Pushing Up Daisies by M.C. Beaton, 280 pages

I think Agatha Raisin might be one of my favorite literary characters. I enjoy the fact that she isn't perfect, she manages to delude herself in the name of love, but will pull herself back and look at life with candid eyes, only to fall back into the chase of love. This is a series that you need to read from the beginning to truly appreciate the character development by the author.