Simons dreamed of becoming a writer as a child in Leningrad. At the age of ten, she moved with her family to the United States, and completed an early attempt at writing when she was 12, in English.

Simons attended colleges in New York, Kansas and England, graduating from Kansas University with a degree in political science. She worked as a financial journalist on the Financial News Network, and translator among other various jobs before Tully, her first novel, was written and released.

Simons and her second husband Kevin Ryan live in Long Island, New York and have four children. From oldest to youngest they are Natasha, Misha, Kevin Jr., and Tatiana (named after the heroine in The Bronze Horseman).

Although her most well known book is The Bronze Horseman, many of Paullina's novels have reached international bestseller lists in countries including Australia and New Zealand. All of her books have been published with Flamingo or Harper Collins.

Tully

Tully has been described as "the epic tale of a girl from the wrong side of the tracks and her emergence into womanhood".

The Bronze Horseman Trilogy

• The Bronze Horseman (published in 2000) is the story of Red Army officer Alexander Belov and a young woman named Tatiana Metanova against the backdrop of the Siege of Leningrad during World War 2. It ends in 1943. A film version, currently in development, is scheduled to premiere in 2012.
• Tatiana and Alexander also known as The Bridge to Holy Cross (published in 2003) continues to story through the end of the war and is set in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the United States (primarily New York).
• The Summer Garden (published in 2005) takes place from 1946 to 1970, and is set in the United States and Vietnam. It also includes flashback sections to Tatiana's childhood and a longer epilogue set in 1999 and the years afterwards.

Red Leaves

A suspense mystery, published in 1997. Detective Spencer O'Malley meets young Ivy League student, Kristina Kim, and a week later is called to investigate her murder. He begins to unravel the mystery of the tangled relationships between the victim's friends - Jim, Conni and Albert, her past and her estranged family as he is sure that not everything is as it seems.

Eleven Hours

Published in 1998, the story of a pregnant woman who disappears.

===Lily===(Or The Girl In Times Square)A young women's roommate disappears, and an NYPD detective (one Spencer O'Malley) enters her life. She eventually begins to question what she knows about her friend and family. Published in 2004.

Road to Paradise

Simons' latest novel, published in 2007.Shelby and Gina are off to California with different reasons. But after picking up a young hitchhicker they run into all sorts of trouble

Tatiana's Table

A collection of recipes for meals mentioned in The Bronze Horseman, The Bridge To Holy Cross/Tatiana and Alexander, and The Summer Garden, was published in 2007. According to Simons: I was looking to make it funny and light and cute, and am still trying to, but of course, my melancholy Russian soul is getting the better of me as I remember what Tatiana and Alexander had, what they lost, what they sacrificed for each other, what it took them to get back to the metaphoric Lazarevo (which in itself was a metaphor), and suddenly I’m feeling slightly less chipper. The blockade of Leningrad in 1941 is presenting particular problems as I write with abundance about cheese and milk and butter and flour and beef tenderloin and preheating ovens and buttering casserole dishes. I keep thinking of Tatiana smelling the empty bag that once contained oatmeal when there was no electricity and no heat, no coal or wood, or water on the third floor.