Perfect by Judith McNaught

About the book

Perfect is a romance novel by Judith McNaught. It was published on 20^th July 1994 (reissued edition) by Simon and Schuster and the book is 677 pages long.

Plot

Julie was a very troubled child, starting with the fact that she had no family and was living under the care of the government. She struggled a lot at school and as soon as she realised she was extremely farA rootless foster child, Julie Mathison had blossomed under the love showered upon her by her adoptive family. Now a lovely and vivacious young woman, she was a respected teacher in her small Texas town, and she passionately lived her ideals. Julie was determined to give back all the kindness she'd received; nothing and no one would ever shatter the perfect life she had fashioned.

Zachary Benedict was an actor/director whose Academy Award-winning career had been shattered when he was wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. After the tall, ruggedly handsome Zack escaped from a Texas prison, he abducted Julie and forced her to drive him to his Colorado mountain hideout. She was outraged, cautious, and unable to ignore the instincts that whispered of his innocence. He was cynical, wary, and increasingly attracted to her. Passion was about to capture them both in its fierce embrace...but the journey to trust, true commitment, and proving Zack's innocence was just beginning....

What I thought

This is one of the books that got me reading again way back in 2007. My friend Zoya in Canada brought this to work for me one day as she knew how bored I was getting without any money. Considering how bored I was of watching CSI on TV (it seemed to be on ALL the time) I decided to give this a go.

Once I started reading Perfect I couldn't put it down which felt really strange seeing as I hadn't really read anything for pleasure in quite a few years. I read this book in one sitting and then I read it again a couple of days later because I loved it so much. Both Zach and Julie get their own introduction in the story, explaining about their pasts and how they got to be where they are in the present. I really enjoyed this aspect of the story because it made both characters easy to relate to it was very easy to grow to love them throughout the story because of this.

Once the real story starts, it gets even better. Although there isn't much happening exactly, there is always something going on. When Zach holds Julie hostage in her own car it was interesting to read about Julie trying to figure out what she thought of him while trying to plan an escape at the same time. Once the pair get to the cabin, it is quite obvious that they are going to get it on but McNaught throws us a bit of a twist about half way through and this broke my heart while I was reading.

The interaction between Zach and Julie was very entertaining because they both put on a front for each other. Julie doesn't want to be seen as being scared or nervous around Zach and he only wants her to think that he is a hard, cold man that she doesn't want to get on the wrong side of but their personalities are quite the opposite to how they portray themselves. I loved watching them both break down walls within each other during their time at the cabin.

My only problem with this book is the language used at certain times. It all gets a little bit too cheesy for me about three quarters of the way through. The story is set in the quite modern day but McNaught lets the characters say stupid things like 'Darling' etc. The way that Zach spoke to Julie at times didn't really seem to fit the setting and time of the book so it made it more unrealistic to me. I sometimes think that authors use this kind of dialogue because it is a romance book but it would have been much more real if up to date language had been used.

The story is quite exciting and there is enough conflict between the main characters to keep the reader interested while the romantic times between the two give the story a completely different feel at times. The chemistry between Zach and Julie is amazing and everything about the story wished for a happy ending for them. One of my all-time favourite books that I can happily read over and over again.