Paris Perfect

- Back Cover- Paris Perfect by June Rives Texan Punkin Lowery is in trouble. Her fiance has committed suicide, her mother has died suddenly, and her business is failing. She is turning 50, single and alone. She does not know where to turn. She thinks of Paris, her soul place, since she first visited at 16. With nothing to lose, she escapes to the City of Light where she rents a luxurious apartment she cannot afford overlooking the Eiffel Tower and begins a torrid affair with her landlord, Count de Richmonde, a filmmaker, married, and 10 years her junior. She immerses herself in the life of an ex-pat joining the American Club. At the Club, she meets the love of her life, Jean Aumont, a winemaker from Bordeaux. Through the Club's program to help disadvantaged girls, she adopts a protege, the beautiful but troubled Madeleine Junot. Madeleine, age 20, is an orphan whose mother died when she was five. Her father is unknown. A promising artist, Madeleine has been working as a prostitute on the streets of Paris, and has a menacing pimp named Marcel. Through a bizarre set of circumstances, it is discovered that Madeleine is Jean's child. Problems ensue when Jean's imperious mother, Giselle, will not accept either Madeleine as her grand- daughter, or the 'gauche americaine', Punkin as Jean's wife. Happiness for the family finally arrives at Christmas after Jean has survived a life-threatening riding accident. Punkin and Jean marry and settle into a lavish lifestyle in the Aumont Chateau. Punkin thinks she has found the perfect life, but troubles continue when Marcel stalks the family and involves them in several life-threating incidents. At the end of Paris Perfect, Marcel has caught up with Madeleine and she has killed him. She is on trial for murder, and her life as well as the lives and reputation of the Aumont family are in peril.