Where to Start with Andaleeb Wajid’s Young Adult Novels

My young adult novels follow teenagers and young women caught at those unsettling moments when family, friendship and the future all seem to demand an answer at once. Some are warm and funny. Others move through grief, secrets or the ache of feeling that you do not quite belong.

You can begin with any of them. Choose the story that matches what you want to feel right now.

If you want a tender story about cousins, grief and family secrets

Start with Have You Met Me?

After their grandmother Haleema Begum dies, Safina, Nura and Rayhaan return to her home in Mysore with their families. The three cousins were once inseparable, though years and the tensions between their mothers have turned them into strangers. Finding their Nani’s journals gives them a shared purpose: protecting her home and understanding the history their family has carried for years.

Told through several perspectives, this is a story about grief, inherited hurt and the fragile work of finding your way back to people who once knew you well.

Choose this if you enjoy: complicated families, cousins reconnecting, old journals and bittersweet coming-of-age stories.

If you want ambition, romance and a heroine building something of her own

Start with The Henna Start-up.

Abir Maqsood wants a career, financial freedom and some control over her future. When a client refuses to pay her mother for her henna work, Abir decides to create an app that could help her mother’s business. A college start-up programme gives her an opening, though funding troubles, family restrictions, friendships and the distracting Arsalan make the path far from simple.

This award-winning novel brings together technology, henna traditions, first love and a young woman’s determination to shape her own life.

Choose this if you enjoy: ambitious heroines, college life, entrepreneurship, family expectations and gentle romance.

If you want a summer of self-discovery

Start with Asmara’s Summer.

Seventeen-year-old Asmara is horrified when her holiday plans disappear and she must spend the summer with her grandparents on Tannery Road. She worries that her college friends will judge the neighbourhood and the part of her family she has tried to keep hidden. What begins as a month she intends to endure slowly changes the way she sees her grandparents, her community and herself.

The novel inspired the Amazon Prime series Dil, Dosti, Dilemma and makes an inviting choice for readers drawn to lively family stories with warmth and humour.

Choose this if you enjoy: summer settings, grandparents, friendship, community and characters learning to question their own assumptions.

If you want social media, friendship and unexpected love

Start with Everything Sucks.

This contemporary teenage drama enters a world shaped by Instagram, appearances and the pressure to keep performing a version of yourself for other people. At its centre are friendship, family and a romance that arrives from an unexpected direction.

Pick this when you want a current, relatable story about young people trying to work out which parts of their online and offline lives feel honest.

Choose this if you enjoy: influencer culture, modern friendships, romantic complications and questions about authenticity.

If you want an emotional mystery about a missing mother

Start with When She Went Away.

Maria’s mother leaves behind a brief note and disappears from the family’s life. In the confusion that follows, Maria becomes determined to find her and understand why she left. Her search leads through anger, uncertainty and truths that are harder to face than the unanswered questions.

This is a more intense coming-of-age story for readers who like family mysteries grounded in real emotion.

Choose this if you enjoy: missing-person stories, family secrets, determined heroines and emotionally layered mysteries.

A few more paths into my young adult books

Try Mirror Mirror for a funny, tender story about body image, acceptance and learning to treat yourself with kindness.

Begin the Tamanna Trilogy with No Time for Goodbyes if you want time travel, romance and a longer story that continues across three books.

Choose Scare Walk when you want a shorter, illustrated horror story with a contemporary edge.

Still unsure?

Begin with Have You Met Me? for a moving family story told through several young voices.

Open The Henna Start-up when you want energy, ambition and romance.

Pick Asmara’s Summer for warmth, humour and a story you can follow from page to screen.

Choose Everything Sucks for a contemporary look at social media and young love, or When She Went Away for something more mysterious and emotionally intense.