Review: What Happens in Amsterdam by Rachel Lynn Solomon

What Happens in Amsterdam
by Rachel Lynn Solomon
narrated by Elizabeth Lamont

My Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Dani Dorfman is looking for an escape.

She’s not expecting to land a new job to take her from Los Angeles to Amsterdam, but after recently getting dumped and fired, she’s determined to make this a fresh start.

But at the end of her first week, the big move is looking like an even bigger mistake. Especially when she crashes her bike into Wouter van Leeuwen, her handsome Dutch exchange student from ten years ago.

Her first love, until he inexplicably ghosted her . . .

Wouter is at a crossroads of his own – in order to inherit his family’s gorgeous canalside home he needs to get married. And when Dani’s job falls apart she needs a visa.

Dani is certain Amsterdam is just temporary.

But could the charming quirks of her new city, and a second chance at love, become her reasons to stay?

My Review

When I was talking with my friend Sophia a while ago I mentioned how rare it is for me to read a book set in the Netherlands as I mostly read English books nowadays. She then mentioned how she heard of this book an author was publishing that was set in the Netherlands and that book was What Happens in Amsterdam. Excitedly I added it to my wishlist, decided to buy the audiobook on release day and shortly after that I picked it up to listen to it.

I don’t read a lot of books set in the Netherlands and this was a new-to-me author and a new-to-me narrator, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. And that feeling continued for a bit after I started it, but quickly enough I got pulled into the story and the further I got the more I enjoyed it.

I loved reading about Dani and how she travels to Amsterdam with a work visa to escape her life and try to find what she wants from life. I liked seeing how she experienced my home country The Netherlands. And enjoyed seeing her experience of Amsterdam, a city that I never liked as it way too busy and overwhelming for my autistic self, but she made it seem like this wonderful city and how compared to her home town it was calmer. I liked seeing her try dutch food like Poffertjes, Stroopwafels and Stamppot. It was such a fun experience seeing The Netherlands from a perspective of an expat.

And while I expected to enjoy the Netherlands setting and I am glad I did, I think the thing that I liked most and took me the most by surprise was the amount of character depth. Both Dani and Wouter felt so realistic, I loved how they have their own dreams and wants. How they both have their struggles. And they both have a past and how that past has shaped them. As well as how their previous romance shaped them. And I just loved seeing Dani find herself, explore some of her thoughts and things she struggled with and eventually find her way. Then there is seeing Wouter bloom as he re-connected with Danika and how his life become more full with her in it and how he explored some hobbies again. I really liked the character growth and change they went through.

And their romance was wonderful. There is this whole part of how they first fell in love as teenagers and at first I thought I would struggle with this as there is so much about their past, but I actually grew to appreciate it and how it adds depth to their current relationship and how it shapes their past and personalities. You really get to know a lot about their first relationship and what happened then. And this past really added to their characters and their romance. I think the second chance romance worked really well here and I don’t always love this trope, but here it was done very well.

This book has a fake dating/ marriage trope which I normally dislike and I was afraid that would be the case here. And fair enough I still don’t really love that part, but it avoided some of the typical parts I dislike about this trope. Here it was more about them connecting despite the fact they are already married and building a new relationship and the pretend marriage is just what basically forces them to be closer again as they live in the same house and have to go to some events together. There are lots of scenes were it is just them as well as scenes were they have to pretend more as there are other people around. But quickly it became clear to me that the people they were really lying to were themselves as it was clear how much they meant to each other and that their relationship isn’t fake at all. I also appreciated how the conflict toward the end got resolved in a way that felt realistic for the characters and how it led to more character growth and being honest with each other. I am really glad it avoided a certain direction i was afraid it would go. The ending is super sweet and I liked how it wrapped things up.

Besides that there is a whole bunch of interesting side characters from both their families as well as Wouter’s friends and Danika’s new friends eh makes in the Netherlands. All the side characters felt real too and I liked how they added to the story as well as to the main characters. It made it all feel more realistic. And I really liked Danika’s relationship with her sister. I also appreciated the way Dani’s parents were written, Dani has some struggles with them, but they also felt like real people and not just the enemy. And I appreciated the way that plot line got wrapped up.

The narrator was a new to me one and I instantly liked her style for this. The narrator is super expressive and really brings the book alive. There is a lot of emotions and expression in the way she narrated the book and I enjoyed listening to it. There are also different voices for all the characters and they are easy tot ell apart. The narrator did a valiant effort pronouncing the Dutch words and while they were heavily accented I could understand each dutch word, so that worked out well.

I just had two minor issues with the narration, first is the fact that she narrator can speak very loudly or quietly at times as I always struggle with that. I would get startled when she raised her voice and I think I missed half of the dialogue that was spoken softly or whispered. When I listen to audiobooks I can’t always adjust the volume easily, so this was an issue for me. And the other issue I had is the way the Dutch accent is when the dutch characters speak English as that is not how dutch people sound when they speak English, it sounded too exaggerated and almost German-like to me. Not something most English listeners would pick up probably, but as a dutchie myself I’ve heard a dutch people speak English and this is not how it sounds. I got used to this after a while, but it still bothered me.

To summarize: I really enjoyed this book. It was wonderful to see Amsterdam and the Netherlands through Dani’s eyes as she moved from the USA to the Netherlands. It was fun to read about my home country. I had expected to enjoy that part, but hadn’t expected how much I would enjoy reading about these characters and their romance. There is so much depth to the characters and it touches upon some interesting topics as Danika navigates living in a new country and faces some of the struggles she has been dealing with for a while. It’s about finding out what you want from life and the way it dealt with mental health and Dani’s journey to find what she wanted was awesome. The romance was great and I really felt the bond between the two of them, this is a second chance and fake dating romance. I thought both tropes were handled well with plenty of depth and focus on the characters relationship. I really liked these two and the way the conflict got resolved and the book wrapped up was well done. The narrator as great and I liked how she brought the book alive with plenty of emotion and expressiveness. The narrator also did a good effort pronouncing the dutch words and I could understand them despite being accented. I did struggle a bit with the volume changes as some sections she raised her voice or spoke softly. And the Dutch accent for the dutch character speaking English did not sound how like a dutch accent, which bothered me a bit, but not something most English speakers would notice probably. All in all I had an awesome time listening to this book and am really glad I picked it up.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.