About the Book

Book: Augmented

Author: Candace Kade

Genre: YA Science Fiction

Release Date: September 16, 2025

Lee Urban must win to survive.

After being sentenced to the banned list, half of the Asian Federation believes Lee Urban is a ticking time bomb that could end the world as they know it. They’re willing to do anything to erase her existence and silence her voice before she can take a stand.

There’s only one way to fight back: enroll in the Race to the Clouds. Winning the competition would garner global media attention and give Urban the coverage she needs to dismantle the enhancement programs. Unfortunately, it also happens to be the deadliest event of the year.

With less time to train than her rivals, Urban and her team must find a way to best the competition. But as enemies close in, riots erupt, and her homeland teeters on the brink of civil war, one thing is certain— she’s running out of time. Not just for herself, but for every Natural she represents.

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About the Author

Candace Kade is a recovering over-achiever who spends her time dreaming up stories typically involving tech, psychology, culture, and/or swords. She’s a certified Krav Maga assistant instructor and loves writing action-packed martial art scenes. A third culture kid, she considers Chengdu and OKC to be her homes.

When she’s not exploring new countries, she enjoys hiking in national parks, moving (again!), teaching her husband Mandarin, and keeping two baby humans alive. She can be bribed with boba tea, fluffy puppies, and breakfast tacos.

More from Candace

Have you ever broken a cherished possession?

I have. It was my porcelain mug that I bought while traveling through Ireland. The trip was so special and that cup always brought me happy memories as I sipped tea from it.

My husband tried to fix it for me, but the mug is not the same. It now sits tucked in the back of our cupboards too broken to be used but too precious to be throw away.

Being broken doesn’t mean something—or someone—loses purpose.

In kintsugi, the Japanese art form that involves intentionally breaking tea ware, the fragments left over are pieced back together with golden filling. The final result is more beautiful than the original unblemished version ever could be.

The brokenness enhances the tea ware’s beauty.

In my novel Augmented, I wanted to draw a comparison between brokenness and beauty. Just like kintsugi takes broken pottery and turns it into something beautiful, my protagonist Urban faces her own transformation. She is hopeless and feels like she can’t pick up the shattered pieces of her life. But as she tries out for the world’s most deadly race, she learns that being broken doesn’t mean what she thinks it does.

The things that happen to us have a purpose. If we let the Creator finish His masterpiece (us) He’ll use the fragmented pieces of our lives to make a beautiful finished work of art.

Urban feels the same way, believing her brokenness defines her. But through trial and grace, she discovers what it means to be made new.

No one is too broken to be saved or redeemed.

I wrote this book for anyone who’s ever felt lost, hopeless, or broken. We can do all things through Him who gives us strength.

Interview with the Author

Which character did you connect to best in this book?

In Augmented, definitely the main character, Urban. This book is all about her learning to accept her vital role in both the worlds of the Naturals and Enhanced. She gets to be a bridge between two previously disconnected groups of people. It’s very much my own story of growing up in China and returning to the US for college and work. I’ve spent most of my life straddling the East and West. This book is what I’ve learned about being a third culture kid. I don’t have to choose just one culture to embrace. I can be a bridge between multiple cultures and peoples and, with my unique view, help others from different societies see things they never would. I love that.

Which part of the book was the most difficult to write?

The ending. Writing a good ending is hard for any book. You want it to be just right so that the reader gives that satisfactory sigh. But doing that for the completion of a series? Now, the pressure is on! I think I rewrote so many different elements of the ending for this book. Also, trying to wrangle all the subplots and character arcs was like herding cats. But being on the other side of it, I feel so excited for readers to get to experience this ending!

What inspired this book?

Learning about CRISPR gene editing technology and wondering what our world will look like one hundred years from now when parents can choose their children’s genetics. I couldn’t stop thinking about the question and thus, the Hybrid Series was born!

What is your vacation spot?

This is such a hard question because I LOVE travel. So rather than pick one, I’m going to cheat and list two of my favorite spots. I had the chance to visit a friend of mine in Santorini Greece and it was absolutely incredible.

We would eat acai bowls sitting at a table overlooking a cliff with a view of the sparkling cobalt blue ocean below. White washed adobe buildings with vibrant azure roofs dotted the cliff side. We climbed active volcanos, swam in the ocean, and road what looked like a ship straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean!

But I also really enjoyed my trip to Nepal with another friend. We ate momos (sort of like dumplings) and waited until we were adjusted to the altitude before we went mountain biking with a view of the Himalayan Mountains.

A tour bus dropped us off at a mountain peak, above the cloud line, and then we coasted all the way down. We flew past villages with children that chases after us, past farms and animals, the world zipped by us in the most magical way until we got to the base of the mountain.

Those are two trips I’ll never forget!

What are you reading right now?

I’m typically reading a dozen books at once . . . I have a problem I know! Because I’m obsessed with tea, I’m reading a book on growing your own tea garden. On the sci-fi front, I’m binging an eARC of Karyne Norton’s upcoming time travel thriller novel The Things We Can Change. In paperback, I’m reading a book on brain science by Caroline Leaf called Switch On Your Brain. In audiobook form, I’m listening to Mortal Queens, Heartless, the Floating World, and Once Upon a Broken Heart, and in the tub I like to read a poetry book called A Happy Poem to Start Every Day. I could go on but you get the point.