The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose is a cute and cozy mystery. The Mistletoe Mystery is book 2.5 in the Molly the Maid series. This book is the first novella in the series so far. The book is Christmas-themed. The story is very cute. The story is told interestingly. The mystery is fairly obvious. Nonetheless, Molly the Maid is on the autism spectrum and struggles to read facial cues. She misinterprets things. Even though the reader knows the mystery, it is fun to see Molly get everything wrong. There is still a reveal at the end that reveals how everything got pulled off, which was fun. The story makes references to ” The Gift of the Magi by O’Henry, and has a moment like it. The story is like a warm hug. It ends satisfyingly, and is oh so cute. The Mistletoe Mystery is for fans of the series. It includes references to events that happened in the first two books. This book has an event that will be talked about in The Maid’s Secret, the next book. I would not recommend anybody reading this book out of order. The mystery is only apparent to Molly. She does a bad job of solving it, which is a little fun. This is only true if you know the character. The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose was published on October 1, 2024.

Plot Summary: Molly and Juan have been together for 5 years now. They don’t have a lot of money, but they have each other. Juan wants to give Molly a horse and carriage ride, but it is too expensive. So Juan dresses like a reindeer and pulls Molly around. Molly and Juan have always been in sync. Lately, Molly is noticing that Juan is tired all the time. He is also acting a little strange. A woman comes to Juan and Molly’s place and asks if they can help her with a plumbing problem. Instead of getting the super, he grabs a toolkit and fixes it. Molly is shocked by this. Her mind starts to go wild. She remembers all of Juan’s strange behaviors. She jumps to conclusions.

What I Liked: The cuteness of Molly and Juan’s relationship. The ending was predictable, but still left me with a smile on my face. I loved the reveal of everything that Molly was jumping to conclusions about and how everything was pulled off. I loved to hate Cheryl, and I loved that we also saw some humanity from her at the end. The advent calendar was made out of old library card catalog drawers. The sweet conversations she has with Mr. Preston, her grandfather. I do love the kiss under the mistletoe at the end. I did love the scene where Molly receives a Funko Pop of Rosie the robot maid from the Jetsons. Molly keeps being offended about it being a toy, not concluding that she acts like a robot.

What I Disliked: The mystery had no meat on it; there was nothing to chew on. I love the Molly Mystery, but wanted another mystery running beside the one we got. I love Nita Prose’s cozy mystery plots in the series. I was a little disappointed we did not get one here.

Recommendation: The Mistletoe Mystery is full of cute factor, but I was disappointed with the mystery. I think this book would not make a good opening book to the series. I can’t believe this book is $16.99 in some places; that price gave me a pause. I was lucky enough for my library to get it. I will only recommend The Mistletoe Mystery if you have read all the earlier books in the series. The previous books lead up to The Mistletoe Mystery.

Rating: The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose. I rated 3.2 out of 5.