: she wants to free Roary Night, the lion shifter she has loved for years and believes was imprisoned because of her.
Darkmore is not just a prison setting added for atmosphere. It is the engine of the series. The penitentiary is built to contain powerful Fae, and every part of life inside it is shaped by dominance, survival, alliances, and fear. Status matters. Power matters. Weakness is noticed immediately. Rosalie enters with a plan, but the prison world does not allow anyone to remain in full control for long. What begins as a rescue mission quickly becomes a fight to survive the prison’s rules, its inmates, its guards, and the emotional chaos created by the men around her.
Rosalie is one of the series’ strongest assets because she is not passive in the face of danger. She is bold, cunning, physically capable, and already tied to Solaria’s criminal and supernatural power structures through the Oscura clan. Readers who know Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac will recognize her wider family connection, while readers coming to Darkmore first can still understand her as a fierce heroine with guilt, loyalty, and unfinished love driving her choices.
The romance structure is why Darkmore Penitentiary feels different from a standard prison-break fantasy. The series uses a reverse-harem setup, with Rosalie drawn into complicated bonds involving Roary Night, Sin Wilder, Ethan Shadowbrook, and Cain. Each man brings a different kind of danger and emotional pressure. Roary represents old love and the promise Rosalie refuses to abandon. Sin brings chaos, unpredictability, and a wildness that suits the brutal prison environment. Ethan adds pack politics, rivalry, and wolf-shifter tension. Cain, as a prison officer, introduces authority, control, and a forbidden edge that complicates Rosalie’s mission even further.
The books progress through Caged Wolf, Alpha Wolf, Feral Wolf, and Wild Wolf, with the final installment completing the main arc. Across the series, the stakes widen beyond escape. Rosalie must navigate prison politics, rival factions, magical danger, and the consequences of bonds formed in a place designed to break people. Peckham and Valenti use the closed setting well: because everyone is trapped inside Darkmore, emotions escalate quickly, secrets are harder to bury, and every alliance carries risk.
Darkmore Penitentiary also works as a later Solaria story. It is set after the events of Zodiac Academy, while Ruthless Boys provides earlier background for several connections. That wider placement gives the series extra weight for readers already invested in Solaria, but the prison storyline has its own identity. It is darker, more confined, more brutal in atmosphere, and more focused on survival under constant pressure.
The series is best understood as dark paranormal prison romance with strong reverse-harem and shifter elements. Its appeal lies in Rosalie’s refusal to be controlled, the dangerous chemistry between characters who should not trust each other, and the sense that freedom in Darkmore is never only about escaping the walls. It is also about power, loyalty, guilt, and deciding who is worth fighting for when every choice has a cost.