An expansive story, drawing on actual events of the 1920s and 1940s. The start introduces us to young Fenna Vos, performing the magic of Houdini, then back to her earlier years, and then back to her recruitment to intelligence work based in England, during WWII. There are many sad and suspenseful incidents that propel one through the pages, hoping for happy, or at least positive, outcomes. Unfortunately, those are sometimes experienced, but never guaranteed. Fenna is a character to admire, for her intelligence, her resourcefulness, and her bravery. Kristina McMorris hooked me with Sold on a Monday in 2019, and she continued her “magic” with this title.

I don't read alot of historical fiction but something about this book jumped out to me. It could have been the cover and that it deals with the WW II era. It was surprising a good read, a little slower paced than other stuff I read but overall really interesting. I may check out other stuff by this author to see if I feel the same.

1928: Holland, MI, Fenna and Arie are the best of friends even as children. They compliment each other with an interest in Houdini, magic tricks and caring about each other. Fenna’s parents die when she is a young girl and she realizes she’s going to count on her own talents for survival.

1943: Fenna has perfected her ability to analyze, design and construct equipment used for vanishing acts and magic tricks and is working with a traveling show. She is approached by an Englishman offering her a chance to help in the war effort designing and making gadgets for the military. Working for the MI9, she volunteers to go on a mission to help her best friend, Arie, who is currently in the Netherlands. This historical fiction novel is based on facts researched and included in the story. It has some very tense moments.

This was such an amazing, character driven, well researched book! Kristina McMorris has created characters I will long remember. The book recounts some little-known parts of the Resistance movement in World War II, as the main characters, Fenna and Arie travel from the United States to England and the Netherlands. The author weaves multiple story lines expertly together, of Fenna and Arie's childhoods, Fenna's work with and as a magician and illusionist, her recruitment by British Intelligence, and the terror and danger in the Netherlands during their occupation by the Nazis. The character of Fenna is representative of all those brave souls that worked despite great peril to use magic and illusion to create ways to get vital information to Allied troops without detection. The book is both beautifully written, though tragic at times, and thoroughly suspenseful! The ending was just masterful, bringing all the various story lines together. I just loved the book. Thank you to the publisher, the author and Netgalley for the ARC.

While reading this book, I really enjoyed the character Fenna. She had been through a lot as a child, but she came out stronger each time. She is such a strong, female lead. It was such an interesting book, the fiction interwoven facts from WWII. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from Kristina McMorris in the future.

Thank you NetGalley and Source Books for the opportunity to review this book.

Historical fiction written by a talented author…this book was sent to me by Netgalley for review…although the story moves slowly, it comes to a resounding ending…some surprises…some red herrings…enjoy…

I previously read another book by this author that I enjoyed and was excited to get a chance to read this new one. Set during WWII, Ways We Hide is well-written, fast-paced and kept me turning pages. Will definitely recommend to other people who read this genre.

Absolutely beautiful story! Heart wrenching at times but in the most magnificent way. Sad to see it end.

I loved the last book this author did and this one didn’t disappoint. Definitely had all the elements I was looking for in a book. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone

Ways We Hide
by Kristina McMorris
Pub DAte: Sept. 6, 2022
Sourcebooks
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
* historical fiction
This is my second novel by this author and I really enjoy the style and flow of her stories. I found this novel to be engrossing with the illusionist storyline. I had never considered using a talent like that during the war.
The strong female character was sassy and bold. I'm not a big fan of romance in a novel but I did enjoy this particular storyline. I lost interest during her mission. I think our patrons will enjoy this book so I have already preordered it.
3.5

This book was a suspenseful book but was different than I expected from the description. I thought it would be more about coming up with escape aids, but that was only a small part. Understandably, there was a sizeable part about Fenna's younger life and experiences that shaped her as a person. There was also a bit about her working as an escape artist's assistant. However, the biggest part of the book was about a mission she went on.

I wasn’t sure if I liked Arie, and some of the decisions he made (and some which Fenna made), while understandable, were not for the greater good.

I found the ending satisfying.

I have been working my way through this book for almost a week now and just can't seem to make much progress. There are parts of the story that I really enjoyed (Fenna's early years and Arie and Fenna's love story), but then others that bored me. I finally decided this book just wasn't for me and I DNF. I received this book via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to thank SourceBooks Landmark along with NetGalley and the author for the preview copy.
I loved this book. Historical fiction is my favorite, but I thought I was over World War 2 books. Not so! This is a sweeping saga of one strong woman’s life and loves and the history is just part of it. From a horrible start to more and more obstacles, our heroine is everything we want to see in a strong female who is trying to live her best life contributing to the war effort. What a creative premise! I learned so much about Houdini and magic tricks and love how this relates to the war effort.
I love Fenna! She’s so human and real but she is constantly trying to do the right thing all the time quite aware of her inability to create and keep intimate relationships. Her past has her very guarded and self sufficient and her reasoning for not having children is heartbreaking. We see her grow from a very shy young child into a strong woman.
The plot is huge! How many subplots, changes of settings and characters? I honestly lost track. So much research and detail are included that I am in awe of the author. This could easily be material for two if not three novels. The multiple storylines kind of exhausted me as a reader so I can’t imagine what it took to research and write this book. To be honest, I was kind of counting the pages to the end because of this.
Kristina McMorris is an author new to me and I intend to go back and read her backlist. Her writing is excellent. I did find the book a bit slow in places but the deeper I got into it the more of a page turner it was for me. I really enjoyed the author’s note and love how history and fiction made for such an amazing read.

Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris does not disappoint. From illusions, to family drama, ww2 spies and gadgets and a love story all come together in this book. I couldn’t put it down, kept me reading late into the night too many nights to count! Would recommend this book to fans of historical fiction, ww2, 1920s and 30s America, and Harry Houdini 😉. You will not be disappointed!!

What an amazing World War 2 historical novel from a new author to me. It was not only wonderfully written, but the time the author used to use actual historical events to write her story.

Inspired by true events, The Ways We Hide is a beautifully written WWII spy story full of historical intrigue and amazing characters.

The story is primarily written from Fenna's point of view which instantly connects you to her character and surroundings. As a successful illusionist and assistant in a magical show in the US, her connections to the war feel safe and distant compared to the terror that reigns in the Netherlands. That is, until Major Hutton recruits her to M19 creating hidden gadgets to help aid in the war efforts for British allies. As the story begins to unfold, we get some backstory of her childhood tragedies as well as her more happier moments with her father and childhood best friend, Arie. The skillful weaving of these timelines not only shapes a fantastic plot but also builds the type of suspense that will keep you feverishly turning the pages. I literally could not put this book down!

Fenna Vos is an amazingly strong protagonist who is not only inspiring but also relatable, along with her childhood friend, Arie. I fell in love with them both as I laughed, cried, and longed for each of their journeys. My goodness, these two characters really gripped me!

I also enjoyed learning about M19, the game boards that helped aid war efforts, and the fun facts of Houdini's history along the way. An extensive amount of research went in to this book and it clearly shows. I truly appreciate the amount of devotion McMorris puts in to each and every one of her novels to craft such captivating stories and characters. They always seduce me into learning even more about the book's topic long after I've finished reading.

Schedule to publish on September 6, 2022, The Ways We Hide is perfect for historical fiction fans and book club discussions. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks for an Advanced Readers Copy of this amazing book. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Five Key Feels

-Fenna and Arie are so sweet, their story is so engrossing.

-The various settings of this book are very interesting.

-The integration of magic and it’s usefulness is so well done.

-The book was full of tension!

-This book did a great job of weaving real history into a historical fiction book.


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The Ways We Hide is a historical fiction book set during World War 2, and centers around a women named Fenna. She is a magician who uses her skills to aid the war effort. She then essentially becomes a spy in order to help her dear friend Arie escape Nazi Occupied the Netherlands.

I found this book to be a bit slow to start, and it took me awhile to really get into the meat of the story. I get that the pieces were all interconnected, but I felt the explanations for those pieces took awhile to really flesh out.

As someone who is a big fan of historical fiction, particularly World War 2, I loved Fenna’s work on tools for espionage. However, I found her being dropped into The Netherlands a bit implausible. I am not saying these things didn’t happen in World War 2, because they did, but the rush to link her job to basically becoming a spy was a hard jump for me to just accept.

Overall, I still really enjoyed this book. It was very engaging, and I would definitely recommend it to other historical fiction lovers.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A young woman faces hardships and finds her place in the world in spite of her past difficulties.

As someone who loves history and has just recently gotten into historical fiction, The Ways We Hide has become one of the best books I have read in the genre!

The blend of WW2, Illusion/Magic and a little blend of romance creates a beautifully crafted story of love and the lengths we go to as we reach for it or even run away from it. The characters of Fen and Arie bring this story to life and make it feel realistic and like it could have happened in real life.

Kristina McMorris crafts a story that feels lived in and I hope to see what else she writes because of this phenomenal story!

This was a fantastic read, I found the description of the book interesting because Fenna grew up in Copper Harbor Michigan (I'm from MI), she was involved in magic shows and loved Houdini (I was always fascinated with both), and she was recruited to use her skills to help in WWII. I thought she was going to be performing across Europe to sneak in and out and help during the war but that isn't the way she helped. I also was surprised to see that she was the assistant in the magic show but in truth was the genius behind the show and the builder of all the large "tricks" they performed. Her many skills behind coming up with these was how she started to help, coming up with so many ideas for our servicemen. This is based on true events during the war to make the book further interesting. I normally read books around 300 pages so when I got the book and saw it was just under 500 I was a little disappointed but I am so glad I read it. From Fenna's childhood, her time touring with her magic show, her time with the military intelligence coming up with so many creative ideas to her actually heading into the war zone in a dangerous plan the book was so captivating. Fenna is the main character in the book and it was so good to read about a strong female lead! If you like books like The Forest of Vanishing Stars, The Pull of the Stars, & The Exiles you will love this book too! I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and this review is my honest opinion.