Review: Sweet Liar (Candy #2) by Debra Doxer

*I was provided with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This did not in any way affect my rating or my review in the slightest. All thoughts expressed in this review is unbiased and my own.*

 

Title: Sweet Liar
Author: Debra Doxer
My rating: 3.7 hearts
Genre: Young Adult, Romance
Publication date: October 20th 2015
Synopsis: Sometimes lies are sweeter than the truth.

Beauty is alluring; it can disguise the ugliness beneath. But scarred beauty is even more potent to a girl who vowed never to let her heart be broken again. It was an easy vow for Candy to keep until she met Jonah, an arrogant boy with a face that would be too perfect if not for the scar that marred the skin beside his Eye.

That imperfect boy earned her trust and won her heart, but the ties that bind people together are fragile, especially when lies are told. Trust is also fragile, and once broken, doesn’t heal like a heart. Trust has to be earned again, and Jonah desperately wants Candy’s trust back.

But Candy has more than Jonah to worry about. Her father is in trouble, and she intends to help him whether he likes it or not. People tell her he’s a bad man, and that may be true, but he’s not all bad. Deep down, she understands his brand of badness because she’s so much like him.

When Candy finally learns the truth, she’ll have to grow up fast, let go of old grievances, and realize that being vulnerable doesn’t make her weak. In fact, opening herself up may be the very thing that makes her whole again. (synopsis from Goodreads)

My thoughts: Alright, here’s the thing: I was a little disappointed with Like Candy, because there was way too much high school drama, so I didn’t expect much of Sweet Liar. I thought it would be pretty much like the previous one, but I was wrong.

   There is still a lot of high school drama, a lot of focus on different relationships, but this time, I think there’s a little less, which was great.

   It starts where Like Candy ends. Candy’s father is taken, and Candy needs to help him. She is also mad at Jonah for lying to her – totally rightfully, too, I mean, he lied about something big – and he wants her to forgive him. There is a lot of focus on that in this book, maybe a little too much, which made the book a little slow-paced for a big part of the book, and then when things started happening, it felt like everything happened at the same time, and one part was almost a little too fast-paced. That was also about when the high school drama stopped for a little while.

   I still don’t really like Jonah. I mean, he lied to Candy about a really big thing, and then he expects her to forgive him just like that. Lying isn’t something to be taken lightly upon, and he acts, at least at first, like it isn’t a big deal that he lied to her, but it is, and she is obviously going to need time to forgive him for it.

   Candy is an okay enough character. I can’t always relate to her decisions, but that might be because we’re nothing alike, so it doesn’t make her less relatable, I’m sure some readers can relate to her, but I couldn’t always do that.

    The characters are okay, for the most part, the plot was okay, although a little slow-paced at times, the writing was good, and it was overall a good read. It was more like my first expectations of this series than Like Candy was, and I was happily surprised when I started reading.