Overview

Mara Winters is not doing okay. Her rent is skyrocketing, her espresso machine sounds like a dying animal, and she is a goth barista who just wants to be left alone in the dark. She desperately needs a roommate to survive the summer, but she has one strict rule: no sunshine allowed. Enter Poppy. She is an art teacher who wears bright yellow, creates laminated chore charts, and radiates relentless positivity. She is the literal embodiment of everything Mara actively avoids. But Poppy needs an apartment, and Mara needs the rent money. What starts as a strictly business living arrangement quickly shifts through "smoothie treaties," shared space, and a startling realization: Poppy might be the only person who sees through Mara's prickly exterior to the shadows she is trying to hide. And Mara might be the exact safe harbor Poppy needs when her own sunny facade begins to crack. In a cozy apartment filled with houseplants, a judgmental black cat, and growing tension, these two opposites are about to discover that sometimes the best way to handle the dark is to let a little light in. Black Cat, Golden Girl is an emotional, slow-burn sapphic contemporary romance featuring the roommates-to-lovers trope, a grumpy goth, a sunshine art teacher, and authentic mental health representation.