ARC Review: Half City by Kate Golden

Half City
Author: Kate Golden
Series: Harker Academy (Book 1)
Publication: Ace (February 17, 2026)

Description: 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.

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 if 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, all while trying to ace her classes, avoid falling for a demon, and make it through her first year at Harker in one piece. How hard could that be?

My Thoughts: Viv Abbott lives in Astera. She's twenty-one and works at a museum for her sister-in-law. She is also an aeon - a specialized and rare sort of demon hunter. She has been hiding that part of her life from everyone since she watched her father - another hunter - lose his life to a band of Brood demons. 

When she is spotted rescuing a young mother and her children from a monster attack, she is recruited to attend the Harker Academy for Deviant Defense. There, she finds friends who understand her. She also finds romance in the person of one of her instructors who also happens to be a Brood demon, but one who has sworn off taking souls. There is also something dangerous and secret going on at Harker. It looks like someone is trying to gather the ingredients for a spell that will give unimaginable power to the Thane - the head demon. 

Viv has to deal with all sorts of stresses. She's still trying to maintain her human life and friends while learning more about her powers and the world the lives alongside the human world. 

This was an engaging start to a series. The was a cliffhanger ending but lots of things were resolved in this episode. I liked Viv. She is smart, impulsive, and carries a deep loneliness inside. Finding friends, even if she is still keeping some secrets from them, expands and enriches her life. I am eager for more in this series. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.