You Deserve This Ground

She came to survey the land. She didn't plan to stay.

Ríona Keane is twenty-nine, an environmental impact assessor contracted to assess a limestone headland in County Clare for a major development company. It's a clean job with a clean exit. Then she finds the orchids - Neotinea maculata, dense-flowered orchid, on a site that could be lost to construction within eighteen months.

Darragh Walsh runs the village pub. He came home two years ago when his father got sick, and somehow never left. He knows this ground the way you only know a place you never had to choose - instinctively, entirely.

Set on the wild limestone headland of West Clare - the Burren, the ancient field systems, the wildflowers that grow in the cracks of rock that was old before anyone was watching - You Deserve This Ground is a warm, absorbing novel about what it means to belong to a place, and what you're willing to fight for when it matters.

As Ríona builds her case and Darragh builds something harder to name, the village of Kilcarra holds its breath. Some things are worth staying for. You just have to figure out which ones.

Perfect for readers of Marian Keyes, Cathy Kelly, and Donal Ryan.