Quick Synopsis

Falling in love with your husband is anything but convenient in this steamy romance from the New York Times bestselling author of Business or Pleasure.

Publisher’s Synopsis

Dani Dorfman has somehow made it to her thirties without knowing what she wants to do with her life. So when an office romance ends poorly and gets her fired, she applies for a job in Amsterdam, idly dreaming of escaping the mess she’s created, but never imagining she’ll actually get it.

Except she does. By the end of her first week in Amsterdam, she’s never felt more adrift or alone. Then she crashes her bike into her high school ex-boyfriend—and suddenly life is blooming with new opportunities.

Wouter van Leeuwen was a Dutch exchange student Dani’s family hosted, a forbidden love that ended in a painful breakup. Years later, there’s still sizzling chemistry between them, and okay, maybe a little animosity. More importantly, Wouter needs to be married to inherit a gorgeous family home on a canal—and when Dani’s job falls apart, she needs a visa. As the marriage of convenience pushes them together in unexpected ways, Dani must decide whether her new life is yet another mistake—or if it’s worth taking a risk on a second chance.

Book Review

What Happens in Amsterdam is a second chance romance between Danika and her family’s former Dutch exchange student, Wouter. After Dani’s life in L.A. blows up, she takes a leap of faith and moves to Amsterdam. When things begin to go wrong there as well, Dani crashes into her high school boyfriend and former exchange student, Wouter, who offers to help her out. To ensure Wouter can inherit the house he loves and Dani can stay in the country, they decide to pursue a marriage of convenience.

Rachel Lynn Solomon has become one of my favorite romance authors over the past few years. This means that What Happens in Amsterdam was one of my most anticipated new releases of 2025. I tried to temper my expectations, but after Business or Pleasure, they were pretty high.

What Happens in Amsterdam has a plot that picks up relatively quickly. Despite being a romance novel on the longer side, it never felt like it dragged. However, Wouter’s proposal is very sudden and surprising. It felt kind of random. They never discuss a marriage of connivence beforehand. He simply plows right through. What fell flat for me was the romance. I wanted more build up and development of emotions. This is a recurring issue that I have with second chance romances. I frequently find that they lack the full emotional development you find in a strong romance because there is an underlying off-page history between the characters. As a result, the feelings between characters are often a given and told rather than shown. Unfortunately, What Happens in Amsterdam falls into this trap as well, and therefore, the romance does not feel authentic.

I was slightly disappointed by Solomon’s depression depiction in this novel. It was not as encompassing as the depiction in Weather Girls. Since Dani’s depression was something mainly happened in the past, it did not play as big of a role in the story. In fact, it almost felt like a plot device, resulting in weak representation of depression.

As for the characters, I found Dani and Wouter to be fairly well developed. But there was little to connect with the characters on since the city plays such an outsized role in their story. In addition, there was a serious lack of chemistry between the pair. I this can partially be attributed to the romance’s lack of depth, as discussed earlier.

What was done super well in What Happens in Amsterdam is the setting of Amsterdam. Solomon fully made the city a character in this novel in a visceral way. I do not think you can read this novel without it leaving you filled with wanderlust. I had to promptly remind my spouse that I still want to be an expat.

Overall, What Happens in Amsterdam was a decent romance that suffered from lackluster protagonists and a relationship without much depth. This novel is however a love letter to Amsterdam. I would recommend it, but I prefer Solomon’s previous books over this one.