Hot YA for August!

STRANGE ALCHEMY
by Gwenda Bond
Switch Press / August 1

Gwenda Bond's first book Blackwood has been reimagined and brought back to life with new vision. On Roanoke Island, the legend of the Lost Colony -- and the 114 colonists who vanished without a trace more than four hundred years ago -- still haunts the town. But that's just a story told for the tourists. When 114 people suddenly disappear from the island in present day, it seems history is repeating itself -- and an unlikely pair of seventeen-year-olds might be the only hope of bringing the missing back.

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VICARIOUS  
by Paula Stokes
TorTeen /  In paperback August 29

Paula Stokes weaves together a series of mysteries and the story of an unbreakable bond between sisters in this unforgettable high-tech thrill ride. Winter Kim and her sister, Rose, have always been inseparable. Together the two of them survived growing up in a Korean orphanage and being trafficked into the United States. But they've escaped the past and started over in a new place where no one knows who they used to be. Now they work as digital stunt girls for Rose's ex-boyfriend, Gideon, engaging in dangerous and enticing activities while recording their neural impulses for his Vicarious Sensory Experiences, or ViSEs. Whether it's bungee jumping, shark diving, or grinding up against celebrities in the city's hottest dance clubs, Gideon can make it happen for you--for a price. When Rose disappears and a ViSE recording of her murder is delivered to Gideon, Winter is devastated. She won't rest until she finds her sister's killer. But when the clues she uncovers conflict with the digital recordings her sister made, Winter isn't sure what to believe. To find out what happened to Rose, she'll have to untangle what's real from what only seems real, risking her own life in the process.

THE ARSONIST 
by Stephanie Oakes
Dial/PRH / August 22

Molly is the daughter of a death row murderer and has a bucketful of issues, Pepper is an immigrant with epilepsy and girl problems. And Ava is a long-dead freedom fighter. Their stories are bound together when Molly gets a package leading her to Pepper and the two must solve a decades-old mystery: find out who killed Ava, back in 1989. Using Ava's diary for clues, Molly and Pepper realize there's more to her life--and death--than meets the eye. Heart-racing, hilarious, and heartbreaking, The Arsonist is an intricate tapestry--of love, loss, and the mysterious connections between us all.

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FEROCIOUS (Vicarious Book 2)
by Paula Stokes
TorTeen / August 15

Paula Stokes returns to the world of Vicarious in this sequel, a high-action psychological thriller with a protagonist out for vengeance. When Winter Kim finds out that her sister is dead and that she has a brother she never knew about, only two things matter--finding what's left of her family and killing the man who destroyed her life. Her mission leads her from St. Louis to Los Angeles back to South Korea, where she grew up. Things get increasingly dangerous once Winter arrives in Seoul. Aided by her friends Jesse and Sebastian, Winter attempts to infiltrate an international corporation to get close to her target, a nefarious businessman named Kyung. But keeping her last remaining loved ones out of the line of fire proves difficult, and when all seems to be lost, Winter must face one last devastating decision: is revenge worth sacrificing everything for? Or can she find a spark of hope in the darkness that threatens to engulf her?