It is rare for a book to leave me absolutely and utterly speechless, especially a character-driven literary fiction one for that matter, but this book absolutely gutted me in an incredible way. A powerful story about the bonds that make and break family, there is no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a top read for 2025. It’s for sure #1 right now and going to be hard to beat.

Meet the Bright family: two parents in madly in love, determined to give their daughter nothing but the best. But when mom has a secret son, and when dad has a hidden alcohol addiction, daughter is left picking up the pieces of a broken marriage. And when that secret son comes to find his mother, she’ll have to face traumas from her past that she never wanted to relive.

Told in three parts from each family member’s POV, The Bright Years is deeply touching and equally mesmerizing. This story is not only incredibly well written from start to finish, but also incredibly moving and poignant. I highly recommend keeping the tissues nearby for this one – it had me thinking about my own relationships and legacy for the future. The tears were unstoppable.

I typically gravitate towards stories that are more plot-driven, but in this case the characters were so beautifully written that I found myself unable to put this one down. I finished the entire book in one afternoon, I truly can’t remember the last time I did that for something that wasn’t a thriller.

I cannot sing this book’s praises enough, and I am desperate for someone else’s thoughts!

This one was an ugly cry. It broke my heart then gave me hope. I loved it. This family drama focuses on secrets and their power to eat away at you when kept tucked away and their destructive force when released. It is about good people facing hard decisions and unresolved pasts, how the beautiful is shaped by the ugly, and how the path forward is so obvious you can't see it. this is a lovely novel with all the feels. Highly recommended. Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital ARC for review.

The Bright Years would make an excellent book club book - and I say that partly because I just finished and have a lot of feelings and wish I could discuss it with friends! This is a story taking place over a long span of time and telling us about the Bright family from 3 different POVs.

There was a lot I really loved about it - I was here for the characters and the writing and the emotion. But there are also times that for me it crossed into being wrapped up a little too neatly and veering into sentimentality. Moments that should have felt earned sometimes veered toward overly tidy resolutions. I wanted to stick with the complexity and the mess. The emotional beats landed, but some wrapped up in ways that felt a little too polished for the story’s raw heart. Thank you to the publisher for the free ebook to review.

Just wow. I have thought about the story and these characters every day since finishing this absolutely beautiful debut novel. The story is told through multiple POVs as we follow a marriage and family across time and learn about the heartbreaking impact that addiction can have. This is not a particularly long novel, but the pacing was perfect, and nothing felt rushed- I finished this novel in one sitting, and I needed to know what happened to these characters that I came to care about so much. While at times devastating, the story is also full of forgiveness and love, leaving me with a sense of hope by the end. This is an emotional and powerful read, and I cannot recommend enough!

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for a copy of the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Incredibly moving book that left me in tears. Oh wow, this book is a trip. It’s one of those stories that hits you with all kinds of emotions. I loved how the author jumped between different years and perspectives! It wasn’t a straight path, more like a winding, unpredictable journey. You think you know where it’s going, and then bam, it throws you somewhere totally different.

What really got me was the way the characters were so messy and flawed, but still so captivating. It’s about real-life struggles—addiction, family breakdowns, love, loss—and yet somehow, you can’t help but feel for them. I mean, they mess up so much, but you just want to keep reading because they feel so human.

There are so many powerful moments and lines in this book that just hit hard. It’s the kind of story that makes you think about life in a way you didn’t expect. It’s got all the feels, from hope to heartbreak, and it really makes you reflect on how fragile things can be.

I’m definitely in the "I love it" camp. I totally get why people might not connect with it, but for me, the journey was worth it. It’s a slow burn, and it’ll make you question everything as you go. It’s a beautifully written, heart-wrenching book that stays with you long after you’re done reading.

Books like these are why I love reading. The Bright Years is a stunning debut that I started on a Saturday morning and could not put it down until I finished! It’s out in the world today (April 22nd) so please do yourself a favor and run to your closest indie or library and grab a copy. I pre-ordered a trophy copy for my shelf from my local indie and can’t wait to pick it up 🤗

The Bright Years is a family drama at its core, but it’s so much more than that. It’s an authentic and raw look at how addiction impacts each family member, how secrets can come back to haunt us, but also a family fighting for love, happiness and meaning.

This book packs a powerful punch, and is proof you don’t need a lot of pages to tell a compelling story. It blows my mind this is a debut novel! I loved the multiple points of view from the Bright family, I could easily have read another 100+ pages from each of them. I particularly loved Jet’s POV. While addiction is a big part of the story, Demoff handles the topic so gently and respectfully given her experience as a social worker. It’s not just a storyline, it’s authentic. The Bright family felt so real, which is a testament to Demoff’s writing.

I’d recommend reading The Bright Years if you like:

- Authentic characters
- Family dramas
- Character driven stories
- Found family
- Beautiful prose
- Multiple POV’s
- Stunning covers
- Shorter books (< 300 pages)

@sarahdemoff also put together a Spotify playlist (second slide) which is spot on. Thank you, thank you for this beautiful story! I will read anything you write.

Thank you Simon Books and NetGalley for the eARC!

WOW, Just wow, I am blown away by the fact that this beautifully written, heartbreaking, moving story is a DEBUT NOVEL by this author. This could easily be one of the best debut fiction books of the year and I hope to see more people talking about it. I am so so happy I saw a few close friends rave about this book and decided to check it out myself, because it is a book that will stick with me for a long time.

The Bright Years is a story going through four generations, each generation connected to the last through alcoholism, grief, love, and family. It is the story of the Bright family, told through the eyes of Ryan, Lillian, and Georgette. The Bright Years is a story about addiction, depression, grief, death, the power of love, hope, and choices we make in our darkest times. This story is often very dark and heartbreaking, as almost every character is touched by some sort of loss or challenges. But above all it is a story of love and redemption.

I loved how realistic and authentic the portrayal of alcoholism, addiction, and abuse is in this book. The author does not shy away from fleshing out and uncovering the worst parts of alcoholism and how it can change and bring out the worst in a person. But at the same time, each character struggling with alcoholism has their strengths and potential to heal and redeem themselves. Each character felt so real and the author did a fantastic job of portraying humans at their best and worst.

I found myself tearing up throughout this book, especially for the women of the Bright family, who often were forced to make the hardest of choices to protect their children, themselves, and move forward with their lives. The female relationships, blood or not, in this book were so strong and helped cast a shield of hope and love around each character when they were faced with the darkness of alcoholism from their loved ones. I genuinely sobbed at the ending of this book with Ryan's shot at redemption and watching the cycle of alcoholism hopefully be broken. I think if you grew up in a family with addicts or alcoholics you will feel very seen by this book. I was just in awe of the author's easy writing style but the way she brought out every emotion in my heart.

Thank you to Simon Books for the free book!!

This book had so much heart.

It’s officially out in the world today, and I highly recommend grabbing a copy. It’s a short read, at a little over 300 pages, but it hits with the emotional weight of a 500-page novel.

The story follows Ryan, who is married to Lillian. They have a daughter, Georgette. Ryan is struggling with alcoholism, a generational curse inherited from his father, and it’s slowly unraveling the life he’s built. As his addiction tightens its grip, Lillian and Georgette find themselves caught in the crosshairs.

Told through three alternating points of view, the narrative structure gives us an intimate look at each character’s inner world. Their voices are distinct and raw, and the emotional honesty is what really made this story shine. You don’t just read their pain. You feel it in your chest.

This book is heartfelt, tragic, beautiful, and utterly heartbreaking. It wrecked me in the best way, like a slow ache that leaves you better for having gone through it. And just when I thought it had broken me completely, it offered moments of hope and quiet healing, especially at the end.

The author’s writing is stunning. Poetic without being pretentious. I found myself highlighting line after line after line. She captures complex emotions with such clarity and grace.

If you’re looking for a powerful character-driven story that explores love, addiction, loyalty, and healing, this one’s for you.
Read it. Feel it. Let it stay with you.

ALL THE STARS. ALL OF THEM.

I am not ok and that’s ok. I read for a multitude of reasons —to be entertained, to learn, to escape—but mostly I read to feel and I felt Sarah Damoff’s brilliant debut novel to my very core. THE BRIGHT YEARS left me a slobbering mess; shattered into infinite pieces.

Damoff’s writing is utterly gorgeous. There is not a wasted word. Nearly every sentence is to be savored and pondered and absorbed. Her ability to convey the deepest emotions through ordinary words is masterful.

THE BRIGHT YEARS is a family saga rife with heartbreak and sadness, but also intense love and enduring hope. Spanning decades and three generations, the story is told through very intimate and distinct voices. Hearts are laid bare with rawness and vulnerability. It is impossible not to be swept away by the honesty and intensity found in this book.

Prepare to be destroyed. Grab your tissues and settle in for a remarkable reading experience. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Sarah Damoff has established herself as a must read author after penning this dazzling debut.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Over the course of one debut novel covering 6 decades, readers of the Bright Years to get to know the Bright family on an intimate level. Told quietly and simply, this novel is a gorgeous family drama that is deeper than it appears. I fell in love with this family, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and am amazed that one person could create such a striking portrait of an American family. Phenomenal read.

Thank you Simon Books for my #gifted ARC and thank you Simon Audio for my #gifted ALC of The Bright Years! #simonbooksbuddy #simonaudio #pubday #PubDayReview #TheBrightYears #SarahDamoff

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐒𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐡 𝐃𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐟𝐟
𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬: 𝐅𝐞𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐨, 𝐉𝐨𝐲 𝐎𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐤𝐢, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 𝐎𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐨
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟐𝟐, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓

𝟓★

What a debut! If this book is not on your radar, it needs to be, along with a box of tissues! This was a beautiful multigenerational family drama about the Bright family in Texas. It’s the story of Ryan and Lillian who fall in love and have a baby girl named Georgette. Ryan is an artist and has an alcohol addition that he hasn’t told Lillian about, and Lillian has a son that she hasn’t told Ryan about. Their marriage has its ups and downs, all while Georgette (Jet) watches. Then, a life changing event occurs and the trio is separated from one another, and Jet distances herself from Ryan. It’s not until Lillian’s son comes searching for his birth family that Jet discovers her family history and decides whether or not she is ready to love and trust again. The Bright Years is told from three points of view: Lillian, Georgette, and Ryan. I loved the format and thought it added so much to hear from each one of the main characters.

🩷Multiple POV
🩷Past + Present Timelines
🩷Second Chance Romance
🩷Multigenerational Family Drama
🩷Character Driven
🩷Themes of Addiction, Grief, and Love

🎧I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by three talented narrators: Ferdelle Capistrano, Joy Osmanski, and Lee Osorio. I loved how each one brought forth such a unique voice to narrate their own character and was able to bring the story to life in such a beautiful way. I was immediately hooked to this audiobook and once I started listening, I did not want to stop. If you have the opportunity to listen to this one, I seriously cannot recommend it enough. It was pure perfection! There was so much emotion to perfectly capture this emotional debut!

Posted on Goodreads on April 22, 2025: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
**Posted on Instagram - Full Review- on or around April 22, 2025: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on April 22, 2025
**-will post on designated date

Lillian and Ryan fall in love and get married in Fort Worth. They are happy for a while but then both of them have secrets that weigh on them and their marriage falls apart. When Ryan's drinking problem comes out, he leaves his wife and young daughter to protect them from the abuse that he received from his father's drunken abuse. As Lillian and her daughter, Jet, continue on, they make friends that are like family as they deal with Ryan in and out of their lives as he lives in his alcoholism.

I really loved these characters. I was afraid the main theme of living with an alcoholic would be too hard to read, but the tone of this book was somewhat detached and more hopeful than I'd expected. I also liked the pop culture mentions; there are tons of them, and I thought they added context but toed the line of being too much. This is set in the 1990's-2000's in Fort Worth, so that is my era and area, and it was fun to have some shout outs I knew.

This debut novel is smartly told from one perspective at a time- first Lillian, then daughter Jet, then Ryan. It also helps that it is told in a mostly linear storyline. But, this book is heavy and sad. It is about living with an alcoholic family member and generational trauma. Thankfully, author Damoff had the sense to make it shorter in length so the weight of it doesn't feel overly heavy. The tone of this book, although written in first person, feels somewhat detached, in almost an omniscient narrator style. Because of this writing style, this book reminded me of Hello Beautiful and Olympus, Texas. I would recommend this book to lovers of complicated family stories that can handle difficult topics if they are done well. It would be good for fans of Tracey Lange and Claire Lombardo.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

Poignant and emotional.
Heart-wrenching family drama.

With thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this e-ARC.

This debut is brilliant. Simply brilliant.

Dealing with themes of loss, alcoholism, trust, and finding oneself in this world, The Bright Years captivated me. Love is patient and love is kind.

I adored the characters through their struggles and happiness as the years went on.

Following Lillian, Georgette (Jet), Ryan, and Nana Brighton (Bright) really pulled at my heart strings.
Lillian is patient and hopeful. Jet is a dreamer. Ryan is flawed but trying. Nana is gentle and kind.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read and review The Bright Years.

Extraordinary. Touching. “The Bright Years” by Sarah Damoff is a multigenerational tale about a family wrestling with addictions and exposed secrets.

Ryan and Lillian Bright have a knock your socks off kind of love which they hope to translate into creating their own tiny family. Along the way they try choosing the best of bad options and finding the goodness in one another.

The book touches on how salvation isn’t erasure but a redistribution of pressure and that loss doesn’t negate it just like death doesn’t negate life. I love how the characters have lifelong friends to share their sorrows with and find artistic passions in photography to spot the bright places around them.

Told from each family member, the book reminds me of “Real Americans.” I love that it’s written by a social worker who has experience working with patients battling addictions.

Thanks @simonbooks and @sarahdamoff for the NetGalley ARC! Happy publication day!!!!

Did I expect to cry three times reading this? Damoff somehow managed to get me to really care for this family and my emotional attachment really snuck up on me. The characters and their flaws felt realistic and well explored. Alcoholism and addiction are at the core of the story and I appreciated how delicately different aspects of this were weaved in from loneliness to loss to shame. Damoff’s debut is a very strong one and I think it’ll impress people who like to get emotional and enjoy family dramas.

This is the kind of book that impresses you without even trying.

Ryan’s childhood is marked by abuse and addiction. His mother leaves his father while Ryan is still young, but the trauma lingers, shaping his adulthood. Lillian carries her own scars, but when she meets Ryan, something shifts. She lets herself feel a cautious kind of hope. A future starts to take shape: Ryan opens the art gallery he’s always dreamed of, and together they welcome their daughter, Georgette. It looks like happiness. And for a while, it is. Until the past inevitably catches up.

First off—the writing is fantastic. Every word feels intentional, yet the prose still flows with this quiet, lyrical ease. It's filled with beautiful phrases and quotes. Truly hard to believe this is a debut.

The characters feel so real and are impossible not to care about. The story unfolds through three POVs—Lillian’s, Georgette’s, and finally Ryan’s. I felt a little sad leaving each voice behind, but the narrative pulls you into the next one almost immediately. That said, Lillian was my favorite. There’s a quiet, steady strength in her that isn’t obvious at first —the way she loves Ryan so completely, and yet still chooses to step back, to protect herself and their daughter—it’s powerful.

The book tackles big themes—love, addiction, friendship, abortion, and more—and it does so with a kind of grace and emotional clarity that’s rare. Nothing feels forced or overly explained. It shows without telling, and it's emotional without getting too sentimental.

Personally, I’ve always enjoyed morally gray characters. But this book goes further—it invites you to understand the humanity behind addiction. It reminds you that strength and trauma can exist side by side, and that while love may not fix everything, forgiveness just might.

I'm not easily moved, but this caught me off guard by how deeply it made me feel. Easily one of the best debuts I’ve read - I can't recommend it enough.

Huge thanks to Simon & Schuster, NetGalley, and the author for the gifted ARC!

I really enjoyed this book. From the first two chapters, I could already tell I was reading a book that I would love. And that early impression was spot on.

One thing I really liked about this book is the way it was told from three different perspectives, and also told chronologically, but it didn't jump from perspective to perspective throughout. The entire first half of the book was told from Lillian's perspective (the wife/mother), then the next 35% is told from Georgette's perspective (the daughter), then the last 15% is told from Ryan's perspective (the husband/father). The fact that the author was able to do this while also telling the story chronologically was pretty unique. I don't usually see multi-perspective books told this way, but I thought it was a refreshing change.

This book has a scene (very early on, so I don't consider this a spoiler) in which Ryan, who is an alcoholic, throws a glass bottle that shatters against the wall (while he is drunk). The is the first time I can recall ever reading a scene in a book that so perfectly mirrored a scene from my childhood (my father was an alcoholic and smashed plenty of bottles over the years). It was wild to read something that so accurately depicted my experience, and it instantly made me feel connected to Lillian and Georgette, who were naturally the ones that suffered from his alcoholism. Even though these characters aren't real, it made me feel less alone in the things I experienced.

Because of this scene so early in the book, I expected to read a lot more about Ryan's addiction that mirrored what I saw in my father, but his addiction was not really addressed in detail very much from that point forward. While it was a plotline that carried on throughout the story, it was never delved deeply into, as I wish it had been. His alcoholism had such an impact on his wife, daughter, and mother - not to mention himself, that I wish we had been given more insight into his struggles, his attempts at recovery, etc. That said, this book covers approximately 40 years of this family's lives, so I understand why more time couldn't be given to that.

I really loved Lillian as a character. I loved who she was, the decisions she made, her relationships with her daughter, mother-in-law, and best friend. I loved that as a reader, we got to see "Jet" (Georgette) grow from a baby to a woman with a family of her own. I love that even though Ryan often felt like a peripheral character, we got to see his whole story as well. And while Elise (Ryan's mother) was not a main character, she was so important to the story and she may have been my favorite character of all.

This book brought me to tears multiple times (and it takes a lot to make me cry when reading). Despite its short length, there are a lot of topics that are tackled within its pages. This is the story of a family through their ups and downs and it felt so real to me, which is something that is so important to me in the books I read.

My one wish for this book is that it had been longer. I would have liked to have had even more depth into their stories and to read about more of their experiences as a family. That's certainly not a complaint. It's amazing to me that the book packed such an emotional punch with its short length, and the fact that I want even more of it actually speaks to how good it really was.

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

4.5 stars rounded up.

This was sad. I feel like I don't frequently read books involving alcoholism or substance abuse but decidedly we all know the signs and the path that that tends to take. I called that love story at the beginning so it was very satisfying.

A stunning debut novel that left me a blubbering mess at its conclusion. Four generations of family stories shared over decades of hardship, grief and cherishing love.

This story is a gut-punch, stealing your breath but the power to show-up, try again and holding on, even when its hard will uplift the reader.

I wholeheartedly loved this book - declaring it will be one of top reads of the year!

Named People Best New Books
Book of the Month '25 April add-on
April Favorite, staff picks Apple Books

Thank you, Simon Books