What happens in Amsterdam

Bestseller Solomon (Business or Pleasure) offers the sizzling story of a marriage of convenience between high school sweethearts. After a messy breakup with a coworker and resulting job loss, 30-something Californian Dani Dorfman needs to get away from her overprotective parents and make a new start--so she boldly takes a job in Amsterdam. While biking around her new city, she literally crashes into Wouter Van Leeuwen, her forbidden first love from the year he spent as an exchange student with her family. Soon thereafter, Dani's apartment is flooded and her Dutch employer goes under. Meanwhile, Wouter needs a wife to inherit his historic family home. Marriage solves both their problems, providing Dani with housing and time to find employment. Though they agree the arrangement is strictly practical, their old attraction is as strong as ever and pretending they're in love in front of Wouter's family brings old feelings to the surface. Even after they succumb to their physical chemistry, however, insecurities on both sides may prevent them from trusting each other enough to make their marriage real and lasting. Solomon showcases her talent for creating flawed but appealing characters, and it's gratifying to see Dani and Wouter's relationship mature. The author's fans will not be disappointed. (May)

After losing her boyfriend and job, thirtysomething Dani Dorfman decides to leave Los Angeles for a position at an Amsterdam startup that soon folds, giving her only three months to find new employment before her visa runs out. Already falling in love with the city and finding some hard-won independence from her overprotective parents, she's desperate to stay. When she literally runs into Wouter van Leeuwen, the hot Dutch exchange student her family hosted when she was in high school and who was her first love and heartbreak, he offers an unexpected solution: they get married for a year so Wouter can inherit his family home while giving Dani more time to find a job in Amsterdam. Living together and keeping up their marriage charade soon has them realizing that they might still be in love with each other, but getting over their past heartbreak and admitting their true feelings won't be easy. As Dani finds her footing in her own life and in a new city, readers also get to vicariously experience the fantastic Dutch setting. VERDICT Solomon (Business or Pleasure) writes a wonderfully sensitive and sexy expat love story where an American moves to Amsterdam and finds an old love and new confidence.--Melissa DeWild