I loved hearing more about Molly the maid in her quirky world where she enjoys returning things to a state of perfection and thrives from order and cleanliness. There is once again a murder at the hotel and Molly, now head Maid, finds herself connected to the man who was murdered. She first met him when she was a young girl and her Gran cleaned his home. He is still a curmudgeon, but also a famous mystery author. Molly finds herself working alongside a detective to solve the murder and set the record straight. Great story!

It was so great to be back in Molly’s world! All of the reveals were very clever and it was so I rightful to learn more about a Molly as a child.

While I didn't enjoy the mystery in this one as much as the first book it still kept me guessing. But my favorite part of this one was seeing how much Molly had grown since the first book. And much she's thriving well I mean murder in her hotel aside.

Head Maid Molly Gray is an employee at the five-star Grand Regency Hotel. During a recent event, world renowned author J.D. Grimthorpe dies in front of a large crowd of fans. It is soon revealed that the writer was murdered. Being no stranger to this sort of scenario, Molly uses her uncanny skills for detail to help uncover the murderer. This delightfully charming who-dun-it is for fans of Prose's first novel THE MAID.

I absolutely loved book one in the Molly the Maid series and was eagerly awaiting book two. It lived up to my expectations and sometimes that is hard to find within a series. I usually read darker, psychological thrillers but Nita Prose’s somewhat cozy psychological mystery was a nice pallet cleanse for me. Molly is a great character and the writing is excellent. I hope that this is a series that continues on!
Thank you NetGalley, Nita Prose and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC edition of this book for my honest review.

We are back in The Regency Grand Hotel with yet another dead guest. Molly the Maid is back in the mix of it all and she’s just as quirky and charming as she was the first time around.
What I liked about this book is the flashbacks to when Molly was a child with her Gran, getting to know her Gran as a younger woman and Molly as a child really deepened their characters and gave a lot more meaning to an already tender relationship.

This is a quick read at only about 250 pages.
Is it my favorite mystery of all time? No. Will it make my top fav books of the year? No.
However, if you like a quick, entertaining mystery full of humor and heart then these two books should be on your list.

I absolutely loved The Maid and was looking forward to another installment with Molly. This book did not disappoint, we learned so much more about Molly's back story and I really enjoyed the twists and new characters we met along the way. I hope there will be a book 3, I'm not ready to let Molly go!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I adored The Maid and Molly is such a memorable character. I was not aware that this was going to be a series but I am thrilled to get another book with Molly. Although I liked The Maid better than The Mystery Guest, this was still a solid and enjoyable book. I appreciated that this book could be read on its own without reading The Maid, but having read The Maid, I appreciated Detective Stark's character more and think that they treated Molly much better in this one. If cozy is how you like your mysteries, I will always recommend this series but if you are one that likes harder mysteries to figure out, this might not be the best option. Although I found this book enjoyable, the mystery was pretty easy to figure out and didn't really challenge me, but I was perfectly fine with this. This is the kind of book I like to read after a challenging literary fiction piece. Something that is highly entertaining but doesn't require too much brain power. I hope the series will continue!

I absolutely love Molly the maid and all her idiosyncracies! I read the first book and this one did not disappoint as well as the first! But this book gives a really good picture of Molly's upbrining.. her mother... her grandmother.. they all connect in ways that WOWED me!

This was my introduction to Molly Gray, Head Maid. What a delightful and charming soul. Not having read the first in the series seems to have left me without some background but there were remembrances by the characters that allowed me to move along with her story.
When I meet Molly she is employed as a maid ( the family tradition) in an upscale hotel, where she is loved and appreciated. That has not always been the case. Her tormented youth cut short her normal education. Not sure how to characterize her, I'd say she was on the spectrum in her black/white literal outlook on what people say, resulting in mockery by her peers and the inability of her teachers to see her problems. So grandma removed her from school and designated her a “maid in training" and a delightful, honest, smart, reliable and hard working human evolved.
Her acute awareness of things happening around her and attention to detail makes her a perfect sidekick to the detective who has arrived to solve the murder of a famous guest who has been murdered at the hotel. She doesn’t acquire this position by choice. the detective has a difficult time with Molly’s straightforward approach to situations but learns to appreciate her skills.
Once shunned and humiliated we watch Molly conquer a new life challenge and develop skills that I hope evolve in future episodes.
A truly enjoyable read.

Another win by Nita Prose! Molly is back and this time she must help her fellow hotel workers as they are all on hand when mystery writer J.D. Grimthorpe dies while at a book signing event at her hotel. There are links to him in Molly's past and she also must deal with her Detective nemesis... If you enjoyed the first book you will also enjoy this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

I really enjoyed this sequel. I don’t remember enough of the details from The Maid to say which book I liked more. I just wish they spent less time on flashbacks. For me, they always interrupt the narrative flow.

✨ THE MYSTERY GUEST✨
Rating: 3 ⭐️ - It was ok!

After finishing THE MAID this weekend, I immediately dived into it’s sequel, THE MYSTERY GUEST - TY to @randomhouse for my gifted copy! I was so excited to dive back into the world of Molly the Maid but unfortunately this one fell short for me.

❤️ MOLLY and the hotel’s characters - this series is filled with so many like-able characters - Molly is so quirky and fun, Mr. Preston, the Maid gang, etc.

❤️ loved this one on AUDIO! These narrators are great and really bring the story to life!

💔 this one just missed the mark for me a little - the mystery wasn’t as fun as the first one and didn’t connect to the two timelines

I heard that there might be a third book coming in this series and can’t wait!

Here I am again with a book that has a recurring character in a series. I read Nita Prose's book The Maid awhile back. It was one of those that kept popping up on my friend's list of books to read. I picked it up and read it in just a couple days. You can read my initial thoughts here:

https://nostalgicitalian.com/2023/04/19/thoughts-on-the-maid/

I was excited to see that there was a follow up due out and I went to NetGalley where you can sometimes get an advanced copy to read. I was lucky enough to get be able to read it there. Here is the Goodreads synopsis for you:

When an acclaimed author dies at the Regency Grand Hotel, it's up to a fastidious maid to uncover the truth, no matter how dirty—in a standalone novel featuring Molly Gray, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid, a Good Morning America Book Club Pick.

Molly Gray is not like anyone else. With her flair for cleaning and proper etiquette, she has risen through the ranks of the glorious five-star Regency Grand Hotel to become the esteemed Head Maid. But just as her life reaches a pinnacle state of perfection, her world is turned upside down when J.D. Grimthorpe, the world-renowned mystery author, drops dead—very dead—on the hotel’s tea room floor.

When Detective Stark, Molly's old foe, investigates the author’s unexpected demise, it becomes clear that this death was murder most foul. Suspects abound, and everyone wants to know who killed J.D. Grimthorpe? Was it Lily, the new Maid-in-Training? Or was it Serena, the author’s secretary? Could Mr. Preston, the hotel’s beloved doorman, be hiding something? And is Molly really as innocent as she seems?

As the case threatens the hotel’s pristine reputation, Molly knows she alone holds the key to unlocking the killer's identity. But that key is buried deep in her past—because 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 side by side. With the entire hotel under investigation, Molly must solve the mystery post-haste. If there's one thing Molly knows for sure, it's that dirty secrets don't stay buried forever...

Molly reminds me a bit of Monk. She's an odd bird, but very observant. It was nice to see what she's been up to since book one. There are plenty of suspects and there were times I found myself going back and forth between who I thought was the killer. 

I felt that this book lacked a little of what the first one did, but it was still a good read. Again, it didn't take me very long to read it, and I almost felt like this fell into one of those "cozy mysteries" that people talk about. It was an easy read that kept me guessing. 

The ending is left in a way where a third book is entirely possible, with possible big changes for Molly. It is left in a way where I will definitely want to read the next in the series - should there be one.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this book and offer thoughts here.

When Molly has the new tearoom at the Regency Grand set up for a famous author's news statement, she doesn't realize that he will drop dead before he could make the announcement. Then her maid in training is the lead suspect, and Molly herself is a suspect. She and one of the other maids decide to do a little investigating on their own, especially since Molly knew the deceased author when her Grandmother used to work for him.

Great story with great characters! I'm really enjoying the Molly the Maid series!

I loved The Maid and was excited for the sequel. How does it compare to the first book? I gave The Maid 5 stars and I give The Mystery Guest 4. It was still a good book and mystery. It had some good twists and I hope Nita Prose continues Molly’s story.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose

This is the sequel to The Maid. I absolutely adore Molly, the head maid. Her thoughts and sentiments are such a breath of fresh air. She often says things I wish I could say! And in the way I would love to be able to say them!

As for the story, it was engaging enough. If it weren’t for Molly (and Juan Manuel) it would probably be a forgettable plot. I think the big twist could have been more shocking. But it is just a great read, moving through the mystery with Molly. I just love her so much. She is such a unique character. With this book we get to learn more about her background.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this title for review.

I thought it couldn't get as good as the first book but this one really lived up to it.

I thought it was funny and kept me engaged. I highly recommend this one.

I was so excited to see there was a follow up to The Maid--one of my favorites from a few years ago. It's hard not to fall in love with Molly and all the hijinks that happen at the Regency Grand hotel. Molly helps solve the murder of the visiting author using all the skills that only she has. Great second edition in (hopefully) the series! Recommended.

Molly the maid is back! This time we have yet another murder, but was also get to learn a little more of the backstory of Molly and her gran. A good mystery with a great bunch of quirky characters.