The Prisoner by B.A. Paris starts off with a kidnapping. Talk about a shocking start, but what a great way to peak your interest. If you know B.A. Paris, you know she is the master of all things thrilling and twisted, and this is no different. We begin with the main character Amelie, an orphan at sixteen years old, she lies to authorities saying she is living with an Aunt in France. Um, no she’s not. But Amelie does leave the house she grew up in to start a new life on her own in London. As she tries to make ends meet, she is introduced to Carolyn, and her world changes, for the better. She finds family within her new friends, which leads her to a job at a big time magazine, and ultimately a surprising agreement with the magazine owner, Ned Hawthorpe. Soon after the announcement of their surprise marriage in Las Vegas, both Ned and Amelie are kidnapped, but why? They are held separately in the same house, Amelie is kept in the dark, literally, for days, with a mattress, 2 meals a day and a bathroom. Her captor says nothing, ever. But when she thinks about who her husband really is and what he is capable of, she quickly feels safer now than at any point in her new ‘home’ with Ned. As the truth slowly reveals itself to Amelie, she begins to understand what this kidnapping was really about, and who are the people that abducted her.
The chapters alternated between past and present. It flowed so well and the pieces came together nicely. Amelie’s character development advanced into a mature, badass woman who found the strength to endure so much tragedy and still survive it all. The ending of this will leave you shaking your head, it’s so twisted you will never see it coming. This is where B.A. Paris is the master…not many authors have this extraordinary ability to lay out a story with intertwined plots that will keep you guessing until the end. Not to worry, you will get the answers you need. I do wish there was an epilogue to give us a little more insight into what path Amelie took in the future. But you will not be disappointed.
I would like to thank Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and B.A. Paris, one of my favorite authors, for an advanced readers copy of this novel in exchange for an honest opinion.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sending this ebook for review . All opinions are my own. The Prisoner starts off strong with an intriguing main character suffering a life changing event when she is orphaned as teenager. I was swept up in her dilemma as she tried to save money for college in London until a chance meeting provides her with a slightly 'too good to be true" opportunity to improve her life. Unfortunately, after she embarks on her new life I began to fell that Amelie was almost unbelievably naive and overly self-righteous. I do not want to give away any spoilers but her subsequent kidnapping is thrilling and exciting at first but it becomes repetitive and I began to dislike Amelie rather than root for her. The kidnapping and the intricate plot did make for a fun read but it was not overall a story I enjoyed.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review*

I've read all of B.A. Paris's books and this one was a good read but the ending was a little lackluster for me. I would recommend it, just beware!

As an avid reader of thrillers, B.A Paris is one of my favorite authors, and her latest book, The Prisoner delivers. From the first chapter, I was hooked and couldn’t put down until I knew the ending. I will be recommending this book to all my fellow readers. Thanks NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book started off as a five star read, which I expected having loved Behind Closed Doors. I was quickly hooked, loved the short chapters and thought the past/ present timelines built the perfect amount of suspense. However, once the second part hit, the book took a turn for the worse, and I completely lost interest. The execution of the plot was long and drawn out, there was little to no character development, I had zero emotional attachment to any characters and the story was totally unbelievable.

Thanks NetGalley and SMP for the ARC. Pub date 11/1

Mediocre at best

I do like character-driven novels, and, despite this being a thriller, I thought I'd get more in the way of character development than I did. As I recall, B.A. Paris novels do tend to have more character development than this one - her latest.

The novel starts out with two timelines: 1) the present when our main character Amelie has been kidnapped, and she's in a dark room and 2) the past when she was an orphan, Carolyn finding her and giving her a job and home and she meets Ned. Both of these timelines were iffy for me. In the present, there was a whole lot of navel gazing as time goes by in her dark room. There were some good observational moments as Amelie uses her other senses to figure out more about her situation. The past timeline is lacking in character development because Amelie doesn't have much of a personality nor do her friends. She is simplified to being motivated by money only to accumulate enough to go to college to be a lawyer and her love of a specific fourth grade math exercise. At about 30% in we learn Amelie agreed to a sham marriage with evil, lecherous Ned on a verbal promise that she could quickly get out of the marriage (he just needed the public relations for his fallen star) with a cool $100,000.

I think I would have enjoyed a first part that really gave the reader more of a picture of Amelie that wasn't reduced to one motivation. At least halfway in, there were a few scenes (involving a house from her past) that showed more of what I wanted to see much earlier. But that characterization came far too late. She comes across so naive, especially for an orphan. Weirdly, though, she has a passport despite having never been on an airplane. Maybe being in Europe is different than the U.S., but with my U.S. lens I thought it would be weird that she had a valid passport when she's been homeless and living on the streets before being taken in by a kind stranger.

The whole thrust of the novel is to figure out why Amelie and Ned were kidnapped. Part 2 of the novel, once you get to them being married for a few days, merges into her being released with conditions. But if neither character is compelling, it's hard to care. And then the book became purely plot and dialogue with the person involved in the kidnapping.

If you're interested in finding out why two people in a sham marriage were kidnapped, then this could be up your alley. With so little character development, this was more of a miss for me as a reader.

Thank you to NetGalley for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have read several books by this author, and she always tells a good, compelling story. The Prisoner is a suspenseful page-turner about a young woman, Amelie, who moves to London after the death of both of her parents. Recommended!

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

You can always trust BA Paris for twists and turns that you never see coming. Overall, fast- paced and captivating, I read it on a 15 hour flight, and it kept a big portion of my trip entertained.

This book, like the previous ones I read by BA Paris, is more plot driven, than character. Amelie, for all her level- headed smartness, and resilient displayed in the book, seemed like a whole another character before the kidnapping- so spineless and gullible. Ned was cartoonish monster, there's no explanation or motive behind his horrible ways.

Oh fans of B.A. Paris´ psychological thrillers, are you in for a treat!!! Wowza, does The Prisoner start off with jaw-dropping suspense. Chapters that move super fast, will keep you turning pages furiously!
Amelie is a prisoner in more than one sense. She is trapped in a nightmare kidnapping, or is her marriage the true nightmare? The detail and nuances of each scene kept me captivated and consistently gave me chills. I felt deeply for Amelie, and would have loved to hear more about Ned (her husband). Overall, a fantastic thriller!
I am a big fan of B.A Paris, and The Prisoner definitely did not disappoint!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin´s Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

After a disastrous start to her new life in London, Amelie finds a spot of good luck. She makes friends and gets a good job, making everything look like it might turn out okay. But she had no idea what she was in for when she agreed to a bargain with her soon-to-be husband. Would she have taken it, had she known how it all would have turned out?

Told in alternating timelines - both pre-kidnapping and during/post-kidnapping - the story of Amelie's life unfolds. She's both broken and amazing at the same time. The way she handled herself throughout the entire novel gave me hope. Smart and determined, she never gives up, even when she thinks she's going to die in that dark little room.

Her husband, Ned, is awful. You kind of see it from the very beginning, but you're able to brush it off. For a little while. As the story gets deeper, he truly unravels and turns into a certifiable monster. His actions and reactions to everything are frightening. I'd have loved to have a little more backstory on him though. Why is he like this? Is it neglected little rich boy syndrome or something darker? Whatever his reasons, he is the motivating factor behind Amelie's drive to save herself.

From the very first page, you know this is going to be a twisted story. As the layers are revealed and you begin to put the pieces together, you see exactly how warped it all truly is. While some of the justifications and reasoning are a bit hard to swallow, overall, it all weaves together nicely into one rollercoaster ride of a novel. I'm a longtime fan of B. A. Paris, and this has only solidified my appreciation of her work.

The Prisoner
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Amelia is left heartbroken, alone and poor after her father dies from cancer when she is 17. She leaves her hometown and heads to London in hopes of getting a job and saving up for law school. A stranger, Carolyn, takes her in and gives her a house keeping job and a place to stay. Carolyn introduces Amelia to her best friends, Justine and Lina. They work at a magazine called Exclusives together.
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When Carolyn's boyfriend moves in, Amelia feels it's time to go out on her own. She also gets a job at Exclusives working with her best friends. Ned, the owner of Exclusives Magazine, asks Amelia to come with him on a last minute trip to Vegas for work. While there, he tells her about a bind she is in and offers her $100,000 for school if she marries him for a month.
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Amelia takes him up on this offer, and they get married. Unfortunately shortly after their wedding she finds out that he is a psychopath who is killing her closest friends left and right. He is keeping her trapped in her home. One night, when Amelia is planning on murdering Ned herself, her and Ned are kidnapped. She was held hostage for 14 days in a room with no Light, but given food, a bed, blankets and a bathroom.
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Up until this point I was obsessed with this book. I was enjoying the past and present point of view, wondering how she got here and where Amelia was going next. Then once she was "released" It got a little dicey for me. She was released with instructions on what to do next. The ending and the explanations to everything dragged out and got confusing. The end of this book is what took this down to three stars for me.
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I will be posting this review on my instagram, chapterswithchan, on Friday 8/19!

The Prisoner is the newest thriller by B. A. Paris in which we follow Amelie in two timelines. In the before timeline, Amelie’s father has recently passed away, leaving her an orphan. After living on the streets, Amelie eventually befriends Carolyn and begins to live her dream life. In the present timeline, Amelie is a captive in a completely dark room, losing all sense of time and wondering what is happening to her husband.

I think this is the time in my life where I cut ties with this author. This is the fourth book I have read by her and it’s time to admit that she just is not the author for me. The premise of this book was so promising and I was engaged at the beginning. With chapters that are only a few pages long, it is easy to fly right through this book. But that is about the only positive thing about this.

Everything that I disliked about this book would be considered a spoiler so I won’t go into detail about it. What this felt like to me is if you have ever been in a writing class and you are given a prompt and have five minutes to write something out about it. After five minutes, you pass your story to someone else and someone passes their story to you and you have to finish what they started. This first half of this book led to more questions than answers and then the way it is wrapped up at the end felt like another author had to go in and figure out a way to make everything make sense.
The twists were very predictable and the end was so much yelling and not showing. It’s easy for an author to write a crazy story and then have a lot of exposition at the end to explain why. It felt very lazy to me. I like thrillers and mysteries that have very organic reveals throughout where you are figuring things out with the characters. This book also heavily relies on a question between characters. It comes up several times in different ways. The first time, I thought it was clever. The second time, I appreciated the callback to it. After that, it just felt like beating a dead horse. If you have read the book, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

I think my biggest issue with Paris as an author is I just really don’t like how naive the lead characters always are. If the main character in this book would have just thought about things for two seconds, she could have avoided a lot of trouble. I also hate that a lot of times, she will write a character that is “bad” but give no reason for why they are that way. It would be fine if it had only been this book, but it’s been all of her books that I have read.

This book gets two stars instead of one star because it is a very quick read and the beginning is super engaging.

This author is always hit or miss for me. Her last novel was a huge miss for me, but the description was enough for me to give her another chance and overall, I’m glad that I did. The two interweaving stories provided for a good paced read that kept me guessing until the end. The only thing I did not like is: the parts with Amelie in the dark were a little drawn out and wordy, which were distracting from the storyline.

“The Prisoner” is a suspenseful, psychological thriller that follows Amelie, a homeless teenage girl, all alone on the streets of London. From the moment she befriends Carolyn, her life changes for the better. That is until a seemingly innocent proposal changes everything.

B. A. Paris has an incredible way of delivering “shock and awe” and “The Prisoner” was no exception. She delivers an incredible plot told from dual timelines, that encapsulates everything a psychological thriller should. A variety of supporting characters with mysterious backgrounds help to create the suspense that the story needs. Our protagonist has strength and charisma, and the antagonist can easily be named “Villian of the Year”. Unlike the author's previous books though, this one left me with questions (plot holes?) that were unanswered. There were moments when the story seemed to move at a snail's pace and I really found myself struggling to continue on with the book. I found the ending of the book infuriating. This attests to the fact that the last chapter or two were so engaging, when I saw the acknowledgment page, I became deeply upset, as I wanted more and couldn't believe it was over. Overall, this wasn't my favorite book by this author, but it's also not the worst in this particular genre that I've ever read.

I would like to thank St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me an advance copy ahead of the November 1, 2022 publishing date in exchange for an objective review.

Firstly I have to admit this is not my favorite book of B. A. Paris! But it is still easy to read and kept me invested.
Mystery builds slowly by going back and forth between timelines. I enjoyed the short chapters that helped move the book along at a nice pace. Started out strong. As I got further in, however, the story started to slow down and become a bit slow.

Amelie has her sight set on becoming a lawyer and seeking justice for those wronged. She has lived a very rough life, her parents have died and she really only has her own self. After finding a job in London she is finally settling into her life and pursuing her dreams. Suddenly, Amelie makes a choice to help her future, but the risk was too great and she finds herself kidnapped and help prisoner.
Told between two timelines, her current state of being a prisoner and the events that led up to it, this is a fast paced book. I did feel some of the character development could have been better. Other than Amelie, we didn’t get to know the other characters very well.
Overall this was a good and fast pasted read.
** Huge thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review

I really enjoyed this book! The explanation at the end was a little hard to follow, but the short chapters and plot twists kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time! I always enjoy reading books by this author as a fun escape. I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Amelie has had a difficult childhood. She lost her parents as a child and made her way to London and survived. She is taken is a housekeeper, but eventually makes her way with a new company. Jed is the owner of the magazine she works for and he strikes up a strange deal with her. She marries billionaire Jed Hawthorne. She quickly learns he is not whom she thinks he is. Get ready for a psychological thriller that will keep you glued to the pages.
This book goes between past and present. One day she wakes up in a pitch-black room. Where is she? Who are her captures? She feels safe for some reason! Could it be someone she knows? Is her husband behind this? The book also explores her release and getting revenge on her captures.
Love this author’s style. This was my first book by her and I look forward to more.

3.5/5 stars
This was a frustrating read! It started off so strong, with two very interesting timelines that complimented each other well, some unexpected twists and turn, and very well-written creepy/dark atmosphere. You are just dying to know what is going to happen to the heroin and how/if she is going to get herself out of this situation.

However, once the action dies down in the last third of the book, I started to lose interest. The big reveal at the end was a little far-fetched and things seem to fall into place a little too conveniently. The reveal about the main character's father just seemed out of place and unnecessary. There was no satisfying explanation for the villain's actions besides "he was a jerk" and the main character's friends and allies kept dropping like flies, she just could not catch a break!!

Overall this was an interesting read and grabbed my attention from page 1, however it could have benefited from more hints throughout the book rather than endless "revelation" chapters at the end.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sharing a digital copy of this book in exchange for a review!

The Prisoner immediately pulled me in from the first page. The protagonist, Amelie, has had more than her fair share of challenges in life. When she has the chance at a different lifestyle with a billionaire, she takes a risk that has consequences she could have never anticipated. Amelie finds herself held captive in more way than one.

I absolutely loved the first 2/3 of The Prisoner. I was equally enthralled by the past and present timelines. The last third of the book was not as engaging for me. I started feeling bogged down by the explanations and felt that the exciting plot stalled out somewhat. Overall, I still enjoyed this novel and I appreciated the unique plot line. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a thriller with a claustrophobic feeling.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.