Reyna worked for many years as an appellate attorney in New York and brings that knowledge to bear in a legal thriller/coming of age/romance story that follows a young female public defender as she navigates not only a case involving a possible miscarriage of justice but also personal challenges as she struggles to decide what kind of person she really wants to be. Reyna wrote her first draft in six weeks, but spent three years in revision, primarily using feedback through writing classes offered at Sarah Lawrence.
After graduating from Yale College and Yale Law School, Reyna Marder Gentin practiced as a juvenile rights attorney with the Legal Aid Society and then as a criminal appellate attorney with a nonprofit public defender’s office for nearly eighteen years. That job, and a number of the clients she represented, inspired the story of UNREASONABLE DOUBTS. The novel is more than a legal thriller. It’s the story of Liana Cohen, a young woman grappling to salvage her idealism in an often harsh world, and learning how to find friendship, faith, and love in the right places.
Reyna keeps a hand in the law as a volunteer, representing women and men seeking restraining orders against their intimate partners. She has written and continues to write personal essays for a number of websites including Kveller, Mamalode, Grown & Flown and others. Reyna's short story, “A Reckoning,” was published in the 2017 issue of the Westchester Review, and her psychological thriller, "Complicity," appears online at The Write Launch. She lives with her family in Westchester, New York.
To learn more about Reyna, click here.
