A new My Life with the Walter Boys book is coming (but season 2 won't adapt it)

We're still a long way off from seeing My Life with the Walter Boys season 2 released on Netflix, with production rumored to start in late July 2024. However, we have good news to share about the book the show is based on. The author of the My Life with the Walter Boys novel, Ali Novak, has just announced that a sequel is in the works! More on this below.

Novak announced this amazing news through a post on Instagram on June 29. Titled My Return to the Walter Boys, the sequel is set to be released on April 15, 2025. You can pre-order it now on Amazon as a paperback for $14.99 before taxes and fees.

At just 15 years old, Novak wrote her My Life with the Walter Boys book and released it later on the free online reading platform Wattpad. Then, the book was published in 2014 and later adapted into a hit Netflix series. The story follows a 15-year-old girl named Jackie Howard. After losing her entire family in a tragic accident, Jackie is forced to move cross-country to live with her late mother’s best friend and her family in rural Colorado. But what she wasn't expecting to happen was for her to fall for two boys. Those two boys being her new guardian's sons, Cole and Alex Walter. Dun dun duuun!

Fans had been patiently waiting for a follow-up to the first book. Now, after many years, fans' wishes have finally been granted. My Return to the Walter Boys will be released next year, and we'll get to see a continuation of Jackie's story.

At the end of the first book, Jackie and Alex decide they're better off as friends and break things off. Jackie then kisses Cole before hopping on a plane to New York, where she stays for the summer. This left her and Cole's relationship up in the air. In My Return to the Walter Boys, Novak tells TODAY.com that the story will pick up with Jackie returning to the Walter ranch after a summer in New York. She's dealing much better with her grief after time by herself, and she's excited to be reunited with the Walters. However, once she arrives, she quickly realizes that much has changed, including her relationship with Cole.

Novak also mentions in her interview with TODAY that new characters will be introduced in the sequel. She promises that there will be "surprises" for the main characters and that Jackie's relationship with Nathan and Isaac will change. She also said that Jackie, Cole, Alex, Nathan, and Isaac will be the main characters heavily focused on in the sequel, each going through some character development.

Now, when it comes to how the sequel will impact the upcoming second season of the Netflix series, Novak says that none of what she's currently writing will be in My Life with the Walter Boys season 2. She tells TODAY, "They’ve [writers of Netflix show] just taken different directions." However, she doesn't shoot down the idea of the Netflix series using some of her work from the sequel later on down the line.

"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."

- Ali Novak

Since there was a lot of content from the first book that wasn't included in the first season of the series, Novak said there's a possibility the show's writers might include those details in the second season. This isn't confirmed, though.

What we do know is that Novak is Team Cole. Sorry to all the Team Alex fans. She tells TODAY, "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."