Perfect

A 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....

Convicted of murdering his wife, film director Zachary Benedict is driven to a desperate act. Escaping from prison, he has kidnapped Julie Mathison and spirited her away to a Colorado mountain hideout. For Benedict, it's a last-chance attempt to salvage his blown-apart existence. And for Julie, it's a shattering schism in the orderly world she has fashioned from her rootless childhood, the "perfect" life that she has protected so fiercely. She never imagined she could be in such a terrifying position with a man as complex and unpredictable as Zachary Benedict.

Outraged and wary, Julie nonetheless finds herself tempted to believe in his innocence. And as a dangerous bond ensnares both captor and captive, Julie must unearth the truth that is buried in the shadows of the past.

Regarded as one of the most beloved writers of all time in popular fiction, Judith McNaught is the author of thirteen novels with more than 30 million copies in print. The last eight of her novels have been international bestsellers and have appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, with most recently Night Whispers, which debuted at #1.

The press has had glowing praise for Ms. McNaught's work. USA Today has said, "When it comes to writing romance, Judith McNaught is in a class by herself." The Chicago Tribune said, "Judith McNaught comes close to an Edith Wharton Edge," and The Houston Chronicle wrote, "Judith McNaught's novels transcend all boundaries of the romance genre."

Ms. McNaught's first book, Whitney My Love was published as a paperback original in 1985, and won the Romantic Times Award for Best New Historical, becoming an instant classic. Double Standards and Tender Triumph, which had been published prior to Whitney My Love, were immediately re-issued upon the tremendous success of that book. Double Standards was Ms. McNaught's first contemporary romance, and Tender Triumph was selected as the Romantic Times Critic's Choice Award for Best SuperRomance.

In 1987, Judith McNaught published Once and Always, which was selected as Good Housekeeping's "Novel of the Month" (January 1987), won the Affaire de Coeur Golden Pen Certificate, and was the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award winner for Best Historical Romance. Ms. McNaught achieved her first #1 New York Times bestseller in 1988 with Something Wonderful. Each novel that followed has hit the New York Times bestseller list, they include: Kingdom of Dreams (1989); Almost Heaven (1990); Paradise (1991), which was a thirteen-week New York Times bestseller, and the first romance novel ever selected by Book-of-the-Month Club as a main selection; Perfect (1993), with which Ms. McNaught began her campaign for literacy, to which she remains committed; Until You (1994); Remember You (1996); and Night Whispers (1998), which marked Judith McNaught's entrée into romantic suspense and appeared at #1 on the New York Times Paperback Bestseller list.

In August 1999, the beloved favorite Whitney, My Love was published for the first in time in hardcover. Someone to Watch Over Me, Judith McNaught's new novel will be published by Atria Books on Feburary 18, 2003.

Prior to her career as a writer, Ms. McNaught enjoyed success in the fields of radio, motion pictures and finance. Among her varied experience, she was the first female executive producer at a CBS radio station, assistant director of a film crew, a comptroller of a major trucking company, president of a temporary employment agency and president of an executive search firm, and has been involved with a number of philanthropic endeavors.

Judith McNaught lives in Houston, Texas.