Beneath (2026)

Hundreds of years before the Illum ruled supreme, humanity risked everything to rebuild after a devastating war in this dystopian romance and prequel to Conform. Sarah J. Maas, author of A Court of Thorns and Roses, calls Ariel Sullivan a writer to watch. Twenty-three-year-old Sasha Cadell knows that time is running out in the underground city, where survivors of the nuclear fallout have lived for six years. She works on expanding the tunnels, trying to escape the memories of those she has lost. Her bleak existence changes when Tristian Hayes, a strikingly handsome and relentlessly determined commander of the Force, recruits her to join him. Alongside his elite team of fighters, she must undertake a secret mission to the surface. Sasha is thrown into brutal training, with stakes far beyond mere survival: the fate of what remains of humanity depends on their success or failure. As she confronts her own demons, she finds allies and enemies in the training program, as well as a powerful attraction to Tristian that threatens the walls she has built around her heart. Beneath the surface, secrets and deception spread as quickly as illness, and not everyone will survive the rise of a power more terrifying than anything they have ever known. Beneath is suited to fans of romantasy and dystopian fiction, combining elements of Fourth Wing and The Hunger Games. Veronica Roth, author of Divergent, says she read Conform in one sitting.