This book absolutely WRECKED me. I haven’t cried this much reading a book in a long time. A full blown stream of tears. This book fully encompasses the imperfections of life and how beauty and messiness can coexist. I enjoyed how the author incorporated the layered complexities of generational trauma that happened between multiple characters and one family. Truly a stunning novel about life.

I am so blown away that this is a debut novel. Some people are just born to write and Sarah Damoff is one of them. Bravo!!!!!

Thank you Simon & Schuster, NetGalley and Sarah Damoff for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I feel so privileged to have read this book.

TW: Addiction, miscarriage, adoption

Thank you @simonbooks for the physical ARC of The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff as well as the eARC on @netgalley. This has been one of my most anticipated reads of the year.

This book. 😭😭😭 Not to be dramatic, but my husband ran down the hall because he thought I was CHOKING due to me crying so hard while reading this book. 😂 This book destroyed me in the best possible way and was such a stunning depiction of family, love, and addiction.

This book starts in 1958 with a young Ryan fleeing his abusive home, with both he and his mother escaping his alcoholic father. Flash forward years later, Ryan meets Lillian and they fall madly in love. Lillian has her own secrets and Ryan has his demons, but the love is palpable. They have a daughter, Georgette (Jet) l, and then tragedy strikes. The story continues until 2019 and chronicles the relationships between Lillian, Ryan, and Jet in the face of addiction, loss, and grief. I loved the multiple POVs and getting to hear from Lillian, Jet, and Ryan. I adored getting to know these characters and their lives and especially loved the other supporting characters in their world (Elise, Kendi, Davis, & Shauna).

This one gets all the stars! Not since reading Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano (my favorite book) 5+ years ago have I cried so hard while reading such a beautiful story that makes you feel SO MUCH. Make sure you pre-order this debut being released on 4/22 (and some tissues too), I can tell it’s going to be huge.

This is my debut of the year so far! The Bright Years is a heartbreaking family saga that tells the story of the Bright family told in the point of view of mother, father and daughter.

The character development was incredible and you found yourself routing for each of them. Damoff did an incredible job humanizing the disease of alcoholism and its lasting effects for generations.

This is a very heavy read and has numerous triggering and deeply thought provoking themes, including abuse, abandonment, teen pregnancy, alcoholism, grief and pain.

This novel will stay etched in your heart. I can't wait to see what comes next from Sarah Demoff.

Thank you Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy in exchange in for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and Sarah Damoff for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of The Bright Years.
This is a beautifully written four generation family drama filled with ups and downs. I was completely invested from start to finish and enjoyed every second of it.
The characters are extremely likable and complex. Even those who behaved poorly and made the wrong decisions made sense to me and I could identify with each one. I rooted for the whole family to stay together and work through the difficulties.
The plot is fast paced and I was never bored. This is a debut novel which is quite impressive. The themes should hit home with every reader. No family is ideal and no one has all the answers to solve every problem. Love and caring remain constant from beginning to end. I thoroughly recommend this book and I look foreword to more from Sarah Damoff.

One family, three different perspectives. The mother, father, and daughter. A whole bunch of pain, miscommunication, and unnecessary suffering. There’s grief, addiction, secrets, resentments, and sadness. Then, there’s also hope, forgiveness, and new beginnings. In short, this debut has it all.

Lily and Ryan Bright’s love story starts off like something straight out of a Hollywood movie. But as life settles in, the chinks in the armor start to show. Ryan sinks deep into alcohol addiction, and while he feels like he’s making the best decision by abandoning his wife and daughter, he instead continues the generational trauma his mother fought so hard to break away from.

There were so many times I wanted to jump into the book to knock some sense into Ryan. The unnecessary amount of pain he caused those around him because he couldn’t see far enough out of his own pain was devastating. Lily is a stronger woman than me and was able to forgive more times than I would have been.

This book is literally a roller coaster ride with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I didn’t want the book to end and honestly felt like it could have been a little bit longer so the ending could have been fleshed out a little bit more. And even though I wasn’t a huge fan of how Damoff ended the story, this is still a book that will undoubtedly stick with me and be a contender for a top book of the year for me. It’s an excellent debut that solidly puts Damoff on my radar.

This is a heartbreaking story of love, loss, and addiction. The multiple points of view fully immerse the reader, allowing them to experience the multigenerational challenges and complexities of the characters' lives. Each perspective adds depth to the narrative, highlighting how deeply interconnected their struggles are. The emotions in this story are so powerful that it brought me to tears, and its impact stayed with me after I finished reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was completely heart breaking, and I loved it so much! It’s about love, family, addiction, loss and grief.

This is a short novel that spans decades. Sometimes stories that jump so quickly through time feel rushed or I feel disappointed when moving to a new period of time. But in this story, it did not bother me. I was engrossed in the lives of this family and could not put it down as I flew through the years with them. Excellent characters and I felt deeply connected to them. This story was equal parts devastating and beautiful, and these characters will haunt me for a long time.

Wow, this is quite a debut. I really liked it. It made me think a lot, especially about people with addictions. I know the author mentions at the beginning that she has a lot of experience with working with people with addictions. We follow a few characters in the "Bright" family, mostly Lillian and Ryan as they fall in love, get married, and have a baby girl. There are choices made, choices that are infuriating, My heart was tugged and pulled by these characters throughout the book. Bravo!

Most of my favorite books in the last few years have been family epics—stories covering generations and years inside one family as they fall in love, fall out of love, live, die, laugh, and cry. Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane and Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano are perfect examples. Well, Sarah Damoff's "The Bright Years" is also on that shelf.

Lillian and Ryan meet in a library, where Ryan recognizes Lillian from her job at the bank. Their first date is that same day at a Greek restaurant, lasting for hours. Soon, they fall deeper and deeper in love and marry. Next, Georgette "Jet" Bright is born, and the world changes.

Told by Lillian, Jet, and Ryan, the Bright family's story follows them from the 1970s to the present day. Despite its short length, this isn't an easy read. Damoff doesn't waste space with useless words, but parts of the Bright family story are hard to read. There is deep anger and resentment, as well as deep love and hope.

The Bright family story is modern, not looking back with rose-colored glasses. It deals with heavy topics (adoption, alcoholism, death), but these are topics that families have to deal with and should be talked about more.

This is a debut novel, and it reads like it's from an old master at fiction. I highly recommend this book and can not wait to see what Sarah Damoff does next.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Oh my gosh, this will absolutely be in my top ten of the year! So moving, so sad, so emotional, but also hopeful? I WEPT at the end of this book. Highly highly recommend if you love a complicated, multi-generational family story!

The Bright years is a solid family saga -- engaging, emotionally observant, and at its best when it leans into the quiet complexities of parenthood, loss, aging, childhood, generational trauma, and the long arc of family history. Some parts really landed, especially around how people grow apart and then find their way back to each other. But too often, it reaches for emotional impact in ways that feel a little forced. The prose veers purple in some places, and some of the emotional beats feel over-scripted. Still, the story sticks.

This book is absolutely incredible. Spanning decades and generations, it packs an emotional punch in a concise 288 pages. But despite its shorter length, the writing is eloquent and full of rich imagery. I was blown away by how fantastic this book was. I couldn't put it down. I smiled, I cried literal tears (many times) and I rooted for the characters to succeed. This book and its characters will stay with me a long time.

There is a major trigger warning here for alcoholism. Also, because it spans so many decades, death and grief are inevitable here. Tread carefully, but for me the author handled these real life struggles in a relatable and careful way. This book will give you all the feels. I highlighted SO many passages, many of my favorites I can't share due to spoilers--but know you'll want to stop and reread and highlight passages that speak to you along the way. What an INCREDIBLE debut novel!

"Time can wash dirt off a memory until it is revealed as something else entirely."

Read the last page completely stunned and shocked this is a debut novel. The writing is impeccable, crafting of the plot is flawless and the development of the characters is perfect. The story wrung every bit of emotion from me and left me fully satisfied. Nothing over written, no over reaching for emotion or feeling. Just literally perfect. Getting to read an advance copy of this has been a gift. Everyone I know and love will receive a copy of this pre-ordered from my local bookstore.

The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff is a captivating tale that serves as both a heartbreaker and a heart-mender. It beautifully portrays the themes of inheritance and loss, compelling readers to confront their vulnerabilities and secrets in order to discover their inner strength and truth. This stunning debut novel is a must-read for those seeking a poignant and thought-provoking story.

While the book dragged in parts, it was a story that kept me interested. It is a book about a family that has been devastated by alcohol. Very sad when a life is devoted to alcohol and they miss out on life in general. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the complementary digital ARC. This review was not coerced in any way and is my own words.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon Books #SimonBooksBuddy for my gifted advanced copies in exchange for an honest review! All thoughts are my own.

The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff
General fiction
Pub day: 4/22/25
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This story changed my brain chemistry. It is heartbreaking and beautiful and meaningful, and has touched my heart and soul forever🤍

The structure is multiple POVs going back and forth from past and present timelines. I was completely hooked and invested early on, and the writing was so addictive I could’ve finished this in one day. The gamut of emotions that Sarah Damoff put me through….everything felt so real, as if I was experiencing it along with the characters. I was left with tears streaming down my face 🥹 what an absolutely PERFECT ending!

I would recommend going into this completely blind, however there are definitely trigger warnings to check if you have any. This is a book that ended up impacting me way more since I had no idea where it was going. So many times I was holding my breath, speed reading trying to find out how certain things would play out.

Sarah, thank you for writing this book and sharing such an amazing, breathtaking story with your readers. 🩷

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy of The Bright Years by Sarah Darnoff, which comes out April 22nd.

This was a beautiful family drama told in three points of view. Four generations of family, but focused on Ryan and Lillian and their daughter Georgette.
This was a debut and it was incredibly written. I'm not a big character driven reader and this book captivated me.

I listened to this thanks to Simon and Schuster Audio. The audiobook was incredible and the 3 narrators immerse you in the story.

This is going to be a very popular book.

WHAT A DEBUT. This had me in my feels from page 1. I could Sense the heartache so it took me a while to get invested. But once I allowed Myself to feel pain and sadness, I was All in. This was phenomenal.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. I seem to be in the minority with my 3 star rating. I thought the book was good, especially for a debut novel, but it kind of dragged for me. But, the author did a good job of showing a messy, complicated family dynamic.

I can’t even see what I’m typing—my tears are pouring like a torrent. I’m crying like a baby with colic, and one thing is for sure: I just finished the BEST DEBUT FICTION of the year. The other thing? My heart is completely shattered.

One family. Three perspectives—mother, father, and daughter. Broken hearts, grief, abuse, resentment, secrets, forgiveness, addiction, second-chance love, pain, sadness, invisible scars, child abandonment, teen motherhood, hope, promises—this book tackles so many triggering yet deeply thought-provoking themes through the epic, dramatic, raw, and profoundly emotional story of the Bright family.

Ryan and Lily Bright’s first meeting in a library feels like the perfect rom-com "meet-cute," the beginning of a love story between two flawed people, each hiding secrets that will shape their future in unexpected ways. Ryan comes from a broken home; his mother escaped an abusive relationship and raised him alone. He’s a photographer with big dreams of opening an art gallery, and though he vows to be a better man for Lily and a better father to their daughter, Georgette (aka Jet), he eventually falls into the same destructive patterns as his own father. Alcoholism steals him away from the life he tried to build, and one tragic mistake forces him to step back from his family.

Lillian, too, carries a heavy secret—she gave up a child for adoption as a teen mom after her first love chose music over fatherhood. She thought she’d found her second chance with Ryan, but now watches helplessly as the man she once loved disappears into someone unrecognizable.

Georgette is mostly raised by her Nana Elise, Ryan’s mother, and harbors deep resentment toward her parents for the secrets they kept. When she meets Davis—her mother’s adopted son—she begins to see the bigger picture and discovers the possibility of creating her own chosen family. As she begins to understand the weight of her parents’ decisions, her perspective begins to shift.

No words I write here can truly do justice to how powerful this book is. It turned me into a red-eyed, heart-wrecked mess. I deeply empathized with Lillian, Ryan, and Jet—their mistakes, pain, love, and longing—and it all resonated with my own feelings, regrets, and hopes. This story reminds us that no family is perfect, and no parent has all the answers. But love means showing up, trying again, and holding on, even when it’s hard.

What more can I say? I’m speechless. I wholeheartedly loved every chapter, every character, every ache, and every word in this book. It’s already etched into my heart, and without a doubt, it’s my pick for Best Debut of the Year.

Ten gazillion stars.

Endless thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with a digital reviewer copy of this stunning debut in exchange for my honest thoughts. I’m beyond grateful.