Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for an ARC of this book.

This is a fun second installment of The Maid series. I love Molly's character and this book continues to give her character more layers and I enjoyed learning even more about her.

I will be publishing my review on goodreads and instagram. The review will be published/posted forever. Here is a link to my instagram: https://instagram.com/morganjustbooks?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==

Wow. Where do I begin? I loved "The Maid" by Nita Prose, the character Molly Gray was important to me because I felt that there was finally a book that represented how people aren't black and white and how everyone has gifts. When I saw that Nita wrote a second maid book I knew I needed to get my hands on that arc. I am incredibly grateful for Penguin Random House and Ballantine for giving me this opportunity.

While "The Mystery Guest" is a standalone book I highly recommend you read "The Maid" before. The reason being that the character development that Molly undergoes is breathtaking. I caught myself thinking multiple times while reading, "who is this woman?!", I applaud Nita for giving Molly more depth and spunk. We also encounter more beloved (and not beloved) characters from the first book. I didn't think I could love a sequel more than the first book...but this book pushes it!

Fans of "The Maid" will not be disappointed, I devoured this book in a day and I cannot wait to see the success it brings to Nita. I am usually a romance/ fantasy fan but I will always make an exception for this author.

It was fantastic! F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C: “extraordinarily good or attractive.”

Molly and her crew, and the fabergé are back at it again!

Things have been looking up for Molly, since Mr. Black’s shenanigans. That is, until a new murder mystery visits the Regency Grand Hotel.

Really enjoyed the visit to the past, to learn more about Gran, Molly and her upbringing. Interactions between Molly and detective Stark make me chuckle.

This book is so fun and easy to read, just like the Maid, (which I thoroughly enjoyed). I can see them being made into a movie adaptation.

Thank you Nita Prose, Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC!

I forgot how delightfully quirky Molly the maid is.

Molly is still a maid at a high end hotel when another hotel guests ends up dead, apparently murdered. This time it's a famous mystery novelist, and thankfully Molly is not a suspect. End synopsis before I spoil anything.

Truthfully, I remember very little from the first Molly the maid book, and I think that's okay. I still understood this book. I didn't anticipate the twist of her connections to other characters in the book, but I liked how in having those connections we got to see more of Molly's backstory. I don't remember if the first book delved into Molly's relationship with her grandmother much, but this one did and I found it delightful. I'm still not sure how it ended the way it did with the whodunit, but I seldom do.

Thanks, NetGalley!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine books for the ARC of this book. I absolutely loved the eccentric maid Molly in the first novel and was absolutely thrilled when I saw a second book added to this cozy mystery series. I absolutely flew through this book and could not recommend it more! Five stars in every category. I have already preordered this for my library and can't wait to suggest it to fellow members of my community!

from the very first page, it felt great to be back with molly and crew. i love this character so much, and this book maintained all of the charm and fun of the first in the series. the mystery was a little less intriguing to me, but i did like the dual timelines. can’t wait to see what happens to molly next!

Thank you to NetGalley and
Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books for this heartwarming ARC of The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose.


I absolutely adored The Maid so this was a grab request for me.
I love books featuring the inner worlds of quirky characters and I was thrilled to have Molly the Maid - now Head Maid - back at the Regency Grand Hotel.


Like the first book this one was a mystery. It really didn’t matter what it was to me, as Molly and her sharp, literal way of being in the world was the draw for me.


The story, even containing a crime along with references to abuse and classism, is a heartwarming one. It contains a social message about humanity: “Loneliness and emptiness, hoarding to fill the void. A terrible affliction with a simple cure.” “Which is?” I ask. “Kindness. A patient ear. A loving arm.”
Respecting each other’s differences.


The world needs more of unique Molly and I hope we get to visit her at the Regency Grand Hotel again.


Four stars.

The unique Molly is back, now as the Head Maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, when a reclusive author dies just before making an announcement in the hotels’s new tea room. Her life has changed in the past few years since we first met her in The Maid, besides the job promotion she has a boyfriend she lives with, and her people skills have sharpened, but she still has the same ability to see things in a different way than most that makes her such a good detective. The story is told from two different time lines, the current one, where Molly is trying to clear a new maid in training who reminds her of herself from a possible murder charge, and Molly as a child, working at the mansion of the dead author along side her beloved Gran. Gran’s wisdom she has passed along to Molly helps her negotiate her life, I enjoyed reading about these lessons she learned. The characters and the settings are so well described that it’s easy to enter Molly’s world, and it’s a wonderful way to spend time. I’m already anticipating the next book with the possibility of a big change for Molly, meanwhile thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an advance copy, I’ve already been singing it’s praises to all of my fellow readers!

Welcome back to the Regency Grand where Molly Gray is now Head Maid.
I was a fan of Nita Prose’s book The Maid, and this one did not disappoint. The story takes us back to Regency Grand where another murder has happened. The famous author J.D. Grimthorp is in the middle of an announcement when he falls down dead. The hotel is in chaos; fingers are pointed. Is the murderer Molly’s Maid in Training Lily? Or Grimthorp’s secretary Serena? Of course, Molly is in the middle of it all. We get glimpses of Molly’s younger days when she and her Gran were maids at the big Grimmthorp mansion. Detective Stark also makes a comeback in this story. Stark and Molly set their differences aside to solve this mystery posthaste.
This book was well written, and Prose did an excellent job in bringing out Molly’s uniqueness. If you have read The Maid or if you just want to read a feel good mystery that is hard to put down, I highly recommend The Mystery Guest.

Enjoyed being back in the order of Molly the maid! For me, the mystery of the author’s death was secondary to her personal family drama, shown through flashbacks from her childhood. The epilogue reveal was interesting as well… looking forward to how it plays out in the next story!

I was happy for the return of Molly the Maid. She is such a unique and likable character! I enjoyed getting to know more of her past in this sequel. I wish that a new detective would have been introduced. It didn’t make sense to me to have the same detective return and hint at the guilt of the maid, again, but then utilize her uncanny memory to side in the investigation. I also wish Lily, the new maid, had seemed less like Molly. I was happy to have confirmation of suspicions at the conclusion of the story. However, this made the end fall flat when compared to The Maid. Overall I’m glad I read The Mystery Guest

Molly the Maid is back and better than ever. I loved Prose's first book The Maid, and I love the character of Molly. All the characters from the first book are back (including the annoying Cheryl). When a famous author drops dead at Molly's hotel just before a big announcement, Molly finds herself in the middle of another murder investigation. There are multiple suspects and lots of twists and turns, and we get to learn much more about Molly's past. A great mystery, a great story, so fun!!

Loved this book as much as the last, and I hope Prose has more in mind. Molly is a great character and a great detective in the vein of Hercule Poirot or Jessica Fletcher or Columbo. She should keep it up!

The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose.
Molly Gray is back, and there is another murder at the Regency Grand Hotel. The reclusive mystery novelist J.D. Grimsthorpe has a special event planned at the Regency, and adoring fans anxiously await to see him. Unfortunately, a sudden death prevents the author from his important announcement.
In this latest whodunnit, we learn more about Molly, the maid’s, history, and we grow to love her even more as the story unfolds.
Find out what Molly is doing nearly four years after Nita Prose’s novel, the Maid, and join the Regency staff, local police and Grimsthorpe’s fan club, the LAMBS, as they try to work out exactly what happened and why.
#netgalley

Molly Gray, Head Maid at the glorious Regency Grand Hotel, is back for a repeat performance. This time another maid is under suspicion for, yes, another murder in the Regency Grand Hotel. But she’s not the only one who might have killed the famous author, J.D. Grimthorpe—suspects abound! It’s the cozy mystery with a distinct voice that we’ve come to expect from author Nita Prose, and it doesn’t disappoint.

This book plays with a dual timeline that pitches the present with past—Molly’s current independence and her revealing younger years. I loved reading about Molly’s childhood in the care of her wonderful grandmother, who was also a maid. Gran was my second favorite character in The Maid (Molly was the first, of course), and I wasn’t looking forward to a Molly sans Gran. Loved the way Prose fleshed this precious person out in this sophomore novel.

If you’re in the mood for a light, well-written, upbeat murder mystery (Prose has established that an upbeat murder mystery is not an oxymoron), then read The Mystery Guest and savor its deliciousness.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for a copy to review.

*3.5*
Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Random House for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
The mystery guest is a sequel to The Maid, which I recently read a couple of days ago. We once again follow Molly Gray, who is now Head Maid of the Regency Grand Hotel. After 4 years, she is living with Juan Manual, the cook from the last book and enjoying her peaceful life until a famous author drops dead during a VIP conference at the hotel. Once again the fingers are pointed at the staff, and its up to Molly and friends to solve the murder in the hotel and clear their names.
As I said in my review of the first book, the mystery element to both of these isn’t necessarily amazing. Its fine, but I never really cared for the mystery aspect of these. I felt like they were weak and underdeveloped, and especially the culprit of this book felt weaker than the last one.
However, I honestly enjoyed this book for Molly as a character. Shes heavily implied to be on the spectrum and struggles with social interactions and understanding people she communicates with. While shes grown since the last book and has a better understanding of people, it is always fascinating to read from the eyes of someone who doesnt think the same way as I do. I think these books have some very important messages that we shouldnt judge people based on what we see on the outside. I really liked the quote, “Everyone is the same in different ways”. By the end, when Detective Stark acknowledges Molly and says that she notices things that others do not, and that she would make a great detective, it was just another reminder that being on the spectrum doesnt make you any lesser than others. Molly was able to help solve the crime because she put emphasis on different things that others overlooked.
Overall, I really did enjoy this book. Its hard to rate because as I said before, being in the mystery category its very average, but the actual enjoyment of the book was high. I enjoyed the found family aspects of book 1 and I also enjoyed it here and seeing Molly with her friends was very heartwarming. I wouldnt recommend this to someone looking for a mystery novel, but I would definitely recommend it for someone who wants a heartwarming story about someone on the spectrum who doesn’t change just because people criticize her. I appreciate that Molly stayed true to herself the entire book even when people didn’t understand her or thought she was odd. She continued to do what she thought was right and what followed her goals

For those who loved The Maid, The Mystery Guest will also delight. This time Molly the Maid is the Head Maid, given more responsibilities and more trust by the people who run the hotel. When a VIP guest, a well-known mystery author drops dead during a press conference, Molly is once more dragged into solving the mystery before she and the rest of her team can be suspected, while her memories of the past unlock some truths about her and her family as well.

Molly is back at the Regency Grand Hotel, where another death has shaken the maid and her fellow workers. Now Head Maid, with a Maid=in-Training in tow, she supervises the opening of the hotel's new tearoom / events space for it's inaugural event: a press conference by an esteemed mystery writer. As soon as he begins to speak, he collapses and dies, a victim of poisoning - was it staff? Molly works in her quirky way to uncover the truth, all while also flashing bak to her childhood encounters with the author.

well paced and quick, it will delight fans of the original, The Maid, but I don't see this series lasting for long.

While I enjoyed "The Maid," this one fell flat for me. I was not invested in the mystery or the flashback scenes. The only thing I did enjoy was Molly and her quips. Overall this was a no for me.

Molly is back! How wonderful. Her character is one of my favorites and this story showcases more of her childhood, the circumstances behind it. The same cast of folks are back, but there's a new one, Lily who Molly is training (and continuing to recite lines from her handbook). It's a good cozy murder mystery, and it's lovely to see how much Molly has grown in four years. I finished it in a few hours bc it flew by. And Gran is always a highlight and I'm happy we see more of her strength, love and resilience in this story.

When I tell you I screamed I screamed when I got this book ! I’m in the middle of the maid and can not wait to sink my teeth into this book ! I love this authors writing