The Prince She Never Knew (The Diomedi Heirs #1) by Kate Hewitt: Prince Leo Diomedi and Alyse have been pretending to be in love for the past six years to satisfy the public after a photograph of theirs was misinterpreted as a love affair. The misinterpretation 
lead to an engagement and after six years of fooling the world , Leo and Alyse are entering into a marriage of convenience to gain the public approval for the monarchy.
Beneath his icy exterior, Leo’s kisses give Alyse a taste of the man behind the crown… But will their fairy tale survive the headlines threatening to rip everything apart?
I had a love and hate kind of relationship with The Prince She Never Knew because I had both good and bad moments with the book. The good things were the writing and the drama which kept coming in form of Alyse’s past drunken mistake, a vindictive mother in law etc. The romance was not your typical fairy tale romance but rather on the more realistic side and it goes from the transition of friends to lovers. The last two chapters were just so perfect in every sense and were my favorite thing about the book. There is such a lovely quote from Alyse and it just became my new favorite quote.
‘But this last week has shown me that love isn’t a fairy tale, Leo. It’s hard and painful and messy. It hurts. And yet it’s also wonderful, because when I’m with you there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.’
‘Loving someone is knowing them,’ she continued quietly. ‘I didn’t understand that at first. I thought it was a lightning bolt, or an undeniable rush of feeling. But it’s more than that. It’s understanding a person inside and out. I can’t pretend I understand you completely, but I think I’m beginning to.’
I felt disconnected from the characters throughout the book except the last two chapters. Alyse was difficult to relate to because I found her reasons for continuing the sham of the romance too amateurish. I also felt her ‘drunken mistake’ could have been avoided and though I will did not react to that strongly, other readers might not like her because of the same. She only managed to gain my respect when she fought for her marriage. Leo was too much bereft from emotions for my liking and I would have preferred if he had showed his emotions more frequently. Too much is happening in the story in a short time and while the drama adds spice, I barely got the time to taste anything.
Overall The Prince She Never Knew by Kate Hewitt is not tour typical romance and it is different in both the good and bad sense.If you want a down to earth and realistic story then go for this one.
Book Info:
Published November 19th 2013 by Harlequin Presents (Book 3197) | Series: The Diomedi Heirs #1
The Prince She Never Knew
Behind the royal wedding…
While the world believes her romance with Prince Leo Diomedi, Alyse knows it’s just a calculated sham.
Yet beneath his icy exterior, Leo’s kisses give Alyse a taste of the man behind the crown… But will their fairy tale survive the headlines threatening to rip everything apart?