The Bright Years
4.4 | 10,009 ratings
Price: 14.99
Last update: 03-31-2026
Product details
- ASIN : B0D4KNC2X3
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster
- Accessibility :
- Publication date : April 22, 2025
- Language : English
- File size : 2.1 MB
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 288 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-1668061466
- Page Flip : Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank:#32 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Romance Literary Fiction
- Literary Sagas
- Family Life Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:4.44.4 out of 5 stars(9,995)
Top reviews from the United States
- CA Quietly Powerful, Bittersweet ReadThe Bright Years is one of those books that sneaks up on you—in the best way. It’s beautifully written, emotionally honest, and deeply human. The story unfolds with a kind of gentle confidence, trusting the reader to sit with nuance, memory, and the complicated ways people love one another over time.
What I appreciated most is how the novel captures the ordinary moments that end up meaning everything: family rhythms, unspoken tensions, small acts of care, and the ache of hindsight. The characters feel real and lived-in, and their relationships—especially across generations—are rendered with such care that you can’t help but see pieces of your own life reflected back at you.
This is not a loud or flashy book, but it is a resonant one. Thoughtful, tender, and quietly devastating in places, The Bright Years lingers long after the final page. A truly lovely novel that reminds you how memory, love, and loss are often intertwined—and how even difficult years can still be bright in their own way. - Bonnie BrodyPoignant and PainfulI raced through this book, and though I'm not a particularly fast reader, I finished it in 24 hours. It grabbed me and I had difficulty putting it down.
What is love and what are its limits? How much can one put up with before it's necessary to say goodbye? What makes family? This book explores these questions in depth by taking the reader through time and circumstance with one intergenerational family.
Ryan and Lillian Bright meet in a library and it isn't too long before they fall in love and marry. Ryan comes from an abusive background and is raised by his single mother, Elise. Elise fled from Ryan's father due to his alcoholic rages which Ryan witnessed. Ryan is determined to never drink, and never to become like his father. When he is unable to keep his promises, what choices can he and Lillian make? They have a daughter and will the trauma of alcoholism and abuse be her heritage too?
This book beautifully describes the impact of alcoholism on the individual and the family. The intergenerational traumas of alcoholism and abuse rage through one generation to the next. Ryan is a prisoner of his own demons and unwittingly drags his family behind him. There is no rationale to alcoholism or any other addiction; it's a kidnapping of the soul.
Every family is unique and I thoroughly enjoyed the love that defined and comforted the Brights even in their darkest hours. The yearning that Georgette has for her absent father is palatable and ever-present along with her anger and disappointment towards him.
The author paints a picture that allows for some gray areas in love but also addresses the clarity of its boundaries. There are some things that cannot be excused and are too toxic to continue.
The book would have been a 5 star except for its repetition. I like the way the narrative was told from three different perspectives - Ryan's, Lillian's and Georgette's. Each had their own memories and pain. I liked that the author held out hope but there were times when the novel ventured too much into the gray area. Overall, this is a book to savor in its poignancy and its pain. - Linda ReadsAbsolutely wonderful with humor and pain; full of life lessons…5 plus stars!Intriguing book from the first pages. This book grabbed hold of me in the first pages and would not let go. If you like well-written, moving narrative, you must read this book. Cast of characters is real, hurting and dare you to listen to them. So good! Told in three parts following main characters: Lillian, Ryan and their daughter Jet. Swirling around them are many other people whose lives touched on them and vice versa.
This fantastic book opens in 1958 with the boy Ryan and his mother dealing with an abusive father and husband, Barton Brighton. Then the book transports us to the moment the man Ryan meets Lillian in the library in 1979. The reader will get glimpses of events that occurred before through well-marked flashbacks. This book is one that must be savored and reflected on. I shall not forget it for a long while. Be prepared for the ending. I literally sobbed. I volunteered to review an ARC of this book through NetGalley and it comes highly recommended. - TiniZukiniAn Emotional JourneyBe prepared for tears and laughter. In my opinion, Sarah Damoff has a poetic, while still down to earth story telling voice, which isn't pulled off easily in a novel. I wanted to pick this book up every minute of the day because I felt connected to the characters. I needed to laugh and cry and mourn and celebrate and regress and grow and ultimately feel their redemption. I can't say its a story that's never been told, but it's absolutely one that is told in such a relatable way that it has given me new hope for a loved one I'd given up on. For fiction writing to have that ability is quite a rare thing.
- RochkPerfectPerfect!