Emotional Reading

I was up early this morning, so I thought I would catch up on a little reading (I have really gotten behind on this)...the book I decided to read was a YA called, "Flavor of the Week" by Tucker Shaw.

The inside cover reads:

Meet Cyril Bartholomew. At sixteen, he's a cooking prodigy. Unfortunately for him, his dishes come out more friendly than fiery. And he knows as well as anybody that being friendly doesn't get you the girl.

Consider Rose Mulligan. She's the brown-haired beauty whom Cyril dreams of when he cooks. But Rose doesn't like him that way. She doesn't even realize that Cyril is responsible for the food that drives her wild. She thinks that Nick, Cyril's model-hot best friend, is the master chef. And since Nick's into Rose, he's more than willing to play along. Poor Cyril's too good a guy to speak up. But somehow he'll have to end this charade, before it turns into a recipe for disaster.

When I read the inside cover it reminded me of a Sarah Michelle Gellar movie that I had seen and liked, "Simply Irresistible" where the food she cooked brought out different emotions in people...so I thought this would be a fun read...

I guess if I was given it a score from 1 to 5 it would be right in the middle at 3...it was a so-so book, but it was the last two pages that got me...

When we read 'love stories' most of the time we know how they will end...boy gets girl.

SEMI-SPOILER ALERT:

So I (as far as I was concerned) knew how the story was going to end, so there shouldn't have been any surprises...Mr Shaw even hints at what is about to happen, and how this boy was going to get his girl. The ending caused a response from me that took me off guard.

There wasn't anything WOW! about the ending, it didn't rock my world. Instead, it was sweet and made me smile, but it had that certain something, that also made me choke up and cause a tear or two to run down my cheek. This so-so book had brought me to tears when I read the last two pages of his story.

Granted, I cry at the end of Charlotte's Web (the original movie) every time I see the movie (I even watched it 5 times in a row and cried every single time!

But reading is different for me...if a book doesn't draw me in so that I am living the main characters life, then I don't get caught up in the emotions of the story...in a movie, I see the sadness/happiness...so I cry, but in books, I have to feel the sadness/happiness...

So my question is this...How can a so-so book bring on this type of emotion? Is the author that good, that he keeps us reading his so-so book and then grabs us in the end? Is that our prize for getting through his book?

Have you ever read a book that was so-so, but still got caught up in the emotions of it?

Hugs...