Half City by Kate Golden is book 1 in her new dark academic, urban fantasy Harker Academy series — out now!

Title: Half City
Book Series: Harker Academy #1
Author: Kate Golden
Genre: Urban Fantasy Romance, Romantasy, Dark Adademia
Release Date: Feruary 17, 2026
Publisher: Ace | Berkley | Penguin Random House

About The Book:

Welcome to Harker Academy for Deviant Defense. Keep your daggers sharp, and your wits even sharper.

Viv Abbot is an average twenty-one-year-old girl. She lives in an expensive city where the rent is too high, works long hours at a thankless job, and is dating a guy she doesn’t even like in the hopes of winning her prickly mother’s approval.

She just also happens to be a demon hunter.

Ever since her father’s murder, she’s been forced to hunt deviants alone, meaning everyone, including her family, sees her as an outsider. . . . Until the day she crosses paths with a dangerously alluring demon, Reid Graveheart. The reformed deviant tells her of a school for people just like her: Harker Academy for Deviant Defense. If she enrolls, she’ll learn to hone her craft, work with other hunters, and never be alone again.

But Viv has a deadly secret. One that not even her new friends at Harker can know about. Not when the school might hold the answers to untangling the mystery surrounding Viv’s father’s death. When strange occurrences begin to plague the students, Viv will have to figure out who she can trust, and fast. All while trying to ace her classes, not fall for a demon, and make it through her first year at Harker in one piece. How hard could that be?

Purchase: Amazon | B&N

REIVEW:

This was such a fun read. Kate Golden has become an auto-buy author for me. I eat up everything she serves me. The entire time I was reading this it felt nostalgic, and I couldn’t exactly put my finger on why. And then it hit me – this gives me the same feelings and vibes as those 2000s WB/CW shows did. Buffy, Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, Charmed – not necessarily in content, but strictly in vibes.

Viv is a slayer/demon hunter that has to hide that part of herself from literally everyone she knows. While she’s hunting one night she meets hot mysterious stranger, who is also a demon, and invites her to come train at this secret demon hunter school where she accidentally stumbles onto a mystery that might finally answer a lot of questions from her past. She’s hyper-independent, and stubborn, and feisty. I loved watching her slowly learn that it’s okay to lean on people around you. I don’t know if I would go as far as to say this was found family, but definitely a really strong found-community.

I am a sucker for a slow burn. I feel like the plot was pretty balanced between story and romance, and I enjoyed experiencing these two break down each others walls. There were several fun twists in this, a couple of them I didn’t really see coming. And I’m usually pretty good at sniffing things out.

The cliffhanger at the end was WILD. I had to go back and reread the last few pages a few times and really let it sink in that it just ENDED THAT WAY. I am so intrigued to find out what happens next, and I have a sneaking suspicion about a few of these characters…

Thank you to NetGalley, Ace Books & Berkley Publishing for sending this egalley for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

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About The Author:

Kate Golden is the USA Today bestselling author of both The Sacred Stones and Harker Academy trilogies. When she isn’t writing, Kate is an avid book reader, puzzle addict, and game night enthusiast. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their puppy, Milo.

Connect With Kate: Website | Goodreads | Instagram | TikTok