This book kept me guessing what would happen next, from the start right up to the end! I kept reading well into the wee hours, anxious to know more, how the characters would act and react.

This is very well done, but I found it disturbing, sad and depressing. Which I suppose is the point. Although I cannot say that I enjoyed it, exactly, I am very glad to have read it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Greenwich was somehow both a slow burn and a wild ride. The book follows Rachel during a tense summer before college—one filled with privilege, secrecy, and emotional chaos. The plot moves fast, but Rachel’s inner unraveling is slow and heavy, touching on themes like race, class, wealth, and guilt.

The characters are selfish and complicated, especially Rachel, who tries to distance herself from her world but keeps proving she belongs in it. Some threads felt unresolved, and the post-summer chapters didn’t hit as hard, but the story still pulled me in.

A quick intense read that stuck with me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

This is middle of the road. A straight-up three. With editing, I could see this being a fantastic short story in a contemporary lit collection. As a book, it's excessively long and really more about the aftershocks, rather than an active story.

Rachel is obsessed with guilt, however she's also unable to own up to her part and her own privilege. She's a painful character to watch, someone repeat their mistakes, over and over, as we build to the big reveal.

It's a story about guilt that should have been 100 pages MAX.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

This coming-of-age story takes a cutting look at class, privilege, racism and sexuality amongst a wealthy Greenwich family. We experience the world through Rachel’s perspective as she recounts the tragic events that unfolded over the summer she spent after graduating high school with her aunt, uncle, three-year-old cousin and their nanny.

At seventeen, Rachel has led a sheltered and privileged life. She’s running from her own problems and finds solace in her aunt’s secret stash of pain pills and a surprising friendship with her cousin’s nanny who just graduated college. She’s discovering a whole new world as she experiments with drugs, tries alcohol and explores her sexuality. She also comes across troubling secrets about her aunt and uncle and their absentee parenting when it comes to their child.

But tragedy strikes, and we know it’s coming. And once all the pieces are laid out with the events leading up to it, this becomes a story of protecting your own, grappling with complicity and accountability for your actions (or inactions), and the accompanying shame that necessitates redemption.

What I really couldn’t get past in this story was that it’s supposed to be a coming-of-age story, and while Rachel certainly grows up, she doesn’t grow as a person. Her selfishness and inability to understand how she’s acting from a place of trying to make herself feel better infuriated me. She just doesn’t get it, and I hated where the story went in the end. I think it would’ve been much stronger to get a dual POV from Claudia’s side in all of this to really and truly hit home the important topics this book tried to tackle.

Sadly, not one I’d ultimately recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange of an honest review.

Oh this book.
It hooked me right from the beginning. I went in completely blind and 20% in, I was obsessed with the story and completely hooked.

And it all went downhill from there.

I'd describe this as general fiction with a hint of mystery.
It's plot hole heavy, And the second part reads like entitled white guilt.

3.5 rounded up --

"Greenwich" went in a very different direction than I thought it was going to! I was expecting sort of a suspenseful quasi-whodunit courtroom drama in a ritzy setting, but in some ways it's much more a coming of age story. The story started off strong for me, I lost interest a bit in the middle, but then picked back up towards the end -- basically, there's quite a bit of setup and then the legal drama aspects play out fairly quickly, followed by a bit of "after the fact" narration by the main character. Despite the lull in the middle, I thought the various threads were interesting and came together nicely in the end.

Rating: 3.5 ⭐️
Pub Date: July 22, 2025
How I Read It:📱

Synopsis
It’s the summer of 1999 and seventeen year old Rachel Fiske is spending the summer at her aunt and uncle’s mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut to escape her life back home, but something is wrong with her aunt, she’s acting strange and her uncle is consumed with business. Her summer is not going how she thought it would, but her saving grace is Claudia, her cousin’s babysitter who Rachel starts developing feelings for. Then there’s an accident, and Rachel has to make some choices no seventeen year old should have to make.

But when a tragic accident occurs, Rachel must make a pivotal choice. Caught between her desire to do the right thing and to protect her future, she’s the only one who knows what really happened—and her decision has consequences far beyond what she could have predicted.

My Thoughts
This book brings you right into the affluential world of Greenwich, CT, and it does it well. The book was suspenseful in that you are waiting to see what secret the main character, Rachel, was hiding. What tragic event happened that she keeps vaguely referring to? As the book continues on, you keep getting little pieces of the story, building the anticipation up to the final moment the whole story will be revealed. In the end, we find out Rachel is obsessive, can’t let things go, and has a destructive personality, causing trouble for herself and others. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a thriller, but it has the aspect of suspense. It’s definitely a good read to pickup in the summer!

Themes
- Slow-Burn
- Suspenseful
- Family Tragedy

Ratings
Characters: 3 ⭐️
Pace: 4 ⭐️
Enjoyability: 3.5 ⭐️

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!

** spoiler alert ** 4 stars

It's the beginning of summer, 1999 - Rachel has just finished high school and is on the cusp of adulthood. Due to issues with friends she decides that being away for the summer would be good for her, and it just so happens that her aunt in Greenwich is healing from a former injury so Rachel thinks she could be helpful around the house. Once in Greenwich, she is introduced to her young cousin's nanny, a fresh, vivacious girl named Claudia who's just finishing up college so not much older than Rachel herself. The girls get along like gangbusters, taking care of her little cousin Sabine. Rachel finds her aunt and uncle's aloof and detached behaviour unsettling but can't really point to anything in particular she thinks is "wrong". However, the girls get super drunk while the adults are away for the weekend and end up fooling around together. In the morning, Rachel feels Claudia has completely pulled away for her and she's hurt and confused. While arguing about it outside in the garden, the unspeakable occurs and Sabine has a tragic accident.

It's incredibly important to note that Rachel and her family are white; Claudia is not. The terrible prevalence of casual racism, the high society standards where money and standing are more importance than truth and understanding, the desperate need to find someone to blame when a tragedy like this occurs and the tendency to band together against "the other" - all these things and more are explored in this sad but familiar story. What happens when an affluent family's image becomes more important than allowing the truth to save an innocent girl struggling to make a life for herself?

This was definitely a heavy book me to read, and there were parts that were certainly difficult to work through. But the tropes are there of a tale as old as time - Young Black Woman blamed for grievous tragedy to befall Rich White Family. And because Rachel is angry at Claudia for rebuffing her, she makes the awful decision to stand behind her family rather than the truth. The further along I got, the less I trusted Rachel and by the end was convinced that she never really learned any kind of life lesson at all; she was trying to buy forgiveness the exact same way her family did. Definite trigger warnings for this book, but the writing style and immersive POV of Rachel make for a fascinating read overall.

Thanks to NetGalley, author Kate Broad, and St. Martin's Press for granting me access to a free digital ARC of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own and are provided here voluntarily.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this debut book by Kate Broad, with the audiobook wonderfully narrated by Imani Jade Powers. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars!

Rachel Fiske is a young woman who has just graduated from high school and needs a summer escape plan. She heads to Greenwich CT to help her aunt recover from an injury and to help care for her young daughter. Her aunt and uncle are distant though, and Rachel still feels lost until she gets to know Claudia, her young cousin's nanny, better. But when a tragedy occurs, Rachel must make a choice.

This is a slow, character study novel, a coming of age book taking place in 1999. Rachel is portrayed as a naive young woman and seems to let life happen to her, as opposed to taking charge of it. Her home life is messy, with a sick younger sister, her high school friends turned their back on her, and she's just not feeling comfortable anywhere. Claudia gives her a glimpse of a different kind of life for a bit. None of these characters are really likable, but you'll still feel for them and feel the nostalgic pull of just not knowing how to fit into life. I liked how there was some foreshadowing of a tragedy throughout the book, with hints about a trial to add some tension into the narrative. Definitely a discussion of wealth and privilege, status, and racism. The audiobook production was immersive, and I enjoyed going back and forth between the two formats. Can't wait to see what will be next from this author.

I really enjoyed this book - the suspense was perfectly balanced by the lightheartedness of the main character and her summer adventures. I think I wanted more from the ending, maybe more commentary or exploration on race and sexuality. overall, it was great and I would love to read future books by this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review. The story itself was predictable (you knew something terrible was going to happen to Sabine, that Claudia would get blamed for it, and Rachel would be the one to help take her down, etc). I am still trying to figure out what the author was trying to do here. Was it supposed to be some kind of commentary on race and justice (the lack thereof) in America? Maybe, but then why not have Rachel actually grow up after 20 years have passed? Why leave the ending so ambiguous? Take a stand and have Rachel redeem herself by calling the reporter and telling the truth, or have her continue to be a privileged, self-centered brat, but don’t play both sides and “leave it up to the reader” to decide what phone call she made. This book is actually irritating me more as I’m writing this.

<i>Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.</i>

3.5 stars rounded down

This surprised me! It was a wild corrupt ride and I enjoyed it! Honestly just an easy entertaining read

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

Rich people behaving badly. How do you make an extremely difficult choice in the aftermath of a tragedy and how do you deal with the consequences of that choice? Greenwich will have you thinking about all of this. While I found the pace to be slow to unfold in certain parts I did end up enjoying the overall story.

Wow - this book has left me quite speechless with the emotional heaviness and the emotional neglect; the need to feel redeemed and the need to feel justified; the desire to be seen and the desire to blend in, regardless the fall out.

Rachel is “just” seventeen when a tragic accident thrusts her into a role that will undeniably set the trajectory for her life.

Family vs Friendship (and maybe love?) - to which do you pledge your allegiance? Both are deeply flawed and both provide alternate paths in life.

The decision isn’t an easy one but Rachel is forced (coerced) to make one immediately after that tragic accident.

This is a FIVE STAR must read that is one part thought-provoking and one part watching an inevitable train wreck.

I was gifted the ARC from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press and I was gifted the ALC by Macmillan Audio. The narration by Imani Jade Powers was beautifully heartfelt and heartbreaking. She did a marvelous job bringing the characters, their personalities, their flaws, and their challenges to life! I’d love to find other works she’s narrated.

This MUST READ is set to release July 22nd 2025 - secure a copy now!

In this novel set in 1999, Rachel spends her last summer before college at her aunt and uncle’s glamorous mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut, where there are secrets lurking among the wealth and luxury. Like “The Great Gatsby” with Y2K vibes, the debut novel from author Kate Broad comes out this month to add a fresh dose of romance, mystery, and nostalgia to your summer reading.

The summer before she starts college, Rachel goes to stay with her wealthy aunt and uncle in Greenwich. She has a young cousin who is being cared for by a nanny in her early 20s. Things in the house seem off to Rachel from the very beginning, and then tragedy strikes. This book started out strong but ultimately lost momentum and focus.

I thought this was a really interesting book. I loved the setting, and the time period, which I thought really contributed to the story and the feel. I thought the relationship between Rachel and Claudia was really well written and made me want to keep reading to learn more about them. I think I wanted a little more from the book, it set up a lot of interesting storylines, but I don't feel like a lot of them fully paid off.

Greenwich by Kate Broad is a book about wealth and the advantages that come from having money. The story is set at a rich mansion in Conneticut and focuses on the main character, Rachel, back in 1999. The story takes a turn when a disaster occurs and Rachel must make a hard decision. The story is fast paced and would be perfect for someone taking a summer trip to the New England area. Thank you to the publisher for this ARC!

This one was one I just could not get into. The writing style was not engaging, and I found the characters yo be insufferable so I could not finish.