The Walter Boys Book Sequel Ends With Jackie’s Big Decision

Behold the summer of the YA love triangle. Fans have spent months debating Belly’s love life on The Summer I Turned Pretty, and on Aug. 28, another romantic conundrum returns. Based on Ali Novak’s novel of the same name, Netflix’s My Life with the Walter Boys follows Jackie Howard, a newly orphaned teenage girl who moves to rural Colorado to live with her mom’s old friend, Katherine Walter, and her large, boisterous brood. Among them are brothers Cole and Alex, with whom Jackie strikes up a connection.

Season 2 picks up in the aftermath of Jackie’s passionate kiss with Cole and her summer in New York.

Novak — who started writing My Life with the Walter Boys on Wattpad when she was just 15 years old — previously shared that she didn’t plan to write a sequel. However, the book getting new life on Netflix inspired her to write a follow-up, My Return to the Walter Boys, which was published earlier this year.

Here’s the Walter Boys sequel’s plot summary and book ending in time for Season 2.

A Rocky Return

During Jackie’s summer internship in New York, she begins to question her feelings for Cole. Upon returning to Colorado, she explains that she’s still very much grieving her family — and can’t handle the emotional demands of a relationship at the same time.

Elsewhere on the ranch, Alex has started dating Jackie’s friend, Kim. Isaac — the family’s cousin — is struggling with authority, which Jackie learns is a result of his father's military promotion and his decision to stay overseas. And Jackie feels distant from Nathan, who later explains that he’s discouraged by a setback with his epilepsy.

Jackie’s Big Choice

Jackie and Cole briefly get back together after attending the homecoming dance. However, they get in trouble with the Walters after falling asleep in the same bed. This worries Jackie, who not only regrets letting down her guardian family but also wonders what would happen to her place with the Walters if she and Cole were to get more serious and then break up. “I already knew the pain of losing one family,” she thinks. “I couldn’t lose another.”

To avoid the risk altogether, Jackie decides not to pursue things with Cole. However, after hearing from several other family members, she realizes they already consider her a part of the Walter bunch — and that her place within the family would never be in jeopardy, regardless of her relationship with Cole.

She makes up with Cole after writing a column about him in the school paper, shining a light on his new business as a mechanic for local racers — a project he’s been pursuing since an injury sidelined his college football plans. They end the book a couple, and Jackie decides Colorado really is her home.