Pauline Carelli-Bloom is a fourteen-year-old girl living in small town Ontario, Canada. An aspiring writer who’s just completed her first autobiographical novel, The Thrilling Life of Pauline de Lammermoor, young Pauline is a literature-loving, angst-filled teenager who’s not shy to divulge her innermost thoughts and feelings in this her second attempt at chronicling her life.

Cursed with non-traditional parents (her dad is an artist who paints nothing but shoes, in a variety of landscapes, while her mom is an ex-opera singer who works with abused women), Pauline has had to contend with their recent divorce and—horror of horrors!—their budding attraction to other people.

Pauline must also deal with a best friend, Genevieve, who’s about to desert her and leave for the big city (Toronto) to train for the Olympics (ice-skating), as well as a cute new boy at school who turns her head from her erstwhile beau, the loyal Yoshi.

How Pauline copes with these various situations with her friends, her parents and their new-found partners, and the lessons she learns make for interesting, and often hilarious, reading.

With novels aimed at the young adult/teenage market, voice is everything. And I’m happy to report that the voice in this book is spot-on. The fact that the author has a teenaged daughter no doubt helps tremendously in this respect. The Mysterious Adventures of Pauline Bovary is a joy to read out loud, as I’m doing as I transcribe the book from print form into digital CD format, and I often have to stop the recording in order to giggle or laugh out loud.

The second book in the Pauline, btw series, The Mysterious Adventures of Pauline Bovary is sandwiched between the first book in the series, The Thrilling Life of Pauline de Lammermoor, and The Secret Journey of Pauline Siddhartha.

Author Edeet Ravel is the author of four award-winning novels, including a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, Ten Thousand Lovers, and a finalist for the Giller Prize, A Wall of Light. As can be expected, her YA fiction is assured and polished, and her character Pauline is a likeable, believable, endearing and quirky heroine who will appeal to teenagers and adults alike.


Recommended: Yes