Allison Larkspur moved to James Cove with her mother when her grandfather fell ill in her sophomore year of high school. Having fallen on some hard times since her father skipped town, she and her mother moved in with her grandmother in the apartment above the small, eccentric bookstore she owned called The Monkey's Paw. After her grandfather passed on, Allison and her mother stayed; Allison enrolling in the local high school, and her mother finding receptionist work at one of the local businesses in town.
There was talk of Allison helping her grandmother out in the bookstore over the summer, but her mother quickly forbade it. It was a sore point between the two women on and off, seeming to tap into long-buried issues that Allison didn't understand. She did know her mother was much more conservative than her grandmother, and that she disapproved of the bookstore's "new agey" inventory and clientele. Wisely, Allison chose not to get between them or take sides on the issue, and it never quite flared into a fight.
After her first year in college, studying English and journalism with vague, romantic notions of being an investigative reporter, the three of them rented a boat to take out and celebrate. Unfortunately, a freak summer squall swiftly overpowered their meager sailing skills and capsized the small vessel. Allison survived the ordeal. Her mother and grandmother did not. The bookstore and apartment were left to Allison, along with enough money that she could live on it comfortably alone for some time. Although stricken with the loss, Allison stayed in school, submerging herself in her studies and learning the ropes of running the bookstore with the invaulable aid of some of the long-time employees working there.
Allison is quiet and introspective around people she doesn't know; her truer, more energetic nature only coming out when she feels safe. She's openminded almost to a fault, willing to give nearly any idea the courtesy of 'it's possible...maybe,' though is far more discerning when contemplating ideas for herself to actually adopt. Her intelligence and relatively meek exterior frequently make her seem nerdy, though that breaks down when one gets to know her. She loves cats, and has issues about crossing water in anything smaller than an aircraft carrier.
