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Welcome to my Lie After Lie – Unspoiled Review.  A young woman is wrongly imprisoned for the murder of her husband and gives up custody of her baby daughter to protect her.  Now, 10 years later, she finds the single dad who is raising her child.  Desperate to reconnect with the daughter she lost, she devises a plan to seduce the father and become her stepmom.  But when he discovers who she really is, will all of her plans be ruined or can she convince him to let her stay by their side?

Yeon Jung Hyun as Kang Ji Min

Kang Ji Min has been raising his adopted daughter on his own, ever since he caught his first wife cheating on him.  Because of this painful past, he has never been interested in marrying again.  When Eun Soo first begins approaching Woo Joo, Ji Min is very distrustful of her, but as he gets to know her and see her interact with his daughter, he is won over by her love and sincerity.  And the more he gets to know her, the more his feelings begin to grow. Ji Min works as a reporter and actually had suspicions about the case Eun Soo was involved in, but he was conveniently sent to be a foreign correspondant before he could pursue the truth.  Now he has a second chance to help her find justice and clear her name.  And he may be able to find love in the meantime.

 Ji Min’s character is not especially complex.  He is a good father and a good son.  And he had done his best to be a good husband, even though he was betrayed.  There is no doubt that he is likeable and sincere.  But emotionally, he is guarded.  Even his mother says that she can’t ask him because if she does he will never tell her.  It’s easy to be invested in seeing him happy and emotionally healed.  

Im Ju Eun as Eun Se Mi

Eun Se Mi is Ji Min’s ex-wife.  She not only cheated on her husband, but she left Woo Joo alone in their apartment and Woo Joo almost died.  Humiliated, she ran away to the US, where she has been working as a sports agent.  Now, she is back in Korea and wants her family back, but Ji Min is not interested in rekindling their romance.  Se Mi is furious when she realizes that Eun Soo is trying to take over her role as mother and wife.  And Se Mi will do anything to get them back.  Even if it means joining hands with the evil Kim Ho Ra.

Go Na Hee as Kang Woo Joo

Kang Woo Joo is Ji Min’s adopted daughter.  Ji Min has kept the circumstances of her adoption secret from her, even though, unbeknownst the him, she actually found out about it by accident. The abandonment of her adopted mother has left her with some deep scars, so she easily becomes attached to Eun Soo when she begins showing the girl attention.  When Eun Soo and Ji Min find out that Woo Joo needs a lung transplant in order to survive, Eun Soo finally gets a chance to sacrifice everything for the life of her daughter.   

♥ Ji Min’s Family

First of all, I love Im Ye Jin from her days as Geum Jan Di’s mother.  Once again, she plays the caring mother with a tendancy to overreact.  Ji Min’s whole family brings a sweet and inspiring feeling to this drama.  They are supportive both in what they say and how willing they are to jump in and help wherever needed.  It seldom happens in kdramas that we see a mother who puts her own feelings aside right away for the good of her son.  Meanwhile, his father is the buddy he seeks out when he needs advice or a good drink.  His sister could be a bit much admittedly, but her intentions were good and that earned her the right to be a little eccentric.

♥Kim Yeon Joon

I already hit on this point above, but I have never seen a guy who starts out as the second lead so quickly accept that he is not the chosen one.  There were no last minute pleas or desperate attempts to make her change her mind.  And he continued to support her and help her find happiness with Ji Min.  Maybe it was because his childhood crush was never actually love in the first place.  But even still, that is no an easy realization to make.  His mature attitude made me love his character so much more.  

tNo Kiss

Lie After Lie is more suspense drama than romance, but even still, I found it disappointing that there wasn’t a single kiss in the whole drama. I could understand that if they had just avoided a romance story all together, but one of the main points to this drama is that Ji Min and Eun Soo managed to overcome the odds and are now happily married.  For a love that was strong enough to rise above any obstacles, you would think we would see them share at least one kiss.  The lack of passion made their relationship fall a bit flat for me.  

Mi Jin’s Secret

I loved Mi Jin’s character.  She was a great friend and her family relationships were adorable.  So I was disappointed that she never ended up telling her husband the truth.  He seemed to absolutely adore her and I would hope something that happened in the past wouldn’t change that.  Also, as long as she keeps it a secret from him, she can’t be there as a friend for Eun Soo.  It makes sense that she didn’t tell him before, but with so much coming out into the open now that Eun Soo is living nearby, I wish Mi Jin would have taken the opportunity to finally come clean with her family.  

There is nothing disappointing in this ending.  All the loose ends seemed to get taken care of and there is a great happily ever after.  Our leads are married and Woo Joo is happy and healthy.  Kim Ho Ra and her “secret son” are locked up where they belong.  And there is a little hint that maybe romance is blossoming between Se Mi and Yeon Joon.  Not a lot of surprises, really.  Everything pretty much ended up where you would expect it to.  I didn’t appreciate the few moments where they left us thinking Eun Soo might actually die during surgery, but I held on to hope that they were just messing with us.  All  in all, I liked the ending and felt like it fit the rest of the drama well without rushing to tie up everything at the last minute.