The Same Bright Stars is a poignant family drama focusing on Jack Schmidt who is at a major crossroad in his life. Ethan Joella has done an excellent job portraying Jack who is a single man in his 50's discovering secrets from his past, while deciding whether or not to sell the restaurant that has been in his family for three generations, This novel is character driven and lags at times. But, I was invested in the characters and hoped for a happy ending for Jack. Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC!

The Same Bright Stars is the story of Jack Schmidt, who runs his family’s business solo. It’s not just a career. The family restaurant is his entire life, at the sacrifice of any time off, relationships, and possibly his happiness. Jack is beginning to get worn down from at all, just as an offer to buy him out is made by a large corporation called DelDine. Jack battles with all the different emotions and thought processes that comes along with a decision like that. He thinks not only of himself but his employees, as well as his community, so connected this beloved restaurant.

This is Ethan Joella’s first book where a singular main character is the focus, instead of a cast, and I loved that. I love a cast, but Jack is an absolutely phenomenal character. What a good guy. The supporting characters are all endearing as well. There are some surprises for Jack, and with the ending, even though in true Joella style, there is a quiet, even tone for much of the story as you get to know Jack and his restaurant life in Rehoboth Beach.

Jack Schmidt operates a family restaurant in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and it’s his entire life. He considers the staff his family. Now in his 50s and being courted by restaurant group DelDine to sell, Jack is at a crossroads in his life.

I loved this gentle, character-driven book! The author does such an outstanding job of crafting complex, emotional characters who feel so real and relatable. It’s a refreshing change of pace to read about such a caring, introspective middle-aged MMC. Jack’s struggles with his feelings toward the restaurant and his dedication to his staff, the way he grapples with shocking news from the past, and the way he opens himself to the future are so poignant and heartfelt. The setting of Rehoboth Beach is so atmospheric that it’s almost a character in itself. The sense of place is so strong and the descriptions are painted so vividly that I could easily envision this lovely little beach town. I highly recommend this beautifully written and thoroughly moving book!

This was my first Ethan Joella book and I wish I hadn’t waited so long to read his books – I immediately added the other two to my TBR! Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner Books for providing me an advance copy of this book.

"The Same Bright Stars" by Ethan Joella is a heartwarming and introspective novel about Jack Schmidt, who has been running his family's beachfront restaurant since his father's death. Jack’s life revolves around the restaurant, leaving him with a string of failed relationships and no hobbies or time for himself. As he faces the possibility of selling Schmidt’s to the DelDine group, Jack grapples with questions about his identity and future. Can he trust DelDine to honor his family’s legacy and take care of his employees, or is it time to move on and seek companionship and a new path in life?

Ethan Joella’s writing captures the essence of Rehoboth Beach and the emotional complexities of his characters. Jack is a well-developed protagonist, portrayed with a blend of strengths and flaws that make him relatable and compelling. The novel’s character-driven narrative delves into themes of family, friendship, and the challenges of maintaining a family business in a commercialized world.

The story’s dual timelines effectively illustrate how past actions impact the present, while the third-person perspective allows readers to deeply understand the characters through Jack's eyes. Joella’s gentle and melancholic tone, combined with moments of light-heartedness, creates a richly textured reading experience.

The setting of Rehoboth Beach is vividly brought to life, with interludes from a guidebook adding a personal touch. Joella’s ability to capture the pulse of this small-town beach community adds depth and authenticity to the story.

While the novel's pacing is slower, it remains engaging and thought-provoking. The exploration of dark themes such as parental death, PTSD, depression, and loneliness is handled with sensitivity, making the book a contemplative read rather than just a source of entertainment.

The ending is fittingly hopeful and open, reflecting the slice-of-life nature of the story. "The Same Bright Stars" is a beautiful, poignant novel that offers a realistic portrayal of human strengths and shortcomings. It’s a recommended read for fans of literary fiction who appreciate character-oriented storytelling and small-town settings.

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for providing the ARC of "The Same Bright Stars." This review reflects my honest opinion.

I loved this. Ethan Joella is a beautiful writer and does something my favorite authors do (Elizabeth Berg, Anne Tyler) - they write about everyday life and regular people but they do it in a way that feels extraordinary. I loved all the characters in this, richly and lovingly portrayed - even Rehoboth was its own character. This book centers around Jack, the owner of his family’s longtime restaurant and the people who have come in & out of his life, as he grapples with the idea of selling it to a corporation. It is a beautiful book about community, hope, family, love and second chances. I delighted in Nicole and Lara especially. If you haven’t read Ethan before I encourage you to do so. This book his shelves yesterday, go get it! Many thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy!

Thank you Scribner for the review copy of The Same Bright Stars. Ethan Joella's new book resonates deeply for elegant writing, for creating characters I want to spend time with and characters who I cheer on, and for really capturing the small town beachy vibes in Rehoboth beach (a great place to unwind!). Joella's talent indeed is for capturing small town life and making place a character while also offering a reader characters who stay with you long after a book ends.

I am a developmental psychologist and I think this book really captures what we talk about with midlife as a time of generativity (vs stagnation) the hope that we matter and are leaving a mark, making a difference, and are part of something bigger than ourselves. I felt some subtle themes on self actualization woven nicely into the plot along with ideas about leading a good/meaningful life and being your authentic self.

Stand out themes:
1. I loved the exploration of the past and future that Jack was reflecting on, a sense of his own personal and family history while also allowing him to wonder... what comes next. Grief and loss blended with hope, maybe a little resilience, and the idea that letting go doesn't mean giving up and might instead meeting opening up to what else might happen. These themes are gently and movingly developed.
2. Setting and place, I love a sleepy beach small town setting, especially for a book about self reflection and change. I see myself in these places, places where people sometimes go to reflect, to figure things out, to rediscover themselves and I loved how Joella uses setting here to be a part of Jack's story and his journey.
3. Strong male characters who have emotions, who care about family and children and love and who are open to exploring and thinking about emotions, sense of belonging. A focus on daily life, interactions and relationships that really end up having the greatest impact on our lives. The little things, the emotions, the exchanges we have with others... all the moments that matter are here in this book!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Scribner for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest release by a favorite, Ethan Joella. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 5 bright stars!

Three generations of Schmidts have run their family's Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, seaside restaurant. Since his father's death, Jack has put everything else second to the demands of the restaurant. He can't even remember having a minute to himself. The DelDine group has been buying established restaurants along the coast, turning them into cookie-cutter operations. When they approach him with a very generous offer, he is adamant that he won't sell, until his life takes a sudden curve.

I have loved each of Joella's books, and this one is no exception. He writes straight from the heart, exploring issues such as grief, relationships, trust, and community. There are so many characters to root for in this book, which is also a love letter to Rehoboth Beach. I won't be alone in wanting to explore this little town after reading this book. While this story is emotional and will cause you to feel, laugh and cry, it never veers to the maudlin or sappy - it's perfect and highly recommended! Be sure to pack this one (along with his others!) in your vacation beach bag, maybe to Delaware?

𝟯.𝟱 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗦 𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗗 𝗨𝗣

Ethan Joella truly has a way with words and furthermore, a way with writing characters. It is so very hard not to get attached to his characters. They all feel so human and like people you could encounter in your everyday life.

This is his third book and my third time reading his work and they all follow the same kind of formula. They all have short chapters, are set in a small town, have a long cast of characters with intertwining storylines, explore complex family dynamics, and depict grief. I eat it up every time because I am very much a character driven reader and I am also a sucker for emotional pain. I just didn't connect to the plot of this one as much as with his other two books. The "we have to save the family business" storyline in any book has never been my favorite. I get that it could be relatable to a lot of people and could tug at your heartstrings but it didn't do that for me.

I did like the ending a lot and I did connect with a lot of the characters, it was just the plot that did not do much for me overall. I still thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it though!

Well, he’s done it again! This newest novel is every bit as heartwarming as his previous ones.

Meet Jack, owner of the favorite local restaurant in a small coastal town in Delaware. Jack has worked tirelessly at his grandmother’s restaurant as it passed to his father and eventually to him. The restaurant is his life and his staff is his family as the years quickly pass by. Now he has an offer to sell it and retire and live the life he never had time for. But it’s not quite that simple. Through the everyday events that make up life, Jack recalls his past, the choices he made, the choices that were made for him and the people who have been with him. When his ex girlfriend returns to town and drops a bombshell on him, it turns Jack’s life upside and just might be what he needs to move forward.

Ethan Joella has a way of creating characters that you instantly fall in love with. Even with their flaws, you can’t help but root for them and feel their joys and their sorrows, their happiness and their pain. I finished this lovely character-driven novel in a day and felt immersed in the little town and its residents and their past and the hopes for the future.

I’m late to be joining the Ethan Joella bandwagon/fan club, but here I am. The Same Bright Stars is my first book by Joella but it certainly will not be my last.

It was refreshing to read a book which centered on a man in his early 50s, unmarried and childless. I can’t say that I can think of another one like it, although I’m sure they’re out there. Jack Schmidt is the third generation owner of a popular restaurant in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, a quintessential beach town, with its seasonal way of life. The town is almost a character itself and, while I’ve never been there, Joella's descriptions made it seem very familiar. (I do know a number of New Jersey beach towns, so maybe that also helped.)

Jack is being wooed by a restaurant conglomerate who wants to buy him out. He’s tired. He lives and breathes his restaurant. I loved the insights into running a place like Schmidt’s, with its long-running staff that feels like family, and how the off-season business is managed. The descriptions of their preparation for Thanksgiving Day was enough to make ME tired!

This is a character-driven book, a bit slow for me to start, but it really picked up about midway, and I wound up loving it and its characters. Don’t be fooled by the lovely idyllic cover, which features two beach chairs (significant to the story). This is not a light “beach read.” There are quite a few serious topics covered along the way, including the loss of family businesses, dementia (this one in particular hit home for me), drug abuse, depression and suicide, loneliness, and early parental death.

Another reader has labeled this as “men’s fiction”, which made me smile. Man, woman, whoever: pick up this book and you won’t be sorry. You’ll also want to visit Rehoboth Beach, Delaware!

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Loved this one! Great and fun read. Highly recommend.
Many thanks to the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for my ARC.

How do you feel about your life choices? Is your life what you want it to be? What do people say about you? In Ethan Joella's new book, The Same Bright Stars, we get to know Jack Schmidt. He's been working at the family restaurant for 30 years. A large corporation has offered Jack millions to sell his family restaurant in Rehoboth Beach. But what does that mean to his employees? What will Jack do? How does he get a family like his best friend?

Joella takes us into Jack's world where we find a little bit of ourselves. Are decisions we make as 20-somethings permanent? Is a big bank account the most important thing? Do we really know anyone's story? Even those we spend every day with. Jack is like us - He wants "someone to bake a pie for"
I loved the story and Jack and the characters around him. The ending is great. And don't forget to read the acknowledgements - I hope you find your person to share a beach chair with.

Some wonderful fiction from Joella. A Top Ten book for 2024 for sure.

Read this on the beach in a few hours - the perfect setting to read this in. I really liked the chosen family aspect of this as well as the Rehoboth setting

Thanks to Netgalley for the free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

Atmospherically set in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, it made you feel like you were strolling the boardwalk and meeting up with characters who felt real. The novel is character-driven and told through the third person POV of Jack, who has spent every day of his life entirely devoted to running his family's restaurant and has put it above all else. In his 50s, he never takes a day off, has no hobbies, a string of failed relationships, and no time for himself. But now, he finds himself at a crossroads. A huge corporation has offered to buy the restaurant, and Jack is considering their offer as he would like more out of life, but he has concerns about his beloved staff and family's legacy.

I appreciated the honesty in the depiction of Jack's life and the characters around him. Things were not wrapped up in a tidy bow but presented in all of life's complicated, unexpected, messy beauty. This story was quiet but moving. I was riveted and rooting for Jack in his moments of heartbreak and hope. He was such a well-developed and relatable character. I also really loved Lara and Nicole, and they ended up surprising me. Self-discovery, family dynamics, love, grief, friendship, found family and second chances are just a few of the things touched on in this book. This was my first book by Joella, but it will not be my last. I loved his touching storytelling and the depth of his leap-off-the-page characters. This was the book I didn't know I needed right now, and one I continue to think about even days after finishing.

Thank you to Scribner Books and Netgalley for the free book!

⛱️ This would be the absolute perfect book to throw in your beach bag this summer— especially if you’re looking for something that’s less romance, and more literary.

⛱️ Ya’ know what will ALWAYS get me in the feels? Books about the passage of time, about getting older and reflecting back on your joys and regrets— wondering if you made the right choices and working to be happy with how it all turned out. This book doesn’t just tackle personal change, but dives into how cities progress and evolve as well. The beach cities of our childhoods won’t stay the same forever— and that chance can be tough to swallow.

⛱️ Ethan Joella writes such rich characters and deep emotions. And this book is no exception! I don’t know how he always packs so much, into such little packages.

⛱️ Beyond being a character-driven, literary beach novel, this book reads as a love letter to Rehoboth Beach, DE. I wanted to go there before, and I REALLY want to go there now! Joella even included snippets from a guide to Rehoboth with passages like this one: “Not to experience Rehoboth Beach in summer is to be robbed of something pure and real. What are you waiting for?”

The Same Bright Stars by Ethan Joella is an emotional, heartwarming story.
The characters were so relatable and the pacing was perfection; I could not put it down.
Empathic storytelling, a good character-driven novel.
Warm, compassionate and deeply moving

Thank You NetGalley and Scribner for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Another lovely story from Ethan Joella. I just love his storytelling. He makes you feel as if you’re living life alongside his characters. When I read his books I forget that I’m not reading about real people because everything feels so authentic.

The Same Bright Stars is a character-driven story about family - both real and found, love, friendship, grief, beginnings, and endings. There are moments of laughter, anger, frustration, doubt, and tears. I appreciate that not all storylines ended with a “happily ever after” because that’s life.

After reading The Same Bright Stars, I want to visit Rehoboth Beach. I’ll be looking for Jack and Schmidt’s (and Ethan!) around every corner.

Same Bright Stars was a mixed bag for me.

I loved the Rehoboth, Delaware setting. Very few books are set in Delaware, and I'm perpetually reading across the US states, so I loved this aspect of the book. It's perfect if you like to explore a sense of place with your reading.

Same Bright Stars masterfully portrays the challenges and emotions involved in owning and running a family restaurant. If you're drawn to novels with restaurant settings and themes, this book is sure to captivate you.

What didn't work for me was irregular pacing and extraneous tangents. The story would advance for a while and then get sidetracked by a subtheme. For example, the main character and another man offer to babysit a young baby so his parents can have a night out. OK. But there were paragraphs and pages devoted to taking care of this baby - all the details, none of which were essential to the story, and none of which was particularly interesting. I think the author was trying to portray the everyday events as part of the character study, but the content didn't help progress the plot and was otherwise not a literary gem.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an electronic ARC in exchange for a review.

Jack is the third generation running Schmidt’s restaurant on Rehoboth beach and he is burnt out, he’s lost relationships and has put the restaurant above all else for all of his adult life. Now in his 50s he’s ready to sell to a restaurant conglomerate so he can experience what he has been missing while everyone else has been living their lives around him. Told in flashbacks we as readers learn about Jack’s life, his family and the friends that have become his family over the years.

This is a novel about family both biological and found, longing and grief but when the hard topics are dealt with, the way Joella tackles them you don’t feel a sense of sadness while reading, because there is always optimism and hope as a base. He makes you care about the characters and you can sense their inherent goodness. I enjoyed seeing where Jack’s and the other characters’ story were going to go and even though I knew everything wasn’t going to be tied up in a bow at the end, it was ok, it was real. I truly enjoyed reading the novel and spending time with these characters (even the few that I didn’t like). I still have to read A Little Hope (it’s on my shelf) and I really look forward to reading it on the beach this summer because it’s my last Joella novel until he writes another.

4.25

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC

The Same Bright Stars was the first book I have read by Ethan Joella. I really enjoyed this book and his writing style. The book is very character driven between family, friends and employees. I loved the small town ocean side summer restaurant and town setting. The story of Jack's life and how the restaurant impacted him and his family before him was beautifully written. This book really showed the impact of running a business and how your employees really can be like your family.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for an advanced copy of The Same Bright Stars by Ethan Joella for an honest review.