I wanted to like this one but the ending was just a flop for me. I read tons of thrillers and have read all of this author's books. The story premise was a decent one but overall just not a hit for me. The audio book stopped before the end so I had to get the book to find out the ending,

B.A. Paris is an auto buy author for me. I have read several of this author's previous books and knew I had to get this one. I liked this one but maybe not as much as some of her previous books. I'll continue to read anything this author puts out.

B.A. Paris delivers hit after hit and always fresh unpredictable stories.

I had no idea what to expect with The Prisoner but the twists and turns of this thriller kept me guessing.

Our main character is Amelie, a young orphan who at the age of 16 is thrust into adulthood after her father dies. Knowing she has no relatives or friends to care for her and wanting to escape the unknown of foster care, Amelie leaves without a trace and tries to find her way in London.

By chance she meets Carolyn, a woman struggling through a rough divorce, who takes her in, gives her a job and a home and becomes a surrogate family. Through Carolyn, Amelie's life changes. She has means to take care of herself, a beautiful home to live in and now friends and connections, a chance to have a foot in the door for life and career.

After starting a job at the magazine a few of her friends at, Exclusives, she's asked to accompany the CEO to Las Vegas on a last minute business trip. While there, they strike up a mutually beneficial business agreement. The terms are too good to pass up and on such a short decision time Amelie makes her decision.

But what follows is totally unexpected. Amelie doesn't see it coming and neither does the reader. I hesitate to mention any more of the plot because I want every reader to be as surprised as I was.

Paris has a great writing style, her voice never goes stale. I loved this book and it captured my attention from start to finish.

I was starting to worry that the only book by Ba Paris that I would love was Behind Closed Doors. .. until I read this one. It’s definitely up there for me!! I enjoyed her other ones, but they just didn’t have the same feel for me. She’s such a solid thriller writer though. Her stories always have such a rich back story, characters and atmosphere. This is definitely an edge of your seat, have to read it in one sitting type of book. I can’t wait to buy this one and have it on my shelf!!!

After the death of her father, Amelie is determined to make it on her own. She was doing a pretty good job until she was kidnapped and wakes up in a pitch black room with no idea where she is or who brought her here.

I love me some BA Paris, so I was super excited for this book! Honestly, it was a good read, but nothing that stood out to me like many of her books have in the past.I didn’t hate it, I just also didn’t love it like I wanted to. I enjoyed the dual timeline, and seeing how things got to where they are now, but it felt a little bit predictable. I would have been interested in learning just a little bit more about the characters, they fell a bit flat for me. Overall, this was enjoyable but not what I have come to expect from Paris.

I am deep in the middle of my thriller binging for spooky season and was so excited to get an advanced copy of The Prisoner by B. A. Paris! I read and loved The Therapist and went into this book with high hopes!

I have to say, this took me three attempts to start, and even longer to get into. For some reason the first half just felt incredibly slow to me and I struggled to gain momentum.

It is a dual timeline story with a decent amount of characters and felt a bit all over the place to me. In the end, I did stay awake until 2am to get answers of what was going on so I do think it was compelling! Just a bit of an unrealistic jumble and not quite as successful as The Therapist in my opinion!

I did really like the main character and felt she was someone I rooted for throughout. I would love to get a second book of what she is up to in the future!

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am a fan of B.A. Paris and have read every novel released since Behind Closed Doors. The description of The Prisoner caught my attention right away and so did the beginning of the book since we start off with the kidnapping. A couple chapters later we get to officially meet Amelie Lamont and understand her story. She recently lost her dad, leaving her all alone in Paris. She moves to London and meets Carolyn Baker who takes her under her wing and they quickly form a friendship and through Carolyn, Amelie meets and develops friendships with both Carolyn’s friends Lina and Justine. She meets Ned, the owner of a magazine where Lina and Justine work and he offers her a job and then offers her a deal she can’t refuse, which involves them getting married and then shortly thereafter she and Ned get kidnapped.

I normally don’t like when books go between past and present day but I really feel like that was necessary for this book because there were so many characters and relationships to explore. I will say that because there were so many characters, it was hard to connect with any of them outside of Amelie and I would have liked to see a little more character depth. However, we did get to explore a layer of the relationships between Amelie, Carolyn, Justine and Lina, as well as the relationship between Amelie and Ned, Ned and his Father, Ned and his staff, etc.

To me, The Prisoner was a bit predictable in parts and unrealistic in others, and the ending was not my favorite but I still have to say overall I enjoyed it. It started off great, was a little slow in the middle, picked up some speed as we headed towards the end, but the end just didn’t satisfy me. I honestly do not know why the last quarter of the book was necessary and I felt like the mystery and suspense died down three-fourths of the way through.

I think this was a good solid read that I would give a 3 or maybe even a 3.5 because I always enjoy B.A.’s writing style and her ability to draw me in!

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book. I look forward to the next B.A Paris novel!

The Prisoner is a mystery told from the perspective of Amelie Lamont, a young woman with a difficult past who is abducted by mysterious captors. The book flips back-and-forth between present and past tense which gives the reader some background into how she came to be kidnapped.

I really enjoyed The Prisoner! I was hooked immediately and stayed engaged throughout the entire book. Would definitely recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Amelie has always been a survivor, from losing her parents as a child in Paris to making it on her own in London. Amelie agrees to marry handsome billionaire Ned Hawthorne for one month in exchange for the money she needs to become a lawyer. Starting off this book was a very addictive read but sadly it lost its steam about 3/4 ways through it. After a major development occurred, I thought there was too much left of the book to wrap things up and sure enough after that point things took a long, meandering path to its conclusion. A promising beginning but ultimately a disappointment.

Wow! This story is so compelling. I really couldn't put it down, and read it in two days. The main character, Amelie, comes across so powerfully--though she is exceptionally courageous and resilient for someone only 21 years old, it's believable considering her backstory, and she is an immensely sympathetic, if flawed, character. The shifting of timelines, tracing from different moments in the past leading up to each present-time chapter, is a device that works well to up the tension and suspense, and the secondary characters also come across authentically. I did guess the plot twist at the end, but the way it played out was still satisfying and held my interest to the last page. This is my favorite of this author's novels so far, and I highly recommend it to lovers of psychological thrillers!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced readers copy of The Prisoner. I enjoyed this fast paced thriller, with the short chapters and alternating time lines. It make for a quick read, having finished it in less than 24 hours! I liked the use of the dark room with no light as it lent to the fear of it all. I appreciated Amelie and her ability to keep fighting for herself. I’m not sure how I feel about Ned’s ending. Was it justice in a way? Sure. But with everything that happened, I think I would’ve somehow enjoyed it better if the foundation and his father came crumbling down with him. The ending of hope for Amelie on the last page was a good way to end the book. Overall it was a good, fast paced thriller. Thank you again to NetGalley for the ARC of The Prisoner!

Gripping suspense from a world class writer! A stunning new thriller about a woman who marries for money and is not prepared for what comes next. The author slowly reveals more information as the story progressing leaving the reader to wonder who to trust. I couldn't put it down!

3-3.5 stars

OK.

This started with a BANG, then was slow burn until about 40%. Then THE RECKONING happened and you have to just completely suspend all believe to get through the rest of the book. I wish this would have remained more believable because his had the makings of a 5 star book. The 2nd half really is where it went off the rails and lost me.

I liked it, but it could have been SO much better!

3.5⭐️

A psychological thriller from a popular author. I loved the audiobook version of behind closed doors, so was intrigued to read this.

It starts with a fab hook. Amelie and her new husband Ned have been kidnapped. They are separated and she finds herself in a dark room.

It has a past and present timeline. From the past we find out what has led to Amelie being in this situation.

I surprised myself by liking this book, I’m normally very pedantic about scenarios being plausible and believable. There were several here that weren’t at all, so you have to be able to go with the flow.

There’s plenty going on throughout with lots of interest and a decent pace. It’s an easy entertaining read, it’s quite dark in
places which I enjoyed but there’s no graphic descriptions.
I quite liked Amelie so was rooting for her. Ned was obnoxious, I wanted some serious karma for him!

I loved the premise of the story, if it could have been more believable in its execution it could easily have been a 5⭐️

Gripping from the first page! The first half of this story is kind of a slow burn after that terrifying opening but the second half is a roller coaster! Suspension of belief is necessary but that’s entertaining to me if written well and this one is expertly executed. I have read and not been a fan of some of this author’s other books, either too slow or too disturbing but this one was good and I’ll look forward to her next work. I’ve seen some less than favorable reviews on this one but I encourage people to give it a chance and form your own opinion. Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book is available for purchase on November 1, 2022.

I love be a Paris is books. This one didn’t disappoint. Very clever. The descriptions in the book were perfect. Characters excellent. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes thrillers. Thank you Nead Gilly and the publisher for allowing me the privilege

I normally really enjoy B.A. Paris’ books but had a really hard time getting through this one. I found it boring and monotonous and couldn’t make myself care for any of the characters.

4.5 I love this author's writing style and ability to pull in the reader from the first page. Unexpected twists, some genuinely horrible characters, and a satisfying ending. There were a few minor things I had issue with but overall I really loved it. I switched between audio and the book and the audio was really well done. Great narration and easy to follow, even with the time just from past to present.

The Prisoner by B.A. Harris is a twisty ride. The beginning of the novel starts off with Amelie getting kidnapped and not knowing why. As the book progresses, it switches between the past and present. Amelie, orphaned at 17, moves to London to make it on her own. Once there, a woman takes pity on her and invites her to be a live-in maid but over time they become friends and Amelie is drawn into her world and circle of friends. Amelie meets Jed Hawthorne, a young billionaire and boss to her boss, who lays out an idea - a quick marriage to get his dad off his back in exchange for money to pay for Amelie's law school tuition. Little does she know how much she will regret entering into this arrangement.

I thought the book was fine. The chapters are short, which makes it a quick read. I didn't really like any of the characters because they all seem pretty one dimensional. The book hooks you at the beginning and then just keeps going and going and going. The finale seemed rushed as well and then it just ends. I was not very satisfied with where the characters ended up and a lot of what happened could have been prevented if people just talked to each other.

Overall, a quick thrill ride of a book but not the best by the author.

The Prisoner is an intriguing novel told in mostly alternating chapters in the present and the past and has the reader constantly guessing as to what is actually happening. The book is well written and tells the story of an orphaned teenaged girl in England and how she survives on her own — through friendships developed, a marriage, a kidnapping and murders.

The book is a definite page turner and I read it very quickly due to the surprises throughout and, of course, at the end. I thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this novel prior to publication.