The Sapphire Sailor's Tale

4⭐️ 1🌶

I finished The Sapphire Sailor's Tale by Julia Lovely last evening.  This was a solid debut novel.  I'm assuming this is a standalone; the story arc was completed.  It was short at just under 400 pages so it was a pretty quick read.  Cordelia the FMC is a junior officer in the Navy.  She is on her first tour aboard a ship.  She is running herself ragged doing her own job and going through all the training a new officer is required to take on as well.  When the ship enters the Bermuda triangle Cordelia starts feeling odd, like she's being pulled toward the ocean floor.  During the swim day Cordelia is pulled by that force down to the bottom of the ocean. She assumes she should be dead, but she wakes up in a completely different world.  She finds herself in a castle built into the walls of a cavern with lava streaming down the walls.  She steps out onto the balcony attached to her room and comes face to face with a fire breathing flying dragon.  So she quickly realizes she's not in Kansas anymore.  Leo and his sister Bridget come introduce themselves.  Leo is the king of Ignacia, the particular region of this new realm she's found herself in.  She and Leo have an almost instant attraction.  I don't want to spoil too much but Leo is not what he seems.  There is a curse and Cordelia is needed to break it.  She also is not as she seems.  

This was a grand adventure story.  It was fast paced and had some interesting twists.  The magic was elemental and there was a good amount of found family.  I don't like to be too harsh on my criticism.  This could have used some more polishing.  The narration style felt juvenile or at the very least very simplistic.  It read more like a diary entry than a story I, as the reader, was present for.  There was a lot of telling what was happening and very little showing.  All the problems were resolved quickly and easily.  It really made it feel very low stakes.  That being said, I still enjoyed the story.  It had a good clear arc.  The characterization of the MMC was very good and I liked him a lot.  The secondary characters were all lovable and fun.  There is a good amount of snarky Navy banter.  Cordelia is used to fitting into a mans world and gets along with the warriors in Terras really really well.  I liked this and I would read more books by this author.