The Claim by David Briggs was an atmospheric story sent in New Zealand.
Evan is staying at a ramshackle cottage in the Southern Alps left to him by his father and he is prospecting for gold. This has been his retreat from his home in Christchurch for quite a few years and he loves the solitude and the land.
During a storm he finds a young woman Addie injured and almost unconscious and rescues her. He takes her back to the cottage and tends to her wounds and slowly brings her back to health. As the weeks go by Evan begins to have feelings for Addie and falls in love with her. His luck is changing and he is happy and wonders if there can be a future for them.
Evan was a great character and I really enjoyed the descriptions of the scenery and the land.
At the beginning of the year I spent six weeks traveling round New Zealand and visited many of the towns and areas mentioned in this book and this helped me to visualised the places in the story.
I really enjoyed this book and will be looking out for more work from this author.
Thank you to NetGalley and Red Door Publishing for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Headline : Mining a rich seam of human feelings
Stars : 4
An interesting collision between two damaged people both attracted and repelled by others at the same time. Outwardly easy going Evan has a history of being unable to sustain relationships and Addie turn up to fill a void.
Addie though has her own issues which eventually lead to high drama. The thread throughout of a search for gold and the eventual bittersweet success in this echoes the love story of Evan and Addie.
This book was provided as an advance copy by the publisher in return for an honest review.
Note :
I reviewed this book on Amazon when it was released on 11 July 2019

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.