Amanda Bouchet's Beneath the Burning Sea ARC Review

Amanda Bouchet's Beneath the Burning Sea ARC Review: Tropes / What to Expect

Thank you to Amanda Bouchet for the ARC of Beneath the Burning Sea to review.

Beneath the Burning Sea is the fifth book in the Kingmaker Chronicles series. Books 1-3 follow Cat and Griffin, book 4 follows Jocasta and Flynn, and book 5 follows Bel and Carver (note: there's also a novella, book 3.5 which details what happens to Piers).

The Olympianomachy and Zeus's unknown adversary continue to wreak havoc in Atlantis, a country sunk to the bottom of the ocean and stripped of magic as Zeus's Punishment. Bel and Carver must beat the odds, and gods, in order to end Punishment in Zeus's name and help end the war of the gods.

Easy five stars. I think everyone who has followed the Kingmaker Chronicles has been eagerly hoping for Bel and Carver's story and I'm certainly no exception! The push and pull and tension between them has been building throughout the series and the culmination in Beneath the Burning Sea exceeds expectations.

Bel and Carver complement each other so well and maybe it's just me, but I'm a sucker for a feisty FMC and fighty dynamic between a couple. They don't lose that tension as they come together, rather it shifts slightly into something more tender with an understanding that they'll always have each others' backs.

While Bel helps Carver overcome his past trauma and not feeling good enough, Carver helps Bel break down her walls that she's built up over the years.

As a longtime follower for the Kingmaker Chronicles, I think the ending was my favorite part. I won't spoil it, but we get some cameos of our favorite characters and Bouchet wonderfully includes a sneak peak as to who book 6 might focus on.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be over here praying to Zeus and the book gods to give me a Prometheus book.

Beneath the Burning Sea releases May 27, 2025 and you can pre-order a copy here.

(Note: While Beneath the Burning Sea features it's own couple, I'd highly recommend starting with Cat & Griffin's story in A Promise of Fire, since the plot continues to flow and it probably won't make a whole lot of sense if you jump straight into Beneath the Burning Sea. If you've read Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter series, Kingmaker Chronicles is quite similar in that while different books focus on different characters and couples, the plot continues throughout so skipping books will likely lead to a confused reader.)