tearjerkers are tiring to read

I'm rather embarrassed to say that I bawled like a baby reading a book today. Kishi to chikai no hana by Rokusei Mitsumi and illustrated by Higuchi Yuuri is horribly conventional in almost every sense of the word, and yet I fell for the author's intent (she states that she was going for tears in the afterward) completely. It's about a slave boy who is rescued by a passing knight in order to be the stand-in for a prince who will be in danger as he tries to gain the throne that is rightfully his. The slave boy hadn't known kindness since his dear father had died years ago, so he's grateful to the knight. But he can't help but feel jealous and inferior when he realizes that the most important thing to the knight is the prince. The knight, for his part, feels guilty that he's using the slave boy's attachment to him as his rescuer. There's lots of misunderstandings and crying (the slave boy is a total crybaby) and of course the moment of "sacrifice," some truly bad things , and then the happy ending. The details of the interactions between the naive slave boy and the awkward knight are just...the author so knows what she's doing. Frankly, I had some major problems with the way the author took the story at towards the end. Seems silly to grouse about being over-the-top when the entire novel is rather over-the-top (stop yanking my heartstrings, damn you!), but...seriously. Over-the-top. And unnecessary. I also wish it wasn't BL, though if it wasn't we couldn't get the shiny last scene that almost made up for the parts I thought were stupid. :P