So the blurb and book both have the hero, Prince Ivan of Lukinburg, coming to Kansas City to negotiate some contracts as their country is rich in gold and mica to make computer parts. He didn't grow up as royalty as the country's last king was murdered after World War II and since then the country has been run by a group of mafia-like folks. But they have a newly elected democratic government and have restored the monarchy to be the head of state I guess. Ivan is a distant cousin of the previous king, so he's forced into it.
The book opens in May with the prince giving a speech in his country's capital city. He says he promises to "make Lukinburg great again" which I rolled my eyes at as that phrase is forever tainted now, but I let that go. A bomb goes off. Fast forward to August...
The hero arrives at Police HQ in KC to meet privately with a captain. He wants one of the captain's officers to pose as his girlfriend so he'll have someone to watch his back as he knows there is a traitor in his inner circle.
Long story short (too late, I know
) the hero ends up being the prince's BFF who was posing as the prince all along. Because if one cuts his hair short and puts on thick glasses apparently his entire inner circle and security detail will think he's the prince. The real prince is along for the trip posing as Aleksander, the BFF. He's allowed his hair to grow out for seven weeks and still wears glasses but has different frames so no one recognizes him as the prince.
I would not care if (a) their close resemblance to one another had been mentioned earlier in the story and (b) the book had been written solely from the heroine's POV. It would make sense that
she didn't know better.
But no! At least half--if not slightly more--of the book is written from the hero's POV. He thinks of himself as Prince Ivan throughout the entire book until the reveal. He's constantly referring to himself as Ivan
IN HIS OWN THOUGHTS (sorry for yelling, but I cannot emphasize this enough).
I knew something hinky was up in chapter four when he referred himself in the third person. But then he blames it on the fact he's not been a prince for long and jet lag. While calling himself Ivan.
Internally. IN HIS OWN BRAIN!
The reader gets a big hint in chapter 10, but the truth doesn't come out until chapter 11 (of a 13 chapter book).
Not only does the hero constantly think of himself as Ivan in his internal thoughts and monologues, he also always referred to his BFF as Aleks
IN HIS OWN THOUGHTS!!! I could understand if he had only done so in his verbal communication with the heroine, etc. But we are in his POV, inside of his brain and he constantly thought of himself as Ivan and the other guy as Aleks.
So for him to actually be Aleks. No! It was wrong for the author to keep that a secret from the reader. It was author manipulation at best and crossed the line into betrayal of reader trust.
Also, the prince and Aleks faced no repercussions for having lied to all of the people they did in their own country as well as the US. He gave interviews, negotiated contracts, etc. But all is well as the heroine forgives his ruse.
Mostly I am disappointed as she's a better author than this and didn't need to resort to such a trick.