Review: 'What Happens to Men When They Move to Manhattan?' by Jill Knapp (2014)

Life in the big city gives Amalia a ride she is not expecting. As she tries to find her way on the little island that never sleeps, she discovers she has a harder time navigating through life then she does the streets of Greenwich Village and finds herself truly lost in the complex world of men, graduate school, money, family, and friendship.

She thought she had everything she wanted – a new apartment in Manhattan, a first-rate education at NYU, a group of trusted friends and Nicholas, a boyfriend who she once believed was her soul-mate. But somehow, it isn’t enough. 
Stumbling through her relationships, Amalia encounters Michael. An attractive classmate who quickly moves from being one of her close friends, to an inconsistent friend-with-benefits. After all, the only thing consistent about New York is its beauty. 
After getting terribly lost searching for love in all the wrong places, Amalia finds herself torn between the possibility of a relationship, and an adventure she's been planning all along. 
She eventually realizes that solely chasing love closes her off to all of the other good things life has to offer. Now she must decide – what is worth the chase?
Harper Impulse continues to be one of my personal favourite publishers. Over the past year they've once again released numerous thoroughly entertaining reads and I am almost starting to think that if I can find the Harper Impulse logo on the book, it's a guaranteed good read! Today I've got a review of Jill Knapp's 'What Happens to Men When They Move to Manhattan?', which is the first part of her book series 'What Happens to Men.' The novel was first released in 2014 and since then the other two parts of the series, 'You'll Find Me in Manhattan' and 'We've Always Got New York', have also been released. I love starting a new series in the hope of enjoying it so much, you can straight away grab the other parts, so I had my fingers crossed!
23-year-old Amalia is leading the good life: she has a great apartment in Manhattan, goes to NYU to get her master's degree, has some great friends, and a lovely boyfriend named Nicholas whom she can't imagine living without. Until Nicholas breaks up with her for no clear reason, and Amalia suddenly finds herself being single in New York City. She realises the city has a lot to offer her, such as her classmate and friend Michael who seems to be just as attracted to her as she is to him but doesn't seem to be looking for something serious. But is Michael really the guy for her, or should she perhaps forget about guys for a while and focus on other things in life that could make her happy?
I completely understand why 'What Happens to Men When They Move to Manhattan' is compared to TV shows like 'Sex and the City', because the similarities are definitely there. Set in New York City, a twenty-something female protagonist, and a strong storyline focus on men, love/romance, and friendship. I quite enjoyed the novel, which was a quick read with roughly 290 pages, and enjoyed taking a look into main character Amalia's life. New York is, of course, a great setting for a book like this one and there was also an interesting collection of secondary characters, such as Amalia's best friend Cassandra, which I enjoyed learning more about. 
I've seen this novel being described as New Adult; a genre which I'm not really that familiar with, but there are definitely some chick lit elements in the novel as well. As mentioned before, the story really focuses on Amalia and her love life. While this was fun to read about it, I also wouldn’t have minded if another storyline had been added, just to have a bit more going on. The book ends with an open ending and I am really curious to find out what will happen to Amalia next, so I already look forward to picking up the second part of this series. Overall, ‘What Happens to Men When They Move to Manhattan’ is a fun, entertaining and quick read and a promising debut by author Jill Knapp!

Rating:8,5/10

  For more information about this book: Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / Goodreads

Thanks to the author for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.