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The Same Bright Stars by Ethan Joella

Contemporary fiction

The Same Bright Stars

by Ethan Joella

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Quick take

Locals and tourists are welcome to this beachside story about family drama, second chances, and sharing good food.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Emotional

    Emotional

  • Illustrated icon, Inspirational

    Inspirational

  • Illustrated icon, Nonlinear_Timeline

    Nonlinear timeline

  • Illustrated icon, Foodie

    Foodie

Synopsis

From the author of A Little Hope, an uplifting and emotionally resonant novel set in a Delaware beach town about a local restaurant owner at a turning point.

Three generations of Schmidts have run their family’s beachfront restaurant and Jack has been at the helm since the death of his father. Jack puts the demands of the restaurant above all else, with a string of failed relationships, no hobbies, and no days off as proof of his commitment to the place. He can’t remember the last time he sat on the beach, or even enjoyed a moment to himself.

Meanwhile, the DelDine group has been gradually snapping up beloved eateries along this stretch of coast and are pursuing Jack with a very generous offer to take Schmidt’s off his hands.

Jack craves companionship and maybe even a family. He wonders if closing the door on the restaurant might open a new window for him. But who would he be without Schmidt’s, and can he trust DelDine’s claims that they will continue to employ his staff and honor his family’s legacy?

When he receives startling news from the past, Jack begins to reshape his life and forge unexpected new friendships. But will he really let go of the very things that have defined him?

Content warning

This book contains mentions of suicide.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of The Same Bright Stars.

The Same Bright Stars

ONE

When Jack pulls up to Schmidt’s on the day before Thanksgiving it occurs to him that he might just take the offer from DelDine. Finally give in. They may keep it the same, as they’ve done with some places in town, or renovate it into a bistro with an eco-friendly kitchen and QR code menu or an Italian-fusion restaurant with zebra-print place mats.

Jack doesn’t usually have epiphanies like this early in the morning, especially right before a major holiday, when there are mountains of potatoes to peel, and the stress of all those turkeys defrosting and the phone ringing with pie orders and last-minute reservations. He puts the car in park, and the wind blows sand against his door. He steps out, feet hurting, his old Jeep the only car on the whole beachfront block, the boardwalk looking battered.

He squints at the Atlantic Ocean in the distance, and the restaurant’s blue awning trembles above him.

He looks at his family name written in cursive on the sign, Est. 1954 underneath, and he thinks, It’s time. It’s time to figure out his life.

Their offer is pretty appealing. A no-brainer, his dad would have said.

Jack can keep slogging through hot summers, his feet quitting by ten in the morning and him forcing them to keep going anyway. All summer, him in a damp T-shirt, face pale, working, working, morning until night, married to the place, as Kitty said before she moved west, like some long-ago prospector hoping to find a better life.

Jack is fifty-two, but an old fifty-two. A fifty-two that feels like assisted living is right around the corner. His best friend from high school, Deacon, just had a baby and ran a half marathon.

Jack never wanted to sell, especially not to DelDine, enemy number one to Rehoboth Beach family businesses, all their corporate lingo and management team members smiling and buying everything they can, as though quality and originality mean nothing.

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Why I love it

What a perfect summer read! From page one I was transported to this charming beach town and drawn to the characters who inhabit it. Although they live in an idyllic setting, they’re all struggling with very relatable problems—particularly Jack Schmidt, who finds himself at a crossroads after devoting so much of his life to the family restaurant.

Jack’s the guy everyone else leans on, especially his employees. He wouldn’t mind getting out from under the weight of such obligation, pursuing other passions, maybe even starting a family before it’s too late. So when Jack receives a generous buyout offer from a big corporation, he’s tempted to accept it. But the last thing he wants is for his family’s legacy to be turned into another generic tourist trap, and he worries about the fate of his dedicated staff, who have become family to him. Perhaps most of all Jack wonders who he will be without the restaurant. To complicate matters, he receives unexpected news from the past that resurfaces old wounds.

One of my favorite things about Ethan Joella’s books is his ability to create meaningful moments of human connection, often between unlikely characters. As with his previous books, I know Jack and the whole cast of The Same Bright Stars will stay with me for a long time.

Other books by Ethan Joella

Member ratings (1,130)

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Contemporary fiction
View all
The Last Love Note
What Does It Feel Like?
Anita de Monte Laughs Last
The Wedding People
Honey
The Leftover Woman
The Same Bright Stars
Bye, Baby
Swan Song
The Days I Loved You Most
The Connellys of County Down
Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life
Jackpot Summer
Adelaide
The Collected Regrets of Clover
Again and Again
Evil Eye
Black Cake
Maame
Romantic Comedy
Someone Else’s Shoes
Once There Were Wolves
We Are the Brennans
The Bad Muslim Discount
What Comes After
Olga Dies Dreaming
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel
Monster in the Middle
Nine Perfect Strangers
The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany
The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes
Honey Girl
In Every Mirror She's Black
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?
Sankofa
The Unsinkable Greta James
The Love of My Life
The Five-Star Weekend
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto
The Wishing Game
Behold the Dreamers
The Mothers
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Little Fires Everywhere
The Music Shop
Where’d You Go, Bernadette
The Reckless Oath We Made
Dear Edward
When We Were Vikings
The Girl with the Louding Voice
A Good Neighborhood
Big Summer
All Adults Here
Happy & You Know It
Friends and Strangers
The Comeback
True Story
The Last Story of Mina Lee
Troubles in Paradise
White Ivy
This Close to Okay
The Chicken Sisters
The Prophets
In a Book Club Far Away
The Other Black Girl
Apples Never Fall
A Quiet Life
We Are the Light
The Most Likely Club
The Fortunes of Jaded Women
When We Were Bright and Beautiful
The Hotel Nantucket