If soul mates really exist, does that mean you are supposed to be with them? Even if it means turning your back on your family and friends, values and beliefs? Novela is a journalism and Latin American Studies double-major spending a semester in Guadalajara, Mexico. She is prepared to study Mexican history, practice her Spanish, bond with her host family, and join a local church. But finding a church proves difficult, the foreign students are there only to party, and the host "family" consists of a reticent widow and her part-time maid. Her initial boredom is cured by the news that prior students believed the house to be haunted. Her attempts to improve her experience lead her to a research position with Alejandro, her composition professor, who is writing his doctoral thesis on Mexican beliefs about death. She hopes to benefit from his expertise while sharing her faith with him. She never expects their intellectual exchanges could turn into anything more. She struggles to relate these events and her feelings about them through emails to her best friend.

Christmas Break spent in the Netherlands sounds like the perfect way for Charlotte Wright to relax with her best friend - until she sees the family that they'll be spending Christmas with! Wolfram van der Waals makes no secret of the fact he isn't Charlotte's biggest fan, even though he's never met her before. A quitter may have given up on getting Wolf to like her, but Charlotte is determined to make it a very merry Christmas - and that includes getting Scrooge to crack a smile! Her efforts blow up in her face and with Christmas soured, she has no reason to think of Wolf in the ensuing five years that she's spent establishing her matchmaking business in New York City. Until one day he makes her an offer too good to refuse...