readers get to experience the feeling of falling in love, it feels like the reader is falling in love in real life, because the feeling they get by reading is so amazing, it's like undescribable. and when they lose that love they also get to experience the heart break, not to the full lenght, but enough to know how it feels when a person's heart is broken and how it feels when he fall in love. and if the reader is very invested in that certain book he might be able to experience the goosebumps, tingles and fireworks that the characters are experiencing at that moment.