The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff tells the story of Ryan and Lillian Bright. As newlyweds they happily begin their story of starting a family. However, by keeping secrets and avoiding their pasts it leads to heartache. Now their daughter Georgette must face the inherited struggles of her parents while learning to cope with her interpretation of their pain along with her own struggles in life. The book is a poignant story about secrets, addiction, loss, friendships, family and forgiveness. It’s about seeing the light even when things seem dark.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley, for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

such an easy 5 star read. i am in awe that this is sarah damoff’s debut novel and so thankful that i somehow got to read this gem prior to being published. the first pages are reviews and a blurb about the author, where i found out that she is a practicing social worker. i highlighted immediately and noted “what if she becomes my new role model?” can confirm, i prophesied and she is now my new role model. she sealed the deal by saying “i believe a good novel can do the same thing as a good social worker: help someone feel a little less alone”.

there’s no way i could write a review that would do justice to this novel. you really need to read it for yourself. it’s that good. this story highlights various stages of life across generations. we go through love, brokenness, the journey of addiction, forgiveness, reconciliation, and the meaning of family; by blood and chosen. we go through life with these characters and see all of their strengths and flaws. sarah damoff’s writing is so strong that it feels as though they are real people that we know and love. they are complex and nuanced and extremely captivating.

my small critique is that i would have preferred if this book was 1000 pages long just so i could keep reading. i do wish that we got more of davis and jet’s relationship seen on paper. i would have really enjoyed hearing them talk about lillian and discovering more of her past together. at times, it was hard to keep track of the timeline and i would have to go back to see which year the previous chapter took place in. that could just mean my memory needs to be better though.

it was so heartwarming to read a few of the things i miss most about texas. blue bell, kolaches, buc-ee’s and waco make appearances and it added an extra layer of tenderness for me. then there was a mention of mexican trains, which is our small groups favorite game to play, and a mention of taylor swift. little details but so meaningful!

thank you to sarah damoff, simon & schuster, and netgalley for an arc of this stellar novel!

I started out liking this book and ended up loving it. It begins with a romance between Ryan and Lillian and soon devolves into a complex story of secrets and addiction. Caught in the middle is their daughter Jet.

Below the surface is the secret of Lillian’s early life and the complicated alcoholism of his father that Ryan and his mother dealt with. We can spend hours dealing with the “whys” of alcoholism plaguing families. I’m looking forward to exploring this with reading groups.

Lillian’s own secret story causes reverberations within their lives, but the author cleverly gives the reader a strong and beautiful sense of closure.

Once it resurfaced, alcoholism became the catalyst for the story of the rest of their lives. It is the story of their daughter that brings this full circle.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. I think it will especially appeal to any reader who has dealt with addiction issues.

Spanning generations, The Bright Years is an emotional, but uplifting book. I really enjoyed the structure. Split into three parts, each narrated by a different character. This book is perfect if you love a character focused family drama. While the plot is interesting, the characters are really what shine through. Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the ARC through NetGallery.

Literally how is this a debut novel??? I am AMAZED by Damoff's writing style. Not only is it easily digestible, but also effectively pulls at the heart strings. It is a perfectly-paced telling of a family effected by alcoholism and secrets. It does a wonderful job at showing how that impacts the family negatively, but also how family dynamics are not so black and white. A beautiful story.

I felt as if this book had a lot of potential. The storyline just didn't quite hit where I wanted it to.

I received an ARC of this upcoming debut novel through NetGalley.

This is the story, told over many years, of the Bright family. It focuses on Ryan, his wife Lillian and their daughter Georgette (Jet). There are moments of joy and many others of sadness. Ryan becomes an alcoholic and that disease has a massive impact on not just him, but his entire family. All three of them struggle through life and the author deftly portrays their trials and tribulations, their anger and their forgiveness, their moments of desperation and their search for hope.

Strong character portrayals, excellent writing and expert insight into the thoughts and feelings all the characters endure.

A TEARJERKER of a debut novel. This book started out a bit slow for me but towards the middle and end, I just wanted to abandon work and all life obligations for a chance to keep reading. This was heartfelt, emotional, and heartbreaking. Looking forward to reading more from this author. Thanks, Simon & Schuster and Netgalley, for the eARC.

I received a free ebook from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. I like fiction. Good fiction, can make you look at the world a little differently. This book is good fiction.

It's hard to better that this book is the authors first book. I look forward to reading more from her. The book jumps a lot in years. In most books, I don't like it, but it works well in this book.

A lot of times, fiction is predictable. This book was not predictable. I thought the book was about one thing but it wasn't. I thought the book was from one of the characters point of view. Later that point of view changed

The book is about so much. It's about family, pregnancy, loss, addiction, forgiveness, illness, sadness, recovery, and more. It's a book, where every reference is meaningful. It's a book that makes you think.

This is a good book to read or re-read when you are going through life's challenges. It's a book to read when you need hope. It's a good book to make sense of life's strangeness.

Very surprised this is her debut novel. Lovely story that is so heartfelt and relatable. You really feel for all of the characters and I like that the viewpoints shifted throughout the book.

My emotions are all over the place after reading this book. I feel like authors can make you connect with characters in a book, but it's rare for them to also teach you and make you empathize at the same time about subjects such as addictions. Sarah Damoff did that for me in this debut novel, and to say I'm still sitting here thinking about it is an understatement.
A truly stunning piece of writing, thank you, Netgalley and Simon & Schuster, for the ARC of this book!

So many secrets in one family but also so much love even though there is pain so much pain as well. This was really an amazing first book by this author. This was such an emotional read. I really felt for each and every character in this novel. I highly recommend this book!

This book took me by surprise because although I was familiar with the broad strokes of the plot (family of three, going through it), there was a huge amount of trials and tribulations packed into a pretty short book. I truly loved the plot structure, of having each narrate a chunk of time. It let the characters each have their focus while still navigating the relationships between them well. Folks who are struggling with grief about death or addiction should very much check CWs before reading; I thought it was handled in a very realistic way from my experience but it would have been a lot if my grief was fresh. The only thing that didn’t quite work for me was how much skipping around the plot did; it felt like often we were skipping years to get through it all, but it contributed to the feeling of “wow there is a lot going on for this family.” All in all, I’d definitely recommend to someone who enjoys emotional family literary fiction - I couldn’t put it down!

Wow! This is a wonderful, heartfelt story that is now my favorite novel for 2024. It is nothing short of amazing!
The main theme of this book is addiction, secrets .and the family trauma that it creates for not only one generation,but four.

I loved these characters and felt for them all as they try to make the choices needed to move forward in life and try to accept or understand the challenges day to day.
It is dramatic and emotional each and every day and it was certainly reflected in the words as I read.
There is no doubt a need for a box of tissues at multiple points in this book.

Everyone knows someone effected by this illness and it is so well done that I believe everyone will want to sit and get to know the people in "The Bright Years". We may know them already!
Thank you to @NetGalley and to @Simon & Schuster for this incredible ARC and allowing me to read and provide my own review.
Please read it!

I really enjoyed this book. It was sad but in the end an emotional and cleansing read. Forgiveness prevailed.

The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff paints a deeply empathetic portrait on the reverberating effect that alcoholism has on a family across four generations. The book is split into three sections, each narrated by a different main character - the wife of, daughter of, and the alcoholic husband, respectively. The characters are thorough and vivid, they are deeply flawed in their own ways and all the more real for this reason. As a reader, I could feel the love felt by the members of this family, and the grace and forgiveness that they show each other over years and years of mistakes is something to be admired. I felt real emotions reading the various losses and surprises that the family experiences, and their shock, sadness, grief, and frustration was palpable as if they were my own experiences. I found the book largely absorbing. Sarah Damoff is a tender, kind, and captivating writer, and as a result this is a beautiful read.

As someone who loves multi-generational novels that span a lifetime of years, I was extremely excited for The Bright Years. The first section, narrated by wife Lillian, was my favorite section and at least for the first half, followed a coherent story line. Towards the end, and especially in the later two sections, the timeline became increasingly hard to follow. There were major jumps in time that I struggled with, sometimes having to re-read passages to figure out who it was about. It's possible this was written this way as a narrative device, set to depict each character's lived experience as they were going through a formative time in their life (ex. in Ryan's section, the way he often regretfully reflected on his earlier years as he was growing older and more frail). However, I still found it difficult to follow, especially in the final section when we are jumping between Ryan's childhood, his adulthood, and his later life.

Thank you to Sarah Damoff, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am absolutely floored by this novel. The fact that this is a debut work is something I had to remind myself of over and over again throughout my reading of these complex, nuanced, and incredibly lifelike characters. Damoff’s experience working with people from all walks of life, on all sides of trauma, comes through in her ability to create a woven network of connections and splinters. The Bright Years tells the story first of Lillian and her journey of hope and heartbreak on her way to finding Ryan, a Bright spot in her otherwise dim world. Together Lillian and Ryan form Georgette, known affectionately as Jet, and together – and apart – the Brights navigate the definition of family, addiction, and what it means to truly love and be loved. I recommend this book to fans of Clare Lombardo and to anyone who seeks stories about the multiple facets of humanity – the beautiful and the ugly parts alike. I am so looking forward to the novel’s official release so that I can share a selection of my favorite lines and quotes.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster & NetGalley for the eArc.

Love, loss, forgiveness are all central themes in the novel. While parts were slow, you’ll be glad you pushed through and finished this book. We all strive for greatness and there are many bumps in the road to achieve it. Jet and Kendi’s story reminds one of young love and your first best friend. Jet goes through all the emotions and reading her story, one has to root for her and feels the emotions as she goes through them. Great book.

This is a family saga, where addiction reigns and everyone pays for it. It is not a long book, but did feel long to me at times although I enjoyed it. The end was a little schmaltzy for me, but sometimes things do work out that way.

“The Bright Years” by Sarah Damoff is an absolute masterpiece, a novel that captures the essence of life’s fleeting moments with poignant clarity and beauty. Damoff’s writing is exquisite, blending lyrical prose with vividly drawn characters whose journeys are deeply personal and universally relatable. The narrative explores love, loss, and redemption themes, weaving them into a tapestry that feels intimate and expansive. Each chapter is meticulously crafted, pulling the reader into the lives of its characters and holding them captivated until the very last page. Damoff’s ability to evoke emotion is remarkable, making “The Bright Years” not just a story but an experience. This book is a triumph of storytelling, deserving of its five stars for its emotional depth, narrative finesse, and unforgettable impact.