I love the main character in this book, and loved her in the maid as well! I love the representation. Another great story. I didn't see the main twist coming!

Reading Between the Wines book review #141/115(met goal in Sept!) for 2023:
Rating: 3 ½ 🍷 🍷 🍷
Book: The Mystery Guest
Author: Nita Prose
Available Now!!

Sipping thoughts: The Maid was my favorite read of 2021! So, you can imagine how excited I was to read book #2. Molly is back and just as interesting but I can say the mystery was not as thrilling as the first book. I was able to figure out one of the mysteries but the killer did escape me. Either way, I really enjoyed reading this one and hope Molly becomes a household series.

Cheers and thank you to @RandomHousePublishingGroup and @Netgalley for an advanced copy of @TheMysteryGuest.

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Molly the maid is back! The mystery in this second installment is engaging and the story is perfectly paced. I highly recommend reading the first book and this book before the next book comes out, sometime in 2024. It’s a perfect time to jump into the series before there are too many books to catch up on. My book club is reading the first book and I can’t wait to schedule this one for sometime in spring 2024.

I loved Molly the Maid in the first book in this series, and I still loved her in The Mystery Guest, book 2 in the series about her. This time she is caught up in the mystery of a wildly successful author who is murdered in Molly's beloved hotel. Turns out she has a past with this author, and the more she learns from his fans and her co-workers, the more she learns that there are plenty of people out there that may have wanted him dead. I loved that somehow Molly's fastidiousness about cleanliness and is brilliantly worked into how she stumbles onto solving crimes. I loved the small arc that included some past wrongs being righted, as well as Molly learning some really good things about her family. This is a very uplifting series that also challenges the reader to look differently at people who don't fit social norms.

Molly, the maid, is back! She’s now the head maid at a five-star hotel where a well-known mystery author drops dead. Molly must look back in her past and use her exquisite attention to detail to solve the case.

I loved The Maid last year and I adored Molly’s quirky character, but this time around I felt like something was missing. It’s told via the present and of Molly’s past as a child going to work with her grandmother. I was more intrigued by the past timeline and had no interest in the current murder mystery. In my opinion this book lacked the charm in both the storyline and in the side characters that I loved in the first book. Overall, it was a short cozy mystery that hinted there might possibly be a third installment.

I laughed. I cried. I loved this book y’all 🥹🫶. It’s a murder mystery, but it’s about so much more. It’s one of those books that seeps into your core and wrecks you (in the best possible way). The passages with young Molly and Gran are beautiful and heartwarming, while the present day murder mystery keeps you furiously flipping pages till the very end.
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Molly Gray is living her best life as Head Maid at the Regency Grand Hotel. Her precision and attention to detail are unmatched. When the infamous mystery author J.D. Grimthorpe drops dead in the hotel tearoom, Molly knows that she alone can solve the murder. To do so, she must comb through memories of her childhood working as a maid in the Grimthorphe mansion with her beloved Gran. When everyone begins to look like a suspect, will Molly’s unique set of skills lead her to the killer?
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As the mom of a neurodivergent kiddo, Molly’s story really pulled on my heartstrings. Prose walks the reader through Molly’s childhood struggles to process the world around her, and Gran’s assurances to Molly that she is brilliant and perfect just the way she is 🥹🫶.
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Thank you to @randomhouse @netgalley and @librofm for these digital ARCs. I read and listened to this one. The narration by Lauren Ambrose was perfection.
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I pulled so many beautiful quotes from this one. It was hard to narrow it down!
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“Strengths. You have plenty of them. You may miss certain niceties from time to time, but your heart and soul are in the right place.”
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“There are moments in life that are so seismically altering they divide everything, cutting a clear rift in time between Before and After.”
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“Shame is the scar the demons leave behind. You remember that, Molly.”
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The Mystery Guest - Nita Prose
5/5⭐️
Pub Date: 🎉11/28/23

Reunited with Molly the Maid and even more murderous hotel hijinks! I think I actually liked this one more than the first one in the series though it would not work as a standalone. Molly is such an incredible character and I loved the way this story connected memories from her childhood to the case at hand. It seemed like the ending set up a way for there to be more stories and offshoots in the future so I hope to be brought back into this fictional world again sometime soon!

In this book, Molly helps solve another mystery, the death of a prominent writer who turns to be a ghost from her childhood.

I was really hoping that book 2 would be as good as the first novel. And it not only met, but exceeded my expectations! Wow, this read had everything I hoped for and more! Molly was at the top of her game assisting detective Stark in the investigation. She was no longer a timid maid, she was so much more in control of her life and social relationships that I couldn't be more proud of her. I loved that the second book had a dual timeline and we got a glimpse of Molly's childhood and got to know her gran better. The book is full of humor, jingles, but also heartbreak. So much more emotion in this one.

What a wonderful series! I am really hoping Molly's adventures will continue. I would recommend reading these books in order to get to know the characters better and watch the storyline develop.

We fell in love with Molly in The Maid, and now she’s back solving another murder mystery at the Regency Grand Hotel where she works. When acclaimed author JD Grimthorpe drops dead in the tea room just before he makes a big announcement, suspicions abound. With the entire hotel staff under investigation, she’ll have to dig back to her childhood, when her Gran actually worked as the maid for Mr. Grimthorpe.

The first book in this series was easily five stars for me, and this one was also pretty darn endearing. Some of the quirks we already understand about the character felt a little redundant this time around, but I really enjoyed the flashbacks to her childhood, getting more insight into Molly and her late Gran.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for the copy!

A continuation of Molly the Maids story at the Regency Grand. She uncovers another rat problem that could bring the hotel to a stop! The beauty of this one are the details that we find about Mollys life as a child, as well as learning more about the roll of her grandmother. Detective Stark grows to appreciate Molly even more through this one. If you enjoyed The Maid, you will love this one. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this read!

Chin up, Buttercup! Molly the Maid is back for another whodunnit in The Mystery Guest! A huge thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the ebook and give my honest review this book! The Mystery Guest is the sequel to Nita Prose's The Maid. Honestly, one could read one without having to read the other. Prose does a wonderful job of bringing in key points from the first novel. Many old characters return, including the protagonist, Molly and her coworkers. New characters appear including Molly's new maid in training, Lily and of course the victim, JD Grimthorpe. This cozy mystery starts off with Molly years later, who has been promoted to Head Maid, organizing a special event at the hotel for an infamous mystery writer. As mysteries go, the writer drops dead in the middle of the event as he is about to make a big reveal. What was the big reveal? Who would want to kill this writer? Well, just about everyone since he wasn't the warmest soul.
The Mystery Guest is definitely a cozy mystery with a light-hearted feel. Molly is such a delightful woman. She takes everything literally and has an Amelia Bedelia quality about her. We definitely find out more about Molly's childhood and to my delight, learn more of Gran's favorite sayings and her story. The story jumps between past and present to reveal just how Molly figures out the case. This was a quick, cozy read with a few chuckles and life lessons thrown in the mix. I look forward to following Molly in future adventures!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me preview The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose. This was a charming follow up to Prose's The Maid featuring Molly, a unique maid at a high end hotel. There's been another murderer at the hotel, and Molly gets thrown into the investigation again.

I quite enjoyed getting flashbacks to Molly's childhood and learning more about her background. Prose stops short of using "on the spectrum" or "autistic" to describe Molly, but we are given plenty of information to let us know that her brain functions differently from those around her. This comes in handy because she's able to make connections that others aren't during the investigation.

Like The Maid, I enjoyed The Mystery Guest. I look forward to future books featuring Molly.

The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
Molly The Maid is back in the thick of it yet again with another untimely death in her midst. In this endearing second installment of the series we find Molly training a new maid and another cozy mystery to sort out. In this book we learn a bit more of Molly’s childhood and her beloved gran. The characters are wonderfully written and the story engaging.,I truly hope there are more Molly stories in the wings
5 stars all around

This second mainstream cozy mystery about Molly Gray, previously The Maid, now the head maid at the five star Regency Grand hotel, does not disappoint.
Molly Gray still loves to clean and to ensure that the Regency Grand provides a perfect experience for the guests. But when a mystery writer, JD Grimthorpe visits the hotel and ends up murdered Molly is drawn in to a new mystery that has connections to Molly's past growing up with her beloved Gran. Molly's different but excellently suited skills put her at the center of the investigation again but we also get a lot of background on her childhood - I don't want to spoil the book for others so I'll just say I loved the glimpses into Molly's childhood, and especially the final twist for that part of the storyline !
The author yet again does a magnificent job of capturing Molly's voice and showing the reader how her mind works without ever being condescending. Molly's character development is very recognizable and fits her personality so well.
This could be read as a stand-alone - the mystery is contained to this book but I think reading The Maid first in case you haven't already will make this book even better and this book gives away some important parts of the ending of The Maid, so I would read in order.

I will be posting a review of and recommendation for this novel to my book-Instagram and Goodreads pages next week after the holiday.

Nita Prose does a good job crafting cozy mysteries (think Agatha Christie). I also appreciate the representation of having an autistic main character/narrator. The hotel setting is also fun as it has the ability to provide a revolving door of characters—I’m interested to see what Prose does next…maybe another installment in this enjoyable series?

I loved being back with these characters!! I love Molly with all her quirks and Gran’s sayings that roll around in her head. Mr. Preston is just the most precious and Juan Manuel, although missing for most of this story, is a good grounding influence to Molly’s somewhat dramatic reactions. There were a few too many near fainting spells in this book for me. I was also rather disappointed in the resolution to the mystery as it didn’t seem to really mesh with all of the backstory that was given. Overall, I’d say I loved the first half bit the 2nd half was not my favorite.

Nita Prose did an incredible job of developing the character of Molly the maid. Molly has gone from being a suspect in the first book to a neuro-divergent character who brings a diverse and valued perspective to local law enforcement. I loved how we continued to see flashbacks of the relationship between Molly and her Gran. It is so incredibly heart warming and brings the character of Gran to life. These scenes are so well written and provide a glimpse of the love that Molly has experienced but also background information that help to develop all the characters. I hope Prose’s publisher continue with this series. I can’t get enough of Molly, her Gran and her need for order at the hotel. This series is becoming one of my favorites.

"The Mystery Guest" by Nita Prose is a captivating murder mystery that follows Molly, a meticulous maid, as she investigates a gruesome crime at the prestigious Regency Grand Hotel. With her keen eye for detail, Molly uncovers a web of secrets and lies among the hotel's guests and staff, leading her down a dangerous path of discovery.

As a fan of the mystery genre, I was thoroughly impressed by Prose's masterful crafting of a cast of intriguing characters, each with their own motives and flaws, making it challenging to identify the killer. The plot twists and turns, keeping readers on edge as they piece together clues alongside Molly. The writing style is polished and engaging, immersing readers in the grand hotel's opulent atmosphere.

Personally, I found Molly's character to be particularly endearing. Her attention to detail and commitment to her work are admirable, and her vulnerabilities make her relatable. I also appreciated the subtle hints of humor throughout the book, which added a touch of lightness to the otherwise dark and intense plot.

One aspect that stood out to me was the exploration of social hierarchies within the hotel. Prose sheds light on the often-overlooked lives of service staff and the power dynamics between guests and employees, adding depth and nuance to the story.

The Mystery Guest" is a gripping whodunit with a unique protagonist, a complex plot, and a richly detailed setting. As someone who enjoys character-driven stories, I found this book to be a delightful read. If you're a fan of mysteries or are simply looking for a compelling story, I highly recommend joining Molly on her perilous journey to unravel the truth behind the murder at the Regency Grand Hotel.

The Mystery Guest is a very cozy sequel in the Molly the Maid series, however you do not need to read the first book before this one. Molly is a detail oriented maid who thinks and processes information very literally. I enjoy this about her! The premise of this mystery is interesting, with a world-renowned author that winds up dead in Molly's hotel. I thoroughly enjoyed the backstory and getting to know Molly's Gran, but the actual solving of the mystery was too much on the cozy side for me as I prefer a little more reality and grit to my mysteries. If you enjoy the feel good, cozy mystery variety then you will thoroughly enjoy this book!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books for my ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you netgalley for providing me with an ARC of The Mystery Guest. I adored the first book in the Molly the Maid series and this new book only increased my love of Molly. She is such a lovely soul and I was so happy the author decided to give the reader more backstory on Molly herself that also connected to the mystery. We continue to learn more about the beautiful supporting characters and I cannot wait for book 3 of the series. I highly recommend this book1