Reviewed by Savannah Edelen (Teen Reviewer) for Readers' Favorite

The Bird with the Broken Wing by D.L. Richardson is a new type of story. Everyone has heard of purgatory, but not many actually have been there. Ben is one of the few who have been to purgatory and got to tell the story of it. Or rather I should say that this is Jet’s story. Jet is a young teenage girl in high school. She has a strict family. Her father is rich but never spends any money on Jet or her mom. He also doesn’t let Jet do anything. He has banned her from dating and now he has banned her from the prom. This pushes Jet over the edge, especially after having been bullied at school and called a slut for weeks. She decided she can’t do it anymore and commits suicide. It’s in purgatory that she meets Ben. Ben is a soldier who died in the war. There is just one problem. Neither know that they are dead and are in purgatory. They both think they are in some rehab facility. The only one who knows where they actually are is Rachel. She knows because she is an angel sent to make sure that Ben ascends to heaven.

I really liked this book. It was very interesting and kept me wondering what was going on. Never once did I get bored with it. Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen, D.L. Richardson threw in a new twist to keep my mind going. I loved how Jet was so innocent while at the same time she was also not. She partied and drank, but her soul stayed pure and she helped Ben while helping herself. Then there was Rachel who really cared for Ben and began to feel human emotions. It was inspiring how she was able to feel frustration like humans do and still managed to work through it and be so oblivious to it all. In The Bird with the Broken Wing, D.L. Richardson is able to cleverly show all of the obstacles that people come up against in life and even some that we do not. It was an amazing book.