This cover. A 90s setting. Friendship elements. This synopsis got me.

📖: Rachel is staying with her aunt and uncle in Greenwich for the summer. She meets their daughter's nanny, Claudia, and is immediately drawn to her. After a year of losing friends, this could be Rachel's opportunity to feel connection again between Claudia and her sweet niece, Sabine. After tragedy strikes, Rachel is forced to make touch choices. Who will she protect, and what consequences will she face?

🤝: This may be a good fit if you enjoy:
- rich people problems
- challenging themes
- stories told in flashbacks

💭: This book was a roller coaster. I struggled with the pacing. I was into it right away, then I skipped forward from ~35% to 60% and landed in some JUICY and INTENSE scenes that pulled me back in. As the story progressed, Rachel's state of mind remained a whirlwind. I typically enjoy characters others would consider "unlikable". She challenged my compassion, which I appreciate. I understood her struggles, but sheesh, some people don't learn. While there were some good themes and captivating moments, it ultimately wasn’t a great fit for me.

Rating: I thought it was ok. (2.5 rounded up)

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for early access to this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This book reads like a Max suspense miniseries. Haunting in all the right ways. The protagonist, Rachel, is a very turbulent and dimensional character who we see develop in a carefully constructed environment. Watching Rachel navigate through this world as pieces of glass fall around her is beautiful and chilling. While the ending kept it from being a solid 5 for me, the overall novel as a whole still leaves me thinking of this novel to this day.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader copy. All thoughts are my own:

Rachel goes to stay with her aunt and uncle in Connecticut. She is thankful to escape the drama back home for a while but quickly feels isolated. She finds comfort with their nanny, Claudia. Tragedy strikes and the family turns against Claudia, leaving Rachel stuck between them.

Greenwich is a play on wealth, privilege, shame, and love. The prose of this book as smooth and felt comfortable throughout. I think the description paints it like there is going to be some big twist in the middle, but there really isnt. It’s a flowing and engaging story, but don’t expect a big twist at any point. The ending was pretty tough, but I think warranted.

I really wanted to like this book, as the premise was very appealing, but it just fell flat. I didn't find myself invested in the characters, which made it difficult for me to really get hooked on the storyline. I was expecting it to feel more suspenseful and dramatic than it did. Not a bad book by any means, just not for me.

I feel like if I could have resonated more with the characters, I would have enjoyed this book a bit more. It had all the good ingredients but for some reason the recipe came out tasting funny on my tongue. Maybe it’s hard for me to feel empathy for the uber rich or anyone in politics and it’s a me issue. Although Rachel felt guilty, I got the feeling that she felt entitled to absolution for her mistakes rather than wanting to right them for the right reasons. I did like the LGBTQIA+ themes that were in the forefront. The will they/wont they and approach to the acceptance of gay relationships. Everything regarding the pills and cigarettes felt forced and sort of gimmicky. The present day timeline was a lot more enjoyable for me, even if most of the action happened in the past. I think I just have a hard time connecting with teenagers as main characters. The big event this book is centered around took about two seconds and I was hoping for more direct build up. Idk. I definitely see why this book would work well for other readers, at this point I feel like I’m just being nitpicky and rambling.

I grew up in Fairfield County and have been to Greenwich quite a few times. I was so excited to read this as it takes place so close to home. However, this book reminded me of all the reasons why most people in Connecticut do not care for Greenwich or folks from there. Rich people that are miserable and constantly hiding secrets or ignoring bad behaviors/tendencies.

I'm curious why this is listed under "womens mystery, thriller, and suspense fiction". There was nothing mysterious or thrilling for me with this book. It was, in my opinion, women's fiction.

I felt some of the characters were not well developed. I was missing so much from each of them. I felt like the storyline was choppy and boring throughout the book. There wasn't anything standout about this book. Rachel's character was so annoying i really wanted to DNF this but pushed myself so I could give an honest review.

This one was not for me but I'm glad some people enjoyed it.

I did not like "Greenwich" by Kate Broad. It was written predictably, and despite so much bad stuff happening and time passing, the main character never seemed to grow.

I was so excited to get this ARC—I grew up nearby Greenwich (but in a VERY different tax bracket, lol) and reading about it in this book was so fun for me. Kind of a peak into how the 1% lives. I grooved with the writing style and can't wait to read more from this author.

Thank you to Kate Broad, St. Martin's Press, and NetGaleyy for this eARC!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this book. I did not know what to expect when reading this. I am open to trying most books depending on the story. This was not the kind of story I would normally read. But I did enjoy it. It was nice to have a main character that was unpredictable and a bit all over the place. Sometimes it just works. It did for this story. This book releases July 22, 2025.

Greenwich, Connecticut is the perfect setting for a story like this, that explores class and wealth gaps, the exclusivity of wealthy communities, complicated family relationships, and the power imbalance of private employment by wealthy families. The book explored all that wonderfully while also slowly unravelling a fascinating mystery. The writing was accessible and the first person POV made it easy to get lost in the story.

thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. I quite enjoyed this beachy domestic delight that takes you back in time

Greenwich is a compelling and thought-provoking debut that digs into the murky waters of privilege, loyalty, and moral ambiguity. Kate Broad paints a vivid picture of a wealthy, insular world through the eyes of Rachel, a teenager on the brink of adulthood who finds herself caught in a web of secrets. The tension builds slowly as Rachel navigates her complicated feelings for Claudia, the babysitter, while also grappling with the fallout from a tragic accident. Broad does a fantastic job capturing that sense of being young and unsure, especially when faced with choices that could change everything.

What I found most striking was how the book explores the way power and privilege shape the choices people make – and how easily some are sacrificed to protect others. Rachel’s struggle between doing what’s right and preserving her own future is portrayed with honesty and nuance, making her a flawed but relatable character. The writing is atmospheric and immersive, pulling you into that hot, uneasy summer in Greenwich. If you’re into literary fiction that challenges your perspective and leaves you questioning what you’d do in the same situation, this one’s definitely worth picking up.

This dark story explores privilege and wealth and race through the eyes of Rachel, a high school graduate who spends the summer helping her aunt in Greenwich before beginning college. And hijinks ensue. Despite really disliking the narrator, I was pretty hooked and consumed this one quickly.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!

What a fantastic book. I loved it!! I will be definitely looking out for more by this author in the future!

Coming of age stories are always one of my favorite books to read. This was a beautifully written book with so many important and hard themes throughout the book. I felt the author did a great job exploring these themes and did so with great detail and care. For a debut book, I was very impressed.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the advanced reading copy

I was not a fan of Greenwich. I suppose I only have myself to blame, as I apparently did not read the full description carefully, but I truly thought it was going to be a murder mystery in Greenwich with a backdrop of wealth and power...period. I did not anticipate the LGBTQ aspect, and personally, I just did not think it was necessary to the plotline. The story would have been equally compelling without that component. Another complaint was that there was honestly a bit too much foreshadowing...it was almost constant and infused into every little thing the main character, Rachel, thinks/contemplates. We get the point....something bad happened. Just not a fan at all.

From the start, this book grabbed my attention.
There is so much to unpack from this riveting, though disturbing story. It reminds me in a lot of ways of the movie “Mermaids” with Cher and Winona Ryder, and the novel “Yellowface,” by R.F. Kuang.

The beginning feels like it’s going to be more a suspense novel with lines such as, “I heard it like a voice in my ear: You should be afraid of this.” (Pg 16) But then leads more into a coming of age story. Truly many times I was wondering where an adult was during many moments, which is a question she asks herself. (I’m glad we’re on the same page.)

“I was thinking about that, about pain and how we bear it, about who tells us what can hurt and what cannot.” Pg 258

Similar to the style of “Yellowface,” there are so many moments to cringe and feel uncomfortable as Broad critiques wealth, whiteness, and the formidable wall these groups create. Unfortunately a taboo topic in the 90s, the girl needs therapy. Rachel was dragged along into the schemes of the wealthy, flip-flopping between a “white savior” mindset and hesitantly following along.

While there are a couple of traumatizing, bloody moments, this is a book that I’ve been thinking about for a couple of days since I finished it. Particularly the last paragraph.

I highly recommend this for people who enjoyed “Yellowface,” and are angry about current affairs in America.

Rounded up to 4 from my initial determination of 3 1/2 stars. I really did enjoy the writing in this debut novel. The plot was a bit uneven, but then, it matched the tone, which went from the ho-hum boredom of an insecure teen girl to infatuation to grappling with the 'tragedy,' and how everything went askew.

The themes of racism and classism reverberate throughout, as did the uncertainty of youth and the need for a sense of belonging and the development of self-understanding. It was overall a very intriguing story and I look forward to reading more from this author.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and the author, for an opportunity to read an advanced e-copy of this book, which is scheduled to be published on July 22, 2025.

The writing was good, but it took me a bit to get into this book. And then when I finished, I was frustrated that it didn't explore issues related to class, race and sexuality a bit more head-on. It just kind of ended in an unsatisfactory way.

I understand what the book was trying to do, but I would have rather spent more time in the college/post-college years to see the impact of the traumatic summer experience instead of simply re-living every day of the summer.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for the arc of Greenwich. This book was pretty good. A young girl wants to escape her problems so she stays the summer with her aunt and uncle in Connecticut. Only thing is her aunt and uncle are weird and a tragic accident happens, and she's the only one that knows what really happened.