My Life with the Walter Boys

Recently adapted for Netflix, My Life with the Walter Boys, by Ali Novak, follows Jackie Howard, a driven and ambitious teenager from New York City whose life is upended when a tragic accident claims her family. Relocated to rural Colorado, she must adapt to life on a ranch with the Walter family—comprising 12 children—navigating grief, cultural shifts, and romantic entanglements, including an unexpected love triangle. 

This guide is based on the 2014 Kindle edition.

Content Warning: This guide and the source material contain depictions of illness and death and bullying.

Plot Summary

Having recently lost her entire family in a tragic accident, protagonist Jackie Howard is leaving New York City and moving to Colorado to live with her mother’s childhood friend, Katherine Walter, and her family. On the plane ride, Katherine reveals that she has 12 children. When they arrive at the Walter ranch, Jackie meets the Walter children: 11 boys and one girl. She notices that one of the older sons, Cole, is attractive despite his arrogant personality.

After an eventful first day at the Walter ranch, Jackie wakes up from a recurring nightmare in which she relives the day of her family’s accident. Jackie befriends one of the middle Walter boys, Nathan, by running with him before school starts. Nathan helps Jackie befriend another brother, Alex, who is in her grade and her anatomy class. Later in the day, she realizes that she and Cole are in the same math class, and he offers to take her to lunch. 

The next morning, Jackie sees a girl sneaking out of Cole’s room, and Nathan explains that Cole engages in many casual sexual relationships but that this wasn’t always the case: His personality has changed since last year, when he lost his football scholarship due to a career-ending injury. Jackie begins to settle into her new routine, befriending Riley and Heather from her art class, who are eager to learn more about what it is like to live with the Walter boys.

As she becomes closer to Heather and Riley over that week, she invites the girls for a sleepover at the Walter house. Jackie overhears one of the brothers, Lee, complaining about Jackie to Katherine, stating that she is not really a part of their family. This wounds Jackie, which Cole senses, and he steps in to give her a proper tour of the ranch. During their afternoon together, the romantic tension heightens between them; Jackie sees a softer, more thoughtful side to Cole.

Jackie’s friendship with Alex also deepens as she learns more about the longstanding sibling rivalry between Alex and Cole. Alex divulges that Cole dated Alex’s ex-girlfriend, Mary, after they broke up. This information has a negative impact on Jackie’s perception of Cole. She distances herself from Cole and as a result grows closer to Alex, feeling a sense of home and comfort when she is with him. Sensing the distance, Cole sabotages Jackie’s alarm one morning, forcing her to drive to school with him and wear his football jersey. Outside of anatomy class, Alex’s ex-girlfriend Mary confronts Jackie, making a cruel statement about Jackie’s deceased family and warning her to stay away from Alex.

Cole finds Jackie outside of class, unable to bring herself to go inside. He convinces her to skip school to spend the day with him and his friends, and they end up at a party in a warehouse outside of town. Jackie lets her guard down, indulging in beer and sharing a kiss with Cole during a game of spin the bottle. Her growing feelings for Cole make her feel guilty about her family, and she runs out of the party, Cole chasing after her and comforting her as she cries.

Katherine and George punish Jackie and Cole for skipping school. They miss the family’s annual camping trip, staying behind to help care for Alex, who is getting over the stomach flu. This weekend gives Jackie the opportunity to repair her relationship with Alex, who is upset with her for skipping school with Cole. During that weekend, there is a huge storm, and the power cuts out, resulting in Jackie spending the night in the living room, sleeping between the two brothers.

Jackie is surprised when Alex kisses her, but she finds that she enjoys it. Cole opens the door and sees them kissing. Jackie worries about the implications of the kiss for her friendship with Alex and worries about Cole’s reaction. At school the next day, Alex invites Jackie to a party that night at Mary’s house, and Jackie declines.

That night, Jackie stays in while the brothers leave for Mary’s party, intent on doing homework. Cole enters her room, easily convincing her to change and attend the party with him. When they arrive, Cole acts as if he and Jackie are a couple, upsetting Alex. Mary causes a scene, asking what Jackie is doing there and causing Jackie to panic and run outside, calling Katherine to pick her up. The next morning, Jackie wakes up in a quiet house, convinced that everyone must hate her. She skips her usual morning run with Nathan, only to look out her window later that morning and see Cole emerging from the fields, carrying Nathan’s limp form.

The family rushes to the hospital and discovers that Nathan has experienced an epileptic seizure. When the family is invited back to go visit Nathan, Lee tells Jackie that she will never be a part of their family. Jackie leaves the hospital, going to the eldest Walter brother, Will’s, apartment nearby. When she arrives, Jackie admits that Nathan’s hospitalization triggered the trauma of losing her family. When she wakes up from a nap, she finds Cole in the apartment with her. He attempts to apologize for his behavior leading up to and at Mary’s party, and admits to being jealous of Alex.

That evening, Jackie talks with Alex, and he apologizes for being angry with her about the party. They watch a movie together, and Alex asks Jackie to be his girlfriend. Realizing that her feelings for Alex have grown, she says yes. Cole quickly learns of this new relationship and attacks Alex the next morning. Cole refuses to look at or speak to Jackie.

At the end of every school year, the Walter siblings throw toilet paper at the principal’s house. This time, Jackie comes along, and Cole assigns her to toilet paper the balcony attached to the principal’s bedroom. She wakes the principal in the process, jumping down from the balcony and leaving her sweater behind, which has her name on it. The next morning, she learns that Lee went back to retrieve the sweater in the middle of the night.

She confronts Lee about his surprising act of kindness, and he admits that he treats her so poorly because his own biological parents abandoned him and his brother, Isaac, with Katherine and George when they were only children. He has come to realize that Jackie is one of the only people who can understand his situation, so he decides to treat her with empathy rather than antipathy.

The Walter boys host their annual end-of-year party that weekend while George and Katherine are out of town to celebrate their anniversary. At the party, Cole confesses his feelings for Jackie. Despite her feelings for Cole, Jackie believes that she must follow through on her decision to be with Alex.

The next day, Jackie attends Alex’s last baseball game of the year and the two get caught in the rain while he rides them home on his bicycle. He pulls over to a pavilion while they wait for a ride, and Alex begins kissing her. As they kiss, Jackie cannot help but compare Alex to a puppy, trying to convince herself that the feelings she had for Alex are romantic. Cole is the one who picks them up, and Jackie can sense how angry Cole is.

Cole continues to keep his distance from Jackie until the family attends Cole’s twin brother Danny’s performance of Romeo and Juliet. He forces Nathan to move, sitting on the other side of Jackie, who is also sitting next to Alex. After the performance, a talent scout invites Danny to a summer theater program in New York City, which he is eager to attend.

As the school year comes to an end, Jackie helps Katherine prepare for Will’s impending wedding at the ranch. Cole steps in to help Jackie decorate cupcakes. Despite the ongoing tension between them, their attraction to each other remains intact.

At the wedding reception that evening, Alex gets drunk, spending most of the evening in the bathroom. Jackie accepts Cole’s offer to dance as the last song of the night plays. Cole once again confesses that he is in love with Jackie, and she admits that she still has feelings for him. When the song ends, she turns to see Alex staring at them in anger. Jackie runs off to hide in the tree house, and Danny finds her, telling her that she cannot help the feelings she has for Cole and encouraging her to talk to Alex. He also reveals that he will go to New York with her for the summer to attend the theater program, and that the two can live together in Jackie’s family’s apartment.

Jackie returns to the house, and she and Alex have an honest conversation in which Alex admits he still has feelings for his ex-girlfriend, and Jackie admits her feelings for Cole. They agree to break up but remain friends. Cole is missing from his and Danny’s graduation party, and Jackie finds him. Cole reveals that he is going to be moving into Will’s apartment now that he lives with his wife. Later, the family discovers that Cole has already moved out.

The day of Jackie and Danny’s departure arrives, and Jackie is sad to be leaving the people that she has grown to love and consider family. At the same time, she knows she still has a lot of growing to do and can only do so by returning to New York. She wishes everyone goodbye except for Cole, who is absent. As they drive to the airport, Cole’s car appears behind them, and George pulls over. Jackie runs out into the rain and into Cole’s arms. Cole says that he is sorry the timing was never right for them, and Jackie tells him that maybe when she returns in the fall the timing will be perfect. They share a kiss. She says that she will see him in three months and then turns away, not looking back and fixing her eyes on the future.