What Happens in Amsterdam

What Happens in Amsterdam ~ Rachel Lynn Solomon

Dani Dorman and Wouter van Leeuwen secretly date when they are 17, and he is an exchange student from The Netherlands living with her family in Los Angeles. They break up after he returns home, breaking Dani’s heart.

13 years later, after a failed relationship with a coworker breaks up, Dani takes a job at a start up in Amsterdam, where she (literally) bumps into Wouter on the street. Listen, this is a romance novel, we all know what is going to happen. It’s how they get there that is interesting, right? In this case, her start up fails and she suddenly is in need of a visa in order to stay, and he needs to be married in order to inherit the beautiful family home he inhabits. So they get married and she moves in, with her own bedroom down the hall from his.

I liked most of this book, I liked their relationship, no matter how unlikely so much of it was. I liked their relationships with their families. I liked visiting Amsterdam (I’ve been, on my honeymoon in 1993, and the streets and canals were familiar in such a charming way). My only real issue was the sex scenes. I do not consider myself to be a prude by any means, I read and enjoyed Sky Daddy, about a woman with an airplane fetish. But the sex scenes here were so explicit and went on for so long, I regret not fast forwarding through them (I listened to the audio)…I’m always afraid something important is going to happen, some vital dialogue, and I will miss it. Recommended? Sure, if you like a steamy romance set in a beautiful location with mainly likable characters who could avoid a lot of problems if they just talked to each other a bit more openly, go for it.