A look back at Molly's younger days as a romance novelist on General Hospital

On General Hospital, Molly Lansing-Davis (Kristen Vaganos) is dealing with the realization that she has feelings for Cody Bell (Josh Kelly) while she has been working on a new romance novel, with Cody as inspiration.

Molly has been writing a new novel for several weeks now on the show. On the August 21st episode, she was daydreaming about Cody, imagining him as a cowboy in the Old West and her as a woman in traditional 1800s gear, with both Vaganos and Kelly wearing period clothes.

General Hospital's Molly has feelings for Cody the cowboy

Molly wrote and published two novels when she was a teenager, a fact that has not been mentioned on General Hospital in a while. Those books, named Love in Maine, and Maine Squeeze, are back in the spotlight now that the assistant district attorney is going back to her days as an author.

The current plot may be confusing to fans who weren’t watching then, so here’s a brief refresher course.

Molly, then played by Haley Pullos, decided to write a book in 2012, when she was a teenager and in the early stages of her relationship with TJ Ashford, then played by Tequan Richmond.

She first told TJ of her dreams of writing a novel in August, 2012, right after the Port Charles water supply was poisoned by Jerry Jacks (Sebastian Roché). She worried that she and TJ might not survive, and both of them made bucket lists. Writing a book was on Molly’s.

When Molly finished her first manuscript in early 2013, she tried to get Todd Manning (Roger Howarth) to publish it. However, the manuscript was stolen by Connie Falconeri (Kelly Sullivan), who passed it off as her own and published the book under her own name. At the time, Falconeri was a split personality with Kate Howard, the publisher of Crimson magazine.

After several attempts by TJ and Molly, plus interference from Molly’s mother Alexis (Nancy Lee Grahn), Connie gave in and admitted that Molly was the true author. The teenager later wrote a sequel, Maine Squeeze.

At the time, in coordination with General Hospital, Hyperion Books published an actual novel called Love in Maine with the same book cover, showing Connie Falconeri as the author. That book is still available on Amazon.

In the tagline for that book, the main male character has some similarities to Cody. It reads, “Maddie Post is privileged, sheltered, and polite, and does not belong in Blake, Maine. But thanks to a high-stakes bet, she’s waiting tables at a riverfront diner catering to boat-builders and living in Janet Gilbertson's $200-a-month guest room. And Janet's dark and stormy son, Hank, back in Maine after 10 years as an active duty Army diver, isn't without his troubles, either. Their flirty friendship has many passionate ups and downs, but when Maddie and Hank put aside their considerable differences and start opening up to each other, the crackle of summer romance grows into a blazing fire.”

It had some tongue-in-cheek reviews. Ron Carlivati, then the head writer of General Hospital, was listed as a professor of creative writing at Port Charles University. He wrote, “Falconeri puts so much personality into her writing – it’s almost like she has two personalities!”

In 2013 on General Hospital, Molly and TJ were negotiating their relationship while each had other suitors, Taylor DuBois (Samantha Logan) and Rafe Kovich (Jimmy Deshler). They eventually found their way back to each other until breaking up for good in December, 2024.

In the August 22nd episode, Molly got some advice about Cody from Michael (Rory Gibson). She told Michael that she was ready to get back on the dating scene for the first time as an adult after breaking up with TJ. Michael encouraged her, so she went to the Quartermaine stables to see him. However, she caught him kissing Ava Jerome (Maura West).

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It’s intriguing to see if we’ll see more of Molly’s daydreams, and more of her and Cody in period gear. General Hospital had some successful episodes in recent years that were set in the past: The 2019 tribute to A Christmas Carol with Hamilton Finn (Michael Easton) as Scrooge, and a 2020 episode that celebrated the 100th anniversary of women earning the right to vote. Time will tell if the producers try that with Molly’s new romance novel.

Catch all-new episodes of General Hospital weekdays on ABC and Hulu.

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