That was *so* my problem with The Night Circus. :) There was enough about the book that I liked that I would definitely keep an eye out for the author's next book, but I didn't warm to any of the characters.

Still haven't finished JS&MN, though - congrats! I made it about 350 pages in, a few years ago, and just got bogged down in the middle of the Napoleonic Wars. Now it's been long enough that I don't really remember exactly where I left off or what happened, but I don't want to start over...