Sasha McCandless

Like a Bird is the reckoning of a life force-or in Taylia Chatterjee's opinion, a forced life. The daughter of a white, over-proactive American mother and a stern, intellectual Indian father, Taylia navigates a world constantly challenged by standards she never agreed to. She resents her father's submission to assimilation, and his shameless chasing of the idyllic American Dream; she scoffs at her mother's display of faux humanitarianism and her subtle self-proclaimed courage for marrying a "savage" (in Taylia's opinion). But Taylia's greatest umbrage is reserved for herself-and, like most girls budding into womanhood, the hatred for her own body (and her incapability to connect with anyone on any level) becomes the driving force. Taylia's sister Alyssa, on the other hand, is not like most girls. An heiress to the white-girl hierarchy, Alyssa has everything that Taylia lacks: the white-girl skin, the white-girl name, the white-girl joie de vivre-the quintessential "I wish I could be her" poster girl of the Upper West Side. Taylia fights to accept this unfair hand that was dealt to her, slipping in and out of her internal sufferings-often interrupted by apparitions of her deceased dadi-ma-to find there are very few clear answers as to why happiness is given so generously to some but deprived to others. But after a series of most unforgivable events, Taylia is forced to reconcile her false perceptions of happiness and seek out her own definitions of what life means. And it is through that heartfelt journey-and through Róisín's painfully honest and raw prose-that we see Taylia's healing process begin.

After eight long years, Sasha McCandless is about to make partner at a prestigious law firm. When a plane operated by her client slams into the side of a mountain, killing everyone aboard, Sasha gears up to defend the inevitable civil lawsuits. She soon realizes the crash was no accident: a developer has created an application that can control a commercial plane's onboard computer from a smartphone. Sasha joins forces with a federal air marshal, and they race to prevent another airline disaster. But when people close to the matter start turning up dead, Sasha must rely on both her legal skills and her Krav Maga training to stop the madman before he kills her.

Six months after an airplane crash altered the course of Sasha's professional and personal life, she's focused on building her solo law practice and tending her budding relationship with federal air marshal Leo Connelly, who helped her stop a madman. When she drives from Pittsburgh to rural Clear Brook County to argue a discovery motion, she finds a town bitterly divided over the issue of hydrofracking the Marcellus Shale. Outsiders from the oil and gas industry and environmental activists threaten to rip apart the community's fabric. Then the town's only judge is murdered, and Sasha can't just walk away. As she works to find the killer, she must race to save the town before it fractures beyond repair.

Tim O'Connor is paid to be violent. He plays for the El Paso Storm in the West Texas Hockey League. People call him Oak. He's been an enforcer for longer than his hip or shoulder or back have been able to hold together. He is a broken machine of gristle and rage. And he has been away from home for too long. He's called back to Boston by his mother's death. There he confronts a life he failed to live, a daughter he doesn't know, and a body that is quickly breaking down. Still, he can't conceive of a future without hockey, even as he chews oxycodone and Adderall to numb his injuries and steady his brain. When a brutal encounter with the police places him in the path of Joan Linney, a haunted public defender, and Kip, a boy with a brave face, Oak and his chance companions roam cold streets from Castle Island to Quincy Point, struggling to believe in a different future. In spare, potent language, Jeff W. Bens builds a remarkable character from the skates up. The Mighty Oak is a visceral and emotional experience. The fact of Oak's physical existence is powerfully rendered, and the bone-deep transformation of his character is one you will not soon forget.

The venerable law firm of Prescott & Talbott is reeling from the murder of partner Ellen Mortenson, purportedly at the hands of her estranged husband, when a photograph of the dead woman arrives, her face x-ed out and “One down” scrawled across the bottom. Within days, a second partner is murdered, her husband is also accused. Sasha doesn't practice criminal defense, so she's suspicious when her former firm asks her to represent Ellen's husband. Owing Prescott a favor, she takes the case and soon finds herself representing not one, but both of the so-called Lady Lawyer Killers. The long hours jeopardize her relationship with Leo Connelly when he needs her most. That's the least of Sasha's troubles, though, because what she doesn't know is that the real killer is waging a vendetta for a past case gone wrong. And there's one more lawyer on his list.