THE ADVENTURES OF
MISS VULPE
A Coming of Age Story for Adults
by
MARIA ELENA SANDOVICI
Genre: Contemporary / Women’s Fiction / Coming of Age
Date of Publication: April 7, 2017
Number of Pages: 160
Ana Petrescu (aka Miss Vulpe) is a troubled teenager determined to solve
the mystery of her parents' double suicide. Escaping the scrutiny of her legal
guardian and the unwanted interference of several therapists, she starts
looking up people from her mother's past. Her sleuthing requires her to lie
about her identity, her age, and her lack of experience with men. While
impersonating Miss Vulpe is more fun than going to school, there's bound to be
trouble and heartache when her web of lies unravels.
HALL
WAYS REVIEW:
“Idiocy
is more damning to one’s appearance
than rotten teeth or missing an eye.”
Oh, the gems sprinkled throughout The Adventures of Miss Vulpe. Main character Ana Petrescu has many
keen observations and often seems wise beyond her sixteen years – and why
wouldn’t she be? Hers has not been a life of being spoiled and sheltered from
the cold, ugly world. Instead, her
parents are dead, her guardian, Rogers, is physically and emotionally distant, her
multiple therapists are ineffective, and she pretends to be a twenty-six-year-old
sexpot set on getting answers from a clueless man, Richard. Ana has everyone’s
number. Or does she?
This book is so many things wrapped into one delicious
story; I read it through in one sitting. For the first two thirds of the book, the stories
– there are several – are mostly told through Ana’s present day narration and Richard’s
flashbacks. And through the dialogue, readers also get acquainted with Rogers
and Louise, Ana’s mother, around whom the mysteries revolve. From there, a good twenty pages is dedicated
to a massive info dump that contains the big reveals. Yes, reveals – plural. I was completely surprised by one of them,
though in hindsight, if I had read more carefully instead of rapidly flipping
pages, I might have caught a hint of
what was to come. This section of the book read like the synopsis of a full season
of a soap opera. DE-LI-CIOUS! A bonus to the story is the rich, detailed
descriptions of the places where the action unfolds. Be it the swamps of
Louisiana, the Texas gulf, Bucharest, or Madrid, readers will feel the setting.
As readers are coming down from the DRAMA, author Maria
Elena Sandovici pulls the attention back to the present and poor Ana, who’s
life has been blown apart by realities, old and new, and a series of adults who
utterly failed her. Sandovici has
written some seriously flawed and complicated characters, which makes reading The Adventures of Miss Vulpe at times
feel voyeuristic. Ana makes one bad
decision after another and doesn’t have the maturity (or will) to extricate
herself from situations gone awry. She’s
an inexperienced teenager, but anyone who ever walked on the wild side in her
younger days will understand Ana’s choices that made her feel powerful,
important, and desired. Richard evokes
so many different reactions from the reader. He is so damaged, but as soon as I
began to feel one way, like a puppet master, Sandovici yanked me in a different
direction. Ditto with Rogers. And sad, sad Louise.
The grammar policewoman in me would have liked a more
cleanly edited copy and better formatting – it drove me crazy there were no
page numbers! However, this story. . .THIS STORY! That perfect ending! Reading The Adventures of Miss Vulpe completely
transported me in to Ana’s world, and I had trouble disengaging and letting her
go. She’s a survivor, so I know she’s okay without me.
**Interesting side note I learned: did you know they sell Avon in Romania? They do! (and Yves Rocher, too.)**
Thank you to Lone Star Book Blog Tours and the author for
providing me a print copy in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I
give.
Maria Elena Sandovici lives in Houston with her dog. She travels to Bucharest often and also to Spain, but her favorite trip remains 45 South to Galveston. She has an art studio at Hardy and Nance in the Warehouse District, open the third Saturday of every month, blogs daily at havewatercolorswilltravel.com, and writes poetry in the voice of her dog. She is also the author of three previous novels about women who are struggling with finding their place in the world.
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