ReadingGrrls Paper Safari

Hemlock & Silver by T Kingfisher Publishing August 19, 2025 Buy: Kindle | Audio | Special Edition I received a free copy of this audiobook from Macmillan Audio . I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.  I didn’t realize while reading this that it was a twisted unique take on Snow White but now that I’ve read it I can totally see it. Healer Anja is something of an expert in poisons. Now asked by the King to help his daughter Snow who has taken ill – no healers have been able to cure her, and he fears it may be poison – she travels to the desert to see Snow and hopes that she can help. In her studies Anja has been known to drink poison to document the side effects, when she does something similar with a strange apple, she has found Snow eating she finds herself able to travel into mirrors and a shadow world of silver and gray.  This was a great retelling and kept me engaged. I loved Anja’s awkwardness and her busy mind wandering to tangents only t...

Publication Date:  May 23, 2023 Format:  Audio Genre:   Time Travel/Mystery Narrators:  Kate Handford Publisher:  MacMillan Audio Length:   14 hours 52 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis Edinburgh, 1869:  Modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson is adjusting to her new life in Victorian Scotland. Her employers know she’s not housemaid Catriona Mitchell—even though Mallory is in Catriona’s body—and Mallory is now officially an undertaker’s assistant. Dr. Duncan Gray moonlights as a medical examiner, and their latest case hits close to home. Men are dropping dead from a powerful poison, and all signs point to the grieving widows… the latest of which is Gray’s oldest sister. Poison is said to be a woman’s ...

Publication Date:  January 17, 2023 Format:  Audio Genre:   Mystery/Thriller/suspense Narrators:  Cassandra Campbell Publisher:  MacMillan Audio Length:   11 hours 26 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis On the surface, Emerson, Massachusetts, is just like any other affluent New England suburb. But when a young woman is found dead in the nicest part of town, the powerful neighbors close ranks to keep their families safe. In this searing novel, Eden Perry’s death kicks off an investigation into the three teenagers who were partying with her that night, each a suspect. Hannah, a sweet girl with an unstable history. Jack, the popular kid with a mean streak. Christopher, an outsider desperate to fit in. Their parents, each with motivations of their own, only complicate the pictur...

  Publication Date:  January 10, 2023 Format:  Audio Genre:   Mystery/thriller Narrators:  Karrissa Vacker Publisher:  Macmillan Audio Length:   9 hours 55 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis One year ago, Isabelle Drake's life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her—literally. Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year. Isabelle's entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she ca...

Publication Date:  January 17, 2023 Format:  Audio Genre:   Mystery Narrators:  Karrissa Vacker Publisher:  Macmillan Audio Length:  11 hours 16 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes. And they were liars. For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But ...

Publication Date:  January 18, 2022 Format:  Audio Genre:   Historical Fiction, YA  Narrators:  Mhairi Morrison ,  Tim Campbell Publisher:  MacMillan Audio Length:  9 hours 35 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry. Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die. When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beecham’s lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first though...

Publication Date:  July 5, 2022 Format:  Audio Genre:   Amish Mystery Narrators:  Kathleen McInerney Publisher:  Macmillan Audio Length:  9 hours 18 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis Over a decade ago, beloved Amish bishop Ananias Stoltzfus disappeared without a trace. When skeletal remains showing evidence of foul play are unearthed, his disappearance becomes even more sinister. The town’s elders arrive in Painters Mill to ask chief of police Kate Burkholder for help, but she quickly realizes she has a personal connection to the crime. The handsome Amish man who stands accused of the murder, Jonas Bowman, was Kate’s first love. Forced to confront a painful episode from her past, Kate travels to Pennsylvania’s Kishacoquillas Valley, where the Amish culture ...

Publication Date:  February 15, 2022 Format:  Audio Genre:   Mystery/Police Procedural Narrators:  Therese Plummer Publisher:  Macmillan Audio Length:  10 hours 4 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis t’s not always easy to live in the hidden town of Rockton, something Detective Casey Duncan knows firsthand. Tucked away in the Yukon wilderness, the community survives—and thrives—because the residents' many secrets stay just that—secret. But what happens when these secrets start to come out? Overnight, no one is safe. It’s not a question of if your secret will come out—but when. Casey and her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, need to find the culprit while protecting those who have been thrust into the spotlight. For a place built on pr...

  Publication Date:  January 11, 2022 Format:  Audio Genre:   Mystery/thriller Narrators:  Karissa Vacker Publisher:  Macmillan Audio Length:  11 hours 01 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath. Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her...

Publication Date:  April 21, 2020 Format:  Audio Genre:   Crime Thriller Narrators:  David DeVries, Lisa Negron Publisher:  Macmillan Audio      Length:  12 hours 38 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis “Are you listening, Warden?” “What do you want?” “I want you to let them out.” “Which inmates are we talking about?” “All of them.”  When 650 of the world’s most violent human beings pour out of the Pronghorn Correctional Facility into the Nevada Desert, the biggest manhunt in US history begins.  For John Kradle, this is his chance to prove his innocence, 26 years after the murder of his wife and child. He just needs to stay one step ahead of the law enforcement officers he knows will ...

  Publication Date:  March 16 2021 Format:  Audio Genre:   Mystery/crime Narrators:  Erin Bennett & Karissa Vacker Publisher:  Macmillan Audio              Length:  11 hours 10 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis A convicted killer. A gifted thief. A vicious ganglord. A disillusioned cop. Together they’re a missing girl’s only hope. Dr. Blair Harbour, once a wealthy, respected pediatric surgeon, is now an ex-con down on her luck. She’s determined to keep her nose clean and win back custody of her son. But when her former cellmate begs for help to find her missing daughter, Blair is compelled to put her new-found freedom on the line. Detective Jessica Sanchez has always had a diffi...

Publication Date:  July 27, 2021 Format:  Audio Genre:   Mystery/Crime Narrators:  Louise Brealey Publisher:  Macmillan Audio      Length:  9 hours 42 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis In Ilmarsh, England, local Police Detective Alec Nichols discovers 16 horses' heads on a farm, each buried with a single eye facing the low winter sun. After veterinary forensics expert Cooper Allen travels to the scene, a pathogen is discovered lurking within the soil, and many of those who have come into contact with the corpses grow critically ill. A series of crimes comes to light - disappearances, arson, and mutilations - and in the dark days that follow, the town slips into panic and paranoia. Everything is not as ...

Publication Date:  November 3 2020 Format:  Audio Genre:   Police Procedurals  Narrators:  George Blagdon Publisher:  Macmillan Audio              Length:  8 hours 13 min Buy:  Kindle  | Audio Synopsis William Warwick has been promoted to detective sergeant, but his promotion means that he, along with the rest of his team, have been reassigned to the Drugs Squad. They are immediately tasked with apprehending Khalil Rashidi, a notorious drug dealer who operates his extensive network out of South London.  As the investigation progresses, William runs into enemies old and new: Adrian Heath, from his school days, now a street dealer he convinces to turn informer; and financier Miles F...

Publication Date:  August 3 2021 Format:  Audio Genre:   psychological thriller Narrators:  Claire Corbett Publisher:  Macmillan Audio                 Length:  8 hours 48 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis They went away as friends. They came back as suspects. Rachel and Jack. Paige and Noah. Will and Ali. Five friends who’ve known each other for years. And Ali, Will’s new fiancée. The three couples travel to Portugal for Ali and Will’s destination wedding. Arriving at the gorgeous clifftop villa, the weekend away is a chance to relax and get to know Ali a little better. A newcomer to their group, she seems perfectly nice, and Will seems happy after years of bad choices. ...

  Publication Date:  July 6, 2021 Format:  Audio Genre:   Psychological Thriller Amish Narrators:  Kathleen McInerney Publisher:  Macmillan Audio                 Length:  10 hours 0 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis When a young woman is found murdered in a Painters Mill motel, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is shocked to discover she once knew the victim. Rachael Schwartz was a charming but troubled Amish girl who left the fold years ago and fled Painters Mill. Why was she back in town? And who would kill her so brutally? Kate remembers Rachael as the only girl who was as bad at being Amish as Kate was—and those parallels dog her. But the more Kate learns about Rachael's life...

Publication Date:  April 5, 2016 Format:  Audio Genre:   Historical Fiction Narrators:  Edoardo Ballerini Publisher:  Macmillan Audio                 Length:  9 hours 57 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis Amsterdam, 1631: Sara de Vos becomes the first woman to be admitted as a master painter to the city's Guild of St. Luke. Though women do not paint landscapes (they are generally restricted to indoor subjects), a wintry outdoor scene haunts Sara: She cannot shake the image of a young girl from a nearby village, standing alone beside a silver birch at dusk, staring out at a group of skaters on the frozen river below. Defying the expectations of her time, she decides to paint it. ...

Publication Date:  April 9, 2019 Format:  Audio Genre:   self help Narrator:  Russell Brand Publisher:  Macmillan Audio            Length:  3 hours 9 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis Mentors: How to Help and Be Helped  describes the impact that a series of significant people have had on the author - from the wayward youths he tried to emulate growing up in Essex, through the first ex-junkie sage, to the people he turns to today to help him be a better father. It explores how we all - consciously and unconsciously - choose guides, mentors, and heroes throughout our lives and examines the new perspectives they can bring. Review:  Everyone can think back and remember that one teac...

Publication Date:  February 2, 2021 Format:  Audio Genre:   War, Vietnam War, Mystery Narrator:  Kevin Stillwell Publisher:  Macmillan Audio Length:  13 hours 58 min Buy:  Kindle  |  Audio Synopsis Gibby's older brothers have already been to war. One died there. The other came back misunderstood and hard, a decorated killer now freshly released from a three-year stint in prison. Jason won't speak of the war or of his time behind bars, but he wants a relationship with the younger brother he hasn't known for years. Determined to make that connection, he coaxes Gibby into a day at the lake: long hours of sunshine and whisky and older women. But the day turns ugly when the four encounter a prison transfer bus on a stretch of empty road....