[Poppy Blue 01] • Giving Up the Ghost

Flame-haired Poppy Blue runs her own magick shop way up north in Sault Ste. Marie, a tourist stop and college town in Michigan's Upper peninsula. Mostly she sells candles, crystal balls and some touristy items, reads a few palms, and has regular chats with her father's ghost, but Poppy is a hedge witch. Like her mother, the strong-willed and highly opinionated Fiona, she performs occasional feats of the amazing and the uncanny, largely on instinct.

One day a woman visits Poppy’s shop, worried for her son, Roger, who has never gotten over the death of his sister, Ivy, in an auto accident. Poppy discovers Ivy's ghost is still around, tied to this plane by Roger's unresolved grief – she can't move on until Roger moves on – and she wants Poppy to help. Poppy wants this too, both to get Ivy out of her hair – she's as thoughtless and impatient as the teenager she was when she died – and because the red-haired witch is very attracted to Roger.

Soon Ivy is exploiting Poppy's abilities and compassion, discovering some fringe benefits to being a spirit and disrupting Poppy's life – and prospective love life. Can Poppy convince Roger to give up the ghost?