To Cage a Wild Bird (Deluxe Limited Edition): A Dystopian Prison Romance Where Love Becomes a Weapon and Trust Means Survival (Divided Fates, 1)

To Cage a Wild Bird is set in a brutal prison with wealthy citizens hunting inmates for sport. A bounty hunter deliberately gets herself arrested and forms a forbidden attraction to a mysterious guard. Brooke Fast had plenty of material for a tense dystopian romance. I understood every major piece of the plot. I rarely felt much while reading it. Raven Thorne enters Endlock to save her younger brother after he receives a life sentence. Her reputation as Dividium’s feared bounty hunter follows her inside. Many prisoners have very personal reasons to hate the woman responsible for putting them there. Raven also becomes tangled up with Vale. He is a guard whose loyalties are far more complicated than his uniform suggests. The romance moved slowly without creating enough chemistry to make the wait exciting. Raven and Vale spend plenty of time yearning, brushing pinkies, questioning each other, and refusing to acknowledge what is fairly obvious. I wanted more force and less hesitation. Their eventual spicy scene was easily a romantic highlight. Vale’s dirty talk finally brought some much needed chemistry after such a long journey to get there. Raven also became increasingly frustrating. She enters the book as an accomplished bounty hunter who has survived violence, poverty, and loss. Her confidence seems to disappear once the hunting begins. She frequently panics and constantly distrusts the people helping her. Her descent mentally made her feel younger and less capable as the plot progressed. Her behavior needed more development to reconcile the ruthless bounty hunter described to readers when compared with the frightened woman who appeared. Vale had similar problems with characterization. His mysterious behavior creates uncertainty early on, but his actions reveal his priorities long before Raven accepts them. The hardcover bonus chapter from his perspective did little to change my understanding of him. Vale spends most of the scene debating how much he should tell Raven and thinking about his attraction to her. I hoped his perspective would reveal more understanding for his motivations. Yara was easily my favorite character. Her fashionista personality and sharp one-liners brought some much-needed life to Endlock. Her history also gave her an edge that made me curious about who she had been before prison. I would happily have traded several Raven and Vale yearning scenes for more time with Yara. The prison break and secret tunnels should have created some of the story’s strongest suspense. Sparse descriptions sometimes made the action difficult to picture. A few transitions also left me unsure about exactly how the characters moved from one obstacle to another. Major confrontations could pass surprisingly fast after receiving substantial buildup. The result felt more like being told what happened rather than experiencing the danger beside the characters. The writing is perfectly understandable. The pieces of the larger series are clearly being positioned for book two. The feeling of connection was missing. I never became particularly worried about the characters, swept up in Raven and Vale’s romance, or eager to see Dividium brought down. I never connected with the YA-leaning dystopian romance, forbidden attraction, prison survival, found family, and a long stretch of romantic yearning. I am content leaving Raven and Vale at the end of book one.

Thank you Netgalley, Avon & Harper Voyager, and Author Brooke Fast for the eARC copy of "To Cage a Wild Bird" in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

Brooke Fast brings to life the story of Raven. A girl who would do anything to protect those that she loves even if it means losing herself and sacrificing herself. Welcome to the safe City of Dividium where the only acceptance is for law abiding unquestioning citizens. Failure to comply is not an option, unless you want to end up in the inescapable prison known as Endlock. Raven is a bounty hunter for the lower sector of Dividium. When her brother Jed is arrested and taken to Endlock, Raven sets up a plan to join the resistance and find an escape from the Prison. One prison guard is willing to risk it all to help her and her group.

This book has a good premise to it and raises a lot of good questions. However, at some points it shifted into repetitiveness. The lore was restated way too much in the beginning and middle with only very small details added. It felt as if the author didn't trust me to remember things before adding more to it. The romance was ... not great. We did not have nearly enough interactions or any sense with the romantic interest to form the attachment that we are told they have. It comes across more as lust rather than love. The love interest is an interesting character though and getting to know him more would have been wonderful.

The very beginning of the book for the set-up and the trip to Endlock felt too set up. Everything was just too perfectly lined up in getting her / convincing her to go to Endlock. Everything after that was overtly predictable. A lot of the time it felt as if I was having my hand held through the story and told over and over again about certain things. The prison itself was cool and the concept was great, but at the same time it was lacking and bland. Rather than feeling like I was at a prison, I felt more like I was on the Ark in the 100 or a blander version of the Silo in the book Wool.
The pacing was off a lot of the times as well.

Regardless of my potentially harsh review I left, I think I might still end up owning a physical copy of this book to revisit it later. The characters are interesting and the world is one that drags you in. I do think this story is worth the read.

Published on Peeking Between the Pages (https://peekingbetweenthepages.com/2026/04/to-cage-a-wild-bird-by-brooke-fast-audiobook.html) To Cage a Wild Bird is the debut novel from Brooke Fast, and what a fantastic debut it is! Fast-paced and exciting, I could not put it down. Combining a dystopian world with a prison setting where the wealthy are allowed to hunt prisoners had me hooked from the very first page. Raven Thorne is a notorious bounty hunter living in the city of Dividium. The rules there are simple: break the law and you receive a life sentence in Endlock. It’s definitely not a prison you ever want to end up in. It’s rough, dangerous, and the wealthy make a sport of hunting the inmates. The chances of Raven landing there are slim — after all, she’s the one bringing criminals in. But when her brother Jed is sentenced to life in Endlock, she deliberately gets herself arrested so she can go inside and protect him. She would die for him if she had to. Daily life in Endlock is as dangerous as expected, but Raven is tough and always on alert. She doesn’t trust easily — if at all. Still, she slowly begins to form connections with a few other inmates as they look for a way to survive… and possibly escape. It doesn’t hurt that Vale, a prison guard she met on the outside, seems to be quietly helping her and her new friends. The connection between Raven and Vale is fierce and intense. Even though Raven fights against being vulnerable, Vale has a way of stirring feelings she thought were long buried. I loved Raven. She’s strong, independent, and fiercely protective of the people she loves. Watching her grow from someone who trusts no one to someone willing to open her heart was one of my favorite parts of the story. The romance between her and Vale felt just right. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Nikki Massoud, and it was amazing. She’s so easy to listen to and really brought the story to life. I felt like I was right there with Raven, fighting to survive inside the prison. To Cage a Wild Bird is the first book in the Divided Fates series, and I’m already anxiously waiting for the next one. A strong debut and a fantastic audiobook experience! Review copy provided by the publisher and The Gloss for an honest review. Previously published on The Gloss.