About the Book

From New England’s Storyteller Steven Manchester comes a soul-awakening novel about love, faith and family. During Phinn Reed’s romantic quest, he discovers that even through great suffering and loss, he is never alone—not ever—and that we are all eternally connected.

Phinn Reed enters the world with God’s promise of finding his soul mate. With heaven’s memories erased, his romantic quest teaches him that the heart often sees clearer than the eyes—and that not everyone has ordered the same items from The Menu. This inspirational novel is heartfelt evidence that love stories come in many different forms.

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About the Author

New England’s Storyteller Steven Manchester is the author of the soul-awakening novel, The Menu, as well as the 80s nostalgia-fest, Bread Bags & Bullies. His other works include #1 bestsellers Twelve Months, The Rockin’ Chair, Pressed Pennies and Gooseberry Island; the national bestsellers, Ashes, The Changing Season and Three Shoeboxes; the multi-award winning novel, Goodnight Brian; and the beloved holiday podcast drama, The Thursday Night Club. His work has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CBS’s The Early Show and BET’s Nightly News. Three of Steven’s short stories were selected “101 Best” for Chicken Soup for the Soul series. He is a multi-produced playwright, as well as the winner of the 2017 Los Angeles Book Festival, 2018 New York Book Festival and 2020 New England Book Festival. When not spending time with his beautiful wife, Paula, or their children, this Massachusetts author is promoting his works or writing. Visit: www.StevenManchester.com

More from Steven

“None of us are ever alone.” I believe this truth in every fiber of my being. For me, few things are more tragic than a fellow human being who is feeling alone. It’s the reason I wrote my new novel, THE MENU.

The premise of THE MENU is a simple one. If you believe in an afterlife, do you also believe that your spirit existed before you came to this Earth? And what if you had a say…what if you actually picked everything you’d experience in this life from a MENU?

MY REVIEW

The story is very unique and does give readers pause to think about their lives. I thought it was okay but there were some troubling spots in the book which concerned me. I do appreciate the creativity the author uses but I think he took liberties in areas that should have been toned down. His choice of words in some places were not what I would expect in a Christian book. I thought the overtone of sexual intimacy was a little too much for my taste.

I did like the message of living your life to the fullest and helping others. The author does give readers a glimpse into heaven and how glorious it is. God watches over His children and knows everything about us. I think the author was trying to point out that we have free will and make our own choices. I continued to be uncomfortable with the alcohol freely pouring and the far fetched premise that a menu was what we get to choose how our lives go.

There are some good parts where the characters have happy moments and do try to turn their lives around. I think I got the author’s point of the story that he was trying to convey. We will have ups and downs throughout our lives and choose how to respond to them. I guess in a perfect scenario an aborted child can be reunited with a parent but I struggled with this part of the story. How can the baby that was aborted by another woman be the unborn child that became the two main character’s child? Maybe I’m thinking too deep but overall I had a very hard time with the concept of the book.

I will leave it up to readers to draw their own conclusions and I will warn you that there could be offensive language and triggers in the story. Death shows himself several times in the book and warns that time is near for several characters. In the next paragraph we see God calling Death to stand down so to speak. Why use scare tactics to get someone to obey God? I didn’t like the majority of the book and it really made me stretch my thought process.

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.