My daughter loves the Diary of a 5th Grade Outlaw series! Loveless has a way of creating characters that are relatable and plots that are interesting.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this ebook.

The Friend Thief by Gina Loveless is such a cute book perfect for middle-graders and fans of Dork Diaries.

This is a fun book that kids who enjoy Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries are going to love. The illustrations make this ideal for reluctant readers.

The Friend Thief is an excellent story with superb illustrations!

Losing or having differences with a friend is something many experience, especially in late elementary school and middle school. This book perfectly illustrates how these situations can come to light and how children may feel while navigating friendship issues.

I'm excited to read the next book in this series!

I was able to see Gina Loveless speak on a panel at the virtual event, Middle Grade Magic, and I had to grab a galley of her book. I think she is a fun, energetic author who's work and voice will resonate with and connect to her readers. It's great to have a book like this in the collection so fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Dork Diaries have another series to checkout with a female lead.

Robin Loxley has beaten the Sheriff of Nottingham, and got her best friends, Mary Ann and LJ back in her gang. But, this being the sequel, the Sheriff is trying to get revenge, and doing so by stealing said friends from Robin's corner of the wood. And the worst thing is, those friends are actually willing to change sides, turning away from Robin and towards the evil-doer.

Well, I said wood but it's actually a playground. Yes, this series has what seems to be a really weird and (I hope) unrealistic impression of people being rulers of the playground, using school-day recess to 'capture' it (and some attendant popularity) as if it was a battlefield. It made this book a lot less satisfying for me, compared to the first in the series, for it just rang false, and seemed to be stretching the whole Robin-Hood-transposed-to-middle-school-USA thing a little too much. However, despite that, the stretching did not break the format, for it's a good one, and the author knows how to write for her target audience, even if she can lay things on a little too thick at times, and not all of the friends are worth worrying about (the rapping twosome, I'm looking at you again). This wasn't game-changingly bad, in that I would still come back for the third in the series, but I think the cleverness of before needs to be regained before I can start strongly recommending these sequels.

I am feeling sad right now because I could not like this one. Seriously, it's not difficult to like a children's book with all the cute, colourful illustrations, cover, lively characters and all but this one is just not the one with all the right feels that usually keeps oozing from children's fiction. I feel like the book focuses more on the gossip and bully-talk that's circulating in the school rather than the school activities and the friendship circle. Something is off about the characters. They just couldn't give me the childlike vibes. The plot isn't much and the writing feels a little flat for me and then it tends to get overdramatic now and then. The book gave me some kind of negative things regarding friend circles and school. I wish I was able to enjoy this little book. Hope the next book is better than this.

Thank you #NetGalley for the copy of #TheFriendThief

The book is kind of good (I mean middle-graders would love it). However, the lacks a strong plot. The character-building is good. In short, the novel is fun-filled with colorful illustrations. I would like to thank NetGalley for giving me this wonderful opportunity.

Like in the first book, the characters are very good and the story is easy to read, but the plot isn't much to write about in this one. There's also a lot of repetition from the first book, and the comic panels still won't win any prizes, but fit the story.

The Friend Thief is a fun and colorful novel for middle graders! Our daughter loved this one!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.