The fan favorite Molly the Maid is back at the Regency Grand Hotel, now as Head Maid with a new trainee, a newfound respect from her coworkers, and a new murder to sully the rarefied air and lush carpets of the newly reopened Grand Tearoom. This time it’s the untimely death of J.D. Grimthorpe, a megastar reclusive best-selling mystery author, with his traveling fan club, the LAMBs. Mr Grimthorpe was about to make an eagerly awaited major announcement, but instead falls victim to a cup of poisoned tea before uttering a word. In the chaotic aftermath, Detective Stark returns, long on suspicion and short on memory. Her previous grudging acknowledgement of Molly’s unique perspective, and apology for her past insensitivity, emphasized in the previous book, seems never to have occurred. Still there are bittersweet delights in this story, especially in Molly’s poignant memories of her much younger self, and we get to see another side of her beloved, beleaguered, rhyme-spouting Gram. When Molly is ostracized by her classmates and school administration for her unconventional behavior, Gran takes Molly to her maid’s job at a very wealthy manor with a demanding and surprising employer. The repercussions of bringing Molly into this time bomb of a workplace are unpredictable and shake out a “don’t open that door” level of suspense. These parts of the narrative are solidly developed and often wrenching; however, they don’t balance out the rest of the story. Too often the writing has a draft-like quality of being rushed to make a deadline, with people and circumstances contorted to fit into shaky plot points. And the secondary characters, including some new ones, such as Lily, Molly’s protégé, often seem added as an afterthought. The subtle humor, so evident in the first book, has been eclipsed by the farcical; the press conference with Detective Stark is absurd, as is Molly’s alliance with barmaid Angela, who fancies herself a “kick-ass sleuth,” and gets Molly into ludicrous situations, played for show rather than substance. Also missing is the winsome romance with Juan Manuel, who has been whisked away for a long family visit for the duration of the book. The neurodivergent techniques Molly uses to ultimately solve the murder are unexpected and clever, it is disappointing that they are absent for the bulk of the story. Here’s hoping for a revamp and a rebound for Molly’s next episode.

Another fun mystery with Molly the maid. I love all of the quirky characters and the crazy situations. Molly's reaction to events can make me laugh out loud. It was interesting to learn more of her back story and to get to know dear departed gran a bit better. The Mystery Guest is a breezy, fast read, an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon reading. I look forward to the next mystery.

I received a copy of "The Mystery Guest" from Netgalley. This book by Nita Prose is the second "Molly the Maid" book.Molly Gray has been a maid at the Regency Grand hotel for years now. she has been promoted to head maid. Molly is there at the hotel when a famous mystery writer is there to promote his next book. Mr. J.D. Grimthorpe is ready to meet his public when he drinks from a tea cup and drops dead. It does not take long to realize that Mr. Grimthorpe may have been murdered. So now we have a "who dunnit?"Molly has a unique personality. She does not always have an easy way with other people wo do not understand her. {although I don't think she was diagnosed she does display traits that could fall under the autistic spectrum} that would be my opinion at least. Now we see Molly try and do her detective snooping to find out who killed J.D. Grimthorpe.
Throughout the book the readers will see Grimthorpe is not a nice man at all so there would be many people who could be the killer. Molly even talks of her briefly knowing Mr and Mrs Grimthorpe when she was a little girl and her granny brought Molly with her while she had a maids job for the Grimthorpes.
there could be quite a list of people who could have killed this author, anywhere from a maid at the hotel, other employees, former people who have been employed by the author, and not to forget a group of fans of the author who were also there that day. Of course in any mystery there are all kinds of secrets that Molly can help bring to the surface. a good mystery book. Glad to get to read another Molly The Maid book.

I was skeptical about how Prose would make Molly into a series but this was actually a worthy follow-up. this one keeps the fun and quirks of <i>The Maid</i> while unveiling more of Molly’s backstory although the mystery itself wasn’t quite as captivating to me as the first book. I’m interested to see if this series will continue, and I will definitely be picking up the rest if so.

✨T H E M Y S T E R Y G U E S T✨
🅶🅴🅽🆁🅴—𝒞𝑜𝓏𝓎 𝑀𝓎𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓎
🗓ℙ𝕦𝕓 𝔻𝕒𝕥𝕖—ℕ𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕞𝕓𝕖𝕣 𝟚𝟠, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟛

“𝓘 𝓶𝓪𝔂 𝓶𝓲𝓼𝓼 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓴 𝓲𝓼 𝓸𝓫𝓿𝓲𝓸𝓾𝓼, 𝓫𝓾𝓽 𝓘'𝓿𝓮 𝓪𝓵𝔀𝓪𝔂𝓼 𝓫𝓮𝓮𝓷 𝓪𝓽𝓽𝓾𝓷𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓸 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓼 𝓲𝓰𝓷𝓸𝓻𝓮.“

✂️ P L O T L I N E
Molly is back in this second installment of “The Maid” series. Another murder has taken place in the the glorious five-star Grand Regency Hotel. J.D. Grimthorpe a world renowned mystery writer has dropped dead in the hotels tea room floor. Everyone wants to know who killed J.D. Grimthorpe and why. Molly and her past hold a connection to the writer. This connection might just be the key needed to solve the case.

💭 ⓂⓎ ⓉⒽⓄⓊⒼⒽⓉⓈ
I really enjoyed this book. I absolutely love Molly Gray and all of her personality. I read “The Maid” at the start of last year and Molly has stuck with me since then. This book is fun and cozy. The cast of characters is a continuation from the first book, but there are also some new ones. I liked the dual timelines and learning more about Molly’s childhood. I love how strong Molly is in this book, and her ability to solve crimes is so entertaining. This book offers us a warm hug and reminds us to concentrate on a persons strengths instead of their weaknesses. If you enjoyed “The Maid,” be sure to pick this one up!

📚 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
💫Cozy mystery reads 🧐
💫Quirky lovable characters🥰
💫Books about books📚
💫Dual Timeline ✌🏽
💫Character growth 📈
💫Tea parties 🫖
💫True crime 🎧

🗝️𝕄𝕐 ℝ𝔸𝕋𝕀ℕ𝔾🗝️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

💕Q U O T E: “𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝓌𝒽𝑜 𝐼 𝒶𝓂. 𝑀𝑜𝓁𝓁𝓎. 𝑀𝑜𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓂𝓎 𝓌𝑒𝒶𝓀𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈𝑒𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒻𝑜𝒾𝒷𝓁𝑒𝓈. 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓂𝓎 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝑒𝓃𝑔𝓉𝒽𝓈, 𝓉𝑜𝑜.”

🙏 Thank you NetGalley, Random House- Ballantine, and Nita Prose for this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts 💕

Molly the Maid is back and has another mystery to solve at the Regency Grand. Molly was an incredibly interesting character when we met her in The Maid, and I enjoyed reuniting with her in this follow-up novel.

Mystery writer J.D. Grimthorpe is at the Regency Grand to make a big announcement when he suddenly drops dead on his way to the podium. Molly and her maid-in-training, Lily, were on service in the tea room and immediately fall under suspicion because as the saying goes: “it’s always the maid.” What Molly doesn’t reveal to detectives right away is that she actually has a history with Mr. Grimthorpe dating back to her childhood.

There was a whole host of potential suspects in this one, new and familiar faces, and twists and turns with history woven in the kept me guessing and turning the pages. I really enjoyed the ‘Before’ chapters where we got to see Molly as a child in the Grimthorpe mansion. I think it added depth to her character and really highlighted the beauty of her relationship with her grandmother. I liked seeing grown-up Molly seeming more genuinely confident in herself and her role at the hotel and overall general self-acceptance. I missed Juan Manuel being more present in this book, though I was happy to see he and Molly’s relationship remained strong. Things did get repetitive with the constant refrain of Gran’s words of wisdom both in the flashbacks and present day chapters, so I could have used less of those little tidbits. I know they’re important to Molly and her character, but I still think they could’ve been trimmed back a bit.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read and a satisfying follow-up to The Maid.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance review copy in return for an honest review. It was really fun to enter back into Mollys world! I loved The Maid and Nita’s sequel is just as good! Molly is so awkward and funny and her whole crew makes this such a cozy mystery.

Another outing for Molly the Maid and I liked this one more than the first when I might have been one of the only readers to find Molly a bit grating. I enjoyed her much more this time and liked getting to know her beloved Gran through flashback scenes. The mystery portion of the book is a little thin and I don’t much like the idea that Molly might leave the world of cleaning behind….I really hope the author doesn’t go that route. An enjoyable diversion, especially for those who liked the first one.

I devoured the Maid so I was super excited to get an advanced copy of the Mystery Guest and it did not disappoint!

When a famous author suddenly falls dead in the hotel, Molly must work to solve the crime.

This was such a cute, cozy fall/winter mystery that I absolutely devoured. Would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a fun mystery.

Molly the maid is back with a new mystery. This time a famous mystery author has been murdered before he was about to make an announcement. Molly tells us through flashbacks how she first met the author & how the investigation is proceeding in the present. Her gran is never far from her thoughts with her many sayings. This was ok. More cozy mystery than I think her first book was. A good read, but I liked the first book better.

I ate this up! So fun, heartfelt, and interesting. I loved learning more about Gran and Molly’s relationship and learning about her upbringing and why she became a maid.

Molly Gray is not like anyone else. With her flair for cleaning, detail, and proper etiquette, she has risen through the ranks of the esteemed five-star Regency Grand Hotel to become the Head Maid. But just as her life reaches perfection, her world is turned upside down when J. D. Grimthorpe, a world-renowned mystery author, drops dead on the hotel’s tearoom floor. As the high-profile death threatens the hotel’s reputation, Molly knows she alone holds the key to unlocking the killer’s identity. But that key is buried deep in her past, as long ago, she knew J. D. Grimthorpe. Molly begins to comb her memory for clues, revisiting her childhood and the mysterious Grimthorpe mansion where she and her dearly departed Gran once worked. With the entire hotel under investigation, Molly must solve the mystery. Because if there’s one thing she knows for sure, it’s that secrets don’t stay buried forever.

Thank you @netgalley, @randomhouse, and @nitaprose for the ARC! Fall is the perfect time for cozy mysteries, and Molly the Maid is back again with an other whodunnit. I liked this book better than The Maid. Molly’s character had a lot more confidence in this book, and we got to know more of her backstory, so I feel overall her character was better developed than it was in The Maid. The dual timeline was wonderful and helped give a lot of context to the plot and really propelled the mystery along. I loved how Molly banded together with friends and coworkers, much like she did in the first book, to solve the case. This book didn’t have the shocking twists of the first, at least to me, but I really enjoyed how the story unfolded and piecing together the clues as they came along. The Mystery Guest comes out November 28!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to receive this book for an honest review.

The Mystery Guest is the follow-up book to The Maid.

I love the Maid but I liked The Mystery Guest even more. I loved Molly and continuing her story.
I finished this one so fast I was disappointed there wasn't any more. I am hoping there is another book after this one.

I highly recommend reading this one.

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC.

I was a big fan of the first book "The Maid."
This however fell a little flat for me this time around.

The plot: I didn't feel as captivating as the first one. It felt like it was a little all over the place reading it. And when the book started picking up, it was ending and I felt like it moved too quickly, but not fast enough? I was left with weird feelings.

The characters: I liked Molly in the first book, and felt she was different in this one - which I know was the point, but felt her likable features were dwindling. Also reading her younger self, it was confusing - did she understand social cues or not? It kept going back that she did, and then didn't. I did appreciate the return of the other characters from the first book though!

The plot twist: Just kinda underwhelming. I don't want to spoil more, but I didn't get the same wow factor as I did in the first book.

HOWEVER - my favorite part of this book that did bring tears to my eyes was the development of Molly and her Grandmothers relationship. It was so heart wrenching to get deeper into their stories and it really hit a soft spot in my heart and was the most redeeming.

Molly the maid is back and is as delightful as she was in her debut! Whether readers solve the mysteries or not, spending time with this engaging character is an adventure not to be missed.

Thank you to NetGalley for this Advanced Readers Copy. It isn't too often that the second book outshines the first, but such is the case with The Mystery Guest. Don't get me wrong, the first was entertaining, but maybe since I didn't go in with too much expectations as I did the first, I liked this one better.

Just as wonderfully gripping as The Maid, The Mystery Guest did not disappoint! Molly the maid is such a delightfully quirky character and the way she reacts to the extraordinary events at the Regency Grand made the book impossible to put down. I can only hope a third book will follow!

This book! Somehow it was even better than The Maid, which was one of my favorites of the last few years! Prose is exceptionally good at writing in the voice of an alternative heroine and rarely have a read a novel where I feel so invested in and loving towards so many characters. I know this one will be as massive a success as her first was and it will be entirely deserved. Bravo!

This was a fantastic follow-up to the first title in the series! It was fun to be back in the world with Molly, who is such a delightful character to read. The book was a quick and easy read that was fun and satisfying.

Molly the Maid is back and after 4 years in literary time (following the unfortunate and memorable incident that quite rattled her then), she’s now Head Maid at the 5 star boutique Regency Grand Hotel. She stills hears constant advice from her deceased grandmother, the best being “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”

It is, however, the end for eccentric mystery author and noted recluse, J.D. Grimthorpe, who chose the newly refurbished Grand Tearoom for an “important announcement” but keeled over dead (and on top of Maid-in-Training, Lily), before extolling whatever revelation he was about to share. But there’s some encounter with Mr. Grimthorpe in Molly’s past — enough for her to become a suspect again? Since we know our Molly could not possibly be the murderer, her previous interaction with a man she considered a troll gives her insight into the author’s past.

There are beloved (and not so beloved) returning characters like Mr. Preston, the doorman; Juan Manuel, now Molly’s official boyfriend (mostly absent since he’s visiting his mother in Mexico); Mr. Snow, the hotel manager; the promoted and still imposing Detective Stark; and Cheryl, the tip-stealing former head maid. We also now have Angela, the bartender, who’s gotten Molly hooked on true-crime podcasts. Angela wants to help Molly figure out if J.D. Grimthorpe was truly poisoned and why.

Molly is as sweet, naive, concerned, persistent, and clever as ever — it’s great that she has a sequel and I truly hope we get to share more of her adventures. 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO Steely, icy, and enigmatic blues ones, but no green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Grimthorpe’s estate is decorated with blood red roses, befitting a mystery writer.

Thank you to Random House/Ballantine and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!