emotions in books

So I finished a book a while ago that sort of us left me feeling nothing.  I was very disappointed because the book was about musicians, which I am, and obviously about music, which I love.  All my MSs have music themes and my next book is going to be straight up about musicians, so I was reading this for research.

But despite all these things that I thought I would love, it left me feeling stale.  There was no emotion in the writing.  I felt little for the protagonist and I wanted to like the love interest but I just didn't.  To me, they felt like paper characters.  And all the musical allusions seemed cheesy and not heartfelt.  Then at the end the love interest died!  I should have felt heartbroken but I didn't really feel anything.  Well except anger because I didn't really understand the point of why he died.

I think one of the reasons we read is to relate to characters, especially when it comes to emotions and what they are feeling.  Are they love-sick?  Teenagers and adults can relate to that.  But if they go through the whole book being a shell of a character, I'm not going to feel anything for them and I won't care about them. That's why I think emotions and characters are the most important aspect of a book and something that I'm working on in my MS to make sure it rings trues.