Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the ARC! I was hoping to really love this book but unfortunately it failed to grip me. I’m sure many other readers will enjoy it!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advance copy of this title in exchange for honest feedback.

Recommended this one to everyone I knew and I have only heard good feedback (very diverse shelves) so I will let that speak for itself!!

I really expected to love this because a lot of my favourite authors had high praise for it but it did nothing for me. I couldn't connect to any of the characters and kept expecting a twist that never came. Maybe I'm missing something but this just didn't work for me.

Greta and Valdin had me hooked straight away! Greta and Valdin is about two queer, twenty-something, delightfully awkward siblings that I really wanted to be friends with. I laughed out loud at moments, felt sad at others, and generally related a little too strongly at times. I will admit that I found it a little difficult to follow since there were so many characters to keep track of; whenever there is a character list at the start of a book, I get a little nervous, and at the conclusion, the plot appeared to lose me because there was so much going on. Overall, I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from the author.

Greta and Valdin is a fun read. A book with some serious themes, but mostly a pleasant book with memorable characters, light vibes and loads of one liners.
There are so many characters in this book and it just so happens that some have the same or similar names. It's a hoot but don't worry if you're confused - just keep moving forward. The witty one liners are also in abundance but it worked for me. You'll know immediately whether it works for you. What felt most fresh and unique about the writing style was how each short chapter read like a scene from a sitcom. There was the set up, the middle and the end which comes full circle. Really fresh and the back and forth voices between Greta and Valdin left me feeling like I was flipping back and forth between Fleabag and Schitt's Creek. I had fun with this one!

funny, tender, and lovely! this was such a fun and heartwrenching novel with the kind of queer rep i adore.

There was somehow both more and less going on in Greta & Valdin than the synopsis led me to believe, and while there really wasn't much plot, the journeys the characters went on were rewarding. There's a lot of heart in this novel, as Reilly explores different aspects of family relationships (many of which are unconventional). Although I wanted to see more of the titular characters interacting, the way their lives were entwined without the other constantly being present was really well done, as was Reilly's ability to allude to information about many, many characters without putting all her cards on the table. The mental health and queer presentation felt organic, as did the struggle of being mixed race in a country that expects you to lean heavily into one ethnicity over another and the stereotyping that comes about based on appearances. The writing wasn't my favorite—too many pop culture references, with both Valdin's and Greta's perspectives being rambly—and the ending was way too abrupt and had several threads I wanted to see tied off. Still, a fun read!

I’ve had my eye on Greta & Valdin since I heard it marketed as a mash up of Schitt’s Creek and Sally Rooney’s Normal People. The best thing I can say is that it truly delivers on this promise 💕

Set mostly in Auckland, this eccentric story focuses on brother and sister duo Greta & Valdin. Greta is hung up on an unrequited work crush and Valdin is hung up on his former ex-lover who broke up with him and moved to Buenos Aires a year ago.

I expected this novel to be funny and I expected this novel to be serious - and it is wonderfully both of those things. There are scenes, particularly those set at the family dinner table filled with unconventional yet universal family moments, that made me laugh aloud. The story is also a coming of age tale for both siblings who are in their twenties and eagerly trying to figure out their place in the world. Though I couldn’t be more different than either of them in life path, sexuality, or nationality, I loved learning from them and relating to them in equal measure.

What I did not expect is for the novel to be heartwarmingly sweet. Reilly’s writing style is as quirky as her characters, which lends the story a wonderfully fresh feeling and keeps the feeling from veering saccharine at any point. I’d liken the conclusion to a perfect key lime pie, sweet but also a little bit tart and filled with complex flavor. The perfect end to this witty and messy reading experience.

All in all: if a mash-up of Schitt’s Creek and Normal People sounds like a fun time to you, you’ll love this, too. Thank you to @avidreaderpress for my e-ARC!

Greta and Valdin was a really interesting novel. I loved the relationship between brother and sister, the exploration of queerness, and the Maori background.

After his ex-boyfriend dumps him and moves from New Zealand to Argentina, Valdin's life seems fine from the outside. He has a nice apartment with his sister, Greta, and a job that he mostly likes. But inside, he struggles with the breakup and what he wants for his next steps. When a business trip takes him to Argentina, Valdin finds himself reconnecting with his ex-boyfriend and the possibility of a future he thought was beyond his grasp. Back at home, Greta is facing her own struggles, not least of all are her own career questions and the ongoing drama that her close-knit family cannot help but cause.

This was a touching and perceptive story. Well written and with strong characters, it is an engaging exploration of family, identity, and love.

Highly recommended!

This book was so much more than what I expected from the cover. I really fell in love with this family who have so much figured out, yet nothing figured out! The language of the book was very accessible and I felt like I could get lost in the prose easily and forget that I don't actually know these characters. This is the kind of book that leaves an impression on you after you finish reading because although there is some resolutions, there are also a lot of life left living off the page.
As someone who spent time living in New Zealand, I was very nostalgic from the descriptions of place. But I do think anyone will like this book, even if you have very little context of Kiwi life.

Thank you NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the ARC.

This was certainly the *hot new book* for this past winter, and I totally get it. The writing is dripping with a witty, dry humor, the pop culture references are on point, and it has a really sweet ending. I loved Greta & Valdin's weird family and huge cast of supporting characters. My complaint is that I felt like I didn't connect with the characters enough. There was a cold remove to them and I felt like because of the switching POVs of the two siblings with each chapter, there was not enough of a distinct voice to keep me on track between them.

There is not much of a plot, I would say the book is more of a series of vignettes following G and V, as they are most often called. They are siblings with an eccentric family, and they are both dealing with love relationships and career changes. It was interesting to find out that about 25% of the way through, Valdin was actually a famous TV presenter? He is going through a breakup with a family friend, and Greta is trying to date but gets hung up by the various speedbumps caused by her friends and colleagues at the university she works at.

It's a quirky book, filled with chaotic storylines and clever dialogue. I loved the New Zealand setting (haven't read many of those) and the last quarter did shine for me. I just wasn't as enamored with the book as many others were.

Had me in stitches, some of the best dialogue I've read in a long time. The Māori and Russian culture mix; brilliant. The everyday strangeness inside families, excellent. I enjoyed the self-aware commentary, though I am a bit past that time—uni parties where people call cigarettes 'durries' that are probably 'just back from Berlin'.

The dialogue running into the 'inner' dialogue did get a bit confusing. It's like when someone retells you a story and adds what they thought in the same sentence as describing the situation, and you need to ask, 'Did you actually say that?' And then they say, 'No, of course I didn't SAY that'. I had to reread some passages. There is also a list of characters at the front, so dense on people with similar names/go by two names, you have to pay close attention.

A book of stream of consciousness, absurdist, out-there thought processes that somehow, at the same time, make perfect sense.

Did not finish reading this book seeing as I was unable to find it interesting in the first several pages. Will revisit at a later point.

This is a story of a Māori-Russian-Catalonian family. I'm going to start with that. I want you to take a moment and appreciate that cultural mix. What should have happened for all these people to get together and build a family? What are the chances? And they are queer one way or the other. Everyone is free to live their lives, no judgement, no constraints. What a family!

I like to read about siblings especially the ones that are attached at the hip and won't do anything without telling each other. Greta and Valdin were one of those siblings. So when Valdin decided to follow his heart (and second brain) and follow his boyfriend on his way to parenthood without telling Greta a thing, Greta's world crumbled a bit. She didn't know where Valdin was. She could tell him about what life was throwing her way. She wanted to follow her heart but what if....

It was hard to keep up with this family. While main focus was on Greta and Valdin, everyone else in their circle was no different than those two. They ended up throwing a big wedding party where whole family and friends came together as they should have done.

I liked this book for the characters -- I loved getting to know them and living in their heads, with their idiosyncrasies and quirks. The writing style felt a little off for me, though I can't exactly explain why, but it didn't affect my enjoyment too much!

this book only has two flaws: it has 930 characters and all of them fall under the same family tree and 78% of their names start with G and two of them are greta and it is genuinely impossible to keep them straight even if you dramatically flip back to the beginning multiple times; and it has two perspectives and they're identical, as in the characters have nearly the same voice, but in a way that's a pro for me bc i don't like books with multiple povs.

otherwise this is perfect: so funny, no plot, just vibes, memorable characters, filled with jokes and generational humor and pop culture references without being annoying. of course i didn't love when the book's final pages descended into tons of points of view, because i don't like that at the best of times and i couldn't remember anyone's relationship to one another, but i would have read the first 200 pages of this book for 930 pages. i never expected to get Living With A Beloved Sibling And Knowing That It Will End Soon Because You're Both In Love And Wanting That And Not Wanting That And Being Heartbroken And Happy At Once representation, and what a treat to receive it.

for this, i give it a proverbial kiss on the forehead and 4.5 stars.

this felt like a great book to take when you’re traveling and want to be accompanied by characters that feel like family.

the whole thing was so heartwarming and funny and actually so real, i wish we could’ve gotten more of the siblings interaction since it was more focused on their own personal lives instead of how they helped each other on their problems but i still enjoyed it very much.

there’s a lot of characters but for a first i didn’t feel very confused about them, i think they were very well written and focused on their roles and what they’re supposed to bring to the story and the way i ended up connecting with them surprise me very much.

thank you avid reader press for the arc and everyone go get it and enjoy it as much i did.

This book really grew on me as I read it. I found the characters to be more and more lovable as the story went on. I often find characters' insecurities to be an overplayed trope and annoying, but the writing here is so strong and the character development so thoughtful that I was never annoyed. This family is so funny with unique dynamics and kind of wild connections to each other. They demonstrate love and caring in such real ways, sometimes a bit messy, but always real. This is a really special book about how we make our families and I recommend it to all.