Thank you Netgalley and St Martins Press for an eARC in return for an honest review.

After the death of her father, teenager Amelie is left orphaned and moves to London to make it on her own.
Fortunately, she meets Carolyn who takes her in and she forms a solid friendship with her.

As an adult, Amelie is married to the very wealthy Ned Hawthorpe. Their marriage is based on lies and when she is kidnapped Amelie goes into survival mode. She tries to piece together the events that got her to this point.

I was all in the 80%. The last 20% was all info dumping with an abrupt ending.

This book was a freaking ride! I liked so much about it from the short chapters to dual timelines plus never knowing what was going on! I was kept guessing the entire book, I only really started piecing things together at almost 90% haha. I felt so bad for Amelie throughout the whole book, she's just down on luck and clearly extremely naive. I really couldn't help but love Hunter. My only thing was that I found some of the characters really lacked depth that I would have liked.

Thank you netgalley and St Martin's Press for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely loved!! B.A. Paris really is in a league of her own. The Prisoner was fantastic! What I loved the most was how complex the characters are but I felt like I got to know them all pretty well. The setting was great, the writing I loved, and clue after clue this just got better. Bravo!

WoW! B.A Paris does it again! This one will leave you guessing until the very end.

B.A Paris is an autobuy author for me. This may be my favorite by this author to date.

The Prisoner begins with all the fraught tension you’d want in a thriller but quickly unravelled the longer it went on.

It opens with vicious men snatching Amelie and her wealthy husband in the middle of the night. She tries and fails to identify her captors.

The story alternates between Amelie’s recent past and her present time in captivity.

As a teenager, Amelie moved to London on her own after both of her parents passed away. Not long after her move, she met Carolyn Blakely, who took her under her wing, giving her a housekeeping job and a place to live.

Now, a few years later, Amelie is the wife of the wealthy Ned Hawthorpe.

The first half of this book was super compelling, but it went on longer than it probably needed to. It felt like some parts were spoon-fed to the reader.

Much of the story was OTT, but I was still eagerly flipping the pages, keen to see how everything tied together.

I liked Amelie’s initiative to try to gain some control of the situation when she was in captivity.

This book was my first time reading B. A. Paris, and I will definitely check out more of her books in the future.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booksandwheels.com

I am a huge fan of BA Paris, but I had a very hard time getting into The Prisoner. I did finish reading it and enjoyed it, but it wasn't my favorite by this author. I appreciate the opportunity for the ARC and I will be purchasing this title for our library.

B.A. Paris' books have been a hit or miss for me since her first novel. I have mixed feelings about The Prisoner. I think it mainly has to do with the kidnapping and whole locked in a room story line, which I feel has been way over done in a lot of thrillers I have read recently. The ending of this book was just meh for me, and I was left feeling let down and disappointed. There were also a lot of characters to keep track of. I did enjoy Amelie's back story, though. Overall, this story fell flat for me. Paris is so very talented, and can really write in a fashion to keep you on the edge of your seat, but The Prisoner didn't do that for me. 3 stars.

Summary:

Amelie begins a job working for billionaire Ned Hawthorne. When she’s asked to accompany him on a trip to Las Vegas, she is thrilled to be riding in a private jet and traveling like the rich and famous. After a whirlwind of events, Amelie leaves Las Vegas married to Ned.

Not long after the wedding and some traumatic events, Amelie wakes up as a prisoner trapped in a room being delivered food by unknown men.

Why is she being held hostage? Who are the men holding her prisoner?!

My Thoughts:

This was an original storyline as BA Paris usually is known for. I have liked all of the past books, but this one was a little slow for me and not my favorite.

I would give this a 3/5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader’s digital copy of The Prisoner.

The Prisoner will be released on November 1, 2022.

B.A. Paris is brilliant. Her books never fail to entertain me and The Prisoner was no different. It was fast paced with short chapters going between the past and the present. I just wanted to keep reading to see what would happen next. The main character Amelie was very likable. I rooted for her the entire time. Her husband Ned, on the other hand, was totally despicable. I was asking myself who kidnapped her and why. Guessing and guessing. The ending was a bit abrupt, but overall, The Prisoner was creepy, twisty and addicting. Everything I love in a book.

I highly recommend!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Pub date: November 1, 2022

Thank you @BAParisAuthor, @StMartinsPress and @NetGalley for an ebook ARC. The opinions are mine alone and not biased in any way.

“𝑼𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒍 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝑰’𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆, 𝑰’𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒔 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆.”

B.A. Paris is a hit or miss author with me, but I always like giving authors multiple chances, plus her newest release had a premise that caught my attention.

The opening chapter of a kidnapping in progress caught my interest right away and I was super excited to see where the story was going to go. Paris has a way of creating stories that are page turners; with short chapters and a past (pre kidnapping) and present (kidnapped) timeline, it was easy to get sucked into the story… until it wasn’t. I got to a point where I wanted answers quicker as to why this kidnapping happened; the past narration felt slow moving (and yet unbelievably quick - Amelie and Ned aren’t married very long). I listened to part of this on audiobook and read part; the narration by Georgia Maguire wasn’t for me in the first part; the narration wasn’t expressive enough and made Amelie seem whiny (although I found it much more interesting to listen to in part two). There is also a lack of character development; some of the characters seemed out of a cartoon. I predicted a few of the twists, but still did want to see how things unfolded (although I struggled at how Amelie didn’t see some of it before), and the ending had a lot of telling, not showing.

The Prisoner is a story of money, coverups, hiding the truth, and justice. Although it wasn’t really for me, there are lots of great reviews for it. I think fans of easy-to-digest popcorn thrillers would especially enjoy it! Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, MacMillan Audio, and NetGalley for the ARCs!

This book was interesting, fast, and a surprising take on a thriller! You never quite know what is happening or why but you are along for the ride. I really enjoyed it (as I have most of Paris' books) and I highly recommend it for psychological thriller readers!

Thanks to B.A. Paris, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Amelie has had a rough life and when her boss Ned proposes a business deal that could help her become a lawyer without the financial burden she accepts. She starts to realize that Ned isn’t who he says he is and she needs to get out, but how? Suddenly Ned and Amelie are kidnapped and she has so many more questions.

I really enjoyed the short chapters of the book and that is was easy to read. I was hooked into the book for the first half and then my interest slowly started to fade. The explanation of the kidnapping and how everything came into place was a little long. I have heard so many great things about B.A Paris books I was so excited to read this one. Overall, I thought the book was good and easy to read.

3.5 stars. I have generally enjoyed books by B.A. Paris, and I did enjoy this one. This is the story of Amelie, a young woman who was orphaned at 16 and has struggled to survive on her own. She eventually ends up married to her boss -- a young and handsome (but eccentric) billionaire -- only to find herself kidnapped and placed into a pitch-black room. I did keep turning pages to find out who had kidnapped Amelie (and why), and the storyline definitely held my interest. However, I was disappointed in the ending, which seemed too contrived and far-fetched. Nonetheless, I look forward to B.S. Paris' next endeavor!

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

Amelie is kidnapped and held in a dark room. You can feel her panic throughout the book.
The chapters go back and forward, then and now. Some of the plot was weird and I thought would never happen for real. But the book was an interesting and a quick read.

This is the first B. A. Paris book I've read and based on this experience, she just made my go-to list of authors for psychological thrillers. If this book is any indication of what I can expect from Paris, I'm all in.

When sixteen-year old Amelie Lamont's father dies, the orphan escapes to London before she can be placed in care. There she learns to fend for herself until she meets the beautiful Carolyn Blakely. Alone and unemployed, Amelie jumps at Carolyn's offer of being her housekeeper; that is a turning point in her life. With the help of newly acquired friends, Amelie is offered a job at billionaire Ned Hawthorpe's glitzy magazine. On a trip to Las Vegas, Amelie enters into what she thinks is a quid pro quo arrangement by agreeing to marry Ned. Unfortunately, she is held hostage in the marriage until kidnappers abduct both her and Ned for ransom. Now she is a prisoner of a different sort and she wonders how to escape both the kidnappers and her arrangement with Ned.

This is an intricately plotted story with twists abounding. One wonders how Amelie can escape in this page-turner that starts fast and doesn't let up. The characters are well developed and the situations Amelie finds herself in are chilling. The tension mounts as the action switches back and forth between her current predicament and her past and the road leading up to the kidnapping. If you're already a fan of Paris or a first time reader like me and enjoy a good mystery/thriller, this is a book for you.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this book for review. The publication date is November 1, 2022.

I loved the first part of it - I was so invested and listened to the chapters so quickly. I feel like the ending was maybe a bit of a let down - It was a bit exhausting listening to the explanation of how things came to be. I suppose it wrapped it up and explained everything though and then the very end just kind of let me down.
I did like the character of Amelie - I think she was well developed and I liked her back story. I think I would have liked a bit of a back story on Ned Hawthorpe - What made him so evil? Was it just his privileged background or something else. I am a big fan of B.A. Paris but i have to say - this is not my favorite of her books - I'll have to go with a 3 star rating for this one -

I really think that B.A. Paris is one of my very favorite thriller authors. These books always keep me guessing.

I went into this book, knowing very little about the plot. It was a book that I was interested in reading, because I really enjoyed the author. I am so glad that I went into this book, knowing as little as I did. Because of that, I feel like my frustration and confusion matched that of the situation in the book, and it made the story so much more enjoyable, and impactful.

I will say that the first maybe 20 pages why I did not know a single thing I’d be so stressed out because you start this book at the height of the action and you don’t know the context and you don’t know what’s going to happen. So, you literally know nothing. however, as the book progresses, and you start to learn more about what is currently happening, and what has happened in the past the book becomes impossible to put down. I found that the more I read the more I needed to read, there was no point where I thought, “Oh yeah OK I’m done with this book for now.” I quite literally devoured this book in one afternoon.

I was a little worried about how this storyline with sustain an entire book because so much of it was in Amelie’s head but then around 65% of the way through the book there’s a complete shift and families, goals and intentions change. I will say, though the fact that the book was as compelling as it was with so much of it, just being in Amelie‘s head, and she doesn’t know what’s going on at all I think really shows how good of a writer B.A. Paris is.

What I think was done so well with this book is the thriller aspect was obviously there, but then there are a lot of complicated themes like Stockholm syndrome, and you know, complicated relationships that are dealt with in the second half of the book that I really appreciated, and then I think more than just your typical thriller.

I wish I knew what happened at the end, but I loved it was left on cliffhanger because I think that any ending would be unsatisfying and I don’t think it’s possible for there to have been a happy ending for this book.

I received a digital ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley.

I enjoyed this smartly-written novel. The short chapters kept me turning pages, and wondering how everything was going to play out. However, I do believe that the ending was rushed.

In this novel, we meet Amelie, who agrees to marry Ned for reasons other than love. The marriage becomes part of a much bigger issue.

The Prisoner begins with Amelie being kidnapped along with her husband, Ned. We learn about their relationship and her past through a timeline that switches between the present and the past, culminating in how Amelie got where she is.

The novel is incredibly fast-paced and I wanted to know just who the captors were and what they wanted, but the overall story did not feel very new. I did not enjoy the short and choppy sentences and the lack of character development for most of the characters. When I was ready to begin what I thought would be the next chapter, it was the end. I think the idea behind the book was interesting, but I wanted more from the story and the characters.

I'd like to thank NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy of The Prisoner by B.A. Paris in exchange for my honest review.

At first The Prisoner started off a bit slow, but it picked up rather quickly. I found myself wanting to rush through the book because I couldn't wait to find out what happened. I wasn't entirely shocked by the the ending as I was pretty sure I knew what would happen. However, I was surprised by the motive. The ending was a little abrupt for my liking, and I would love a sequel but doubt there will be one.

All in all, I really enjoyed The Prisoner by B.A. Paris and can't wait for her next book as she's an amazing writer. 4 out of 5 stars.