The Guest

by Mitali Meelan

Eighteen-year-old Neha Ranade is perfectly content with her life—a singer boyfriend, a group of loyal friends and with the college annual festival around the corner, her days are full and exciting. But when her father’s Canadian colleague arrives home, Neha’s grand plans are uprooted. What could be the intentions of this curious guest’s sudden visit—for better or for worse?

Genres: India

237 pages, Paperback

Published May 26, 2016

About the author

After getting her masters in literature, she worked for a publishing house, a magazine, a media house, and an audiobook platform. She has been a speaker at author events and panels in Bombay colleges and was awarded the Loksatta’s Indradhanu Yuvonmesh Award in 2019 for her contributions to English Literature at a young age.

She's now a marketing manager at a corporate firm and pursues her first love of writing books on the side.

Books by Mitali Meelan:
1. Will You Love Me Anyway? (A Novel, published in Dec 2025)
2. Her (Poetry Collection)
3. Love & Lies (co-authored with Ravinder Singh, HarperCollins)
4. And Then We Met Again (Audiobook voiced by bestselling author Ravinder Singh, published by Storytel & Audible)
5. A Long Way Home (HarperCollins)
6. The Guest (Black Ink Books)

Reviews

[Kishore Krishnamoorthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, a big salute to Mithali Meelan for saying a simple day-to-day happenings as her maiden book. The story and the plot is so simple that you can imagine the same thing happening at your home. The narration is quite smooth and my favourite easy going way. The way the emotions between a father and his girl child are handled is a big plus. The arrival of a guest and a little misunderstanding that develops between Neha and her is so sweet to read. Neha, Darshak, Purti and co form a good bunch of friends and the happenings around them are very natural. Even though there's a bit of predictability here and there it can be accepted as parts and parcels of your daily life. The emotional standoff between father and his daughter is the heart melting moment. Finally, as expected everyone-lived-happily-ever-after climax provides the finishing touch to a breezy dramatic story of a small family. Overall, a very good attempt by Mithali and I am very eager to read next book. HATSOFF MITHALI!! YOU DESERVE 5 STARS!!!

[Shubhangi Srikanth · Rating 4 out of 5]

What breezy read this one was! I finished the book in one go...just couldn't put it down! The language is so fluid and impeccable, and the story just flowed...the emotions of the protagonists are so beautifully depicted, that the reader can feel the anguish, the dilemma, and the fears of the characters. I usually prefer a second person narrative, but reading the story as a first-person account was also surprisingly delightful. What I also found adorable is that there is no attempt to glorify the main character or project her as a 'holier than thou' kind of person. She is a hero in her own might, in spite of the flaws in her character. She could be anyone of us...us, with all those little imperfections that make us human..If the debut novel is so wonderful, I can't wait to read more from Mitali! Kudos!

[Abhi* Abhi* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, Mumbai seems to be a great place to hang around!

Neha a witty ,hard tongued and free- spirited girl who lives with her wiodwed father is a little surprised to find her dad's friend Cecilia for a short visit to her house.Things go weird with her attitude around Cecilia initially but soon she moves to her comfort zone and they turn out to be best of friends in a short span. Cecilia's character charms Neha and she lets her enter into her personal life and stands as a saviour now and then.But a twist of tale builds up the moment Neha gets to know the real intentions of Cecelia.
Neha is so close to her that all her friends @ college and even her teachers adore Cecelia's presence but things go wry between them.Well the rest of the story works on how they try to fix the problems around them.

A simple tale with a few celebrity moments!
a good read for the young ones!

[Mansha Bhatia · Rating 2 out of 5]

the debut novel of mitali meelan THE GUEST makes it evident that its the debut novel .
the plot lacks engaging elements and the pace of the story is slow . there are no elements in the book which will make you fall in love with it . it is just another story of a regular college girl and her life .

however , the plot twist in the later half of the book gets it these 2 stars though i predicted it at the very beginning of the book .
the protagonist's mindset is not quite clearly executed and that always irritates and annoys me .

overall , i do not recommend you to buy this book . if you really wanna read it just try and borrow it from someone but it is not worth spending your money on .

[Vishwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Guest by Mitali Meelan is quite one of those books that draws out a satisfactory sigh from you after you turn the final page. Nothing more, nothing less. Although the book has a very good notion about today's society,it isn't such a great plot nevertheless.
Neha Ranade, the jumpy, emotional protagonist quite faces a dilemma when she realises that her pseudo believes are going to be shattered upon anytime. Furthermore, nothing else. Because it is definitely gonna be a spoiler now.
Bye,
Happy Reading.

[Varshini · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I bought the book, the idea of the Canadian guest being a woman didn't really cross my mind. So imagine my shock, when on the very first page, I found the name, "Cecelia" bluntly staring at me.
I accepted it and moved on with the reading.
I didn't really see the plot twist coming up, but when it hits you on the face, it seems obvious.
All in all, it was a great read, because Cecelia acted like a true human should.

[Shruti k · Rating 5 out of 5]

♥️"A mother is she who can take place of all others but whose place no one else can take"

💠Book Name - The guest
💠Author Name - Mitali Meelan
.
☘️According to our age-old tradition a guest is to be welcomed and treated like a revered deity. They deserve a red- carpet welcome. Times have, however, now changed a lot and guests are no longer accorded a hearty treatment. The main reason is busy schedule life of all of us, they are often cold-shouldered and treated with contempt.
.
☘️The story is about main protagonist Neha, who was living happily with her father enjoying her freedom till one day her father's colleague, comes to her house to stay for one month as a guest. For Neha, she was an unwanted guest so she was not friendly with her. One day Neha over heard the conversation between her father and guest and got to know the relationship between them which she was not ready to accept. The Story is all about how guest tries to win neha's heart without taking neha's mother place and how neha accepts her.
.
☘️The story is about family relationships and acceptance of step mother.The author has nicely written about stepmom from a different perspective rather than the usual villainous perspective.
☘️The plot is unique , interesting and captivating. Its about love, heartbreak, family relationships, trust and fear about society.
☘️The characters are well developed and described.
☘️Language was simple and narration was smooth.
☘️The cover of the book is eye catching and title is apt to the story.
.

[Mathangi Sekar · Rating 4 out of 5]

People just dont come to your lives without reasons. Happy beginning!

[Priyasha Dureja · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is lacking a nice plot but anyway, a decent novel which is related to something day-to-day life.

[Suman]

want to read this book. looks goods book.

[Harshit Bhasin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Peaceful yet engaging story!

[Katya Karri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book by Mitali Meelan. Even though it was her debut book it was really nice.

[Abhishek Gowravajhala · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent debut!

[The Aesthetic Booktrovert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Guest by Mitali Meelan was something I picked up at a book fair on impulse 💙

It tells us the story of Neha, who was brought up by her single dad.. We see her navigate through her college life, relationship, and the guest who arrives at her home weeks before a college event that she helps organize.. What happens when she feels controlled and interrupted by the presence of her guest? Read to find out..

I enjoyed reading this book.. It seemed too natural and realistic and something which every youth will be able to relate to.. I loved the relationship between Neha and her Dad..

I would recommend this to someone looking for a quick and feel good read..

[Jasleen Kaur · Rating 3 out of 5]

The novel made presence in my mind because of its fluidic language. The aura created by the author around some bunch of students was making me nostalgic. There were few ironical phases in the novel which were impactful. If and only if the story could have been moulded in a less casual way then it would have done wonders of all sorts. Still, I enjoyed the easy going reading experience.

You can read the complete review here-
https://thesubtlebraiding.blogspot.in...

[Audrey Coutinho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every once in a while I like to read a book by an Indian female author, just to see what is out there. This book was about a college girl in Mumbai, so it had the usual drama - friends, boyfriend, family, college festival, etc. But the whole white guest thing was unique and interesting, and I actually wanted to know what would happen next. The language was colloquial - not sure if that was deliberate or not. I like the open-mindedness that the story heads towards. Overall - not bad.

[Shiny Ajit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic !

[Nikhil Talwar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A suspense thrilling story.
what made em pick the book is its cover and snopsys of the book. I enjoyed the story.

[Aashishkumar Jain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice

[Shreya Ganju · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good light read.