I was in a bit of a slump so I reached for B.A. Paris! While this wasn't my favourite of hers, it was hard to put down. Also found I had to suspend some disbelief a bit more than I would like to for my psychological thrillers, and the ending was a bit rushed for me. But like I said, very readable!

If you've read her previous work, you may enjoy this one! My favourite is The Dilemma.

The Prisoner follows Amelie who married millionaire Jed Hawthorne. Everything seems to be going well so we think. But then one day Amelie wakes up in a pitch black room and is unsure who she got there. So she has to figure out why she is there and who kidnapped her. And she thinks it might have to do with her new husband. 
I
really like B.A. Pairs so I was super excited to read this one. I loved how this book started off. Like the main character you had no idea what was going on and why she was there. After the first half of this book I found it really hard to keep up with that was going on. This book left me with more questions than answers. I do not think this was B.A. Pairs's strongest book. But I did like it. However, I do like her other books more.

3.5⭐
Starts off with a bang!💥 You’ll be hooked after the first chapter!
Ah, if only it would’ve remained that way!🤦‍♀️

No question, Amelie has had a rough life. Orphaned at the age of 17, she was rescued off the streets by a woman who would give her a job, a home and friendship. But after moving on to a new job with tycoon Ned Hawthorpe, her life once again is about to spin out of control.

Ned proposes (excuse the pun) a trip to Vegas and a quickie marriage in name only. He’s hoping to get his father off his back and sway the press that he’s a good family man. He just has to convince Amelie to go along with the charade for one month, then they can go their separate ways.

But who exactly did Amelie marry?

Short, quick chapters filled with white-knuckled suspense as the kidnapping takes place! Who is behind the kidnapping? And why? What will happen if the ransom isn't met?

Loved the first half of the book! But the ending just came apart at the seams. Endless explanation as to why and how the kidnapping happened. To the point I just wanted to scream “enough already”! Just too much!

And even after all the extended commentary on the kidnapping I was still left with unanswered questions!🤷‍♀️

Sadly, what began as a five-star read quickly lost its shine and the stars just fell away.😔

A buddy read with Susanne that left us both frustrated by the end!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press

“The Prisoner” is the first book I’ve read by B. A. Paris, although I’ve a number of them on my TBR list. I absolutely loved the build-up for the first part of this book - while I knew what was going on, the why had to be more than “because he’s rich” right? The writing (and pacing) of the first part was engaging, even with the past-present storylines it was easy to keep apart what was going on when. I found the second part to be a bit too neatly tied up, but I may be in the minority there. While I liked the fact that the main character had friends, I couldn’t always keep them apart except by their jobs. I also found the relationship between father and son to be a bit, well, beyond broken. Although one isn’t supposed to like the husband, I kept wondering what inside of him was so broken - was there any backstory other than “my brother was the favorite so I’m going to be the un-favorite”? However, this was a well paced book with a fantastic first part that kept me engaged and wanting to know what would happen next. This book, while not perfect, has made me move Ms. Paris’s books a bit further up on my TBR - and I look forward to reading another book by her.

LOVED IT! I read this so quickly, I just couldn’t get enough.

This was told in past & present chapters & I loved how well the story blended. The past & present weaved together perfectly, giving you a real understanding of what was going on. The details were amazing & this was so well written.

I like Amelie’s character, she was smart & determined. She was so strong despite everything she had been through. I actually felt really bad for her, she’d lost so many people close to her. I would’ve liked a little more insight on her friends personalities or what made Ned the way he was.

I had a feeling who the kidnappers were (who knew kidnappers could be so nice haha) & I was mostly right but that didn’t ruin the story for me. That ending tho ahhhh I hope we get a part 2!

Wow, just wow! I have found from my first book by Paris that she can have some truly twisted spins in her book and that they may make me gasp I don’t necessarily love them. Although they do what they are intended to make me talk about the book and think about it over and over. This book, didn’t disappoint. In my opinion her best book so far read by me. I absolutely loved the layout and how the story unfolds. It gripped me from the first page to the last and I guess that’s why it took me about 24 hours to read it and devour it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC.
5 Stars!
Another awesome book by B.A. Paris.
The worse prison can be what's behind your eyes. This was a page turner and kept you wondering what was around the corner. The suspense build up and by the end you were finally getting your answers.

When 16 year-old Amelia's dad passes away, she has nothing left, so she decides to move to London in the hopes of finding a job to collect enough money to go to law school. There, she meets a group of three women, Carolyn, Lisa and Jasmine, who all work for the same magazine and help her make a life for herself. Eventually she meets their boss, Ned, the owner of the magazine. On one crazy last minute trip to Vegas, she ends up marrying him, but their marriage is a scheme for him to save face in front of the media and her to make a pretty penny to go to school - they both agree to get a divorce a month after the wedding. A month during which Amelia discovers his true face. A month during which she gets kidnapped and held hostage.
The first part of this thriller is told in a dual time line, which takes us back and forth between what led Amelia to be kidnapped and her actual situation as an hostage. This first part was 5 stars, gripping, unputdownable. Unfortunately, the second part knocked it down a few stars. The ending falls flat. The delivery of the reveal is unbearably long and repetitive (it goes on and on and on for way too many pages in one boring monologue). I prefer when the reveals last only a few pages. The premise was great if hard to believe, but I was in for the ride. B.A. Paris is a great author who has written very good novels, but this one is a bit of a miss for me.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A quick, easy read with a unique hook and some breathtaking suspense, especially in those early chapters. The story starts with a bang when Amelie is kidnapped and held in a completely pitch-black room. The storytelling in these chapters is impressively rich and descriptive, and I could practically feel Amelie’s panic at not only being held against her will, but being unable to see, as well.

These chapters are interspersed with chapters from the past, describing how and why Amelie is kidnapped and how she got into the situation in the first place. I loved the way the story built with the chapters from the past and present eventually colliding in a very satisfying way.

I did feel the secondary characters to be a little wooden and the ending was quite a few chapters of two characters just talking, one asking questions and the other revealing the why’s through dialogue, rather than it being shown throughout the plot. But the story is very enjoyable, a quick, mindless read that kept me entertained.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fun thriller to dig into.

Orphaned girl moves to London and gets scooped up by wealthy ladies who are kind and then gets sucked into chaos and kidnapped? Totally believable!

Ha.

But really I liked Amelie’s determination and the pace of this made for an easy read.

I felt like the ending was a little rushed (but I’m betting maybe in a sequel?) and I wasn’t mind blown. 3.0 but definitely entertained!

Thanks to NetGalley for my gifted copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. The Prisoner by BA Paris is a fast paced page turner! It has dual timelines and follows Amalie, a young orphan, who unknowingly makes poor choices and then ends up kidnapped because of them.

This book started off so strong for me, and I throughly enjoyed the first half narration between past and present. However, the last half left me underwhelmed. Exciting twists were left resolved with straight forward explanations instead of storytelling. It was hard to connect with characters and there was truely no character development for the protagonist of the story. The ending left me so confused I was sure I made a mistake and accidentally skipped some pages. Overall, the book was unfortunately a miss for me.

3/5 stars

Thank you to Net Galley, St. Martin’s Press and B.A. Paris for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved parts of this narrative, but disliked others. It began with Amelie waking up in a dark room and realizing she has been kidnapped, but we don’t know why or by whom. The portion where she is held prisoner is very claustrophobic and tense, but I enjoyed the warm friendship between Amelie and Carolyn. The character development was a little lacking, but the story was still compelling.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing a digital ARC of The Prisoner in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks, NetGalley for this advanced copy of The Prisoner.

HOLY SMOKES I loved this book. One of the best thriller/mysteries that I've read in a while. I've read Paris before, but this may be my new favorite. I was hooked from the very beginning. The twists and turns, I didn't see coming and I love that.

This is a must-read for my friends that love this genre.

When 16 year old Amelie’s father dies and she is left with no one, she sets off to make a life for herself in London. She soon finds herself immersed in her new friend’s upperclass life and is introduced to a handsome billionaire. But then, Amelie suddenly wakes up in a pitch black room with only a mattress in the corner. She must find out who has kidnapped her, why, and try to escape with her life.

I have always loved B.A. Paris’ books! They are such easy reads and keep you guessing the entire time. I loved the dual timelines and found Amelie to be a character I was always routing for.

The plot and concept of this book was incredibly interesting. I was interested just as much in the past sections and I was in the present, which is not usually the case.

The thing that was lacking for me in this one was the character development and relationships. We didn’t really get to know any of the characters, besides Amelie, well enough to care about them or what happens to them and the relationships developed so quickly that they didn’t seem believable.

I also wasn’t a huge fan of how everything wrapped up. In my opinion, Amelie was just able to figure out most of the mystery much too easily and what she didn’t figure out was somewhat far fetched.

All in all this was an entertaining book and I was able to get through it very quickly, but it wasn’t up to par with some of B.A. Paris’ other books that I’ve loved.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and statements are my own.

I loved how this book was written. From the first chapter, I was hooked. I found myself panicking for Amelie- a prisoner- existing in the darkness. The detailed descriptive writing, and short, fast paced chapters make The Prisoner difficult to put down. I was engaged throughout the entire book but then found the ending to be a bit of a disappointment..
Thank you to St. Martin's Press, NetGalley, and B.A. Paris for the opportunity to escape into this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and B.A. Paris for this E-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback and review.

Amelie's life has never been easy. After losing her parents she is alone in the world. Luckily she gets a job and meets a wonderful group of friends. Having no money for college she agrees to a false marriage in exchange for college money. The only downfall is she agrees to marry a man who is hiding many secrets, deadly secrets. Will she survive this marriage?

I wasn't sure exactly how I felt about this one after reading it. After sitting on it a while I realized I really enjoyed this novel by B.A. Paris. Her books usually fall into either love or hate for me. This one fell into the middle actually. It honestly wasn't my favorite B.A. Paris book but I didn't hate it. I'm very glad I read it and will add to my collection of enjoyable books. I'm giving this book 4 stars because I do have much love for B.A. Paris and her writing!!

4.5 stars!

I was terrified that B.A. Paris was going to be one of those "one hit wonder" authors for me with her novel "Behind Closed Doors" being SO good. I'm so thankful that this one brought the thrills and chills!

In "The Prisoner", we are given duel timeline following Amelie's past and present. In her past, she is orphaned as a teenager and has to reinvent a life for herself. In the present, she is in a dark room with only a mattress, toilet, and silent captor who brings her food. Through the timelines, we learn what led her to being kidnapped and how her life brought her to this moment.

The first 3/4 of the book were SO fast paced and had my heart racing! I loved the eeriness of Amelie's situation and the resilience it brought out in her. There were so many fun twists and turns (some predictable and some not) and it kept me guessing for most of the book.

The biggest reason this isn't a 5 star review is because I felt like the book's ending was quite rushed. I finished the last few pages, realized it was the end, and was craving more of a dynamic ending.

Overall, this definitely lives up to the "thriller and mystery" genre and I'm beyond excited for more people to read it!

The biggest thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's press for an eARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book pulled me in from the first page. I enjoyed all the surprises and twists (I thought I had a few things figured out but I was wrong) but I just wanted more. More background info? More character development? I'm not sure exactly. It just kinda felt like it was missing something though I don't know what. I felt that the ending was very abrupt and I'm not sure if it was because there will be a sequel or if I'm supposed to just be ok with how it ended.
Overall a decent mystery/thriller and a quick and easy read.

This story has a very unique & clever plot to it, which had me into it most of the time. I do like how it alternated (short) chapters between Amelie in the past & present. The short chapters were nice so you weren’t stuck in one spot too long & switching things up, although even with it written like this I still found it to be pretty slow for the first half the book or so. I liked Amelie’s character but I feel like all of the characters including her fell flat. For Ned being another main character & a very integral part to the book there wasn’t much to him or that we knew about him, especially his past (to maybe explain why Ned was Ned). Without the reader doing the math we don’t even really realize Amelie’s age until the very end where it was slipped in. Imo very much lacking in character development.

Once the reader is about 50% into the book it starts to pick up with excitement for a bit but I often found myself wanting to rush read it to get it over with. I feel like for such a slow build for most of the book (about 75% of it) that I feel like the ending kind of crammed all the explanation & “twist” into a short bit. It was also done so in a way where a character basically draws it out for Amelie instead of us reading what’s happening it’s explained out in a sit down conversation. Not my favorite way to finish a book out, I feel like it’s a lazy conclusion & almost rushed.

Did I enjoy this book overall? Yes. Would I read it again or recommend it? Probably not.

I’ve read all of B.A. Paris’ books with the exception of The Therapist. In my opinion each new book she releases seems to go downhill so with all the mixed reviews I figured I’d save myself from another meh book. I didn’t care for The Breakdown or The Dilemma. Maybe she’s just never going to have a book as good as Behind Closed Doors? My favorite by her & one of my all time favorite books period. Paris is very talented, a great writer & very creative in her plots. This book just wasn’t everything I expected & in general not what I’m after in a thriller. Maybe the next one will be better but I’m beginning to wonder if maybe she’s just not for me. 3-1/2 rounded down…still wish goodreads let us use half stars 😜

Thanks so much to NetGalley & St. Martin’s press for the arc in exchange for an honest review.