**This review contains spoilers for the first book, Like Candy. It also contains minor spoilers for Sweet Liar but all major ones will be under spoiler tags** 
 I was quite up and down with how I read Sweet Liar. I started it last year, a couple of months after I had finished the first book, Like Candy but I put it down after a few chapters. Coincidentally, that was in October when I was in a reading slump. Figures, right? 
 I picked it back up earlier this year and reread the first part and continued reading the rest of it on and off, when I finally finished it a few days ago. If you look at my reading progress, you can see just a couple of the times I put it down/picked it up. A long journey it has been. 
 Anyway, despite that, I did like Sweet Liar. I think that I just wasn't as into it like I was with Like Candy because of the reading slump I was in. Overall, I didn't like it quite as much as the first book, but it was still a great sequel. 
 Things I liked: 
 What's really great about this series is that it has a lot of character development, especially regarding the main character, Candy (short for Candace). Throughout just two books she undergoes some serious growth (not literally) and goes from being an unhappy, unloved, petty, revenge-filled teen to a grateful, happy, well-adjusted young adult, mainly because of meeting Jonah (the love interest) and being surrounded by loving family, which she thought she never had. The revenge pranks stop - even though those were quite amusing to read, and on reflection, Candy finds herself quite content with life now and where she is heading. Especially after all she has been through, I thought she deserved a happy ending. 
 Jonah and Candy's father also go through a similar transformation, though not in such major ways, but still realistically so. 
 I liked getting to know Heather, who is also part of the organisation (which, if you didn't know, employs people to kill bad people, if that made any sense). 
 I was quite satisfied with the ending. Enough time is given to clarify to the reader what happened after the showdown and how everything and everyone turned out. I liked how (view spoiler)[Jonah decided that being part of the organisation wasn't for him and went to college to study instead. I thought that was realistic of him, especially after his father died. I also liked that we are told what Candy's feelings are on being part of the organisation, because that was a major part of the first book, and I was worried it would be overlooked in the scheme of things. In the end, she still wants to be in the organisation but not as an assassin, which I also thought was realistic. (hide spoiler)] The epilogue was a nice touch to finish the book; revealing where the two were now and answering all of my questions. Another thing I thought was realistic was the fact that (view spoiler)[Jonah leaves for a couple of months after his father is shot dead. He has already realised his father wasn't on the right side of this battle, but the shock would be there, and I thought that taking time for himself to cope with this loss was realistic. He does come back though, when he has finished mourning and finding himself in the wake of all of this, to the welcome arms of what is now his family. They completely understood his reasons for doing this, and I thought that was very good of them. (hide spoiler)] 
 As I said in my review of the first book, the romance is nice and slow-burning, and is portrayed very genuinely. Especially because Candy is still hurting from the betrayal and the secrets Jonah kept from her at the end of the last book, I thought it was very reasonable not to trust him, and that she did start to rebuild their relationship after a suitable time when she felt like she could trust him again. 
 The writing as always is smooth and fluent. Candy's narration and thoughts stayed true to her character throughout, and overall I was really impressed at the author's writing style. 
 This series is also a duology, which is great, because a lot of YA series can be dragged out into unnecessary trilogies etc. This series had just enough content to last two books, and I'm glad that the author kept it this way. 
 Things I didn't like: 
 I was very disappointed with the climax in this book. Everything that happens in the first book and in three-quarters of the second felt like it was leading up to a massive showdown between Candy and Victor, Jonah's father. But that wasn't the case. In a matter of pages, all major issues are wrapped up, quickly and too neatly. (view spoiler)[Candy gets kidnapped again, this time by Drew, and taken to Victor where he proceeds to grill her. Her father and Jonah arrive. A fight ensues. Candy's father steps away from the fight, and using Victor's gun shoots Victor dead. End of story. (hide spoiler)] How anticlimactic that was. And the way in which (view spoiler)[Victor dies was completely unrealistic and way too easy. I felt like the author had run out of ways for Victor to get at Candy and didn't know how to end it all. Basically, Victor removes his gun and places it next to him. When the guys arrive, he completely forgets about it, and that is his downfall. I don't get why Victor removed his gun, and how he could make a stupid move like that, which cost him his life. It was an incredibly convenient way for the author to get rid of him once and for all, thus solving pretty much all of Candy's problems. Her life basically hinged on Victor's actions, and I didn't like this at all. (hide spoiler)] 
 I felt like everything was wrapped up too conveniently and easily, especially after all that has happened in the last book. (view spoiler)[Candy's father is released just like that. There were reasons, but because of the long and hard struggle Candy had to go through to try and get him out, I thought that was a bit of a cop-out, when Heather and her family got him out instead. The author doesn't even really get into this part. As well, what happens with Theo was a bit predictable. He gets the treatment and is doing well. It was also brushed aside as to how exactly Heather got the treatment which I was interested in. However, I did like that it wasn't portrayed like he was cured, and that instead everyone was optimistic about the treatment but that the characters realised and admitted that it might not work for long and they were just hopeful. I liked how the author left us on that note regarding Theo. (hide spoiler)] 
 I would have also liked a bit more at the end about what happens to Candy's friends. They are quite a major part in the first book, but in this one, they are conveniently brushed aside. I understood that that had to happen due to the way the plot goes in the second book but Candy's friends, especially Lia, are just given one sentence at the end to sum up what happened to them. (view spoiler)[Lia's long struggle to get together with Ethan, ended rather abruptly, with Candy observing that they were now together. Candy had even tried to set them up, which didn't work, but then in this book, suddenly they're together and all's right in the world for them. (hide spoiler)] 
 Even after reading this book, I still feel quite left in the dark at how the organisation works. I get that some people are employed to kill others, but I really was looking forward to getting to know how the whole thing worked in more depth and what people on the sidelines do (like Candy at the end has decided to do). I got that Candy couldn't know much about it (and by extension, the reader), as she was still learning about what she was meant to do, and this sort of organisation would have to be very secret and kept under-wraps because of the illegal things they do, but I still felt like it would have been good if the reader knew more. I felt that in the scheme of things, the whole 'mysterious organisation that hires people like Candy's father to kill people', was a plot point that propped up everything else that happened/reason for Candy's character development, which overall I still enjoyed but meant that it appeared more out of convenience than anything else. 
 Because of all of the character development, and because I feel like the author ran out of things to write about, this book wasn't very action-filled, and at the end, I wasn't exactly sure what really happened in the first parts that were significant. As a result, it doesn't seem like much actually happened in this book, and therefore the pacing was a little slow, especially at the start and also the middle parts. It means that there was a lot of character exploration (yay!) but not much really happening in terms of plot and action. I think that there wasn't much of this because there wasn't really anything more the author could add to the whole Candy's father-Victor debacle that hadn't already happened in the first book. 
 In conclusion, Sweet Liar was filled with some great aspects, but also had some so-so parts. I did really enjoy this series as a whole, and will definitely be looking out for more of the author's works. 
 3.75 stars 
 Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 
 Quotes: 
 'My dad says you have to take me home now,' I said, not moving. 
 'Uh-huh.' Jonah came around the bar and walked toward me. 'He knows that it takes ten minutes to get from here to your house if I drive the speed limit. If I drive like a maniac, I can do it in five. That gives us five.'