This was a heartbreaking read snd quite upsetting in parts. It dealt with a father’s struggle with PTSD and his efforts to conceal it, the lack of understanding of others and the absence of those with the ability to correctly recognise, diagnose and treat such a disorder. My heart broke for Mac. Everything had once been so perfect so he recognised immediately what he was in danger of losing when old memories came back to haunt him, when he recognised his life as one beginning to crumble. This read was raw and compassionate. I felt it reflected well what I would imagine sufferers of PTSD to endure. I found it hard to read at times, which is a testament to the sheer level of emotion Manchester revealed in his writing.

It is awful how destructive and devasting PTSD can be to a person, their family and their community. It's important this is talked about as much as possible to make people aware of how to respond correctly to someone suffering from this condition, and to inspire those who are suffering from this condition to seek help sooner than later.
That's why I appreciate reading stories like this, as they help you identify with what others go through.; helps make you more sensitive to what others are going through,

Excellent book and must read! You can find complete review on my blog here:
https://readingauthors.blogspot.com/search?q=Steven+Manchester

Thanks NetGalley and publishers for a digital copy of this book to review. Unfortunately, this novel did not resonate with me. Although there was potential for a touching story, the narrative did not allow me to connect with the characters, the dialogue felt forced, and the descriptions and details felt oddly "stiff." For me this was very strange for a story that was meant to pull at the readers emotions.

Once again the author gets right into the heart of family life with this sensitive portrayal of the impact of living with someone who is traumatized by the effects of PTSD.

Mac Anderson has everything he could possibly wish for, a beautiful wife, three healthy children and a prosperous lifestyle; all that is good in life seems to be his for the taking. However, this starts to change when he unexpectedly experiences violent panic attacks which distort his perception and make his and his family’s, life intolerable. What then follows is a story of how an ordered and peaceful life can suddenly change so much, and as Mac spirals into chaos, life for his wife and his children, will never be the same again.

The author writes about family life so thoughtfully that there is never a moment when the whole thing doesn't feel absolutely authentic. The wider effect, that of coping with PTSD, is handled sensitively and well, and yet, at the same time it allows a glimpse into the dreadful ramifications that this debilitating disorder can have on family life and structure. Mac's terror and bewilderment is palpable and as he struggles to make sense of what's happening to him so his family sink into utter despair as they too struggle to cope with his irascible mood swings.

Three Shoeboxes makes for emotional reading. The strength of the writing and the author’s obvious comprehensive research into PTSD comes across in the sensitive way he describes Mac’s decline. That the writing doesn’t shy away from showing just how devastating an effect this has on family life is to the writer’s credit. And yet, in the midst of chaos come hope and Three Shoeboxes demonstrates just how important is the love of good a family and supportive friends.

I’ve read several novels by this talented author and I think that Three Shoeboxes is the strongest of his stories to date.

Three Shoeboxes is about a man that has PTSD. Knowing about PTSD first hand I requested this book from netgalley. It exceeded anything I could have expected. You get a real idea of what its like to live with PTSD or have a love one with it. The author is wonderful. Great writer.

Every once in a while an author comes along who writes novels that are so powerfully compelling, poignant, and thought-provoking, that they pull at the heartstrings and stir the soul. For me, that author is Steven Manchester and his latest novel, Three Shoeboxes.

Three Shoeboxes is a poignant story about a man struggling with PTSD and the complicated dynamics of family relationships that will simply pull at your emotional heartstrings.

Author Steven Manchester weaves a richly descriptive and complex tale that follows Mac Anderson as a traumatic past event that he has repressed for nearly twenty years suddenly comes to the surface when he comes across an auto accident on his way home from celebrating the fifteenth wedding anniversary with his wife Jen. This repressed event triggers a frightening journey down the rabbit hole, and as Mac's world is suddenly turned upside down, the effects of continuous panic/anxiety attacks lead Mac to feeling broken, alone, depressed, and turning to alcohol that ultimately results in him losing his job as an advertising executive, and more importantly his family. Mac's change in behavior results in a charge of domestic abuse and a one-year restraining order. Mac's family also goes through the trauma of having their lives turned upside down, no one is the winner in this difficult situation. Desperate to get his life back, Mac checks himself into an intensive in-house detox rehab treatment center, and while the road is long and hard, he faces his PTSD and alcoholism diagnosis with the hope to reconnect with his three children: Jillian (13), Bella (8), and Brady (7). Mac's journey is filled with life lessons, animosity, unresolved dysfunctional family issues, regrets, acceptance, hope, and an emotional chance to renew the bonds of family. Three shoeboxes filled with hope and unfailing love for his three children leads Mac to a good place where he strives to gets his life back on track.

The reader will be easily captivated and drawn into Mac's realistic and heartwrenching journey. The author does a wonderful job of intertwining Mac's traumatic past with the difficulties that he faced throughout his journey. You can't help but get swept away and experience the full gamut of emotions as Mac and his family faces a crossroad in their lives as they struggle with an unresolved dysfunctional family dynamic due to PTSD, while considering the intense and difficult choices of how to deal with their current life issues and the unknown future for their family.

Three Shoeboxes is a powerful and compelling story written from the heart. It is a must read that will make you ponder about the effects of mental illness (PTSD), alcoholism, and your own family dynamic. This is the kind of story that will stir your soul, and resonate with you for a very long time.


RATING: 5 STARS

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Providence Book Promotions.

https://jerseygirlbookreviews.blogspot.com/2018/07/three-shoeboxes-by-steven-manchester.html

Deeply emotional and quite gritty. This book is so realistic it will pull out all your emotions. Heart-wrenching. It starts out profiling a couple who has made it- survived fifteen years of getting to know each other, sacrifice and make changes to raise a family. They seem normal and the kids are fairly well adjusted. Life looks promising.
Then, without warning - everything changes.
Of course Mac, the first one affected, goes through all the stages, beginning with denial and grief.
Life seems to spiral quickly downhill from there. Even when he thinks he is getting help, life is not getting better. We know he is a good man. We know he loves his family. We feel how out of control he feels. This is a very difficult section to read. One sentence stood out and made me very angry, because it was so real. It dealt with an "official" response without understanding or compassion, and an unbelievable, yet true to life, timeline imposed. At that moment I had to walk away and take a break.
There are many ups and downs before the book ends and the future looks brighter.
This is dedicated to the resilience and power of love that gets tested.

It’s Mac and Jen Anderson’s fifteenth wedding anniversary. They are blissfully happy with their three beautiful children, until one day they weren’t. Mac is suddenly struck down by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Something nobody saw coming, but quickly destroys all of their lives.

He loses everything that matters to him - his family and even his career. The situation looks hopeless for all involved.

Steven Manchester is an expert at writing poignant novels. This is one of those novels. The story takes you through a mixed bag of emotions. When everything is looking happy, the readers, as well as the characters, are sucker punched with an emotional journey into the Anderson’s story.

It’s a realistic look at how someone can keep their feelings bottled up for years and ultimately cause their family to destruct before their eyes. It’s a story of hope, despair, love and heartbreak.

These are characters readers can truly care about and wonder how they are going to survive this series of realistic events. The characters and story jump right off the pages. It’s a true slice of life. It’s beautifully written as all of Mr. Manchester’s books. I can read his work all the time and never be disappointed.

Mac seems to have a PERFECT life...a wonderful wife, three lovely children, and a job that he's not only good at, but enjoys...until one day, he's under attack. The worst part? It's not a physical presence from which he can defend himself with fists or weapons, but a mental and spiritual one he'll need all the help he can get if he is to survive with any semblance of that perfect life still intact.

It was so sad to watch the family's decline...they were so happy, so together, but whatever it was he was going through was stealing it all away one attack at a time. As the story progresses, we uncover the root of this mysterious disease, but not without his seemingly sturdy house of cards falling completely down. They're stomped on, trudged through, and left for scavengers to drag off to the darkest corners...but then we see a ray of hope. We see a man in the lowest of low places reaching up to capture the hand of someone that'll never let us down, never give us more than we can handle, much as he promised his own children. Seizing that ray with all his might, he pulls himself hand over fist, and heart over it all, back to the land of the living, but to what end? Everything he ever worked for, everything he ever built with or for someone...is gone. A devastating blow to someone coming back from the brink...well it might be to someone less dedicated, someone who had truly lost every ounce of what it means to be HUMAN, or the priorities of a truly great Father...but sometimes the hardest of lessons learned make an impact we CAN'T forget, and placing his life in the hands of the one who first gave it, opening himself up to all the lessons around him, may just be the way to his own heaven on earth.

I admit, I LOVE THIS AUTHOR'S WORK....you know, in case you haven't already seen my multiple reviews in days gone by. Grant it, I adored the past releases more than a few of the current "best sellers", but this one is a semi-return to those "days of glory". Mr. Manchester is known for writing heart warming stories with a great deal of heart wrenching along the way, but he never leaves his characters unfinished, or in utter despair. True, he follows the "take the bad with the good", but he always manages to bring them back from the brink, a more complete version of themselves, while shining a golden light on those lessons that are often hardest to learn. He celebrates family, faith, and the simple things in life, while managing to not write a fairy tale version of it all. Take this one...the first half of the book is quite literally Mac's decline into his own personal h*ll. It shows how while some men are taught to be stalwart and strong, sharing only the barest portions of what they consider weakness to their friends and family, we were meant to SHARE our journeys as well as our burdens to make it through this life one step at a time. Had he done just that, his path wouldn't have been smooth by any means, but it may not have spiraled so completely into despair that the only outcome he could see was darkness with no one at the wheel to guide it otherwise.

All in all, it's a story that isn't pretty in the classical sense, but it speaks to the masses just the same. Sometimes we DO have to take the good with the bad, but it doesn't mean there isn't an easier way out of the trenches, or a guiding presence that never leaves our side. Even in our darkest hour, there's always someone we can turn to who's never more than a heartbeat away, and asking for help is never a weakness, but a strength. Being able to recognize we need someone else to lean on shows courage, and wisdom, not dependency or cowardice, so long as we put the work in as well to get us where we need to be. My only critique would be the length of time Mac's spiral takes, or rather how much of the book it occupies (quite literally around 50%). I understand it wasn't something that happened overnight exactly, but personally I feel that portion could have been halved while still achieving the overall fantastic results. Recommended for fans of this author's work, as well as Contemporary Fiction readers from late teens to adult.

This is probably the first time where I didn't really like a book from Mr. Manchester. I am usually a fan of his work. There is so much life infused into the characters that makes the stories that much better. In fact, I have grown close to some of the characters that I have cried. Yet, I struggled to find myself connecting to Mac. The fact that he was struggling with PTSD is sad; which should have allowed me to get closer to him. However, I couldn't.

For this reason I found myself having a hard time reading this book. I would read only a chapter or two and have to stop. This stop and go method was not ideal. After finding myself finally getting a little more than a third of the way into the book, I had lost all interest in wanting to finish. I am really hoping that the next book is a hit with me again.

Steven Manchester has done for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder what Lisa Genova has done for Alzheimers Disease.
In “Three Shoeboxes,” the author addresses the effects of PTSD on its victim as well as on his family. As with all diseases, the tendrils of its pain and suffering reach out to all that cross its path... via personally or thru a family member or friend.
It is an insidious disease that rears its ugly head unexpectedly. Any traumatic event can grasp the individual & any trigger can set its symptoms off.
Many of our soldiers return home to face this disease head on. It is horrific to all involved, as you will learn when you read this heart wrenching novel.
This is a novel that is fictional, yet reads as a memoir or biography.
It is a poignant and emotional read. This is who Steve Manchester is... a storyteller that will grasp your attention from the get go and remain with you long after you’ve returned the book to your bookshelf.
I highly recommend this book. Thank you to The Story Plant for providing me with a digital copy.
Don’t hesitate to put this on your TBR list.

Book Review: A brilliant story of being buried by a PTSD avalanche of emotional mental turmoil and clawing a way out to light again.

Three Shoeboxes
By Steven Manchester

Mac Anderson isn’t & never has been in the military. Yet he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. As Three Shoeboxes details beautifully, PTSD can affect anyone. Especially anyone who seemingly has it all. Three Shoeboxes is a story that breaks that misconception that only our military personnel suffer from PTSD. Trauma can happen to anyone. PTSD can happen to anyone.

After an amazing 15th anniversary dinner, Mac & his wife Diane pass a bloody car accident on the way home. The next morning as Mac blows up balloons for his son’s birthday party the heart attack mimicking symptoms rear their ugly head.

This is just a few snowflakes at the summit that will become Mac’s personal hell. As days begin to pass he loses sleep, the anxiety increases and he finds relief at the bottom of a bottle. Mac lashes out in uncontrollable angry outbursts at his wife, at his children, at his friends & boss.

When the metaphorical avalanche fully rumbles down on top of him, he is so entombed by his fractious emotions he won’t admit he needs professional help. That is until everything he holds dear is taken away.

Luckily Mac isn’t the type of person to let even the severity of PTSD keep him from his family. The road back home is long and arduous. The only way out is to dig through to the heart of what triggered Mac in the first place, the cause of his PTSD.

Steven Manchester writes this story pulling no punches. It truly is emotionally raw. One minute the reader is condemning Mac for his cruelty, then empathizing when the real reason comes out. You could say Mac is on a hero’s journey, one straight through a personal hell of mental illness. This novel lays bare the invisible illness of PTSD. It highlights how society judges and downplays anxiety panic attacks. It shows how a well-intentioned justice system can cause more harm to families when mental illness is the root of the problem.

Three Shoeboxes is definitely a “must read”! It is the beginning of a discussion we should all be having.



FTC Disclaimer: I was given an ARC of this title via Netgalley and The Story Plant Publishing for review purposes only. No other compensation was awarded.

Steven Manchester has the talent to get right to your heart and soul. Three Shoeboxes tells the story of an amazing husband and father, Mac Anderson, who suddenly changes and becomes not so amazing. He is fighting with everyone including himself, lashing out at people for no reason, and seeing trouble where there isn’t any. I love that his wife doesn’t just throw in the towel and call it quits. She wants to work with him, wants to support him, and wants to continue loving him. Until she can’t. She has to make changes in their lives to protect herself and their children.

Three Shoeboxes had me in tears, full of hope and thankful for this families strength. Anytime PTSD is brought into a story it becomes a tough story. Steven Manchester has the heart, soul, and understanding to tell the story with gentle care and love. He tells the truth, doesn’t cover it up and make it pretty but yet he keeps in real. There are families that suffer from members that have PTSD every day and this story would give them the help, the support, and knowledge that there is help out.

I am adding Three Shoeboxes to my must re-read list.

Title: Three Shoeboxes
Author: Steven Manchester
Publisher: The Story Plant
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Five
Review:

"Three Shoeboxes" by Steven Manchester

My Thoughts...

This was quite a story about someone experiencing PTSD. It was quite a emotional read of how this author takes the reader through this experience of what this family endured through these panic attacks.

For it had not always been like this...Mac had a sweet wife Jen celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary... with three wonderful children...a perfect world until things quickly change and all hell breaks it all down...life changes so deeply for this family 'as a misunderstanding of something Mac finds at home on the counter and he [Mac] losses it and is charged with domestic assault.' Wow, what had happen to this 'ideal happy life they had once had? What will happen when Mac loses his parental rights? Will he be able to reunite his family? This is definitely one of those reads that you will see from this story one of 'love, sadness, determination, will, anger, hope, love and faith.' Now how will this all come out for Mac? To find out the answers to all of these questions and so much more you will have to pick up "Three Shoeboxes" to find out. Oh, I really liked how the reader is able to understand the title 'Three Shoeboxes' in the way it was so well presented by the end of this extraordinary story. After the read a reader will truly have a lot to ponder over long after the read.

Another think outside the box kind of story that breaks your heart. I'm at a loss how to describe my feelings for this book. I'll start with a simple question~What's in your shoebox? Don't let this question deceive you in its simplicity because its further from the truth or say the heart of the question. What will the answer be? I'm still working on my answer. How about you?

Three Shoeboxes is a heart-wrenching look at a man named Mac Anderson who suffers a PTSD breakdown when he sees an accident that triggers a memory.

As he descends into a spiral, it causes him to lose his job and family. It doesn’t stop there. From page one to the last, Mr. Manchester has a gift of using words that frankly had me in tears as I read.

The writing is tight and while is a bit slow as he builds the story – it’s well worth every word. This is a great book club read as there is a lot here to unpack. I highly recommend you buy and read this book.

Steven Manchester has once again created a moving tale that will not only keep you on the edge of your seat but leave you feeling uplifted. MacKenzie Anderson has it all, a beautiful wife, three wonderful children and a great job. Then, for no apparent reason that he can understand, he starts having major anxiety attacks, so debilitating that he cannot function. Angry and confused, he turns to alcohol to cope, turning his home into a war zone. Now he has choices, does he get help and if he does, will his family ever forgive him for the devastation that he has caused.

The plot of this story has both suspense and emotional upheaval. MacKenzie’s character is well defined which allows you to not only understand the emotions but experience them as well. Mr. Manchester’s character and plot development combine to make this one of his best storylines so far!

I definitely recommend this book for both young and mature readers! As with all his novels, it is not only about life’s tribulations but also about the triumphs. When you turn the final page, you are left feeling inspired and enriched.

My Review: I am a big fan of Steven Manchester and never turn down an opportunity to read his books. They are always guaranteed to hit you hard with emotions, and this one was no different. With that said it was also a tough one to read, I really related to the situation the Anderson family faced in this story as I have seen it in real life and it played out in much the same way. Manchester certainly did not pull any punches with portrayal of a family being torn apart by the result of untreated mental disorders and alcohol abuse. Even through all that darkness, there is still that glimmer of hope and faith that keep you reading and the characters pushing forward. This is definitely a story many readers will relate with and it will be quite an emotional journey but one with hope.

This is a very emotional book. I felt as though I was inside Mac's marriage and that I was spiraling out of control with him. I WANTED TO SCREAM AT HIM TO TALK TO HIS WIFE. I could feel the tension building in their marriage and I was worried for their children. Jen was a great mother. Her character was bitterly realistic. She was reacting as a mother scorned. As Mac got help I became more and more proud of him. I liked that the author gave him obstacles and he didn't just get everything on the first try. Late in the book I thought it was him, but it couldn't be. There was a restraining order. He would not risk everything he had worked for. Finally the end. I needed tissues. I LOVED the ending. I hope that there is a sequel. The author has a prequel that you can get HERE! I am giving this book a 5/5, I was given a copy, all opinions are my own. This author is one of those authors that I try to get all of his books because each one is amazing.