Omg Rachel did it again!

The setting, magical. The romance, marriage of convenience meets second chance romance. The perfect imperfection of the characters, beautifully balanced.

I can’t recommend this enough!!

Welp, I’m moving to Amsterdam! Just kidding, but I wish I was! This wonderful book was not only a deliciously steamy love story between Dani and Wouter, but a beautiful love letter to Amsterdam. I love a second chance romance and the chemistry between Dani and Wouter was soo wonderful…I had so many butterflies! I loved it!!

This book was very cute!!! I loved how the characters were described as such real people with real problems and experiences. When you read it, you’ll get it. It’s fantastic.

I ADORED reading about Amsterdam!! Are you kidding me. That was so much fun. I love a good adventure.

I’m giving it 4.25 stars because I wasn’t too keen on the start of the interactions between the characters but it’s gets better.

This is a perfect spring/ summer read!!

Ahh!!! Thanks so much to @berkleypub @berkleyromance for the digital ARC of this sweet romance read!

How absolutely gorgeous is this cover?!?!

Marriage of convenience is a trope that doesn’t always work for me, but pairing this marriage of convenience with second chance romance was an absolutely gorgeous choice. I felt like Wouter and Dani getting their second chance at love through their arrangement really worked for both of their characters. They each had something to learn and gain from their relationship, and I felt like this made me love them both even more. The romance had a lot of depth and emotion which I really enjoyed reading. It was realistic and heartfelt in all the right ways.

I’m always a sucker for travel/wanderlust vibes in a book and I really liked seeing Dani’s character growth as she was getting comfortable in a new place. Travel can bring out the confidence in a person, and that really was the case for Dani. I thought neurodivergence was well represented in this book. It felt authentic and I particularly enjoyed seeing Dani come to terms with her hovering parents.

The main points of conflict toward the end of the book did feel forced and awkward at times. I wish their arguments felt more natural. Their first spat was a little random and out of place. This never took away from how much I enjoyed the book, I do just wish their conflicts were a little more fleshed out and realistic.

I seriously loved both of the main characters. It’s so refreshing to find two leads you can really truly root for, and this was my favorite thing about this book. Wouter and Dani were both written so well! I will definitely read more by this author.

This would be the perfect choice for a spring/summer vacation read! I definitely recommend it if you're in the mood for a sweet, wanderlusty, second chance x marriage of convenience!

Thank you again NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book is pure wanderlust between the pages! Amsterdam was never high on my travel list, but it might be moved up after reading this book! I really related to Dani. Her parents have always been overly cautious after she was born prematurely and had to be in the ICU the first 6 months of her life. While I didn't have that much of a dramatic upbringing, I do know what it feels like sometimes to have the bumpers put on me. I loved seeing her getting her bearings in a new city, grasping life on her own without the safeguards of her family, and eventually finding a career she was passionate about. Wouter was such a precious hero. American men could take notes from him. I loved that we got to see snippets of their first time at love as well as their rekindled relationship in the present.

Read if you like a fake dating, second-chance romance set in Amsterdam. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review. This book releases 5/6.

✨𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑜 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝐵𝑒𝑟𝑘𝑙𝑒𝑦 𝑅𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑒 𝑎 𝑑𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑅𝐶 𝑖𝑛 𝑒𝑥𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑦 ℎ𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤!!✨

I'm sorry, did I just read my new favorite romance? Did I just find my new addiction? I'm ready for a reread already, I need more😍

I had the amazing opportunity to visit Amsterdam this year, and I think that experience made this book that much more special to me. Everything felt so real to me, as if I was back on those streets. I immediately fell in love with Dani and Wouter; their backstory was so bittersweet, but the way they reconnected and immediately seemed to fall back into the rhythm they were familiar with? Ugh my heart🥹 Rachel's writing is new to me; this is the first book I've read from her, but it definitely won't be the last! I adore how beautiful her writing style is!

Even though I've already turned the last page, I'm not ready for their story to end. It feels as if Dani and Wouter will continue their love story even beyond the epilogue, and I'm so sad I can't be a witness to it. I truly loved every second of this book, and I absolutely can't wait until it's on the shelves at bookstores so everyone else can experience it too. I will 100% be getting myself a physical copy of this because I need to transfer all of my highlights and little notes onto paper🥹

You'll love this if you love:
📖 second chance romance
📖 forced proximity
📖 marriage of convenience
📖 "it will always be you" vibes

✨TW: this book contains cuss words and topics of cheating, emergency c-section and NICU, sexual content, stroke, and death of a parent.

RLS is a queen of writing the sweetest romance books ever. Her characters are always so dimensional and real and she always adds in details that humanizes them, which is one of my favourite things about her books.

Following our FMC Danika's abrupt move to Amsterdam after a disastrous workplace relationship, RLS guides us through her process of falling in love with the city. Dani's trouble to reconcile what she thought her life would look like at thirty vs how things actually turned out spoke to me on a very personal level. Life never turns out the way we think and Dani's struggle to find something she was truly passionate about made her character so approachable.

I will admit after reading this book, it has shot up to the top of my list of places I need to see. I feel like I've already been to be honest. As we traveled through the city with Danika I really felt her fall for it, I think What Happens in Amsterdam is just as a much a love letter to the city itself as it is a romance about Wouter and Danika.

The romance between Wouter and Dani was so cute, I love second chance romances and a marriage of convenience. Put those two things together and I'm sunk. If you want a sweet and immersive romance, dripping with culture I would recommend picking this up!

I so deeply appreciated the anxiety representation in this book. Dani grew so much as a person throughout the story and it was amazing to see her find her footing despite her trauma and anxiety. This book was so well written and descriptive that I was hit with the most intense desire to travel to Amsterdam.

Thank you so much Berkley for the e-ARC & free final copy! 💓
I’ve enjoyed all of RLS’s books, and this was no exception! I absolutely love her stories and how every book has some sort of mental health and/or disability rep - I loved the rep in this one with our MC Dani!
This book was overall so good: atmospheric, wholesome, romantic, and just a great time!!

i just love a good calm palate cleanser. and this was that. rachel lynn solomon has been a favorite of mine for a while and this book was amazing. love her forever!

I was already. fan of RLS, but this is a new fave from her! Sweet, sexy, tender, introspective and deeply romantic. I really loved the explorations of mental health and finding yourself by living abroad. A heartwarming, multi-faceted second chance romance

💭 ⓂⓎ ⓉⒽⓄⓊⒼⒽⓉⓈ
The spice was hot, and the descriptions of Amsterdam were magical, but the story itself felt just okay. I couldn’t get past the reason for the original breakup; it really annoyed me. There was a noticeable lack of growth in the FMC from age 17 to 30, especially when it came to relationships, which made her seem immature and frustrating at times. I wanted more character depth from both Dani and Wouter. I liked him more, but I didn’t get any book boyfriend vibes. The marriage of convenience trope also came on really fast and felt kind of random. There were definitely fun parts, especially learning about Amsterdam and Dutch culture, but the toxic family dynamics and the love story itself made it fall flat for me. I know a lot of people will enjoy this one. It’s not a bad book, just not a favorite for me. That said, it definitely made me want to visit Amsterdam!

📚 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
💕Second Chance romance
💍Marriage of convenience
🔥Slow burn
🌶️A good amount of spice
💚Mental health rep
🌷Love letter to Amsterdam
🐶Cute dog

🌷𝕄𝕐 ℝ𝔸𝕋𝕀ℕ𝔾🌷
⭐️⭐️⭐️

💕Q U O T E: "𝒥𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝓈𝒸𝒶𝓇𝓎 𝒹𝑜𝑒𝓈𝓃'𝓉 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝓇𝑜𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔. 𝒥𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒹-𝒹𝑜𝑒𝓈𝓃'𝓉 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓉𝒽 𝒹𝑜𝒾𝓃𝑔."

🙏 Thank you for the free book @berkleyromance!💕#BerkleyPartner #Berkley #BerkleyBookstagram

Rachel Lynn Solomon is always an auto-read for me. This book definitely did not disappoint.
I enjoyed reading about Dani's leap of faith into another country. She was an adventurous character. I could definitely relate to her feeling untethered and uncertain. I feel like we all come to a similar crossroads when we are young adults and make our first big decision to do something different in our lives.
Dani's romance with Wouter was an exciting journey as well. My only compliant would have been that they talked out their differences and the things that were still bothering Dani way earlier in the story. Other than that, I loved watching their second chance romance unfold while Dani worked on asking herself really tough questions so that she could figure out what kind of life she wanted to build for herself.
Wouter and Dani's romance was surprisingly unconventional (and appropriately spicy) and it was a great foil to the idyllic setting of Amsterdam.

I adore books by Rachel Lynn Solomon, and I enjoyed this latest work: What Happens in Amsterdam. This story of Dani Dorfman and Wouter van Leeuwen reconnecting after they met when he was an exchange student was a fun play on the marriage of convenience motif.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me.

First of all - this book has all of my favorite tropes. Second chance romance? Check. Marriage of convenience? Check. Forced proximity? Check. Plus it’s set in one of my favorite cities, which was captured so beautifully it was almost a character in and of itself.

I absolutely loved this heartwarming story! It was brimming with joy and when I finished it left me with that feel-good-book feeling. Something Rachel is so good at is crafting such authentically human MCs, and Dani’s self-discovery journey throughout the course of this story was one of my favorite parts! This book also has amazing Jewish and chronic illness representation which we love to see done this well!

Not to mention this book has some SPICE to it! 😉🌶️ Dani and Wouter’s chemistry was off the charts. I love them 😭😭

4.5 rounded down

What Happens in Amsterdam is a single POV second-chance, marriage of convenience romance. When her life implodes, Dani impulsively applies for a job in Amsterdam and moves on a whim. There, she (literally) runs into her first love, Wouter, who once spent a year with her family as a foreign exchange student. The two realize that they can help each other out with a simple marriage of convenience; Dani will have the help she needs with her green card, and Wouter will be able to claim his inheritance. Surely, they can let the past stay in the past and be perfectly platonic, right?

This was my second book from this author, and I loved it just as much. She does an amazing job with mental health representation (anxiety and depression), and the characters feel very real. I loved how Dani and Wouter reconnected, how it wasn’t all seamless, but they learned to be together again. Definitely recommend!

Read dates: 04/10/2025- 04/11/2025
Goodreads review: 04/11/2025
Instagram review: 04/12/2025
Blog review: 05/06/2025

I love that Rachel Lynn Solomon gave us a look at Amsterdam as she is living there now and I really enjoyed What Happens in Amsterdam. I love a second chance romance and throw in a fake marriage and I was instantly hooked. As I'm hoping to visit Amsterdam this fall, I was making a note of all the places I need to visit and things I need to see.

Dani is one of my favorite RLS characters as she took the leap to move to Amsterdam, was determined to not find a way to leave the city she was slowly falling in love with, put aside her hurt over her breakup with Wolter years ago, and was trying to find her footing on her own in a foreign country. I love that RLS always includes Jewish representation in her books, and Wolter was an excellent love interest!

This book was wonderful! I flew through it, partly because of the story and partly because of how wonderfully Amsterdam was depicted. This might be my favorite I’ve read from this author.

Thank you so much for the arc!

What Happens in Amsterdam completely stole my heart. There’s so much love and soul written into the description of Amsterdam through Dani’s eyes, it was actually magical. The amount of emotion packed into this was incredible and I felt all of it but especially the reminiscing between Dani and Wouter. I loved this so much my cheeks hurt from smiling.

Thanks so much to @berkleyromance for the free book! This is my first Rachel Lynn Solomon read and it will not be my last! I absolutely loved this book! I spent a lovely few days in Amsterdam in college and this took me back there and reminded me that I need to get back ASAP! I was also kicking my feet the entire book and absolutely obsessed with Wouter and Dani’s story! Despite everything they’re made for each other 💕