So last year I read “The Maid” by Nita Prost (the author’s real name Nita Pronovost, she was Senior Management at Simon & Schuster) and thought it was a quaint murder mystery novel. Lots of reviews included the descriptor “cozy”.
The main protagonist is a hardworking maid who ends up in the centre of a murder at her place of work, the Regency Grand Hotel. The protagonist is also socially inept….no diagnosis is mentioned in the book, but the “safe” routine of cleaning is a comfort to the maid.
But this second book….it’s tough to get into! Also the world building in the first book feels stale the second time. And there is no character development at all! Despite the opportunity of character development being presented at the end of the first book.
Another troubling trend is the tendency to have physical descriptors for the antagonist female characters’ physical figures, such as “large and broad shoulders” or “pear shaped” when no such descriptors are used to describe the body types of the male characters.
The quaint nature of the first book is now becoming more forced …with the reader encountering teacup after teacup of plot in a contrived manner. The writing seems to wrap you up tightly in a comforter…so tightly that the purported coziness is now becoming heavy.
All the reviews seem so positive? Is there anyone like me who liked the first book….but is tired with this sequel?
by WilliamsRutherford