I've been a huge fan of Steven Manchester's novel since I read my first one. I guess what draws me to continue to read anything he writes is his ability to cut to the core of what we all feel deep down inside ourselves. Those are often places we hope we never have to visit in our lifetime and being exposed to them from a safe place allows us to see things from different perspectives and wonder if we were in the same situation, how might we deal with what the characters face.
In his latest novel, Three Shoeboxes, Mac Anderson, is living the dream. He has a successful career as an ad executive, a wonderful home, loving wife, three wonderful children and the support of those in his community. Yet he would never have expected that the one night as he was driving home from an anniversary dinner with his wife, that this would be the catalyst that would change everything and strip it away piece by piece.
As he begins to experience what can only be described as panic attacks, Mac refuses to let anyone into what he is dealing with. Perhaps that is that manly pride that as the head of the house, one needs to hold it all together at all times. Even though his wife Jen can clearly see he is dealing with issues, he continues to keep her at bay. As each of these attacks grows more frequent and out of control, Mac finally relents to getting some personal help. Yet even the therapist can seem to grasp the sudden turn around in his life and be able to help him deal with things.
So Mac gives up and tries to resolve the issues on his own, becoming more and more hostile, argumentative and even resorting to alcohol to put this attacks to rest. Only it just drives a deeper and widening gap between his family until he loses control one night and from then out out, even is family no longer wants anything to do with him and now he faces the loss of his job, the support of family and friends and now living on the street he faces his demons alone. Is it all lost? Can he find his way back home? Or is he just one bullet shy from ending it all? You'll have to find out by picking up this novel.
I received Three Shoeboxes by Steven Manchester compliments of The Story Plant. This is an emotional story that could face anyone at anytime, and makes us all understand how precious moments are in life and how quickly it can all change. It makes the reader reassess what it the most valuable things in your life and how you might face the challenges Mac faces. Does he have the faith in himself to fight his way back to the man he used to be? I'll let you decide when you pick this one up. For me, again a stellar 5 star novel in my opinion.
For more information about Steven Manchester, Three Shoeboxes or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:
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