When Ella Archer goes cave diving during a vacation to the Yucatan, she is hoping for a little adventure and maybe a pot shard or two. What she finds will change her life. When she is accidentally separated from her diving group while exploring a dangerous cenote, she runs into Leith Ansley, a diver who supposedly lost his life months ago while in the caves. Leith is not dead, however. After having lost his fiancée to the dangers of the Mexican cenote, he has cut himself off from the outside world. He lives alone and self-sufficient in the jungle, mourning his loss.

Ella plans to hold on to Leith with everything she has and tries to convince him to come back with her. Although he is less than eager to face the world again, Leith is not willing to risk Ella’s life by sending her back into the cenote to return to her group. If she is to return to civilization, then he has to be the one to take her there. Perhaps Ella’s appearance is a sign from the Mayan gods. Perhaps Leith’s time of solitude is over and he is meant to live once again.

Jennah Sharpe’s Beneath the Surface takes the reader on an adventure in the Mexican Yucatan, exploring the jungle and diving in underwater caves. While the setting of this tale is lush and beautiful and is described so well as to seem real, I felt that the story itself was a bit lacking. The characters don’t seem to be developed well enough for us to understand their actions. Although Ella and Leith seem to have made an immediate emotional connection with each other, it feels too contrived to ring true. Even the suggestion that the Mayan gods had a hand in getting these two together doesn’t make their relationship work for me. In addition, I’m still not sure of exactly why Leith felt he needed to fake his death because his fiancée died while diving in a cenote. The beauty and danger of the Mexican Yucatan shines forth in this story, however. Beneath the Surface makes an excellent advertisement for this part of the world, making me want to experience more of it.

Reviewed by: Whitney