Stacie Calder, a naturalist, has what she considers the perfect job - a guide on a tour boat in the Alaskan wilderness. However, things get a little too wild for her employer when a former employee turned competitor is discovered murdered after taking none of their cruises. Stacie works with the Alaska State Trooper Initial Response Section to find out what happened and who is responsible.

I really enjoyed this book because brought back great memories of a trip to Alaska as well as being entertaining with great characters.

This book was a slow starter, a person goes missing from a day cruise boat, and one of the crew members are helping to investigate
It was lacking in excitement and depth, but it was readable. Loved the setting on a boat in Alaska and I loved the way Lark OJensen wrote about the wildlife.
Thank you netgalley

I just didn't enjoy this book. The writing got on my nerves, mainly because the author did the thing of speaking directly to the reader as the main character. The result was that the descriptions came off as very conversational.

Stacie Calder loves her job as a naturalist for a boat tour company in Juneau, Alaska. However, it isn’t all smooth sailing when a passenger goes missing during one of her daily tours. Especially since that same passenger was planning to start up a rival boat tour company. When the authorities are called in, they seem fixated on the ship’s captain as the most likely culprit. Determined to prove her boss’s innocence, Stacie begins to investigate the case on her own.

This fun cozy mystery was a quick read for me. I liked reading about Alaskan wildlife and seeing the ins-and-outs of working on a tour boat.

I wish to thank NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books Publishers for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a book that was slow in developing and one that I feel might appeal to a much younger group of readers. It is set in Alaska and I was anxious to get into the story of a tour guide on a boat out of Juneau, Alaska. The book is very repetitive in the details of the young girl’s life with her favorite pet that goes everywhere with her. The Husky is the most likeable and believable of all the characters. When a murder happens the Alaskan police get involved in trying to solve the mystery. Stacie, the young tour guide, is allowed to question suspects and have a personal relationship with the officer. I cannot see that ever happening in a valid murder case. I stayed with the story just to see who the murderer actually was. But, I do feel this one needs more depth to it. If the target is for young teens it would be great but for adults it needed more maturity

A nice trip to to Alaska even it was only through the pages of a book. And you get to solve a mystery to boot.

Thank you, Net Galley for my ARC!

I love trying out new cozy mysteries. Its how I discover new authors and series to follow. A tour guide out in Alaska sounds so refreshing, different from the usual MCs of owning a shop and/or going back to their hometown. But thats about it for me.

The writing was verbose, story's pacing is slow, almost drawn out and so much repetitive on the details. Petting Sasha, up the deck, blue hoodies, beige couch and how many times do we get reminded of the boat's name? I did not get to feel being outdoors and more of going thru each detailed step. Then Stacie needs a BFF badly! So her routine changes one in awhile. But what did not sit well with me was how the Law Enforcement just allowed Stacie Calder to just conduct her own investigation and ask outright for updates as if she was part of the force!

Overall, the series looks promising with a little bit of editing on the excess details.

Honestly, I had high hopes for this book. Set on tour boats in Alaska it had the potential to be both educational and entertaining. Unfortunately it is neither.

Stacie is someone I would avoid if I met her in person, especially as she seems to be only ever able to talk about three things; her employers, Alaskan wildlife, and who killed their passenger.

The characters were unrelatable, the details of the investigation were unbelievable, and the writing felt immature. The only really good thing about the book was the dog.

Stacie Calder has landed her dream job, as a naturalist she loves to be outdoors, loves animals and loves to bring her dog with her to work. As a tour guide on a boat in Alaska she gets to do all that and more! When a regular guest on the boat goes missing she raises the alarm. When they find him the next day the authorities discover he's been murdered.
Stacie must find out who the killer is before her bosses are put out of business.
A cozy mystery set in Alaska, with a dog as her sidekick and a bit of romance what's not to love?
Well quite a bit. The book is quite repetitive, Stacie spends more time going to get coffee and interviewing suspects than doing her job and the "police" seem to be unable to do their job without a lot of help from Stacie.
Now don't get me wrong the point of a cozy is the amateur detective solves the case, not the police. But the police specifically ask Stacie for help, that's just not done. The description of the wildlife was great, but not much about the Alaska landscape, I did not get a sense of Juneau at all. Overall, it was really disappointing.

Bear Witness introduces Stacie Calder an Alaskan tour guide and naturalst. She gets caught up in a mystery when a missing tourist is found dead. Her boss becomes the prime suspect which prompts Stacie and her dog (Sasha) to do some investigating to clear his name.

Let me start off by saying that I enjoyed this book. Actually, any book centered in Alaska is one that I am definitely willing to read. The scenery, the characters, and the premise of the book was really good. The author gave great detail about the Alaskan landscape and the animals that live there. I really appreciated that. I liked the fact that Stacie was an uncomplicated and bold individual. However, not much is said about Stacies' life beyond her educational background and past careers. We know she loves Alaska and animals, but what else?

The mystery was a little different than what I am use to. Usually there is a murder, evidence, cause of death, arrest, and a serious investigation. This was definitely a much lesser version of that. The troopers (a special Alaskan task force) were the investigators. There wasn't a lot of evidence and there were no real questions being asked. It was being treated like a murder investigation although it seemed like it still could have been a possible suicide or accident. The suspect list was long and at the same time kept you guessing a little till the end.

There is a little bit of romance in this book which I liked. Although, I am sure in real life the relationship between Stacie and Liam would be considered a conflict of interest. It was still fun and I only wish there was a little more romance than there was.

All in all I found this book to be a light hearted read. Very fun, pleasant, and enjoyable when cozying up at home. I look forward to reading more in the Untamed Alaska mystery series.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Bear witness by Lark O. Jensen in exchange for my honest review.

A bit slow to start. A mild cozy mystery set in Alaska and oddly enough, the Alaskan wilderness is the most vivid character in the book.

The human characters are not as compelling as the oft repeated love of Alaska, Alaskan wifelife and dogs.

Fantastic read in the middle of Indian Summer, transported me to the cold climate of Alaska and let me forget about the sweat on the back of my knees. Entertaining characters and well written story.

As I was walking my dog this morning in the freshly fallen snow here in Alaska, I thought about this book. When I thought about it, I realized that thought spoke highly of the book. True, as an Alaskan I might quibble with a few things, like dogs on tour boats that I know from experience encounter very rough water at times, but Lark O. Jensen's descriptive powers and ability to bring characters to life made it stick with me. I've been on tour boats in the setting described and she captured that excitement and wonder at both the scenery and wildlife you'll see on such a tour well. Knowing the setting well, including the tour boats themselves, I felt right at home with this book and look forward to more in the series. Any book that can divert my mind from the beauty about me on my daily walk, complete with snow and mountains and, yes, a dog, albeit not a husky, has something going for it. That the author set a murder aboard amidst some of the world's most beautiful surroundings made the murder all the worse. Although I'd have liked to have seen things more along a bit faster, the story did drag in a few spots, "Bear Witness" is an excellent start to the series. I think I dreamed of leaping whales, husky kisses, and glacier bears. If you love travel, particularly to Alaska, huskies, wildlife, interesting characters, and mystery, you might enjoy this stop in Alaska. We'll be waiting to welcome you.

This book was extremely slow for me. Stacie is a tour guide on a boat in Alaska when someone is thrown overboard. Stacie and her dog Sasha then assist the state troopers in finding out who did it. I feel like this book could be half the length if the repetition was edited out. I get it. Stacie loves Alaska. And ClemTours. And wildlife. And her dog. I found it unnecessary to be repeated as many times as it did. I also thought the writing was lacking a lot of imagery. I didn't find myself feeling like I was in Alaska on that same boat looking at wildlife. I found it hard to imagine the characters and who they were. Except that they were always wearing hoodies. Blue of course. I also found the idea of Alaskan state troopers allowing a civilian to insert herself so heavily into a murder investigation highly unbelievable. Who is this girl after all? Why do they just let her question suspects and ask about an ongoing investigation? I finished this book simply to find out who did it. Overall it was a good story but with better imagery and some editing it could potentially be great.

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley

I wish I had read this even sooner such a great book that kept me up reading. Such a beautiful setting.

I loved this book! My biggest complaint: Sasha the Husky felt more like a border collie than a Siberian Husky.

The main character is Stacie Calder, a naturalist currently working providing color on Alaskan day cruises. And of course someone ends up disappearing, only to be discovered dead on a later cruise. There’s a love interest, lots of snooping, etc - pretty standard for a cozy, excluding the wilderness.

As I mentioned above, my biggest complaint was that Stacie’s dog, Sasha, felt way two dimensional for a Husky. I maybe biased in this regard as I have a Husky and have seen first hand how bratty and stubborn they can be - my dog will complain for a half hour about being told to outside to go to the bathroom because she doesn’t want to get her paws wet, but then go dashing out the door to go on a walk, getting not just her paws wet, but drenched, all accompanied by lots of Husky wooing and howling. Sasha did none of this.

Again, this is probably being hypercritical, a bit like the judges on a cooking show, complaining that the baker made a chocolate cake when their given flavor was chocolate.

Highly recommended.I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.com and voluntarily chose to review.

Bear Witness by Lark O. Jensen just could not keep my interest. I wasn't invested in the characters at all and the best part of the book were the tidbits about Alaskan wildlife.

Stacie Calder has snagged the perfect job. She's using her education and love for (obsession with) Alaskan wildlife to play hostess on a tour boat. When a former employee begins haunting the tours and then announces his plan to open his own tour boat, he burns more than a few bridges before disappearing. When he reappears, dead on the tour, everyone on the boat becomes suspect.

Alaska is an unusual setting for a cozy mystery, as is the tour guide premise, so this series is very unique. Stacie is a really nice young lady and Sasha is adorable and spectacularly well-behaved. Unfortunately there were some important things that I felt were missing. One being a best friend/confidante for Stacie. She has a few casual friends who live in other towns but no friends in Juneau. This meant Stacie spent all of her time hanging out with Sasha (who I did love) and thinking about the murder, though she never gets any new information and thinks the same things over and over again.

There were a few lines crossed that I wasn't comfortable with. One of those lines was the descriptions of where Sasha goes to relieve herself on the boat. I could have done without that information and I felt like it was kind of crummy of Stacie to bring Sasha along on these tours for no reason other than her own convenience and yet she makes the deckhands clean up after her dog. I also objected to the creation of a fictional branch of law enforcement that doesn't follow any of the rules of law enforcement. I felt like that was cheating and it also took away an important part of the cozy mystery story arc, how the amateur sleuth ingratiates herself with the local police and wedges herself into the investigation. But most of all, the main character has... shall we say... bowel issues. And we get the play-by-play. Yes. That happens. And that's what took this from a 3-star book down to a 2-star book for me.

This series has potential. I do love the setting and the characters have promise, but it's missing a lot of things that make cozies fun. Interaction between the main character and her friends, investigations being done in multiple locations involving compelling side characters, clues leading to the detection of the culprit, and a contentious police/amateur relationship that provides some dramatic tension and may blossom into something more in future books.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

Okay, so I finished this book two days ago, but I had to think about what I thought. So here's my review.

"No nine-to-five cubicle career will suit Stacie Calder—the naturalist much prefers working in the great outdoors. Specifically, the spacious and spectacular Alaskan wilderness, whose rugged charms she shares with sightseers on the top deck of the tour boat where she works. But one May afternoon, Stacie’s passengers see more than glittering glaciers, frolicking harbor seals, climbing bears and soaring seabirds…they also witness a man lying dead in the frigid Alaskan waters. And it seems likely that someone gave him a fatal push"

I really liked the premise of this book. On a tour boat in Alaska? That's a first for me in this genre. But at the same time that gave a problem. Because there is basically only one location, there is a lot of repeating. Stacie on the boat, giving her tour and telling what she sees. After the third time I found myself skipping those parts. The first time it's great to read as I am clueless about the Alaskan wilderness, but yeah once was enough.

I did like the characters a lot! Stacie and her husky Sasha, but also state trooper Liam! He worked together with Stacie as she was on board and knew how to talk to them. I found it good to see that the team on board was really a team!

The mystery was good! I had no idea who did it and eventually bet on the wrong horse! I would recommend this series, but hopefully in a second book it would be possible to get a few other locations in to make the story more divers. But for a new book in a new series it gets 4 stars from me!

I found the main character in this book to be quite annoying, as she told the readers things that were quite obvious, such as the police detective held a device which looked like it could communicate with the office (obviously a walkie talkie or an older style cell phone).. She mentioned taking her dog around the tour boat a lot, not interesting! I got one third through the book and lost interest. Thanks for the read, NetGalley.