Bubbling up with Helena

• Title: When in Amsterdam
• Author: Rachel Lynn Solomon
• Publisher: Berkeley Romance
• Release Date: 5/6/25
• Genre: Romance
• Age Range: Adult
• Rating: ★★★★★
• Publisher’s Summary: 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. 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.

Rachel Lynn Solomon is one of those authors whose work blows me away every single time. I have always admired the Jewish and mental health representation in every single one of her books. She also has a unique way of bringing readers into her main characters’ heads that not makes them so rich and real. Of course, What Happens in Amsterdam, is no exception in providing all of these things I love about Solomon’s work.

Solomon moved to Amsterdam a few years ago, and I’ve been eagerly awaiting her first book set there. What Happens in Amsterdam really made me feel transported to Amsterdam and made me want to jump on a plane and visit immediately. The book is filled with rich descriptions of the city including the tilted houses along the canals (along with explanations about why the buildings tilt). Dani visits many tourist destinations like the Van Gogh museum and the Red Light District, but she also learns where to find the best stroopwafel like a local. The book also brings in Dutch language as Dani learns to speak it.

I love all of Solomon’s main characters, but I have to say that Dani might be one of my favorites. She was born very prematurely and with a significant birth mark on her face, which led to her parents being very protective of her. Dani braves moving along to a different continent to figure out what she wants to do with her life, and the reader sees her grow as continues to work to figure that out. I spent the whole book admiring Dani and was eager to follow her growth and to see where the story took her.

Of course, I also love her relationship with Wouter. I’ve realized recently how much I love a second chance romance, and this one had me swooning. First of all, they reunited when Dani almost runs into Wouter on a bicycle, which is such an adorable meet cute (reunion cute?) Immediately, Wouter helps her to settle in to Amsterdam and even literally offers her a place to live. They are both a little lost on their paths forward, but they are there to help each other and figure it out together. I also loved that the marriage of convenience truly worked to solve both of their problems. Of course, their relationship has such a strong foundation through their history that everyone around them picks up on quickly as well.

Dani’s Jewishness is subtle, and not necessarily mentioned often, but it does matter in the story. She goes on a boat tour with her neighbor, Iulia, and goes through the city’s Jewish Quarter, and Iulia brings up Amsterdam’s Holocaust history. She tells Dani, “The Netherlands had more Jewish victims than any other country. Everyone knows about Anne Frank, and as devastating as that story is…it’s only one person. One person out of more than one hundred thousand who were taken to camps, most of whom never came back.” As a Jewish descendant of someone who fought in the American army in World War II, I felt moved and humbled by this reminder. Dani, who notes that she was raised as a secular Jew, feels the same way. She narrates, “It feels different here, being confronted by the history, and it turns me reverent for the rest of the tour.” It is so important that Solomon addresses this element of Dutch history in this book. She does it with such care that the reader can’t help but feel the significance of the moment, even though it is brief.

Dani’s mental health journey is very important to the story as well. She mentions being on antidepressant medication, and she uses breathing techniques she learned from her therapist several times throughout the book. Dani and Wouter have a beautiful conversation where they are able to discuss their mental health journeys. Wouter shares that he saw a therapist to work through grief after his father died and says he needed someone to “help him be gentler on myself.” I love that framing and the reminder that self-talk can be a huge part of the work in therapy. Dani shares with Wouter that she was hospitalized for her depression and expresses that she doesn’t feel like she has the right to be depressed. Wouter immediately shuts that thought down and says he is glad she sought help. I loved the way they are open to sharing this with one another and how they support each other through these conversations. It’s so easy to worry about depression being stigmatized, and it’s so important to have representation like this in romance novels.

I love all of Solomon’s work and recommend you read a book by her immediately if you haven’t yet. I will warn you though that this book will make you want to hop on a plane to Amsterdam immediately.