Meet Connie Simescu.

She's fluent in nine languages, passable in nine more. She has a soft heart for the homeless, a wicked sense of humor, and a bad habit of getting into trouble.

Connie survived an attempted kidnapping six weeks ago, thanks to her sister's boyfriend and the grace of God. Now, despite her parents' wishes, she's returning to college at the University of Texas in Austin, intent on finding God and becoming a reporter.

What she doesn't know is that the reclusive billionaire behind her kidnapping is still around, intent on revenge. And what does the appearance of the "terrorist" organization called The Heretics have to do with her?

Before she's done, she'll win and lose (and win) a boyfriend, rescue homeless from a burning building, get caught up in a bar fight, help a so-called terrorist escape from a hospital, save a floundering newspaper, and write a 10-page essay on comparative religion. And if she's lucky, she'll meet God in the process.

It'll make for an interesting story, if she lives long enough to tell it.