My wife went through the same thing I went through the first time I read the book. I remember getting near the end of the book and thinking, "they better get busy, they have so much to do and only 40 pages left". I didn't realize that this a very much a "to be continued" type of story at the time.
I just wished I had warned my wife a little, and she would have had a much better experience. She still liked it, but the lack of ending really bothered her.