Fans of Netflix’s Outer Banks will devour this contemporary YA novel with a propulsive mystery about one girl’s search for her town’s legendary sunken treasure in order to clear her family’s name and save her future.

GOOD AS GOLD
by Candace Buford
Disney-Hyperion, June 2023
(via Kaplan/DeFiore Rights)

Some treasures are meant to stay buried . . . Casey’s life in Langston has been charmed. She’s the queen bee of her prep school, a shoe-in for prom queen, and on her way to the Ivy League come fall. She can’t wait to leave the whole town of Langston behind her. That is until her father loses his job and she finds herself on the brink of losing her ticket out of town.
The town of Langston is known for its picturesque lake and robust summer tourism. Everyone who lives in town has heard the rumors at some point—there is a treasure buried deep below the surface that no one has ever been able to find. Few people actually believe in the treasure, and even fewer have searched for it. But some have tried . . .
Suddenly an outcast from her popular squad, Casey falls in with a new group of friends who are exactly the opposite of her usual crowd, but are more accepting. Together they devise a plan to find the elusive treasure, in a quest to get the money and save Casey’s family and her future. But what they find is much more complicated than just a pile of gold. With thrilling twists and turns and high stakes adventure, fans of Outer Banks will devour this summer adventure.

Candace Buford has been an avid reader since childhood―always looking for stories with strong and complex POCs. She graduated from Duke University with a degree in German Literature, which exposed her to the delightfully creepy side of storytelling by writers like Kafka and Brecht. She also holds a law degree from Penn State Law School and a business degree from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Raised in Houston, Candace currently lives in the heart of Texas, where you can find her huddled in café corners, scribbling away in her notebook. She shares her life with a rocket scientist and a Plott Hound, who both ensure there is never a dull day. Candace is also the author of Kneel and Whatever Happens, a Julie and the Phantoms original novel.