Heaven is for Heroes

Heaven is for Heroes ~ PJ Sharon
Publisher ~  PJ Sharon
Published ~ 17 September 2011

My Rating ~ 3 out of 5

Jordan ‘Jordie’ Dunn is seventeen and trying to cope with the sudden loss of her Marine brother, Levi (Lee) and the wounded but alive childhood friend Alex ‘Coop’ Cooper. Lee and Coop got caught setting the new and still under construction high school on fire and they had a choice. Spend a year in juvie or join the Marines. They chose to join the Marines and when a special ops mission in Iraq goes south Levi is killed and Alex loses his right leg from the knee down and his memory of the event. Alex is blamed, but Jordie believes it was her brother who disobeyed the order to stand down. She wants the truth and she wants to help Coop heal. In the process she falls in love.

While this wasn’t my typical read it is a decent YA story of coping with tragedy and moving on. Jordie is mostly strong and wise beyond her years though she has moments of teen angst. Coop is easy to like and it’s not hard to root for his recovery. I also liked Brig, Jordie’s grandfather, but her mom, not so much.

I would have given this a review of 4 except for one thing that really bothered me…Marines are not soldiers. Soldiers are Army and Marines are Marines. Marines get very irritated when they are called soldiers. They don’t like it. At all. How do I know this? My husband and my oldest son are Marines (now out). Never call them soldiers and never call them ex-Marines. Unless you’re insulting them and that’s never a very good idea. o.O

*The author provided a copy of this book to me for review. Please see my disclaimer page.