I really enjoy Amanda Prowse's writing and loved The Idea of You, so I couldn't wait to read this one. I actually read it last year and read it for a second time with Audible Narration. I really enjoyed it the second time around. Nina is living a good life, she as a fabulous home, her boys attend the prestigious Kings Norton School and life is great. Until that fateful day she is watching her son play rugby and she get a call that her husband was in an accident. Safe to say Nina's world comes tumbling down in the worst possible way, her husband dies and she loses EVERYTHING.

She lost her home, her money and the boys schooling, you see it all comes to light that her life was far from perfect behind the scenes - her husband was responsible for the finances, and racked up debt to the tune of around £8million! How could she not have know the situation? I have heard about people having one deal with the money and the other the house, but in Nina's case it was more living beyond his means for her husband - his business was going bust and he took out mortgage to the hilt in order to try keep it aloft.

Evicted from their home with the clothes on their back and a few meagre possessions since everything else was taken by bailiffs to cover the cost of the debt Nina and her son's head back to her roots and live near her sister Tiggy. She managed to move into her aunts old flat that has just become vacant - a relief for her to have a roof over her head, but not so much for the boys who were used to luxury and space.

This was a trying tale of a riches to rags story with the underlying sense of control from her husband that only came to light after the many interaction with her sister Tiggy. Nina is forced to penny pinch for the first time in her life since leaving "poverty" at the age of 18 when she met her husband. It really put into perspective for her, how we flower budget for the home was now the same price as her rent on the poky wee flat she had to live in.

I really enjoyed this book from Prowse, I was invested in Nina and watched as she lost everything and build herself back up again.

Lovely, emotional, and thought provoking. It's a bit of a riches to rags (well, not quite rags) story. The main character is very hard to identify with at times, but I still found myself rooting for her. The older child was quite bratty throughout most of the book. They're all going through something awful, but there were times I wished Nina would call him out on his selfishness! The disrespect he showed her bothered me, but he evolves during the story along with the rest of the characters.

I struggled with this book I really wanted to like it but I just couldn't get into this, I just didn't connect with the characters or really get into the book so this one wasn't for me.

Living the dream. Two boys in a top private school. An expensive house with beautiful art work. Finn is a loving husband, who is an entrepreneur successful, devoted to the family and is always smiling. No need for Nina to be a working mum, she is able to devote herself to being the perfect mum and wife. That was yesterday, today Nina's a widow trying to cope with having to return to the poverty of her childhood and keep her boys from falling apart as their perfect life falls apart.

This is effectively written in fragments as we experience Nina lurching from crisis to crisis, dealing with the fallout of her husband's death. It's worse as she struggles to reconcile the business man who was in debt to the husband who never even hinted at any financial problems. Nina juggles her grief with betrayal, and the guilt of allowing herself from being excluded from the financial side of their life.

A situation not unusual, even today, as the author alludes to, when Nina finds doors closed in her face and reflects on another woman who 'disappeared' from her boys' school.

An apocryphal tale of why you should always be involved in your family finances and talk about business with your partner. Also a warning that all that glitters... ! Money is not a reliable friendship maker so always have a contingency plan.

As distressing and scary as it was to read once I started I could not put it down. The author has written credible characters and situations we can all identify with.

A moral for the modern family, the era of plenty is no more.

I was given the novel free by netgalley.com for my fair and honest review.

I tried to like this one-I really did. But it was kind of painful to read-so much sadness and deception. Yes, there were redeeming qualities and resolution, but it was just so heavy. It also felt really drawn out. This is the second book I’ve read from this author, and I think it is a matter of me not being her particular audience.

Nina loses her husband suddenly, and comes to find out that he left her and their 2 kids with a mountain of debt. While Nina works her way through the trauma and realities of this all, my thoughts about her were like a roller coaster ride. Sometimes she was the supportive mom just trying to find a way through it all for her and the kids, and sometimes she was the pampered woman who forgot who she really was. She eventually comes to the realization that it's family and friends that matter, not money, but the book meandered its way along until this epiphany happened suddenly at the end. Over all a good book, just not a great one.

The Art of Hiding is a beautiful story of extreme loss followed by recovery and hope. Even though the story starts off with the worst tragedy imaginable, the characters remain determined to see their family through. I absolutely love Nina and admire her strength so much.

The Art Of Hiding is my first introduction to the writing of Amanda Prowse so I had no expectations when I came to read it...yet I have been left with an overriding sense of disappointment.

This books tells the story of just a few short months in the lives of Nina and her children, Connor and Declan. Nina seemingly has the perfect life, she lives in the big, beautiful house of her dreams, has a husband who works hard for the family and has two perfect children who attend the local private school. Life is bliss, at least it is until the day that Nina's husband is killed in a car crash and their carefully constructed world comes tumbling down as she learns that her husband is £8 Million in debt and that the house is mortgaged to the hilt and back. So poor Nina finds herself taking her two children away from everything they know back to the life that she had hoped she had escaped forever. The family find themselves living in a tiny flat in a rough area and Nina is now faced with the prospect of trying to find a job to support the family - harder than it seems when you aren't qualified for anything and have spent the best part of the last few years shopping and arranging the expensive flowers that arrive on a weekly basis.

I have issues with the way the material is tackled when Nina discovers that her husband owes millions of pounds. Instead of seeking any real advice from anyone she just rolls over and lets it all happen - even her husbands accountant and solicitors advice is just to hide their valuables from the bailiffs.....seriously? I am not sure that legally anyone could act as quickly as they do in the book following the death of the person that owes the money. Another issue is with how being poor is viewed. I can't believe that nobody, not even Nina's sister who is more streetwise, advises Nina to go to the job centre or apply for benefits - instead its all about finding a job, any job, that will pay enough to cover the rent and feed her boys. Connor and Declan take to life in a state school spectacularly well with only a token nod at bullying issues that they would definitely have been subject to had this been real - if you are going to write children in at least do it with some authenticity!

The pace of the story is slow and I felt like I spent a long time waiting for something to happen and very little did. While my review tends to focus on the problems of the book I can't claim that it was all bad - it wasn't. It kept me entertained enough and I did kind of enjoy it. It's not for everyone though, however, if you are looking for an unchallenging read with a bit of human drama then you can't go wrong with this.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I’d previously read The Idea of You by the author and enjoyed it so I was happy when this one turned out to be much of the same for me. A dark chick-lit novel (is that a genre?) Nina suddenly loses her husband and realizes he may have been hiding… a lot! Loved seeing how her character developed and how she embraced her past while creating a future for herself and her two children. The only thing that was missing for me was the truth about her husband!

I enjoyed reading Nina's journey in The Art of Hiding. Amanda Prowse describes her experience of losing her husband and learning that the easy life she once knew will be gone at any moment. It's realistic and believable without the need to exaggerate the emotions for dramatic effect. Even Nina's relationship with her sister is examined when she turns to her for help. Nina learns a valuable lesson in her experience that makes The Art of Hiding relevant and appealing to women of all ages and walks of life.
*ARC provided in consideration for review*

Nina a moderately well off lady, with two youngish boys, living in what we working class peeps would call a mansion, Nina being a mother and having everything to hand to make life easy and not really caring where her next pound might come from… maybe in gold trinkets or a wonderful kitchen full of gadgets that we only dream about, not wanting to share her life with even her own sister Tiggy who she sort of isolated wanting her gone from her everyday life, because Tiggy hadn’t two halfpenny’s to rub together,

Nina, on the other hand was a snob in every sense of the word, and high up on her pedestal, not a care in the world…but dark clouds were arriving on her horizon which at the time she had no idea about, and that they were about to engulf her in the most dramatic of events that threatens all she had in one dramatic swoop… and whilst awaiting her beloved husband Finn, Finn McCarrick to meet her at her son’s posh school to watch Connor play the game of rugby… she had thought he had at last arrived after taking such a long time to be there Nina thought he had arrived as she could smell Finns aftershave…but couldn’t actually see him.

Then the dark clouds enveloped her when she was informed that Finn had been in an accident sending Nina to rush to the hospital where she was informed that her husband Finn had indeed passed away….Nina’s life as she knew it with all it’s finery suddenly wasn’t to be as her and her boys future was about to become extinct, with enthusiastic demands of Payments of fees first to the boys posh school where she was informed they hadn’t been paid for the last term by an indignant headmaster who couldn’t have cared less about her boys education as long as he got the monies owed… and then disaster the bailiffs had arrived to rip everything from her posh house to settle debts her husband had accrued in his life Debts of an astonishing amount and Nina’s posh life just wouldn’t be same….the story is intriguing in entirety Amanda Prowse has done it again enveloping us her readers into this families life hook line and sinker…so much so you as a reader cannot go to sleep without reading this story which it will be very hard to stop and you will be reluctant to put it down and go to sleep… just a phenomenally exciting book

This book started off with full on emotions, wringing me out in the first few pages.
What a good story of how a mother overcomes a bad deal she is dealt when faced with a tragedy.

A superb read. Only to be expected from Amanda Prowse.
A sad tale telling the story of a riches to rags family after a tragedy. How the mother and her two children relocate and readjust to new circumstances is the ongoing theme. A disturbing but somehow hopeful book

Wasn't quite as I expected from what use heard. I've just been through a loss myself so maybe a case of wrong book wrong time more than the writing of anything else. This doesn't help the author I know but when I'm not quite so sensitive I'll try again. I feel that if I were in a slightly less sensitive state this would definitely be a book I would more than enjoy

I’d heard much about this book, but tbh it’s run of the mill women’s fiction. Neither bad nor good.

Nina loses her husband but she seems to mourn the loss of a luxurious lifestyle more.

Left a bad taste in my mouth.

The story was good. I liked watching Nina grow into who she was meant to be. I definitely felt bad for her and how things were left with Finn's death. She does a lot of self growth throughout her journey.

Nina is a devoted house wife. She lives for her family's happiness. She is always conerned about being presentable and always being semi perfect. But that all comes crashing down when her husband is in an accident and she has to figure everything out herself. Ever since Nina got married her husband took care of everything financially and she had no knowledge of how they were making their money just how to spend it without care. Now she needs to go back to her upbringing of paying attention to every cent and taking a step back to remember what is really important. With no money and no home Nina has to find a job, find a school for her children, find a home, and yet still keep her emotional state together.

This book brought me to tears numerous times. Nina is a good character and has so much growth. She grew up with little to no money and was lucky to fall in a love with a man who managed to make plenty of it, but she let him take care of everything that she had no idea what was going on. After finding out she had no money she had to learn how to financially care for her family. Nina was grieving but so were her kids and being a mother never stops no matter what you as a mother are going through and I felt for her so much. With her son being so rude and entitled, Nina still managed to handle it all well. Always doing the best she can, being honest even with her sons but not too honest that one would feel like a parent should not say that to a child. She found herself as a person again aside from the housewife she had always been. Things were not easily solved in this book it took many tries.
The portrayal of grief was done well in my opinion and the relationship with her kids were done well. I felt very realistic how her kids reacted to no longer having the life of luxury and how the adapted to this new kind of life they never would have imagined living. This book emphasizes on what happiness really is and what family really is.
If you want to read an honest story about the amazing strength of a mother who loves her kids but is still only human this is the book for you.

This is a lovely, well written book about the journey of finding one's self amid tragedy. Our main character Nina finds herself on a riches-to-rags story that shares her emotions and pain in finding real meaning in life after the death of her rich husband, who has left her penniless. While the story flows well, it was too predicable and never fully engaged me in the characters or situations Nina found herself in. Challenges that arose throughout her journey were either settled too quickly or had too easy of an answer for them. However, the message of the story was one that is inspiring, so for that, I think it was a nice book.

This was an enjoyable read but it didn't blow me away. One thought that came from it- Always know your finances!

Nina's world is rocked to the core when she finds out that her husband is killed in a car accident. That's just the start of the unraveling of her whole life.

Finn had promised her a life free of worry, a good life for her and their children. Finn had lied.

I felt such empathy for Nina and her predicament. She has to try to protect her home and her sons all while trying to live with the mess her husband left behind. All three of them go through such a hard time and have to start living a different, difficult life from what they had led before.

Through it all, Nina learns that is a strong, capable woman who can take care of herself and her family and ultimately have a happy life. Oh, but what a journey to get to that knowledge.