Jonny Garza Villa Books in Order

Jonny Garza Villa grew up near the Texas Gulf Coast and now lives in San Antonio. Their novels are rooted in Tejane and Chicane identity, queer life, family ties, and the particular pressures of figuring yourself out when everyone around you seems to have an opinion.

Texas is more than a backdrop in Villa's work. Corpus Christi, San Antonio, school hallways, family restaurants, mariachi rehearsals, college classrooms, and soccer fields all become places where young people test out who they are and what they want.

Their stories make room for joy alongside the hard stuff.

Villa made their fiction debut in 2021 with Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun. The novel follows Julián Luna, a Corpus Christi senior whose impulsive social-media post outs him before he is ready. As he plans for UCLA and starts talking to Mat, a boy in Los Angeles, Julián has to handle fear, family expectations, friendship, and the distance between the life he has and the one he wants. The book received a Pura Belpré Honor.

In Ander & Santi Were Here, Villa moves to San Antonio's West Side. Ander López, a young muralist, meets Santi after being pushed out of their family's taquería. Their quick connection grows while immigration enforcement threatens the restaurant and the people around them. The novel earned a Stonewall Book Award Honor, but its center is intimate: a first love, a close-knit community, and two people trying to hold on to each other.

Music takes the lead in Canto Contigo. Rafael Alvarez is a competitive mariachi singer who moves to San Antonio after the death of his abuelo. He expects to take over as lead vocalist at his new school, only to find Rey Chavez already in that spot. Their rivalry has extra complications, since they have met before, and Rafael must sort through grief, ambition, family legacy, and a growing attraction.

Then came Futbolista, Villa's first new adult romance. Gabriel Piña is a college goalkeeper with big plans for a professional soccer career and little patience for anything that might disrupt it. His classmate Vale, who offers to tutor him, makes it harder for Gabi to ignore questions about his own identity and the narrow ideas of masculinity around him.

Across these books, Villa returns to characters who are funny, stubborn, hopeful, and often overwhelmed. They write about coming out, first love, friendship, grief, and family without pretending that any of those things are simple. Spanish and English sit naturally together, as do sharp jokes, romantic nerves, and serious conversations.

Away from the page, Villa is an avid Dungeons & Dragons player, a former very bad baseball player, and a former pretty good drag queen. They have also mentored emerging writers, led workshops, and taken part in literary events and festivals.

The result is a growing shelf of contemporary romances that keeps asking a straightforward question: what changes when someone finally lets themselves want a fuller life?