The Prisoner was highly engaging and intense at times. The dual timeline helped explain the background and kept the plot thrumming along. This format stopped about 2/3 of the way through and so did the propulsion of the plot. My interest waned a bit and I just wanted to know what happened. I found the plot to be genius, if not far-reaching at times. There also seemed to be no ending; the story just stopped. B.A. Paris has written a couple of great books and this has the potential to be one of them.

The Prisoner
by B.A. Paris
Thank you so much to @netgalley and @baparisauthor for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I did read the book, start to finish, BUT, it just didn't seem realistic much of the time. Amelie seemed most of the time, as if she may be an adult. Wise, but too wise. I just didn't see it as one I could sink into 100%. I did want to give it a 3. 5

Amelie Lamont is down on her luck when a chance encounter with the glamourous Carolyn changes everything--culminating in her marriage to billionaire Ned Hawthorpe.

But the stakes change when she's kidnapped and wakes up in a pitch black room with no idea who--or where--her captors are. Or worse yet: what they want from her.

B.A. Paris's latest, The Prisoner, is a quick read, but not one I found particularly satisfying. I did enjoy the format, and the slow reveal of past and present colliding. But I think I went in looking for a bit more suspense and tension and neither are there. On the contrary, Amelie's "captivity" is pretty easy, with an overall resolution that ties up too nicely. At times the dialogue feels forced and unnatural, which halted the flow for me as well.

I'm also desperately looking for characters I can root for and these weren't it. This cast felt really flat and were fairly unsympathetic. One the one hand, you have the guy who's such a dirt bag he's basically a caricature and on the other is Amelie, who's trying hard to play the weakling victim (when what did you expect walking into a marriage with someone you didn't know??) when she's supposed to be this hardened orphan.

I'm going to say that based on past books, this just isn't the author for me, but I do appreciate St. Martin's Press making The Prisoner available to read in exchange for a review on NetGalley.

I liked this. If I have one criticism, it's that the end struck me as a little abrupt. Overall, I enjoyed the book.

This was a very good book! I loved every bit of it from beginning to end!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

The Prisoner by BA Paris is another twist, heart-pounding thriller by a queen of suspense. I was really rooting for Amelie and as for Ned... well, I don't want to give anything away. This is a quick read I highly recommend!

So I liked this, but I'm not sure I loved it. The big twist at the end was a bit anti-climatic for me, and I wanted there to be more suspense and excitement throughout the book. That being said, I definitely read this one quickly. It didn't drag so much as I just wanted more! I also had a bit of hard time really connecting to or liking any of the characters. I've now read 3 B.A. Paris books and they've all been solid 4 star reads for me. I'll definitely be trying more of hers! Thanks so much to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the early review copy!

Thank you so much to @netgalley and @baparisauthor for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

First off...WOW. What a ride! I loved how your attention is grabbed from the very first sentence. What's unique about this story is that it immediately starts in the thick of the action, creating suspense from the get-go. I loved the alternating timelines and how the growth of Amelie was presented amidst the sections detailing her kidnapping. I also feel that the author did a great job writing about the aftereffects of trauma and how PTSD is such a powerful thing to have to endure.

I wasn't a huge fan of the ending. To me, it felt very abrupt and didn't give me a sense that the story was "complete". Even a few more pages tying up loose ends would have been better. There was such a giant build-up to that final confrontation, and the conclusion to me just fell flat. BUT, I still loved the story and would definitely recommend it.

I love thrillers with a strong female lead, and Amelie seemed to be a perfect fit for this. She might be young (late teens), but she doesn’t drink, she is smart, and knows how to make the best of her situation. She leaves Paris at 17 after her father dies and has to venture out in her own. She finds herself in London on the edge of homelessness when she meets an older woman (in her 30s) Carolyn who takes her in. Amelie can’t believe her luck, after meeting a group of women through Carolyn who feel like family. But soon she finds herself married to a horrible, abusive billionaire named Ned. This part of Amelie’s story is told as “past” and comes crashing into her “present” where she and Ned have been kidnapped.

The biggest problem with The Prisoners is that it is more sad than anything else. Sure, there are twists and shocking revelations; but my heart broke for Amelie and the book read like an unrelenting tragedy to me. I have loved some of B.A. Paris’ other works, but this one was a bit too much for me. I also found it quite confusing with too many characters who we didn’t learn enough about; people came and went, and I found myself having to remind myself who they were. The Prisoner was a bit of a letdown for me, but it was a page turner. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Amelie is orphaned at 17 after her father dies and moves to London where she befriends Carolyn, Lina, and Justine. She soon gets a job working at a magazine owned by billionaire Ned Hawthorpe. The two get married (a "business" deal) and that's when everything changes.
This is a fast-paced book with short chapters, which I like. It is broken up into two parts: The Kidnap and The Reckoning. Part one was great - engaging, suspenseful, and exciting. Part two is where it all falls apart, especially the ending, which has one character reciting to Amelie what *really* happened. That part was a huge turn-off as I don't like it when the characters just tell what happened.
Also, the ending/kidnapping explanation was not believable at all.
It's too bad because I did enjoy the first part of the book.

This one started out with the main character literally getting kidnapped, not wasting any time with the action. Oh, I love B.A. Paris and her writing. I feel so nervous (in the best way) reading her books. I read this one in a day, couldn't put it down. I will recommend this to everyone!

I absolutely love reading B A Paris books was super excited to get this ARC. In typical fashion, I stated reading this and was immediately was hooked. The book itself is broken up into 2 sections (part 1 and part 2). Part 1 was so riveting, I couldn’t put it down. Unfortunately, part 2 was not as good and I am very sad to say, that I had to force myself to finish it.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC for an honest review.

I was thrilled to get an advanced copy of the latest B. A. Paris book. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a favorite for me. I’ll admit that it was a quick read and kept me turning the pages, but it ultimately fell flat for me. One of the biggest negatives for me is when a thriller has one character explain everything to another character, thus wrapping up the twists. The twists, once revealed, also stretched believability. I’m all for not seeing something coming, but it still needs to be realistic.

I never turn down an opportunity to review a B.A. Paris book because she is an amazing author. I was never a huge fan of thrillers but Paris has a way of pulling you in. Her latest book, The Prisoner, is being released in November 2022 and I am so sorry that you have to wait for it.

This is the story of Amelie, a young woman living with her dying grandfather. She's a woman alone in the world with absolutely no one to depend on when he's gone. What's a not-quite-an-adult woman to do? Move to London, of course. Amelie leaves the world that she's known behind to live hand to mouth in London as a waitress saving to get her own place to live instead of being homeless. It's in a café where her life takes a turn for the positive and she meets Carolyn.

Carolyn takes Amelie in, gives her a job, and introduces Amelie to her friends. Eventually, Amelie meets a man, who is not what he seems, and he makes her a prisoner in her own home. But this is only the beginning of the story because just when you think that you finally have some resolution of Amelie's story, another one comes.

The Prisoner is a fabulous tale to twists and turns leaving on the edge of your seat until the very end. And even then, you never truly know the whole story.

Very engaging thriller that kept my attention throughout. The ending was surprising. I read a lot of thrillers and this was unlike the ones I’ve read. I usually don’t care for ones set outside of the US, but this was awesome!

3.5/5 Stars

Amelie is orphaned in her teens and the book begins with a little background into a series of fortunate events and acquaintances after she moves to London from Paris. She’s intelligent but still very young and naïve when her boss proposes, and she agrees to wed while they are in Las Vegas for business. Her new husband turns out to be a very scary guy with some equally scary enemies. The story is told in alternating short chapters of past and present. The first part of the book details the kidnapping of Amelie and Ned, her husband. The second part deals with the aftermath.

This book did have me turning pages, mostly to find out if I was correct about who the kidnappers were. I felt there was some redundancy during the first part. I wish the author had used those pages to delve deeper into the characters. The ending wrapped it up, I just felt unsatisfied. All in all, it was a good read, just not a great read as I’ve come to expect from B.A. Paris.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the chance to review this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I feel that The Prisoner was not as strong as Paris's last book, The Therapist. But it kept me hooked. I liked the concept though I was a little confused with the timeline at the beginning. I feel that the wife should've been made clearer earlier and there still would've been enough mystery surrounding the kidnapping.

B.A. Paris’s latest is yet another terrific thriller. Amelie is a kidnapping victim. She’s imprisoned in pitch black darkness and somewhere else nearby is her billionaire husband, Ned, who has also been kidnapped, but who really doesn’t care if they chop her up and send the pieces to his own billionaire father who is refusing to pay ransom. And just prior to this catastrophe, Amelie was being kept prisoner (although in a gilded cage) by Ned. How the heck did Amelie, sweet, young, orphaned, trying to get into law school and stay solvent and not homeless, land in this situation?

The book is divided into two parts: The Kidnap and The Reckoning. Part One ends as Amelie is released, but to what circumstances? Part Two is a sort of satisfying wrap-up of the consequences that led Amelie to her precarious position, although I admit that I felt it ended too abruptly — there still were a few loose ends. Nevertheless, it was an engrossing thriller with a central character, Amelie, that you can care about and root for. 4 stars!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO B.A. Paris does not assign a color to most character’s eyes (unusual for most authors], except for Ned’s gray eyes (just as rare as green in real life).
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Amelie does judge a house by the state of its garden (if the house is abandoned, of course everything’s in tangles and brambles).

Another hit from the author. Filled with much mystery. And enough suspense to keep the reader interested and turning pages. This is a book which I would recommend to all who like a good mystery.

Fast paced and compelling, but also a touch ridiculous. The really troubling thing for me was that our heroine, who presents as slightly naive but with sophisticated manners and polish, is a child. Literally (at least part of the time). I kept wondering why anyone was taking her seriously.