Welcome to Harker Academy for Deviant Defense. Keep your daggers sharp, and your wits even sharper...
We’re thrilled to share the cover of Kate Golden’s Half City—available in February 2026 from Ace, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
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?
Buy the Book
Half City
Kate Golden is the USA Today bestselling author of The Sacred Stones trilogy. She lives in Los Angeles where she works in the film industry developing movies with screenwriters and filmmakers. When she isn’t telling stories, Kate is an avid book reader, puzzle addict, and game night enthusiast which she hosts with her husband and puppy, Milo. You can find her on Instagram at @KateGoldenAuthor and on TikTok at @Kate_Golden_Author.
