‘My Life with the Walter Boys’ is getting a sequel

It's been more than 10 years since writer Ali Novak released her super popular "My Life with the Walter Boys" on Wattpad, a free online reading platform. Since then, the "Vampire Diaries"-inspired story she wrote at 15 years old has been traditionally published and turned into a hit Netflix series.

Now, Novak is back for the next chapter of main character Jackie's story.

"My Life with the Walter Boys" is officially getting a sequel, out April 15, 2025, Novak exclusively shares with TODAY.com.

"I didn’t really need to find inspiration to write the sequel because I’ve always wanted to write it," she says.

Readers first met Jackie and the prolific Walter family in 2010. In the young adult romance, Jackie moves from New York City to Colorado to live with Katherine and George Walter — and their 12 kids — after a family tragedy. She soon finds herself torn between two of the titular Walter boys: 17-year-old Cole and 16-year-old Alex.

That love triangle came to the small screen with the 2023 "My Life with the Walter Boys" adaptation. Actors Nikki Rodriguez (Jackie), Noah LaLonde (Cole), Ashby Gentry (Alex) and Sarah Rafferty (Katherine) lead the star-studded cast.

Season One of the show ended with a cliffhanger: Jackie finally kisses Cole but chooses to leave Colorado and return to New York with her uncle. But there will be more to come; Netflix renewed "My Life with the Walter Boys" for Season Two in December 2023.

The book left on a more resolved, yet "open-ended" note, which has been a source of reader frustration for years, Novak says.

At the end of the novel, Jackie and Alex decide they are better off as friends, leaving her to finally give into her feelings for Cole. They kiss before she leaves Colorado for the next three months.

Novak's next book is aptly titled “My Return to the Walter Boys.”

"I think it’s a very fitting title because not only is Jackie returning to the Walter boys, but I’m also returning to this world after many, many years," she says.

What can readers anticipate from Novak's newest release? Below, she tells TODAY.com about returning to the world of the Walter boys, how the sequel will relate to the show and which team she's really on: Team Alex or Team Cole?

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What inspired you to write this story at 15 years old?

There were a lot of little things that inspired me to write “My Life with the Walter Boys.” I wouldn’t say that there was like one thing, but a lot of it was pop culture. “The Vampire Diaries” was one part of that inspiration. I just really loved the love triangle, and I know that’s some people’s ick, but I enjoyed it, especially with the added edge of them being brothers.

I also really loved “Gossip Girl” at the time. And so, my favorite character was always Blair Waldorf. I saw Jackie as Blair but like the nice version of her, so that’s where Jackie's character inspiration came from.

And then the other media that really inspired this story is — I have a huge family.

I’ve always loved stories with big family dynamics. The movies “Yours, Mine & Ours” and then “Cheaper by the Dozen," those both heavily influenced the story because I just loved that big family element that those stories brought, and I wanted to kind of create my own version of that.

What was your inspiration for returning to the Walter boys?

When I first came up with the idea for "My Life with the Walter Boys," I saw it as this multiple-part story, and I say multiple-part story instead of novel and sequel because at the time I was writing serialized fiction online. So I never imagined a book getting published, let alone becoming a hit Netflix show.

When I was outlining the original idea, I always saw the first part of the story ending when Jackie leaves for New York at the start of the summer and then the second part would begin with her returning to Colorado.

The biggest complaint that I get from people who love "My Life with the Walter Boys" is how open-ended the book is. I’ve always wanted to say, "Well, yeah, I wrote it like that because it’s meant to have a sequel." There was always supposed to be more, but it didn’t come to fruition, and I didn’t want to say something and get fans hopes up, so I’ve never really addressed the issue.

The first part was the love triangle. The "will she pick Alex, or will she pick Cole?" The second part was always supposed to be the "will they-won’t they" with Cole now that she’s chosen him.

So what can readers expect from this sequel? What’s the premise of this second book?

So the title is "My Return to the Walter Boys." I think it’s a very fitting title because not only is Jackie returning to the Walter boys, but I’m also returning to this world after many, many years.

I can’t tell you too much, but the story obviously starts with Jackie returning to the Walter ranch after a summer in New York. She left because she needed space to go home and kind of face her demons and deal with her grief.

And while she isn’t fully healed from what will probably always be the most traumatic event of her life, she’s in a much better place than she was at the start of the first book.

So she’s very excited to return to Colorado and be with this new family that she’s found. However, when she arrives, she quickly realizes that a lot of things have changed while she was gone and life at the Walters’ is not the same as it used to be, especially with her relationship with Cole.

What bumps can we expect along the way in the second book?

There’s bumps, there’s surprises with most of our main characters. So there’s major surprises with Cole, there’s surprises with Alex and there’s changes with Jackie's relationship with Nathan (the middle Walter boy).

In the book, she has a much closer relationship with Nathan than she does in the TV show. So their relationship changes, and then she also has a new relationship change with Isaac (the fourth-oldest).

Those are the main characters that are focused on in this book.

What can we expect in terms of character development compared to the first book? And are there new characters readers can look forward to meeting?

The story is told in Jackie's point of view, so the main character growth and development will be Jackie’s. But because all three of these characters — Cole, Isaac and Nathan — are heavily focused on in the book, you will definitely see character development from them.

There are new characters introduced. However, none of them are major roles. And I can’t say more than that.

But think about why I would be introducing new characters... There are new characters that are introduced near the end of the novel for a very particular reason.

How much did the success of the show influence you to write a sequel?

So I wrote “My Life with the Walter Boys” on Wattpad, and I had ideas for what continuing the story would be, but I needed a break. I wanted to focus on other ideas.

When I got back around to attempting to write more, I was at a different point in my life. I didn’t start the second part of the story until I was in college... and the sequel that I wrote very much reflected where I was in my life.

I was no longer a teenager in high school, but a young adult living away from home for the first time. And because of that, the sequel that I wrote really departed from my original idea of Jackie returning to Colorado. It actually took place four years after the first story. So Jackie was in college, and Cole had just graduated and it was actually told from Cole’s point of view.

I wrote that, and that was also posted on Wattpad (as “My Life as a Walter Boy”). But when I started publishing my work with Sourcebooks, me and my editor talked about it, and that sequel wasn’t the right sequel. So I outlined two different sequel ideas based on my original concept. And my editor liked them, but she was obsessed with my other book series. So it just never came to fruition. 

But, yeah, there is a terrible sequel that was written that will never see the light of day. (“My Life as a Walter Boy” is no longer available on Novak’s Wattpad.) And there were also multiple outlines that I created afterwards for me to work from for this sequel.

But at the same time, it’s definitely been a challenge. While I did put a lot of thought into it, that was a decade ago. It’s one thing that I've been struggling with when I've been writing the sequel — not that I'm not having fun — but I was 15 when I wrote the first book. I'm about to turn 33. I'm not even close to being a teenager anymore.

I definitely rewrote the first chapter multiple times before I felt comfortable with what I was doing. It was almost like I needed to scrape off years of rust to get Jackie’s voice.

I even joked with Melanie, who is the showrunner for the Netflix adaption, that when she was adapting and developing the story, she probably knew the characters and the storyline better than I did at that point because it had been so long since I had read the book or worked in that world.

Will this sequel impact the plot of 'My Life with the Walter Boys' Season 2? And does this mean that Season 2 won’t come out until 2025?

You can think of the show and the books as separate entities at this point.

There’s a lot of content that was skipped in the first book. So maybe we’ll see some content in Season Two that is reflective of the first book.

But none of the content that I am currently writing will be in the second season. They’ve just taken different directions. Still all the same characters that we love.

If the show continues to be a success, maybe they will look at the sequel that I wrote and take some of that content, but at this time, they’re two separate entities.

I can’t speak to when the show will be released.

What do you really hope to tell and convey with your second book?

One big thing that I want to highlight in this book that wasn’t addressed in the first book is something very traumatic and life-changing happened to the main character.

I was a kid when I started writing it. I was very inexperienced, and I used that trauma as just a vehicle to start this story. And that trauma was never fully addressed.

So the sequel will still have the chaos of the Walter family and the fun banter and the funny jokes — well, hopefully I'm still funny — but I also want to address some of that lingering trauma that Jackie has, because her grief was heavily ignored in the first novel.

I didn’t write this book with the thought process of someone losing a parent and dealing with that grief. But after I wrote this book, I ended up losing my father when I was 17... So, I understand that feeling and hopefully when I write this sequel, it can help young teens who have maybe lost a family member address that grief.

How did the show compare to what you saw in your head as you were writing?

Some of the sets were straight out of my head. I went out to Calgary (in Canada) to visit when they were filming, and I started crying when I got to walk through the ranch because it was just gorgeous. The pool was different than I imagined, but the rest of the house was just perfect. They could not have done a better job with that.

Some things were how I envisioned, and then some things weren’t, but I don't think that matters.

Maybe I would have noticed those changes and those differences more if this was a book that I had just freshly written, but it's been so long since I wrote this book, I had moved past it... I think that distance really helped me be OK and accept a lot of the changes that they made to the story.

Are you team Cole or team Alex? Or, are you team Jackie?

I’m Team Cole. I want to step away from the nice answer.

Obviously I want my main character Jackie to be happy. And when I say Team Cole, I’m talking about the books, I’m not talking about the show. The show is its own separate entity now. I love both Ashby and Noah.

But I think it’s even very apparent in the first book that it's Cole. It’s not Alex.

If you read the first book, you can tell that that's where it’s going. Like, yes, there’s a love triangle, but it’s not a full love triangle. I feel like in the first book, Jackie and Alex both use each other to avoid uncomfortable truths. And that’s not the basis for a relationship.

So, as much as I love Alex’s character, because if I were to say I were like any character the most, it would be Alex — I’ve always been a team Cole girl.