Reading as a Writer

I admit I've begun reading strictly to study style. As a result, I rarely finish a book, but get the gist of it in the first few chapters, skim, and flip to the end. Yes, I'm spoiling my reading enjoyment, but I'm not reading for enjoyment. I WRITE for enjoyment. I have a lot to read, and never have time to read it all, so......begin/skim/finish. In some books, when I read the end, it seems like I haven't missed a thing by skipping the middle. The ending ties up all the threads begun at the start and it all makes sense. So, what happened in the middle? Should this book have been a novelette, then? An editor and publisher thought it was worth printing 250+ pages.

I've found a book, recently, which captures my attention so that I can't wait to pick it up. I don't want to miss a delicious word. It's not that it's unpredictable, it's not full of cliff-hangers, but reading it is like delving into chocolate mint truffles. We know the ending because it's a necessity in romances: happily ever after. How does the writer keep us engaged in a book where we know the ending?

The book is The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, but there must be others. Knowing that many (even all?) romances begin with antagonistic leads, I would never have bothered with this apparently 'yet another' riff on the old trope. It was recommended by a writing blog I read, so I got it. Thorpe makes it work.

• The pace moves along: not so much in plot, but with zippy dialogue.
• The heroine, writing in the first person point of view, is flawed, full of doubts, and constantly over-analyzes herself and what happens.
• Descriptions are not flowery literature, but languid, like we've suddenly slowed the motion down to not only see, hear, and smell, but analyze. They're funny and very human,. 
• When something happens that contradicts what the heroine knows to be true, she's still not convinced. She's easy to relate to, because who is absolutely certain about anything? 

She doesn't find a word she likes--"burbled" comes to mind--and overuses it, either. I'll keep looking for more evidence, but I know it's a good read.