What are We Looking for In a Book?

This is my question, but I'm not sure what I mean by it. What do I look for in a book I choose to read?
I suppose I'll go back to my tried and true list of why I like a book...it should either: make me cry, or make me laugh a lot; or make me contemplative; or make me pump my fist in the air and say...Yessss!!!
Or, hey, all three would be good.

On a more realistic level, I want to feel good when I finish the book. If it's not designed to make me feel good, then it should make me ponder on it for a few days.

An example is Cutting for Stone...yes, I liked it...it a way...yes, I could not put it down. Even when it became almost too hard to bear, I could not stop reading. I suppose that in itself make a good book.

I just read a Regency romance by the only Regency romance author I read. This book bordered on being boring, and I feel so badly about this, as if it's my fault somehow. But it's not.
I know what was wrong with the book.

So much of it was the same...over and over and over, so that I skipped large portions...because I knew what would happen and how.

Now that I've rambled enough for one day, I'll stop and get back to my next novel. Which is pretty good.

Celia Yeary
Romance...and a little bit of Texas