BENEATH THE BURNING SEA is book 5 in the Kingmaker Chronicles series by Amanda Bouchet.  This series is a romantasy series and is set in the world of Greek mythology.  Bel and Carver, our couple for this entry in the series, fought alongside the primary couple from the first three books, Cat and Griffin.  Here, Bel and Carver are on their own in what could easily be read as a standalone book. 

This series started out very strong for me, although by book four my captivation was somewhat waning.  I was hoping that a new couple might revive my interest, but Bel and Carner failed to capture my attention.  The storyline and action appear somewhat lackluster.  The epic sexual sizzle we saw between Kat and Griffin in the early books does not reappear with this new couple.

The book starts abruptly with Bel and Carver in Atlantis, trying to bring back magic to the Atlanteans so the people can rally behind Zeus in his latest showdown with the other gods (honestly, I am so over Zeus!). They also want to set up Bel as the new queen of Atlantis. I had forgotten a lot of the backstory from the previous books and also found the worldbuilding somewhat light here, so I found myself confused and untethered for the first quarter of the book.  Bel is trying to learn how to control her new fire magic while both Bel and Carver work undercover to try to undermine the current crappy king (aren’t they all crappy in mythology?!).

Bouchet’s BENEATH THE BURNING SEA continues the grand adventures of humans tasked with helping the gods, fighting, loving and posturing.  This fifth book underwhelmed me, however, especially in comparison to such marvelous early entries in the series.