Nina McCarrick's life turns upside down when her husband dies in a tragic accident quickly followed by debt bailiffs knocking on the door as her husband's secret bankruptcy comes to light. Forced to move out of her dream home with her two shell-shocked teenage sons, she seeks solace in the past she has tried her hardest to escape. Nina rediscovers her spark and how to stand on her own feet separate from her domineering husband and affluent and comfortable if restricted former life.

So... I think this book is very difficult to review, because quite early on I realised this was not really for me. I had immediately requested a copy after seeing that part of the novel was set in Portswood, Southampton, which is where I lived for two years as a student. This is the first book I have come across set there so I was immediately enticed to see how it is represented in print. Prowse does a great job here sketching out the setting; I really did recognise Portswood and was completely delighted to read familiar mentions of Portswood staples such as Sprinkles, Jesters and the multitude of charity shops that litter the high street. I did love the setting yet overall I did find the storyline and characterisations not to my taste.

Firstly, I did grow to really like Nina. She was a character that I felt increasingly frustrated by at the beginning, even when simultaneously feeling a great deal of sympathy for her. Whilst her development felt a bit stilted for me at times, I loved reading about her journey as she finds her feet after hiding for so long. I especially enjoyed reading about her relationship with her sons as the family begin to pick up the pieces in the wake of their father's unexpected demise. Connor and Declan are a delight and their father multi-faceted. I do not think I have read many novels with this precise focus and perspective of a woman and her two teenage sons and it was a welcome change for me. I was right there with Nina as her relationship with Finn comes under the spotlight, after she comes to term with the chasm between the Finn she thought she knew and the man behind the mask of a confident and successful businessman, as seen through the eyes of a loving wife. I am very interested in writing that examines the differences between reality and perception so this was a definite plus for me.

Unfortunately, this was not enough to feel satisfied by the close of reading The Art of Hiding. I felt the plot lacked a bit of necessary grit to make the characters feel fully real to me and the novel overall felt a bit too straightforward and on the nose. It was a bit too romanticised for my liking, and it is definitely the type of smaltzy, cliched Hallmark storytelling that I rarely get along with.

Moreover, there seemed to be a lack of self-awareness about the way Nina was written at times. At times it seemed a bit outdated for my liberal-leaning, feminist ways and often seemed to award or entrench a status quo of certain gender dynamics in a non-critical fashion that I found a bit uncomfortable to read. Homemaking should be written in an empowering and respectful manner; it is obviously a completely valid and admirable path. I have no problem with Nina's circumstances and perspective in theory, but in practice this was often at odds with the way Nina came across in print and this griped. Nina is often depicted as a naturally submissive character and, at others, it felt as if this was a role put upon her, even if unconsciously done by herself. This seems to be examined to some degree by the author but I sometimes got the uncomfortable feeling that the narrative lacked nuance or awareness here.

Further, her relationship with Finn is quite disturbing, and whilst Prowse does explore this to her credit, the tone was ultimately too forgiving. The breaking point for me was when Nina discovers that Finn had been to their sons' school to ask for some more time to pay their overdue tuition fees the previous term. I have so many thoughts on their relationship, and I just feel I would have enjoyed this more if it had been a more nuanced take on the relationship dynamics. This was really my biggest problem with the novel, especially when there appeared to be, at some parts, a fair amount of unconscious doubling-down (and dumbing down for good measure!) of passive sexist conventions and characterisations, instead of creating an empowering narrative for a homemaker-turned-breadwinner.

With all that being said, this is one of the rare types of mixed reading experiences where I would still feel confident recommending to others. Ultimately, my review has to be summed up as just ok but I know of a few friends who I am sure would get more from it. I thought there was a lot to chew on and discuss and it would be a good book club read, especially in a discussion about the multi-faceted depiction of the central relationship. I am glad I persevered with this one as I did really enjoy getting a happy ending for the McCarricks. It just was simply not written for this kind of reader.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Amanda Prowse for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of those books that sends you through so many emotions! Well written, although I found it to drag in some places. It's one of those books that really makes you think! A touching, moving story.

Amanda Prowse has a talent to write stories that will touch your heart and this is one of the reasons I enjoy her books.

In the Art of hiding we are introduced to Nina McCarrick a stay at home mom who loses her husband, her home, and money all at the same time. She discovers lies that will lead her to questioning her husband’s death and reevaluating her life. How will Nina and her kids be able to manage with everything? Who can help them? A story that shows us the strength and courage it takes to move on, start over and overcome something we don’t think we are capable of.

An easy to read and well written book. you really care for the characters and you realise the importance of families and Friends.

This is so well written--the depth of characters--that it was difficult for me to read. Going through something similar ithe truth of emotion is so real.

I love this author, and this book does not disappoint. It would be any woman's nightmare to realize that her husband has been keeping a large part of his life a secret. Having been shielded from the truth means that Nina has no idea how precarious her financial situation is when her husband dies unexpectedly. Her beautiful life comes crashing down in very quick order, and she is forced to find a new life along with her 2 sons in the not so nice neighbourhood of her youth. There is a glaring difference between the new and the old, but Nina finds that perhaps her shiny former life wasn't very authentic either.

It seems a long while since I got stuck into an Amanda Prowse novel, so when The Art of Hiding dropped through my letterbox, I was excited to get started right away!

What I love about Amanda's books is her ability to take what appears to be a normal family and turn their world upside down, resulting in the heroine of the book becoming a strong and confident woman... and as a read Amanda manages to break your heart before fixing it again by giving an uplifting ending which in my opinion makes great reading material.

Nina's story is no different.
She has a wonderful life, a gorgeous husband, two handsome son's and a marvellously grand home which includes a cinema room and swimming pool!

Nina wants for nothing as her husband, Finn, owns a successful construction company. Her boys, Connor and Declan, go to a top of the range private school and she even has fresh flowers delivered fortnightly to her home!

Life is good for Nina and her family, that is until Finn fails to arrive at one of Connor's rugby matches. Willing him to hurry up and arrive, Nina answers her mobile which is the point her life as she knows it, is to be no more.
Finn has been involved in an accident and sadly not made it, the story quickly travels through scenes where Nina has to tell the boys their Dad has died, the funeral and immediate aftermath, all of which Amanda writes with warmth and empathy which is guaranteed to bring a tear to your eye.

Once the funeral is over, Nina discovers from Finn's accountant that they are bankrupt - the business has been financially failing, the boys' school fees are behind and their home, with all their precious memories of family times with Finn, is about to be repossessed with the bailiffs expected to arrive any day.

It's hard to comprehend how you would feel in this situation but Amanda being her, writes expertly as Nina goes through grief, shock, upset and anger.
With no choice, Nina and the boys pack up what little is left and head to Southampton to stay in a run down flat owned by a distant relative.

It's not ideal but with pennies to her name, Nina sets about making the best of a bad situation - enrolling the boys in a local school and looking for a job to bring in some income, all whilst trying to hold it together for the boys and trying to build some bridges with her sister that had broken over the years.

I love the way Amanda took Nina as a character, pretty much ruined her life and then re-built her into that strong, confident, independent woman she does so well.

The Art of Hiding is an emotional roller-coaster of a read, by the end you will have tears forming in your eyes again but of the happier ones as you see how far Nina and the boys have come in a few months and this is due to Amanda's ability to write about characters you instantly connect with.

I also love that the title, The Art of Hiding, has more than one meaning - Finn hides away their money troubles, Nina and the woman she was hiding away in their mansion and Connor hiding away his feelings.

The Art of Hiding is a fabulous, warm and uplifting (despite the original heartache!) book about new beginnings, moving on and finding that inner strength.

I truly enjoyed The Art of Hiding. It was a tad predictable as far as subject matter, however, the characters were wonderfully written. I found myself empathising with all of them through out the book. My favorite chapter was the awards dinner, I found myself needing the tissue box.

I’ve read this book before, but I read it again thanks to a free book from Netgalley for an honest review. Whilst reading I recalled bits of the book I remembered but I had to re-read it all again thoroughly as the book is quite detailed and really impactful. A story of a real nightmare for a family that had everything…and then nothing.
Nina came from poverty, she married well and now lives the perfect life of luxury, until her husband, Finn, is killed in a car accident and her and her children’s lives as they know it fall apart.

Alone, bereft and faced with an impossible mountain of debt, Nina questions everything. Evicted from her mansion, Nina returns back home to the rundown Southampton council estate she grew up in. Nina has to dust herself off, swallow her pride and make some tough decisions for the sake of her boys. I loved witnessing her return to the woman she was before her marriage and reconnect with her past self and rekindle the stained relationship with her sister.

This book although shocking and unlikely to happen to most of us; was true to life in that it dealt with the reality of what you have to do to get by, to roll your sleeves up and work to survive; that family and friendships are more important than wealth. This story is all about hope, survival and finding the inner strength and confidence to deal with life and its setbacks. Another fantastic read by Amanda Prowse.

I feel I may have read this book at the wrong time during a dry spout of my passion for reading. However as I love the author I thought this would be the book to return my furious love of reading. I could read his book for a day and then leave it and pick it up again, it just did not grip me. The story was well written though and although the first few chapters were fairly predictable the rest of the story was a tale of love lost and lives found as Nina and her children learn to live with the death of their father. I was warned I would need tissues but they weren't required until the last chapter. Excellent writing and a real insight into how money can't buy you happiness.

As usual I forgot to read the blurb before starting this story so everything that happened was a complete surprise which I really enjoyed. It provided a few more twists which I would have known about before starting otherwise! This was really well written and emotional for all of the characters. I thought that Nina did a fantastic job of holding things together and I could empathise with her completely. I also loved her kids - the youngest was really sweet and although the oldest one seemed quite bratty it must be difficult for him to go from a life with everything he wanted (including his father) to suddenly not. I loved this story and struggled to put it down!

Nina is devastated when her husband Finn dies, he has been everything to her and her two boys for years and she doesn't know which way to turn. Things very definitely take a turn for the worse though when she finds out that her life has been built on a pack of cards - the business that she thought was doing so well is bankrupt and even the beautiful house that she lives in is repossessed

Once the bailiffs have been in she has nothing left, the boys have had to leave the private school that they have always attended and she has to move back to her home town of Southampton to live in a squalid flat in a very rundown area with no means of income

When you have never worked finding a job is not easy and she begins to regret the way her husband controlled her life - she had wanted to train as a nurse but he wanted her at home looking after him - so now she has no skills, but finally the woman she should always have been starts to come out as she has no choice but to provide for her family

Another great book by Amanda Prowse I loved the way Nina grew in strength, with the help of a few hometruths from her sister, and learned to look after herself and how the boys eventually coped with all of the changes in their young lives and became better people - definitely recommended

Another great story from this very popular writer. In this one a mother finds the strength to take control of her life and make a stable caring home for her sons after her previous rather privileged family life is unexpectedly torn to shreds. I thoroughly enjoyed both the story and the cast of supporting characters, staying up ridiculously late to finish it. I was a great fan right up until the final part of the book where I felt I was being preached at a little – I like a story with a moral but I prefer to find it myself.

This story really resonated with me. Nina could be anyone and that was relatable. I do wish the author went more into detail about the financial troubles and Finn's view of same (a diary or longer letter perhaps?) The main take-away I felt was not to be so trusting, it's the family's money, everyone should know what's going on with it.

I always enjoy Amanda’s books. She weaves stories around moral dilemmas or issues that might concern all of us at some point in our lives and she tells them in an emotive, affecting way that is rarely overly sentimental. The Art of Hiding was no different: The concept is set up well, the heroine is likeable and her development from reticent & disempowered to strong & self-reliant is entirely believable. My only (small) quibble is that it felt shorter than usual – but that just means I’d have liked to read more, so it isn’t really a complaint!

Would definitely recommend to readers of Jody Picoult and Kristin Hannah.

“The Art of Hiding” is a lovely little story about love, loss and resilience that was a pleasure to read and made me want to look for more from the author.
Nina McCarrick is married with two boys when her husband, Finn, dies in a car accident. The reader is given enough of a “day in the life” snapshot of Nina’s life as a homemaker and private school mom before the accident to develop an impression of her: from a humble background, reveling in her wealth, still feeling out of place among the other parents born into a privileged life, and a little secluded because of these feelings.
After Finn’s death, Nina’s accidental isolation means there are few people she can turn to when she learns Finn has been lying about their finances for months and she has no safety net for her or the boys, one a surly teen and the other a sweet optimist. Forced to tighten their belts and move back into Nina’s old neighborhood, her grieving little family has to grapple with grief, anger and doubt as they have to adjust rapidly to their changed circumstances.
This book was a true tear-jerker for me, which I do not say lightly. Amanda Prowse gives Nina’s struggle a realism without melodrama that made it an emotional read. Nina reconnects with her sister, who she had drifted away from and who has apparently been holding back some judgments about Nina’s decision to marry wealthy and young. The sister, Tiggy, is fleshed out enough to be a complex side character who snaps at her sister when she’s being privileged and dramatic and knocks some sense into her when needed. Seeing their relationship repair and grow was wonderful.
My complaints are few, but one is that you lose your sense of time as you get further into the book, with months passing in which I would assume big changes are happening in the family’s life but they breeze by and suddenly you think, “wait, it’s spring? when did Finn die again? how long as it been?” Some of Nina’s mental shifts also appear to occur in these gaps and we return to her processing her grief differently and reacting to Finn’s memory with nostalgia rather than resentment and it’s jarring when your sense of time is thrown off.
Overall, “The Art of Hiding” is a well-written drama with relatable characters and a plot you can pull out for a good cry as needed.

Netgalley gave me this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book has a lot of great reviews, but it was a miss for me. I just couldn't get interested, it felt weak and I just couldn't relate to any of the characters.

Nina has almost the perfect life, a loving husband, two beautiful sons, an opulent home and masses of free time. But then her husband Finn is killed in a car crash. Dealing with this is hard enough but she quickly finds out their idyllic life was built on a lie. Finn was millions of pounds in debt and now they have nothing. Nina has no choice but to return to the rundown Southampton estate she grew up on. As she struggles to support her son's through the myriad of changes in their lives she struggles to come to terms with what she has lost and the realisation that maybe she hadn't known her husband at all.

Amanda Prowse has a talent for turning normal life into a really good read. I've said this before but I probably would never have picked her books before but this is now my third in a year. And they are excellent reads. This one didn't have me in the same floods of tears that the last two did but I think that's because it was (despite the subject) a lot more positive throughout. Nina starts off been a quiet housewife who baulks at even speaking to anyone but she has to step up after 20 years of been basically controlled by her husband, because although it's clear he loved her it's also clear he couldn't cope with her having a life away from him such as a career or her old friends. It's an interesting idea of a controlling relationship that isn't actually abusive - it's more limiting than abusive. I did wonder when she went back home why no one asked her if she'd looked into benefits! Seriously, her sister Tiggy and Toothless Vera would have been savvy enough to suggest this - yes ok it would have removed some of her desperation which is a big part of the story but it also took this a little out of the 'real life' setting for me. But it's a small thing, and the only real criticism I have of the story. Another winner from Ms Prowse.

I have really mixed feelings about The Art of Hiding by Amanda Prose. I really wanted to, but I just couldn't fully connect with the main character. I had no compassion to feeling anything towards Nina, or her boys sometimes, and their life turning upside down. Nina came across as aloof, supeficial and a tad boring, which is such a shame as if I'd have connected with her, the whole reading experience would have gone a lot differently. The storyline was great, the riches to rags scenario, but how it was portrayed was sometimes a little insulting to poor people.

The blurb says this - Bestselling author Amanda Prowse once again plumbs the depths of human experience in this stirring and empowering tale of one woman’s loss and love - but in reality that was not my perception of this book. It was hard to be stirred and empowered when the main character annoyed me a fair bit, the protrayal of rich people a little OTT in arrogance and snobbishness, leaving the book as a mediocre read for me

All in all, it was an ok read, not the best and by far not the worst, just not meaty enough for me to keep me glued in the story. I received a copy of The Art of Hiding from Netgalley and would give it a 2.5 star rating.

Nina finds herself and her 2 young boys having to cope with the sudden death of her husband, Finn, in a tragic car accident. Tiggy her estranged sister arrives to offer to stay and give whatever help she can. But she lets Nina know that she thinks she has changed since being with Finn.

Somewhat off centred by this, Nina tries to renormalize post funeral, despite their raw distress only to learn that Finn had left outstanding debts of £8 million and was bankrupt. In fact she is to be evicted from their home and the boys ejected from their private school. The niggly question of whether this was an accident has to be ignored as she is faced with recovering her dignity and rebuilding their lives on a shoestring.

In essence the story is about re-discovering herself and finding contentment in a simple life. In all the story is engaging, easy and entertaining to read. The characters are relatable, likeable and clearly develop, as they have to readjust after such a predicament. Nina does get a bit annoying towards the latter end, rationalising everything her sons say, assuming the reader cannot determine and interpret this themselves. It is very predictable, but this is a minor whim, considering how well knitted the story and characters within are. Tiggy probably makes for the most interesting and multidimensional character and I would have liked to have learnt more about her. It is an enjoyable journey and one that makes you stop and be grateful for what you have and to pause from what we all are guilty of doing, which is spending too much time thinking of what we desire not need. Definitely one for also encouraging you to reflect upon and take stock of your own life.