I read books 1-4 to prepare for this ARC and I am really glad that I did! I love this series and I can't wait for the next installment! I love learning all the details about living in Alaska, which I can't imagine doing! I am now adding all of Paige Shelton's books to my TBR!

#LostHours
#NetGalley

Many thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the free audiobook in exchange for my honest review. This is narrated by Suzie Althens who does a good job!

This is my first time to read this series and despite starting with book #5, I did not have any trouble reading it as a standalone.

Beth Rivers, an author, moved from Missouri to Benedict, Alaska after escaping from her kidnapper. She has learned to live in the wilds of Alaska and while writing, edits the local newspaper. She also helps the local police chief investigate crimes.

In this installment, Beth and boyfriend Tex are on a boat tour when the tour finds a woman who says she was abducted, and her kidnapper was killed by a bear. Beth works with the woman and local police to figure out the whole story.

The middle of the story seemed to drag a bit but the ending was definitely exciting.

3.5 stars rounded to 4.

I have not read the previous books in this series, and likey that has some significance in my review.

The problem with jumping into a series is the character development happens at a glacial pace, over many books, so a single story won't have much growth for the characters, which is very true here. There were a few instances when the same word was used more than once in a sentence, though I cannot remember specifics. It was like "actually this happened actually" as if it needed some more stringent editing. And "perplexed" was used multiple times a few lines apart, like it was a vocabulary word being practiced. So those little editing things bugged me. The language was simple, nothing to think about, all telling and no showing. The story itself was slow and dull most of the time. The dialog was stilted, which was in part the narrator's flat tone and enunciation. There was not much emotion that made the characters seem connected to one another, and the alleged romance between Tex and Beth had zero warmth or heart. No chemistry, no spark. Lastly, how often does someone escape incarceration? What are the odds that two escapes would happen in a short period of time related to separate cases that involved Beth? Convoluted. A lot was convoluted, but I have to stop. I couldn't suspend disbelief enough to get invested in the book, and I just wanted it over.

I love this series – the setting is amazing and Beth Rivers is smart, savvy, and perfectly flawed. She has fit in well in Alaska and managed to carve a space for herself in investigations as well, which helps move the story along. This one was fascinating but the ending was a little confusing; there were so many moving parts to the different crimes that had been committed that it was difficult to keep it all straight. Even the recap at the end was somewhat confusing. Other than that, this was another wonderful installment in the series and this one leaves you on a little bit of a cliffhanger. I can’t wait to see what happens next!