From the time I was a little girl, I knew I had to do for myself. My mother’s slip into the bottle and the baggie happened at an age where I should have been innocent of even knowing about such things.
I had to learn early to work and work hard. Scraping for every penny I could find to pay the bills and keep us from starving to death.
Then she died, saddling me with debt that has taken more than a decade to pay off.
I’m at the cusp of paying it off when I learn something about myself that I never knew. Who my father is. Was.
That I come from a family that has magic.
That I need to fill the family role as the next Keeper for Ivy Grove, the town of ghosts hidden in the woods that is powered by the Keeper. It’s their job to keep them safe from mages that want to tear them to pieces to suck power from them. To help norms be safe from violent ghosts.
All things I never knew about.
Yet it’s my destiny.
The power is part of me. It’s in my genes. It’s there and combining with an addition from the other side of my family. My mother’s side. A contribution that never should have been possible.
How do you take on the mantle of caring for a town when it’s all new to you? I need to figure that out quickly, because it’s coming hard and fast.
My name is Ashley Copeland, and this is my life. I’ve worked and struggled for most of twenty-seven years to stay alive.
That means I have to shoulder this new burden and carry it to the best of my ability. After all, it’s not just me at risk now. It’s my unknown grandfather, two friends that I thought disappeared long ago, and an entire town of ghosts.
And I can’t let them down.
Genre: Urban Fantasy
I had to learn early to work and work hard. Scraping for every penny I could find to pay the bills and keep us from starving to death.
Then she died, saddling me with debt that has taken more than a decade to pay off.
I’m at the cusp of paying it off when I learn something about myself that I never knew. Who my father is. Was.
That I come from a family that has magic.
That I need to fill the family role as the next Keeper for Ivy Grove, the town of ghosts hidden in the woods that is powered by the Keeper. It’s their job to keep them safe from mages that want to tear them to pieces to suck power from them. To help norms be safe from violent ghosts.
All things I never knew about.
Yet it’s my destiny.
The power is part of me. It’s in my genes. It’s there and combining with an addition from the other side of my family. My mother’s side. A contribution that never should have been possible.
How do you take on the mantle of caring for a town when it’s all new to you? I need to figure that out quickly, because it’s coming hard and fast.
My name is Ashley Copeland, and this is my life. I’ve worked and struggled for most of twenty-seven years to stay alive.
That means I have to shoulder this new burden and carry it to the best of my ability. After all, it’s not just me at risk now. It’s my unknown grandfather, two friends that I thought disappeared long ago, and an entire town of ghosts.
And I can’t let them down.
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Used availability for Bob Dattolo's Out From Under