AUDIOBOOK IS MISSING MULTIPLE CHAPTERS SOS
Couldn’t give a full review due to this

NetGalley… help us out here!

This is to the publisher to alert them to a serious issue which a previous reviewer posted about, but clearly has not been corrected. The audio book downloading from Netgalley is INCOMPLETE. The following chapters are not downloading:

Part 1: 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 17, 30, 31, 32, 34, 37, 39, 40, 42, 44, 48, 50, 51 and 52.
Part 2: 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 18, 24.

Without those chapters, of course, the book is terrible. I had zero idea of anything actually happening or why.

I confirmed my download is for a book only 4 hours and 26 minutes and not 10 hours as listed on Netgalley.

I bet if you had the whole book, it would be better than half a book.

I am required to give it a star rating to submit review, so I'll put a 3 because this is unfair to the author.

Oh my gosh I absolutely LOVED this audiobook! It was so thrilling, and it kept me glued to my seat the entire time!

I’m not sure why so many chapters were omitted from this audiobook but here is a list of the Missing chapters from part one: 2. 6-10. 13. 17. 30-32. 34. 36-37. 39-40. 42. 44. 48. 50-52.
These are the missing Chapters from part two: 2-5. 10-11. 13. 16-18. 24. 26-27.
I listened using the Netgalley app at 2X speed. I followed along with the ebook also provided by Netgalley. This is how I know that this audiobook is incomplete. Georgia Maguire was the solo female performer. Her performance was stunning.

The Prisoner is a Claustrophobic thriller about a young woman confined to a small space in the dark with nothing but silence and her senses to keep her company. Amelie was kidnapped and locked in a room with only a mattress. She thought she would die at any moment. She had no idea why she was taken.
Amelie ran away to London after her father died. She was orphaned with no family to call upon. Her life changed upon meeting Carolyn. Carolyn provided a place for her to stay and a job. She introduced her to her friends Lina and Justine. Through them she met Ned Hawthorne. He worked for Hawthorne Foundation. A foundation his father began. Jethro Hawthorne was paranoid about Ned’s image and scandal involving him so he cut him out.

Amelie was hired by Ned to be his personal assistant. On a business trip to Las Vegas Ned proposes a business deal with her. Amelie needed the money for college. Shortly into there marriage they were kidnapped.
Amelie is resourceful and found ways to keep the fear at bay while keeping the hope alive. The reader could sense her terror and feel her heart racing.

The story alternated between past Amelie and present Amelie. The story was also is separated into part one: the kidnapping and part two the reckoning.

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 read this book both in e-book and audio format.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a quick read with short chapters so it's super easy to finish in one sitting. The writing was compelling and it keeps you entertained. The beginning with Amelie being kidnapped and held prisoner somewhere was strong! The backstory started out intriguing but lost steam along the way, it lost me a bit. The ending and how it all wrapped up left me feeling kinda meh about it. It's not a bad read by any means, but it was slightly underwhelming for me.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to receive an early copy in exchange for my honest review.

Yet again B.A. Paris has just blown me away. I love how fast paced the book was so it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time wanting to know what’s next. I was in love all the way to the end. And sadly that’s where it lost me. I felt like there were still questions not fully answered which is frustrating because let’s be real we all want to know everything and it be wrapped up with a nice little bow. That said I still did really enjoy the book just not quite ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

2.5 stars

Even for a thriller, this is a pretty dark book.

Amelie, the m.c., keeps falling prey to creeps. It's easy to feel terrible for her during the fast-paced beginning of this short read, but there is so little development of her character - and issues surrounding people important to her - that it's tough to get a foothold not only on what is happening but especially on WHY it is happening.

For me, this really read as more of an early draft than a completed product, which feels weird to consider with such a popular author (and one whose work I've enjoyed previously and absolutely plan to read more of with enthusiasm in the future). Amelie needs more backstory, the text overall needs a dash of hopefulness somewhere, and the rapid throwaway of the sexual assault situation is uncomfortable to say the least.

I'll look forward to more from B.A. Paris, but this is a writer with many great options from which to choose, so I unfortunately can't recommend this one as an item to queue.

TW: Death of parents, rape, gaslighting, abusive relationship, mention of suicide, death of friends, murder, kidnapping, language

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book: Amelie has always been a survivor, from losing her parents as a child in Paris to making it on her own in London. As she builds a life for herself, she is swept up into a glamorous lifestyle where she married the handsome billionaire Jed Hawthorne. But then, Amelie wakes up in a pitch-black room, not knowing where she is. Why has she been taken? Who are her mysterious captors? And why does she soon feel safer here, imprisoned, than she had begun to feel with her husband Jed?
Release Date: November 1st, 2022
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 304
Rating: ⭐ ⭐

What I Liked:
1. I thought the plot was interesting
2. The story flowed
3. Fast read

What I Didn't Like:
1. Story felt like it went nowhere
2. Characters are boring
3. Lots of plot holes

Overall Thoughts: This book felt so underwhelming. I wanted things to happen but outside of Amelie trying to escape her prison nothing more happened for a long time. While the book was able to read fast and the story continued to flow I somehow found myself bored.

I don't know how Nate was able to get a marriage license without Amelie being present. I don’t get how in like a few hours of learning about Nate's plan of marriage that she agreed to do it.

I wish I could have known more about the characters because I just DIDN'T care. It was hard to feel bad for Amelie when I only knew that she was broke, helped take care of her father, and had a best friend.

All these people just dropping dead around Amelie. She knows them all but no one is asking the questions about how weird this. We just keep moving on and no one cares. I don't care if they don't care.

Final Thoughts:I was bored. This book was boring and very lackluster. Nothing happens. And when "something" did happen it just felt very meh. I was so excited to read this book but I was disappointed. Hopefully, I love the next book from B.A. Paris. *fingers crossed*

Audiobook Narration:
• Read by: Georgia Maguire
• Narrator was great
• Single-person narration

Recommend For:
• Slow burn books
• Strong female character

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own

3.7, most readers will be frustrated with the ending (unless I received an incomplete copy) but I sort of liked it.

Read this in one shot and was very intrigued. I liked the lead character (and the narrator) which helped. I’ve been so so on BAP books since the first one and liked this one more though still not as much. It is gripping and a page-turner but leaves one feeling unsatisfied. It was also slightly twisty and felt like a new take on an old story. At times I felt like I was missing something or someone forgot to tell me something; not sure if I wasn’t paying attention (seems unlikely given how memorable some of these points were) or that my copy is Incomplete or that’s just the style here. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Narrator was fantastic. The story itself is a page turner and riveting. I definitely think if she adds another chapter it will raise its rating.

This book was one of my most anticipated for the year and I'm so glad I was able to get an early copy thanks to St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio!

This is B. A. Paris' 6th book and I have now read all of them. She's an auto-buy/read author for me for sure. My favorite so far has been Bring Me Back and this one falls slightly under that one for second place.

This story gripped me right away and I was sitting there within the first few pages like "WAIT! WHAT IS HAPPENENING?" I love the way she slowly reveals important details in the first half making you second guess everything/everyone.

The chapters are super short and switch between past/present for the first half of the book.

The ending was just OK for me. There were SO many details and it was "told not shown" in a way that dragged on a little long for my taste.

The narrator Georgia Maguire was wonderful and also narrated Behind Closed Doors and The Break Down by B.A. Paris, both of which I enjoyed on audio as well. I'd highly recommend listening to anything done by her.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend this one and think it will be a big hit when it publishes on November 15th!

3.5 Rounded Up

First off. I love B. A. Paris books. This one was such a great beginning and middle and then the end happened and I wasn’t that happy. I was intrigued with the unique kidnapping story but by the end I got a little confused and then it was over. I am looking forward to the next book and hope it will be more along the lines of the previous books.

As for the narrator, I enjoyed listening to her. She has a pleasant voice and cadence. I hope she narrates more!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the DRC.

Obvious? Stupid? Sorry. But yes, stoopid with two o's as ransom would say. I loved her last book but this whimpered the whole book. Not just the end

I am basing my review on an incomplete audio file. Alternating between past and present, Amelie makes a deal with the devil to marry her sketchy boss in exchange for enough money to get a law degree. It turns out that he’s a very bad guy and Amelie fears for her life. Before she can leave him, both she and Ned are kidnapped for ransom. Large portions of this story were not available to me, leaving me to surmise about lots of things, including the end, but I think this is Paris’s weakest novel, there were too many gimmicks and a heroine who was just not very bright