The Boyfriend Quartet: 15 Boys, 43 Lists, 120 Footnotes, and Too Many Panic Attacks to Count, All in Four Novels about Ruby Oliver

Ruby Oliver #1-4

by E. Lockhart

From E. Lockhart, the author of the highly acclaimed, New York Times bestseller We Were Liars, which John Green called "utterly unforgettable," comes the uproarious and heartwarming Ruby Oliver novels—The Boyfriend List, The Boy Book, The Treasure Map of Boys, and Real Live Boyfriends—available for the first time together in an ebook omnibus edition.
 
Follow Ruby Oliver through four hilarious installments about her high school life. There are boy troubles, friend troubles, panic attacks, and lists. There are mysterious notes, fruit roll-ups, upper-regioning, and more lists. There are mean-spirited rumors, smelly feet, frogs, and brownies. There are Cheetos, a piglet head, Paris, and baguette air guitar. Ruby Oliver manages it all with an enormous dose of humor and understated grace. She survives to tell the tale that will make readers cringe, weep, and laugh out loud!

Genres: Young Adult

780 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

E. Lockhart is the author of Again Again, Genuine Fraud, We Were Liars and Family of Liars, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and several other books. Whistle: A New Gotham CIty Hero is a graphic novel. We Were Liars is also a TV show on Prime Video, June 2025. We Fell Apart, book 3 in the We Were Liars universe, publishes November 2025.

website: www.emilylockhart.com
Instagram, Threads & TikTok: elockhartbooks

Reviews

[Eszter Pálmai]

I loved these novels so much. I have read the first of the series when I was about 15, and finally got my hands on the rest of the series almost a decade later - yesterday. Then I have literally read all the 3 books in one sitting, at night, from 10pm to 7am, in a row. I was sleepy and exhausted, but I just couldn't put them down, I *needed* to know what happens next and next and next. These books are true page turners. They are full of plot twists, romance, humor, drama and smart wit - featuring well-rounded, relatable characters of all types.

In the same time all the books made a point of being family-friendly too. Finally an author who didn't rely on sex scenes to market her books to teens, and who was skilled enough to be able to write and sell exciting and engaging and thrilling romance without explicit scenes.

[Hailey]

Very cute book. Not much to it but still very enjoyable. If you want a nice quick read then this is a good book.

[Elora Mitchell]

I binge read this series over a couple of days, so there’s no way I’m gonna try to separate a review for each of them (like I remember what happened in each particular book).

I’m not usually one for contemporaries, but this was recommended to me and I’d already read “We Were Liars” by Lockhart and loved it, so I thought I’d give this a try.

I wish I had this series when I was suffering through the perils of high school.

No one tells you it’s going to be that hard.

Meet Ruby. She’s an average girl with average problems. The book is written from her perspective, and while she’s not necessarily directly addressing you, the reader, it’s quite a conversational tone. It’s easy to read and follow along, but what I didn’t expect was the depth of the characters, the realness of her problems, and how I could relate with so much of this.

I don’t want to give too much away but there’s friendships being lost and made, boyfriends and no boyfriends, and all the other struggles of your average high school student.

I LOVED how Lockhart brought to light the fact that a lot of students are struggling with feelings of insecurity, popularity and how to fit in—they just don’t all show it.

I’ll be reading more from this author!

[Larissa Conolly]

autism

[Danise]

Fun teenage dating angst stories, although going back and forth to the footnotes on my nook about drove me over the edge. I liked to read them, but it's not as easy on an e-reader when they're not at the bottom of the page.