Rachel visits her aunt and uncle in Greenwich CT and befriends Claudia who is hired to help. The family protects its own when confronted with issues against Claudia, while Rachel is torn for she knows what happened.

Interesting idea for a story with good characters. Enjoyable read but nothing outstanding about it. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

I have to say that I enjoyed the first half of the book, the middle got a little boring, and then the second and third part were interesting. But, to be honest, even though at times it was easy to understand the main character's position and motivation, in the end it was hard to empatize with her. Anyway, overall, I have enjoyed some parts and I really liked the writing style. Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for sending me this ARC.

Page-turner alert! Greenwich is an absolutely riveting debut that I couldn’t put down. With its suspenseful narrative, morally complex characters, and an exploration of privilege and power, it’s a thought-provoking and unforgettable read.

Set in the summer of 1999, the story follows Rachel Fiske as she spends the season at her aunt and uncle’s luxurious Greenwich estate. What begins as a chance to escape her own troubles and help her injured aunt quickly turns into something far more complicated. As Rachel forms a bond with Claudia, the live-in babysitter, a tragic accident upends everything. The family scrambles to protect their reputation, leaving Rachel at the center of a moral dilemma. Caught between her loyalty to the family and her feelings for Claudia, Rachel must make a choice that will define her future.

Kate Broad’s storytelling is immersive and evocative, capturing the uneasy tension between privilege and morality. The characters feel deeply real, and the novel’s exploration of desire, complicity, and the blurred lines of redemption lingers long after the final page.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Greenwich is set to release on July 22, 2025, and I highly recommend adding it to your TBR list—it’s a must-read for anyone who loves compelling, thought-provoking fiction.

Greenwich is a novel about nearly-18-year-old Rachel, a lonely girl sent to Connecticut to spend the summer with her aunt and uncle. While living with them, Rachel uncovers a few seedy secrets about her aunt and uncle while spending her days with their daughter and her nanny. The story is cleaved into before and after - before the accident and after the accident.

The book was a fairly easy read and the characters were interesting enough. For some reason it was difficult for me to finish in one sitting and there would often be a few days between reading, however I am unsure why as each time I picked up the book I was interested in the story line and wanted to know what happened next. I wish the author had expanded upon Claudine's thought processes a bit more, but I suppose that could have been intentional. Rachel was depicted well as a confused, naive teenager and, later, a still naive older teenager going through the processes of legal proceedings and guilt related to her role in the events. There were no major twists or turns in the story but it was entertaining nonetheless.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Rachel is a teenage girl who goes to live with her rich aunt and uncle for the summer. She forms a friendship with their nanny Claudia, but when a tragedy turns the family against Claudia, Rachel has to figure out where her allegiances lie. The writing is so deft and self-assured it was hard to believe this is the author's debut novel. I imagine this will be a hot book club pick.

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

This book is way too intent on telling us that something terrible is going to happen. The author pushes it on every page, and it is really annoying. No surprises here.

Greenwich is a suburb of utmost privilege of which no one would expect anything bad to happen beyond a missed golf game or flattened flower beds. Rachel comes as an escape both from her family and friends of which she severely lacks. She is ready for Swarthmore; however, she is emotionally stunted. She cannot understand what is like for her Aunt Ellen to undergo physical pain and unfortunate reliance on pain pills nor Claudia's love for Sabine but always knowing what her role is in the Corbin family. I feel that Rachel did love Claudia or what she thought love was but her immaturity didn't enable her to see the real truth. Even though that is what her aunt and uncle gave her, money cannot buy love. It can help but it will not create it.

This was such an interesting story. I was a little thrown off by the style of writing in the beginning, it made me disoriented which I found confusing at first. After getting further in I realized that was probably done on purpose to mimic the mental states of Ellen and maybe even Rachel. The callback to an event that would happen to the characters a some point in the story kept me hooked- I had a hard time predicting who would be involved until we got to it. Rachel was such an unlikeable character for me, I struggled through her missteps wondering why she would make the choices she did, why she was so self sabotaging. I would have liked some more resolution with her character at the end, I would have liked one of the proposed actions she thought about to happen so that I could have seen the aftermath.

I wanted to love this book. I thought it had the perfect setting in Greenwich and the perfect time of year, but I found it to be just meh. It took a lit to get into in. The characters were not great and the title did not seem to fit at all.

I was blown away by this debut literary thriller! Rachel has just graduated from high school when she is sent to Greenwich, Connecticut to spend the summer with her wealthy aunt and uncle and their three year can old niece. Rachel ends up drawn into their complicated lives and feels a connection with their young nanny. After an unexpected tragedy occurs, Rachel is torn between her family’s expectations and what she feels is right. Broad has created a thriller that keeps you turning pages while also tackling themes of racism and classism. I look forward to reading more from her in the future!

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for gifting me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Being a Connecticut resident, I couldn't resist requesting a copy of Greenwich. I really enjoyed this book and found it to be a quick compulsive read. It's very upper class and although at times it felt a touch YA, I actually found it to be a great contemporary adult fiction read. Thick with high class snobs and a bunch of question marks, Rachel is forced to confront the secrets surrounding her and her family.

I'm not super familiar with the Greenwich area but know enough to know that a lot of the subject material seemed to line up.

The writing here was beautiful. Characters were complex and there were plenty of moments that piqued my interest, pushing me to read more. However, I didn't find this novel did anything new. It was reminiscent of Such a Fun Age, but without the personality and passive conflict. The unwinding of the protagonist's psyche after she made the statement that sent Claudia to prison was interesting, but didn't seem to have a purpose. Also - this is a multi-million dollar house, but they have no external security cameras to corroborate witness testimony? Seems odd...

This book is twisty and entertaining but ultimately left me wanting a little bit more. I thought the shifting dynamics between Claudia and Rachel were well captured but the back and forth eventually got a bit tired. The ending was surprising but ultimately a little unsatisfying for me.

Broad's storytelling is both engaging and thought-provoking, making Greenwich a book worth reading. It's a bit indulgent (but isn't that why we read about the lives of others?)

The first part of the book drew me in as the author did a great job of setting the scene and building tension. As the book progressed, I felt less invested in the narrator’s struggles, which began to feel self-indulgent. Ultimately, I would have liked to see more growth from the protagonist and/or have had another character’s POV to relate to.

A look at privilege from the outside in. There's a sense of isolation in this book that tells the story of a niece sent to live with her wealthy family in Greenwich. The story is heavily foreshadowed that something terrible occurred which casts a shadow of dread over the whole book. The author seats us firmly in the main character showing us her curiosity and confusion and deepening her sense of trespass over time. A very atmospheric and quick read.

I think the book was well written but definitely not a stand out for me. Definitely a quick easy read!


Thanks to NetGallery and St. Martin's Press for this arc

What a ride! This book is a mix of wealth, privilege, and regret served lukewarm in a Greenwich mansion circa 1999. This isn’t the summer of love, it’s the summer of yearning and bad decisions.

Think White Lotus energy without the murder, crossed with the muted sadness of Call Me by Your Name, but swap peaches for pearl necklaces and unresolved trauma.

Rachel Fiske spends the summer of 1999 in her aunt and uncle’s Greenwich mansion, suffocated by secrets she can’t quite understand and a family she doesn’t fit into. There’s a babysitter, Claudia, who’s both a lifeline and an obsession, and the tragic accident that sends everything spiraling. But let’s be clear: this isn’t about what happens. It’s about what doesn’t—what’s left unsaid, unprocessed, and unresolved.

This book isn’t here to thrill you. There’s no big twist, no gasp-out-loud moment—it’s more like walking into a room full of ghosts and realizing they’re all versions of yourself.

This book is a quiet excavation of shame. It’s about how privilege protects, how guilt festers, and how self-sabotage becomes a survival skill when you’re raised in the shadow of neglect. Rachel’s upbringing—a sick sibling stealing all the attention—sets her up to seek connection in all the wrong places. There’s a low hum of compulsory heterosexuality in her fixation on Claudia, a kind of yearning that’s more about identity than romance.

Why It Wasn’t Five Stars:

1. The Description Doesn’t Fit: The marketing around this book does it a disservice. If you’re expecting high drama and shocking secrets, you’re not going to find it here. And that’s not a bad thing—it’s just not Greenwich. This book feels more like Family Trust by Kathy Wang or even Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicombe than anything remotely Moriarty-esque.

2. Missed Opportunities: While the book is rich with introspection, it skirts some of its juiciest themes. Rachel’s queerness feels more implied than explored, and the dynamics of her family (especially growing up as the overshadowed sibling of a sick child) are compelling but not fully developed.

3. Character Growth (or Lack Thereof): Rachel isn’t self-aware, and while that’s clearly intentional, it makes for a frustrating reading experience at times. By the end of the book, she’s technically grown—becoming a trauma surgeon is no small feat—but emotionally, she’s still caught in the same loops of shame and self-doubt.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader’s copy. Greenwich publishes on July 22, 2025, and I’m so glad I got to read it early!

I want to thank St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review the novel Greenwich by author Kate Broad.
Rachel tells her story.
“It was just an accident.”
“Maybe anything could become true once you decided there was no other way.”
“- - were you ever close to someone, really close to them if it tuned out you’d never known them at all.”
Rachel is a senior in high school. She’s 17 years old. Her sister is sick and her parents send her to her aunt and uncles for the summer. There is a nanny but it is expected that Rachel will help out with her cousin. Living there is not all she expected!
And then the reader waits! What happens? And to whom? And how is it resolved?
You’ll have trouble putting this one down!
Greenwich is Kate Broad’s first novel. It is scheduled for publication in July 2025