WHAT TO READ NEXT IN YOUNG ADULT
JUNE 2026
by Sydney Spell
Welcome to Texas Reads YA! As a teen who loves to read YA, I sometimes have a hard time finding quality YA novels.
Ingredients:
- 1 try-hard salutatorian
- 1 annoying and (annoyingly) cute boy
- A handful of Korean recipes (measure with your heart)
- The spice of competition, to taste
Eliza Park’s senior year will be perfect: She’s going to be salutatorian, give a tear-jerking graduation speech in front of her parents, and enjoy her last year with her equally ambitious best friends. But when a scheduling mishap enrolls her in Culinary Arts, Eliza is suddenly the most clueless person in the class. Her typical title of star student belongs to the aggravatingly arrogant Wesley Ruengsomboon, a charming Thai American boy whose talent in the kitchen leaves Eliza both awed and annoyed.
With her rank on the line, Eliza’s only hope is to snatch the midterm cooking contest win from Wesley, however improbable that may be. Add in the flavor of her grandmother’s Korean recipes, the heat of being class partners with Wesley, and the sweetness of unexpected feelings—and Eliza must now rebuild everything she knew about success, love, and what it means to be herself, from scratch.
Eliza, from Scratch twines success, culture, and family into a beautiful story about identity. Eliza’s relationship with her mom is real and raw and very compelling. The romance aspect is truly sweet and Eliza and Wesley’s romance is adorably refreshing.
Sophia Lee, a Corpus Christi native and Texan at heart, currently lives in Washington, DC, as an OB-GYN resident with dreams of being a lifelong storyteller and empathetic health care provider.
This ain’t Josie’s first rodeo. Her parents own several fancy restaurants in Houston, and they just opened a new one right outside the stadium. Josie is expected to stay inside the restaurant and help, and maybe take over their growing empire one day, but that isn’t what Josie wants. She’d rather be at the rodeo itself than in a high-end restaurant next to it. Or eating funnel cakes and Texas-sized corn dogs at the carnival on the grounds. Or better yet, riding her horse at her grandparents’ ranch, the very place her mom wants to sell.
It ain’t Shawn’s first rodeo either. He’s been riding bulls since his mom died, doing everything he can to live up to his rodeo-champion stepfather’s sky-high expectations. But as Shawn’s stardom rises, so do tensions in their relationship. His stepfather’s drinking and gambling problems sure don’t help.
After one unforgettable night leaves Josie and Shawn wanting nothing but each other, their lives become entwined in increasingly complex ways. Can they save Josie’s family land? Or will Shawn’s stepfather and his shady plan be the ranch’s ruin? Will one wrong move cost them everything? Rodeo after rodeo, year after year, can Josie and Shawn keep their hearts open through the secrets, twists, and turns?
This Ain’t Our First Rodeo uses a sweet romance and a journey or perseverance and tradition to dive into Black cowboys and deliver a cute, YA, cowboy romance. The characters are real and rooted in the culture surrounding the Houston Rodeo leading to fun and relatable characters.
Liara Tamani attended Harvard Law School and worked as a marketing coordinator for the Houston Rockets and Comets and production assistant for Girlfriends (TV show). She lives in Houston, Texas.
Sydney Spell is a college freshman at UT Austin. She has enjoyed reading through adolescence and is a big fan of YA novels specifically.