I sobbed until I couldn’t anymore. This book did me in. I grew up with an uncle who was an alcoholic and I’ve veered away from difficult reads because of it. But I’m so glad I gave this novel a chance. Despite the tears and there were many, this will probably go down as one of my favorite reads of the year. It was raw, emotional, difficult to read yet sometimes I laughed. Not many authors can successfully do this while telling such a deep story, from multiple points of view I might add!

5 Stars ⭐️ This is the Best Debut Novel of 2025.

The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff is a multi-generational story that involves addiction and family secrets. Lillian thinks she has found the perfect husband in Ryan. Their early moments are so sweet and poignant. They have a daughter, Georgette and it seems life could not be better. Lillian has survived the death of both her parents at a young age. Then she met a man who she thought would bring her joy, but instead fills her with devastating disappointment. She is pregnant and decides to give her son away for adoption. She has kept this a secret from Ryan. Ryan, also has had a hard time in life. His father was an abusive drunk who forced his mother to flee their marriage. Little Ryan would be so scared, he would hide under the table while his father raged at his mother. Ryan does not drink since he never wants to be like his father and cause that type of pain on anyone.

So, this one really pulled me in. So much so, that at times I resented that. It made me think and re-think for a long time. It is told by Lillian, Jet, and finally Ryan. This is a very honest accounting of alcohol addiction and how devastating an impact it can have on anyone who dares to love that person. Yet, Lillian can leave Ryan when he falls into anger and severe addiction, but she can’t ever forget the perfection of their early years and holds that love tight. It made me think so much about what we owe another person and how much understanding must be given. Jet, growing up without her father feels this loss her entire life. She is angry. Why, can’t Ryan ever do the necessary work and start recovery? Why, must Lillian understand and Jet have to try and come around and all forgive. This includes, Ryan’s mother, Elise who loves Ryan dearly, but puts Lillian and Jet first.

This feeling of pain, hurt, understanding, forgiveness, and hoping for a better future I certainly felt. The characters do as well. It shows how difficult this journey in life can be. It made me sad, mad, and happy. I felt like I wanted to have a say and control the story. Yet, life of course does not work that way. I don’t really know how I would have done this differently. I wanted more than just wonderful moments, even if pieced together that is what makes a life.

The author shows the story from every side and leaves each character to figure out how much to let a deeply wounded and self-destructive person in. She does a beautiful job here. Life is long and feelings change and probably all of us deep down want to be perfect for those we love and love us back, yet we often don’t reach that. I also think we scream when we want to cry and hate to have a feeling of not knowing which side of an addict will be showing up. The desperate, selfish, self-loathing, and fearful one or the honest, decent, talented, and loving one. That duality is hard to live with. Probably, most dealing with this want the person to finally heal and recover. Then having a life together is possible. Yet, it might not be permanent and leaves one to figure out some boundaries to hold so a relationship is possible.

Ultimately, this is a story about living. Death is going to be there for us all. It is all the small moments that make up relationships that matter. The author has profound hope that love can shine through the darkest times and it is something of tremendous value. So, hold your family close and respect yourself in the process, too. This one made me cry for sure.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for a copy of this book. I always leave reviews of books I read.

A mesmerizing, deeply emotional novel about love, loss, regret, addiction, and everything in between. This debut completely knocked me off my feet.

What I loved most was how the author played with time—not in a straight “before and after” structure, but in a beautifully layered way. Chapters jump between years and perspectives, revealing pieces of each character’s life slowly, until everything threads together and becomes linear. It was seamless, yet so emotionally powerful.

At its core, this book is about real people—an abusive husband, a wife who leaves, a son who grows up in the aftermath, a daughter navigating the grief of losing both parents. There are heavy themes here: alcohol, addiction, abandonment, heartbreak—but also hope, growth, and resilience.

The quotes in this book are unforgettable—raw, wise, and painfully real. It captures the full journey of life: the rush of first love, the ache of regret, the sting of lost dreams, and the strength it takes to keep going.

This isn’t a book to rush. It’s best read slowly and alone, when you can sit with the emotions and feel the full weight of the story—the way words and actions echo across time and shape the people we become.

For a debut? Absolutely phenomenal. A quiet, devastating, and beautiful story about normal people living through extraordinary emotional journeys. Highly recommend.

5⭐️
I can't comprehend how this is a debut book, it was phenomenal. I finished this last night and had to wait to write my review until today because I was crying so much finishing this book.

The Bright Years follows one Texas family in three different perspectives (a mother, father, and daughter) as they navigate life and the many challenges they face. These challenges include grief, abuse, alcoholism, teen motherhood, pain, loss, and so much more. The journey that we go on over generations with the Bright family is one of pain, forgiveness, and hope. Sarah's writing is so incredibly open, honest, and raw that you can't help but feel so deeply for this family.

I went into this book blind and my god it was the best decision. Lillian, the mother, is one of the strongest characters I have ever read. We follow her through being a teen mom having to make a difficult decision to put her child up for adoption, to getting a second chance at love and family with Ryan. Ryan is an incredibly flawed character coming from a broken home of abuse and alcoholism from his father. He wants nothing more than to be the man that Lillian needs but falls victim to the same destructive tendencies his father had. Alcoholism consumes him and we see him make mistake after mistake while stealing him away from being present with Lillian and their daughter, Jet.

Jet is essentially raised by her grandmother, Nana, and their scenes in this book were some of my favorite and genuinely had me sobbing at times. You can't help but feel for all of these characters while reading this, despite the flaws they have and mistakes they make. This book reminds us that we are human and we can make mistakes. What really matters is continuing to show up and try again for the people that we love despite any challenges they may face.

Sarah Damoff has a new fan out of me and I am so excited that I get to meet her later this month so I can gush about this book to her!! This will without a doubt be in my top books of the year, it's incredible. I am so incredibly grateful to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for providing me an e-ARC of the most perfect book💫

I will be yapping about this book forever!!!

Completely and wholly wonderful. Sad yet hopeful. The Bright Years tackles addiction (alcohol) and its effects on families. However, there is love and brightness to be found among the addiction and grief and that’s why The Bright Years felt like life, because it’s brutiful.

This book had great pacing and I did t want to put it down. Not only that, I cried in multiple spots and appreciated the ending. That’s how I know this was an excellent book.

Advanced reader copy provided by Simon & Shuster and NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

The Bright Years is set in Texas. The story is of the Bright family. The saga starts in 1958 and continues for 61 years. I admit I have not read family sagas lately. I did read all of Belva Plain's novels and really enjoyed them. I am very glad I was able to receive an ARC of this book. I really enjoyed it. You will be taken through a wide range of emotions and will get to know each character. This is the author's first novel - I hope it will not be her last. Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This one gutted me. I knew from reading the first chapter that this book would be challenging to read (emotionally) but worth it. An incredible look at family relationships, and how the bond exists between parents and children.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

WOW!! I just finished this and my eyes are still wet. Not really sad tears, but sad that the story ended. It is so relatable and so real that I hated to see it end. I had stayed up until 2:30 this morning reading and still had about an hour and a half to go and decided I didn't want to finish it that way. This story deserves more than sleepy reading!!

I was first attracted to The Bright Years because it is set in Fort Worth, a town I know a lot about. I visited an Aunt there a lot as a child and have lived just outside the city now for over 30 years. If you know Fort Worth, you will recognize the town described. The Braum's, where some of the pivotal scenes happen and you will taste the Blue Bell which is omnipresent.

Lillian and Ryan Bright both bring secrets to their marriage, although they swear to each other that they don't. But those secrets will play a major role in their marriage and in the life of their daughter Georgette, or Jet, as she is known. But ultimately this is the story of Jet, because the story revolves around her. When she is born life changes for her parents. Lillian finds strength she didn't know she had and Ryan succumbs to his weaknesses. Thank goodness for good friends, neighbors and mothers-in-law.

Told in three separate sections about the three main characters, it is a story of a marriage, and a life, and hope, and LOVE.

Wow, this book truly shocked me with how much I loved it. I sometimes struggle with books that have a lot of tragedy, because they feel as though the events are thrown in for shock value, but the depth is lacking or it feels forced. I am here to say that this is not the case with The Bright Years. I felt every single emotion that these characters were going through. I found myself complaining to my husband at one point that there was no good time to read it, because I was just profusely shedding tears every time I opened it. I enjoyed the pacing and the different point of views. I think reading from Jet’s POV was my favorite. I found her to be imperfect, but relatable and likeable. Her character growth development was amazing and felt so real. This story spans decades, and it’s not very long, but somehow it didn’t feel rushed and I managed to be very very invested in all of the characters. I would definitely recommend this one if you’re looking for an emotional read.

This was such a beautiful family saga told from the POV of three different members of the Bright family that spans decades. It’s character driven and takes an intimate look at different generations in one typical family and I adored this family. I really don’t want to get into the plot, it’s best to let everything unfold for yourself but it has some heavy themes and issues. It’s also about second chances, love, life and loss and at times it’s very sad. There are some moments of hope though and ultimately this is such a worthwhile read. Families are complicated and messy and parents aren’t perfect, and the author examined this in a profound way. I feel like anyone could relate to the themes explored here, don’t miss this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the eARC.

No one has ever deserved more than what she was given than Lil.

This book made me sad and angry pretty much interchangeably.

Secrets. Addiction. Trauma...
And, the sustaining power of love and forgiveness...

"The Bright Years" begins in 1958 and continues through 2019, sixty-one years and four generations of one Texas family. It is written primarily in the first-person voices of each Bright family member, Lillian, Ryan, and their daughter, Georgette—six decades of love, joy, and pain.

There is deep emotion packed into the 288 pages of this novel, and I lost count of how many times I ugly cried. Be warned, this family story is heartbreaking, but as heavy and dark as it gets, light, compassion, and hope shine through.

What also shines through are the characters and how well this debut author draws each one. Don't be fooled like I was by Damoff's writing style. It isn't purple prose, but Southern speech, with extra metaphors, and once I figured this out, the writing clicked, and I saw stars—all of them.

"The Bright Years" is a book I almost skipped, and it has turned into one of my favorite reads of 2025. This is an impressive debut novel, and I look forward to more from Sarah Damoff!

5⭐

Thank you to Simon & Schuster, for granting my wish, and Sarah Damoff for the gifted DRC through NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the free copy in exchange for my honest review.

DNF at 23%. This book was perfectly fine and the writing was solid, but it felt like a story I've read many times before without adding anything new. The blurb compares this to books by Mary Beth Keane and Claire Lombardo, which are typically right up my alley, but the nuance and insight in The Bright Years didn't feel like it rose to the level of those authors. I kept getting frustrated at the character's poor communication with each other and found that I wasn't excited to keep reading, so I put it down.

3.5 stars - I'm sure that there are going to be tons of readers who absolutely fall in love with this book. There are endearing characters, a time frame that spans decades, and compelling takes on addiction and grief. However, for me, I was completely turned off by the amount of trauma and death in this book. I felt like I just got over one tragedy before another one was unfolding. I get that this is similar to real life sometimes, but in the context of this story, it just felt sort of overwhelming. There were also a couple of stylistic choices that felt off to me. For example, the first switch in perspectives comes at an odd timing in the story, and I couldn't really get into the second POV because I felt disconnected at that point. Also, there were a few lines that literally made me cringe when I read them because they were just so cheesy. I'm not saying that Damoff is not a talented writer, this content just didn't hit right for me in several ways.

“We begin to say goodbye as soon as we say hello. Death is a corollary of birth, and to welcome life is to guarantee loss.”

The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff
Pub Date: 4/22/25
Format: ebook
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What an absolutely stunning debut from Damoff! This novel is such a moving and poignant look at what it is to show up scared. It really shows just how messy but beautiful family can be. She expertly delves into love and loss of all kinds in less than 300 pages. I’m borderline speechless about this book.

There is so much I’d like to specifically say about the Bright family saga we witness in The Bright Years, but I don’t want to spoil a single thing. There is not a single character you won’t fall in love with. You will root for every single one. And some of them will break your heart.

As someone who has loved and lost quite a bit in my lifetime, the care with which Damoff wrote these characters not only made me feel seen, but also helped me heal in ways I didn’t expect. And her writing felt unique to me. Just utterly gorgeous!!!

I will say, there are some difficult topics in these pages so please check the content warnings and take care of yourselves. Otherwise, please pick a copy of this book up and make sure you have some tissues nearby (for sad and happy tears both I promise!!)

Huge thank you to @netgalley @simonandschuster for the arc of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion. I can already tell this book will be amongst my favorites of the year.

My last three reads have been...fine. I didn't like the new Emily Henry, and that's largely because I don't like romance, and the rest wasn't enough to pull me through. I didn't like the new Anne Tyler, I feel a little more objective about that...and then I picked up The Bright Years of which I have seen nothing but 5 star glows. Unfortunately, I didn't really like this one either, and I'm going to try and parse out why below.

I'll start with I'm glad this book exists and I think it does what it sought out to do -bring awareness to the cyclical nature of addiction and the intergenerational trauma it creates. That is told to us here, and it is very much that...told.

"Ryan and Lillian Bright are deeply in love, recently married, and now parents to a baby girl, Georgette. But Lillian has a son she hasn’t told Ryan about, and Ryan has an alcohol addiction he hasn’t told Lillian about, so Georgette comes of age watching their marriage rise and fall. When a shocking blow scatters their fragile trio, Georgette tries to distance herself from reminders of her parents. Years later, Lillian’s son comes searching for his birth family, so Georgette must return to her roots, unearth her family’s history, and decide whether she can open up to love for them—or herself—while there’s still time."

I almost stopped reading this at 50% because I could see where it was going and because we were doing a lot of telling, not showing, I thought I could be done. We get a POV shift and a major plot point at that mark, so I kept going, but I'm not sure I needed to. SO much happens in this book. Decades of action in only 280 pages, but the plot propelled me through rather than any subtleties in shifts in character dynamics. That coupled with lines like maybe its not the alcohol I should be swearing off, maybe it's love, just took me out of the important things Damoff is calling attention to.

I feel a bit heartless writing this. Readers are feeling a deep emotional pull by this book, and I just...didn't. Don't get me wrong, this book is Emotional. Just not in the way that works for this reader.

This is a gorgeously written debut about the evolution of a family dealing with addiction across decades. That sounds heavy, but the reading experience itself was immersive and page turning. The bulk of the story focuses on how addiction affects the people around the addict, and not the addict themself. Profound and powerful, I was a sobbing mess at the end. This will be a year end favorite.

Thanks Jeanette Galli for the advanced copy. I loved reading this story. It is beautifully written and accurately depicts how family members lives are impacted when alcoholism is present. Also portrayed just how challenging the struggle is for the alcoholic. It felt like I wasn’t just reading a story about this multigenerational family. It felt like I was a part of the family. I loved it.

The most raw emotion I’ve ever had reading a book. When most characters go through personal growth throughout a book based over years of life, it’s an emotional journey. This book left me tear stained pages and people I’ll pull for on every step of their journey. The power of forgiveness left me on an emotional roller coaster of would I or wouldn’t I?! This book is 100% worth the hype!!

4.5 stars

I really enjoyed this family drama! We follow multiple generations of the Bright family as they manage grief, trauma, and alcoholism.

This was an impactful and deeply touching story. I loved the characters and in particular loved the pace. We go through decades of time but without ever feeling superficial or quick. It was lovely following these characters as they grew and matured. I also appreciated each of the three perspectives.

Highly recommend to readers who enjoy multigenerational family dramas!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for access to this work. All opinions are my own