A review by frogqueen
The Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

• an american magician's assistant is recruited by MI9 for her talents in gadgetry, but she gets diverted when her first love goes missing in action in nazi-occupied utrecht
•  wwii fiction is always hit or miss for me, i appreciate that this one is a bit different in terms of plot elements
• however (and i had this problem with the other kristina mcmorris novel i read) the author has a very heavy hand
• by which i mean the turns of the plot don't really make a lot of sense and don't seem to follow naturally from each other
• for example: british intelligence simply shows up at fenna's show and offers her a job? and oh, by the way, they already vetted her and everything so no need to dwell on that.
  arie shows up in london to check in on her because oh, by the way, he got into intelligence via being in the army corps of engineers and just figured out how to find her based on one phone call and then was able to actually get in contact with her?????
• the pacing is also a bit weird- 40 pages in, fenna accepts a job working for british intelligence in london! wow! very exciting! can't wait to see what that's like! but then we get a hundred-page interlude about her childhood. 
• still, i found the mystery around arie very engaging and was on the edge of my seat for the whole last half waiting to see what would happen next

** review of a copy i received via the storygraph giveaways**